Introduction

McDonald’s is comprised of more than 30,000 local restaurants and serves 52 million people in more than 100 countries each day[1]. The company is the largest food retailer in the world and is part of the American way of life.  In order to remain competitive and an iconic American institution, McDonald’s has developed programs and strategies for motivating employees and teaching leadership. As a result, our group believes that McDonald’s presented an excellent opportunity to observe organizational behavior in action.

In this observational study, we sought to discover what leadership techniques and group skills were actually practiced by McDonald’s employees. Our field study entailed visiting four different McDonald’s stores in the greater Rochester area during distinct shifts ranging from early morning to late night. During each visit, a group member made a purchase and sat at a table where one could observe the behavior of managers and employees and customer interactions, without interfering with normal operations. Due to the fact we were restricted to a small sample of McDonald’s restaurants, we could not capture the complete spirit of the corporation. However, we were able to relate our findings to leadership and organizational behavior theories and some of McDonald’s corporate values. Through a series of observations and corporate research we discovered that McDonald’s employees demonstrate quality leadership and that the organization as a whole puts significant effort into motivating and working for its employees.

Leadership is of critical importance for all organizations. Through good leadership an organization can thrive, while a lack of leadership leads to ruin. In his manuscript, On Leadership, John W. Gardner expresses the ideals and steps that we as a country must embrace to create a leadership revolution, and to bring back the nostalgic leadership of the history books. Throughout his novel, he laments our country’s lack of leadership and emphasis on creating technical specialists instead of the next generation of Washingtons and Jeffersons.