mcdonald motivation at work

May 2013

Motivation at work The case of McDonald’s Jeanette Tost

Supervisor: Jens Riis Andersen

Department of Business Administration

Number of characters including figures: 107.011

Jeanette Hauge Tost Motivation at work – the case of McDonald’s 30/04/13 Exam number 301800 Bachelor BscB-General

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Abstract This thesis investigated the hypothesis that McDonald’s election as the Best Workplace in

Denmark can be explained by their way of creating job satisfaction by motivating their employees.

The announcement was made by Great Place to Work®, which is a consultancy company, who

offers to help to improve the company culture in other organisations. Their method of analysing

the companies was presented in the thesis and it was found that the important aspects for the

employees are trust in management, camaraderie and pride. Furthermore the company was

criticised for making the announcement, but since it was not the methods that were criticised, but

rather the sample of companies, the analysis of McDonald’s being a great place to work was

assumed to be valid.

The hypothesis was examined using different motivational theories. The theories explained what

motivates employees and how they are motivated at work. The connection between job

satisfaction and motivation was explained and it showed that both aspects are important for a

company. The motivational theories presented were both content and process theories and

included Herzberg’s two-factor theory, McClelland’s need theory, Porter & Lawler’s extended

expectancy model, the goal theory, the four drives theory and the motivating environment theory.

They were all evaluated on the basis of the aspects found to be important by Great Place to

Work®. Individually the theories included only some of the aspects, and therefore it was necessary

to use more than one theory in the analysis in order to explain how McDonald’s covers all the

aspects.

Furthermore McDonald’s policies were investigated and an interview was conducted with the

manager of a restaurant and also with an employee. This revealed that McDonald’s value their

employees as an important asset and therefore they are incorporated into the policies of the

company. The most important policy in relation to the employees was the People Promise, which

is “We appreciate you, your development and your engagement”. The policy was evaluated using

a tool presented by Great Place to Work®, which showed the criteria to measure effect of the

policy. According to the tool the policy was an effective policy, since it included all the aspects

necessary.


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Analysing McDonald’s using McClelland’s need theory, the expectancy theory, the four-drives

theory and the motivating environment revealed that McDonald’s policies included the aspects

that are necessary to motivate the employees. Furthermore the theories also included the important

aspects; trust, camaraderie and pride and this way the analysis supported the election of

McDonald’s as a great place to work. All of the theories included the trust aspect, which also

supports the fact that it is an important aspect, but it was best covered in the expectancy theory, as

fairness, credibility and respect, which are all aspects of trust, were all included. The camaraderie

aspect was best covered in the four-drives theory in relation to the drive to bond. In the four drives

theory the pride aspect was also included as it was covered in the drive to defend.

The conclusion of the thesis was that McDonald’s is motivating their employees in a way that

creates job satisfaction among the employees. This leads to a great working environment and it

can therefore be concluded that the election as the Best Workplace in Denmark is related to the

motivation that McDonald’s provides and therefore the election can partly be explained by the

way that McDonald’s creates job satisfaction through motivation. Consequently it can be

recommended to motivate the employees, since it will create a better working environment

through job satisfaction.


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Table of content 1. Introduction 5

1.1 Problem definition 5 1.2 Problem statement 6 1.3 Delimitations 7 1.4 Methodology 7 1.5 Outline of the thesis 9 1.6 Data sources 9

2. Great Place to Work® 11 2.1 About Great Place to Work® 11 2.2 Company culture 12

2.2.1 Evaluation of companies 13 2.2.2 Best Workplace in Denmark 14

2.3 Critique of the “Best Workplace in Denmark” survey 14 3. Motivation at work 16

3.1 Introduction 16 3.2 Job satisfaction 18 3.3 Motivational theories 18

3.3.1 Content theories 19 3.3.2 Process theories 21 3.3.3 Modern theories 23

3.4 Discussion 27 3.5 Conclusion 28

4. McDonald’s 30 4.1 Introduction 30 4.2 About McDonald’s Denmark 30

4.2.1 Values 31 4.3 McDonald’s Paderup 33

4.3.1 Respect and recognition 33 4.3.2 Competitive wages and benefits 34 4.3.3 Resources to execute the work 35 4.3.4 Manager values 35 4.3.5 Learning, progress and personal growth 36

4.4 Conclusion 36 5. Analysis of McDonald’s 38

5.1 Introduction 38 5.2 Theories and job satisfaction 38

5.2.1 Herzberg’s two-factor theory 39 5.2.2 McClelland’s need theory 39 5.2.3 Goal theory 41 5.2.4 Porter and Lawler’s Expectancy theory 42 5.2.5 Four drives theory 44 5.2.6 Motivating environment 46

5.3 Conclusion 48 6. Conclusion 50 7. References 51 Appendix 1-3


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1. Introduction This thesis is examining the problem of how to motivate employees. For the manager it is a

challenge to keep employees at their highest performance level, but at the same time it is

important in order for the company to gain fullest from their competences. The topic is interesting

to work with since businesses have become highly competitive and in order to participate in the

market a company has to work effectively and efficiently. As a part of this the individual

employee performance is important and therefore motivation at work is an important part of

everyday business for a company manager.

The focus for this thesis is going to be on McDonald’s in Denmark. The company has been

elected to be the Best Workplace in Denmark for large enterprises in both year 2011 and 2012.

The announcement is made by Great Place to Work® Denmark, who mainly bases the results on

an employee satisfaction survey, but also includes a culture profile of the company. The

consultancy company defines a great place to work as a place where the employees trust the

people they work for, where they feel proud about their work and they enjoy the people they work

with (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013b).

In a company like McDonald’s where the employees are working closely with the customers it is

essential for the company to make sure that the employees are engaged in their work. Only this

way they will do their best in order to provide a good customer experience through good customer

service. The company has to work with their employees in order to keep their attention and

engagement. This kind of work is motivation at work.

1.1 Problem definition

The survey conducted by Great Place to Work® is presented and discussed in order to understand

the important aspects. Afterwards both new and well-known motivational theories will be

introduced and explained in the thesis. The theories will be used to illustrate the connection

between the way McDonald’s motivates their employees and the job satisfaction among the

employees that has lead to the election as the Best Workplace in Denmark. The work will be done

as an external consultant looking at the McDonald’s Paderup as a representative for the

McDonalds’s chain in Denmark.

The way that McDonald’s Denmark is motivating the employees through their policies and

practices will be investigated. Furthermore a manager’s view on everyday motivation in the


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restaurant will be examined. The view of the employees will also be considered in order to

increase validity of the manager’s statement. The findings will be linked with motivational

theories which will help to show why the company and the manager are successful with their way

of motivating and therefore as a result of this has been elected as the Best Workplace in Denmark

two years in a row.

1.2 Problem statement Hypothesis:

McDonald’s’ election as the Best Workplace in Denmark can partly be explained by their way of

creating job satisfaction by motivating their employees.

The hypothesis is going to be analysed by looking at the following questions.

How does the election “Best Workplace in Denmark” take place?

In order to evaluate how the election is correlated with motivation it is necessary to understand

how the election was made, including what kind of analysis the selection is based on. This is done

in order to show the aspects that are important for the survey and also to discuss the reliability of

the survey.

How can an organisation work with motivation in order to create job satisfaction among the

employees?

In order to find how motivation contributes to a good working environment it is necessary to

understand motivation at work and why it is important for a company. Furthermore job

satisfaction is assumed to be the connection between the motivation given by a company and a

good working environment. Therefore it is necessary to show the relationship between job

satisfaction and motivation. All this will be explained on general basis.

How does McDonald’s motivate their employees?

The next section is going to analyse the way McDonald’s is working with their employees. This

will be done on the corporation level and restaurant level, starting by looking at what is done for

the employees by McDonald’s Denmark. Examining how the corporation works with the

employees will show what McDonald’s does in order to motivate their employees. Looking at the


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restaurant level and analysing how the manager works with the team of employees will help to

show what is actually done for the employees on everyday basis.

Can McDonald’s election partly be explained by motivational theories?

The last section will answer the question by connecting the conducted analysis of McDonald’s

with motivational theories by choosing theories that can explain why the motivating path used by

McDonald’s works the way it does. Furthermore it will try to explain the reasons for the

company’s success and thereby verify or invalidate the hypothesis.

1.3 Delimitations Motivation is assumed to have a large influence on company performance and working

atmosphere. As delimitation this thesis will only look at the motivation of the employees. There

might be other factors contributing to the reason why McDonald’s has been elected as the best

working place in Denmark, which will not be taking into account in this paper.

The thesis will only be working with one department of McDonald’s and their way of motivating

the employees. McDonald’s Paderup has been chosen as a case, and instead of working with all

the departments in Denmark, it will be assumed that this department can be used as a valid

representative for McDonald’s Denmark, since the restaurant was among the restaurants chosen to

take part in the survey made by Great Place to Work® Denmark.

Furthermore it has only been possible to conduct a single interview with an employee, which will

not show many aspects from the employees. But since different companies have done surveys for

McDonald’s showing that the employee satisfaction is high, it will be assumed that the employee

is a valid representative for the employees, as she is a satisfied employee.

Even though the Great Place to Work® survey is conducted using both the Culture Profile and the

Trust Index employee survey, it is unknown how the aspects included in the Culture Profile are

evaluated and furthermore it has not been possible to gain access to the actual Trust Index

questionnaire, therefore the examination of the survey is done from the aspects, which the

company mention to be important for a great place to work.

1.4 Methodology

The thesis is going to use known theory in order to examine the hypothesis. This means that

general principles are used in order to make conclusions in relation to McDonald’s. This is known


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as the deductive method, which simply means that the hypothesis is examined using general and

known argumentation.

The hypothesis says that good motivation results in a good working environment, since it is

assumed that a great place to work includes having a good working environment. This kind of

analysis will be made on the explanatory level. This means that it might be possible to make more

general conclusions about the relationship between motivation and working environment.

Therefore, if the thesis is successful in verifying the relationship by documentation it can be used

for future predictions. It will then be possible to say that good motivation will lead to better

working environment, and the other way around, that in order to avoid a bad working environment

it is necessary to motivate the employees (Andersen, 2008).

In order to analyse the motivation at the company the material given by McDonald’s’ website will

be analysed in correlation to the motivation of their current and future employees. This part of the

analysis will therefore be conducted with secondary data sources.

The everyday motivation will be analysed in one department of McDonald’s, where a structured

interview of the manager will be made. Also a structured interview will be conducted with an

employee. This should give an overview of the company and what motivation procedure the

department is using, and the data gathered will be qualitative, primary data.

Using interviews in order to collect data will provide rich in-depth data (Eriksson and Kovalainen,

2008). The interview will be constructed using the following sequence. From the purpose of the

investigation, which is given in the introduction, the interview is designed into an interview guide

(See appendix 3). Ethical considerations are made, like considering if any of the questions might

offend the interviewee. The interview is conducted using the interview guide, but even though the

interview is structured and has a systematic procedure, the sequence of the questions and the

questions themselves might change. After the interviews are conducted there will be made a

transcript and from this they can be analysed. The interview will be verified based on quality

criteria and in the end the interviews are used to report the findings (Eriksson and Kovalainen,

2008).

The thesis will be static, and therefore only examining the motivation process as it is at the

moment and there will not be full control over the examined department, since factors outside the

department might have an influence on the motivation of the individual employee.


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1.5 Outline of the thesis

The topic is introduced in the introduction. Next the survey conducted by Great Place to Work®

Denmark will be examined in order to find what issues are included in the election. It will be

followed by introduction to motivation at work and different motivational theories, which explain

what and how employees are motivated. The chapter will also include a part about job satisfaction

and thereby show why motivation is important for a company.

Next are an introduction to McDonald’s and their general policies concerning their employees.

This will lead way to the discussion about the department in Paderup, and how the policies affect

the employees in the restaurant.

In the end motivational theory will be connected to the motivation sources at McDonald’s and

thereby trying to explain why they have managed to be elected as the Best Working place in

Denmark two years in a row.

At last the thesis will sum up the findings and conclude whether the hypothesis is verified.

1.6 Data sources The data about McDonald’s Denmark is found on their website and therefore it is secondary data,

just like the theories used to explain motivation. The theories used to explain the methods applied

by McDonald’s will be a mixture between widely acknowledged, well-known theories and more

recent introduced theories.

The objectivity of the data used in the analysis can be discussed. The secondary data found at

McDonald’s webpage was meant for new employees and information for anyone interested. As

some of the material is provided in order to attract new employees, it is in the best interest of

McDonald’s that the material is positive about the company and also that the company is valuing

the employees in the company. At the same time the material also has to be reliable in order for

the company to hold on to the employees. If the workplace was nothing like described most

employees would not get their expectations fulfilled and therefore they would probably not stay

within the company and McDonald’s might even be criticised publicly, since it is a multinational

company. So even though the secondary data is provided by the company themselves it is

assumed to be reliable.

The primary data from the interview made in the restaurant in Paderup came from a manager. The

manager has been working for McDonald’s since she was 13. This shows that she has the

knowledge necessary in order to answer the questions and at the same time the manager proves

that McDonald’s does provide education and reward the best with manager positions. On the other


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hand the manager is also influenced by the four drives, and she wants to defend her workplace.

Therefore it is assumed that even though there might be some negative things about working at

McDonald’s she would not be willing to reveal them. This is also the reason why an employee

was interviewed. Unfortunately it was only possible to talk with one of the employees, as the rest

was busy. But since the employee was a satisfied employee, who was happy to work at

McDonald’s, she had the same drive to defend the company. Fortunately the interview could still

be used to confirm some of the things presented by the manager. This is due to the fact that the

interviews were conducted on individual basis and therefore the interviewees did not coordinate

their answers. It is assumed that since all three sources of McDonald have presented the same

things the data is reliable.

The next data source is the webpage of Great Place to Work®, which is also a sales page. This is

where the company provides information about themselves, their products (consultancy tools) and

gives reasons for other companies to hire them. Again it is in the best interest of the company to

present all the positive sides and it is e.g. not possible to read about the price of their services. It

was tried to create contact with Great Place to Work® in order to see the questionnaire they used

to measure the employee satisfaction. Unfortunately the email was never responded and it is

assumed that the company did not want to participate in an analysis. There can be more reasons

for this, for example that the company does not want to reveal the questionnaire since it is their

“product secret”, and revealing this would invite competitors to provide some of the same services

as themselves. On the other hand, if the information given and if the tools used were not valid, the

customers would probably not return for further advise. Looking at the “Best Workplace in

Denmark” lists from different years, it is possible to see that some of the companies return year

after year. Therefore it is assumed that the company provides the correct information.

All in all the sources discussed are assumed to be reliable but they could have been more

objective.


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2. Great Place to Work® Before evaluating McDonald’s it is necessary to look at what kind of survey the company has

been evaluated on. The company who made the survey and announced the Best Workplace in

Denmark is Great Place to Work®. In this chapter Great Place to Work® will be introduced and

their method of conducting the survey will be analysed. Furthermore some critique of the Best

Workplace in Denmark survey will be introduced and it will be considered why McDonald’s

decides to enter the survey. The questions answered in this chapter are:

• What is Great Place to Work®?

• How are the companies evaluated in the Great Place to Work® survey?

• Why does McDonald’s take part in Great Place to Work® survey?

2.1 About Great Place to Work® Great Place to Work® is a consultancy company that helps other organisations to improve their

working environment. This is done in order to create an environment where the employees can use

their talent and competences. Instead of pointing fingers of the organisations that are not

performing well, the consultancy company has a positive approach and wants to help them. They

have worked with a lot of workplaces around the world, and this experience has helped to

understand what is important for a good working environment. They have found that trust is one

of the fundamental competences in order to create a great place to work. Trust is a condition for

cooperation and innovation and if it is present in a company, it can be seen on the bottom line.

Great Place to Work® claims that they have no competitors, since other consultant firms just help

to make small improvements, whereas they aim at changing the company culture. Their mission is

to create a better society by helping the workplaces to become better. They do so by identifying

and acknowledge the best places to work in a lot of countries around the world, helping leaders to

understand what a good workplace is by using concrete tools to evaluate, develop and improve the

workplace. They also arrange workshops, seminars and education for the leaders and employees,

where they share their experiences and best practices from workplaces around the world. They

claim that their lists of the Best Workplaces are independent and that every customer is unique

(www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013f).


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Great Place to Work® defines a great place to work as a place where the employees trust the

people they work for, where they have pride in what they do and whether they enjoy the people

they work with. As figure 1 shows, trust is fundamental for a great workplace and it is created

through credibility of the management, together with the respect and fairness that management

shows to the employees. The figure also illustrates the relationship with the other employees,

which should be good in order to create a great place to work. Furthermore the figure shows the

fact that people should be proud of working for the organisation in order for it to be a great place

to work (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013b).

Figure 1 – Definition of a great place to work. Source:http://www.greatplacetowork.co.uk/our-approach/what-is-a-great-workplace

According to www.greatplacetowork.dk

(2013b) it is not necessarily what the company

does that makes them special, but the way that

they do it. Employees do not always point at the

companies with good salaries, impressive

surroundings and biggest company cars as the

best workplaces. Instead company policies and

leader practices are important for creating a

great workplace. When Great Place to Work®

evaluates programs, practices and methods in a company, the following criteria are used:

originality, all-inclusiveness, human touch, integration and variety, as can also be seen from figure

2. These criteria are also used when it comes to evaluating

benefits, so if the five criteria are reflected in the benefits,

then the effect of the benefits will be better.

Figure 2 – Criteria to measure effect of programs and practices. Source: http://www.greatplacetowork.co.uk/our-approach/how-do-you-do-it

2.2 Company culture

Great Place to Work® has identified nine areas, which are

important when it comes to creating a great workplace.


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These are inspiration, information, involvement, hiring and welcoming, celebration, appreciation,

development, care, equality and social responsibility. These are all focus areas in the Culture

Profile made by the company and will help an organisation to structure and prioritise the areas that

are important for them (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013c).

It is important in an organisation to have a common perception of what a great place to work is.

The Culture Profile might help as a communication tool within the organisation. It can help to

structure routines, actions and behaviour of the employees (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013e).

The last thing to do in order to create results is to create a systemic, self-perpetuating cycle of

workplace and business greatness. This means creating a culture where everyone is inspired and

has the opportunity to contribute with their talent (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013c).

2.2.1 Evaluation of companies

When evaluating other organisations Great Place to Work® has different tools that they normally

use. The most normal tools are Trust Index employee survey and Culture Profile evaluation. The

tools help identifying differences between what the employees experience and what the

organisation has as policies and practices (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013a).

The Trust Index employee survey examines the opinion of the employees. The survey consists of

59 questions about the employee’s experience of the workplace, especially concerning trust,

respect and fairness. The questionnaire is validated every year and is seen as a global standard for

the definition of a good workplace.

The Culture Profile is a tool, which gives insight to the values, initiatives and practices of the

organisation. It is split up in two parts. One of them is the demographic data about the employees,

whereas part two consists of open questions, where the company gets the chance to tell about their

philosophy and practices in areas like hiring, communication, employee development and

company arrangements (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013d).

When Great Place to Work® is working further with consulting an organisation, they use focus

groups and workshops to go more in depth with the employee survey, but the tools can also be

used individually for evaluation. The last tool the company has is a 360 degrees leader evaluation,

which can help to coordinate the management style in the organisation

(www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013a).


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2.2.2 Best Workplace in Denmark

When Great Place to Work® is hired to analyse the culture in a company, they offer the workplace

to take part in the yearly survey Best Workplace in Denmark.

If they decide to enter the competition, the two tools used are the Trust Index survey and Culture

Profile. The employee survey accounts for two thirds of the Great Place to Work® evaluation and

the last third is the culture profile (www.greatplacetowork.dk, 2013d). This shows that the

important aspects for the survey are the employees and their job satisfaction especially concerning

trust, respect and fairness. The practices in the organisation and the demographic information

about employees do also take part, but are not given as much weight as the employee survey.

At McDonald’s some of the restaurants are randomly picked to enter the survey. All the

restaurants work with the employee satisfaction continuously during the year, and for them the

survey made by Great Place to Work® is an extra survey in the year they participate (Stine

Halkjær, appendix 1, p.4).

2.3 Critique of the “Best Workplace in Denmark” survey A social scientist from the Danish University in Aalborg, Henning Jørgensen is criticizing the

survey made by Great Place to Work®. He is critical against the method used by the organisation.

A representative sample of the Danish companies is needed in order to make a survey about the

Best Workplace in Denmark, but according to Jørgensen, in this case the segment used is so small

that it is not possible to generalise the conclusions. He is unable to understand how McDonald’s

can be satisfied with the announcement, since it is only a few companies competing for the title,

and furthermore they have paid to enter the competition. In 2012 there were 135 companies on the

list and other than McDonald’s the list also included companies like Novozymes, EnergiMidt and

Irma. They have all paid an estimated sum of 50.000-70.000 DKR to Great Place to Work®, and

Jørgensen finds it a small amount compared to the publicity gained if the company ends up in the

top of the list (Engelschmidt, 2012).

In 2011 the competition included 143 workplaces and also this year the announcement was target

of critique from different experts. These include the same social scientist, Henning Jørgensen from

Aalborg University, senior researcher Ole Sørensen from the National Research Working Centre

and Svend Erik Hermansen who is a work consultant at HK union. The last mentioned said that it

is good to have focus at the working environment, but that it is not possible to conclude that

McDonald’s is the best workplace, since they have all paid to join the competition and is a small

selection of the whole Danish economy (Batchelor, 2011).


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The critique is directed at the fact that Great Place to Work® calls it an announcement of the Best

Workplace in Denmark. As argued above by different experts, the sample of companies needs to

be representative for the whole Danish market. In the survey this is not the case, since Great Place

to Work® is only evaluating companies, who have asked and paid for they consultancy. The

critique is therefore well placed by the experts, but it is a critique of the title that the company

gains, not the survey itself. According to this, the survey made by Great Place to Work® is not

invalidated, but the company should just have used a different title to the winner in order to avoid

the critique. The method used to evaluate the individual company is not criticised, and therefore it

is still possible to say that McDonald’s is good at creating a good working environment and they

are the best among the companies tested.

With this criticism of the survey, and the knowledge that McDonald’s is already conducting their

own internal employee satisfaction survey, one could argue that there is no reason for McDonald’s

to enter the competition. But as Jørgensen said, the companies that end up in the top of the list get

publicity, and this is the reason that McDonald’s Denmark chooses to enter the competition. They

want to create an image of being a great place to work, especially for young people. There are

some prejudices about working at McDonald’s, which they will get rid of. The prejudices can be

seen from the fact that Danes do not find any prestige in working for companies producing cheap

or unhealthy products, therefore it is seen as embarrassing to work for McDonald’s (www.epn.dk,

2013).

When being awarded as the Best Workplace in Denmark it makes it possible for McDonald’s to

use it to start the dialog and spreading the word that it is a great place to work. Even though they

already have their own survey, they cannot use it in public. The fact that it is another company

that analyses and selects the best, makes it easier to use and more trustworthy for the customers.

McDonald’s Denmark wants to attract young people to have their first job at McDonald’s and

possibly also get an education in the company or use the work experience as a way to get into the

job marked (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.4).


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3. Motivation at work

3.1 Introduction Why do people choose to work instead of doing something else and how much effort do they put

into the work? This is one of the oldest and most difficult topics in psychology. There are many

explanations of what makes people work, such as goals, needs, incentives and rewards (Furnham,

2005). This chapter is looking into the topic of motivation by answering the questions:

• What is motivation at work?

• Why it is necessary for a company?

This includes how managers use motivation in order to get people to do their job. Motivation at

work will be explained by looking at motivational theories. In addition to this, the chapter will

also examine job satisfaction, and how it is related to motivation. This will show why motivation

and job satisfaction are important for a company. The chapter is working with the theories on a

general basis and therefore there are not made any connections to the case of McDonald’s yet.

According to Buelens et al. (2011) motivation is one out of three factors that influence work

performance. The other two factors are ability and opportunity. Looking closer at the two factors

there are no doubt that these also have a great influence on the work performance. Even though an

employee is motivated to work hard he would still perform weakly if the tools needed were not

provided, which is related to opportunity together with things like working conditions and

organisational rules. Ability includes things like age, health and level of education. This shows

that motivation is not the only factor affecting work performance, but it is an important part, and

therefore it is important for a manager in the company to motivate his employees. This is also the

reason why it is the focus of this thesis. For many years there has been a focus on how to get

employees to perform their task as fast and correct as possible. The following shows an overview

of the twentieth century, in order to illustrate how important motivation is and has been through

the years.

During the twentieth century the theory of organisation and leadership has changed a lot. In the

beginning of the century the leading theory was the classical social theory, which Max Weber was

a part of. He believed in bureaucracy in a company, which included division of responsibilities,

hierarchical organisation and objective personnel selection.


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This was followed by the rational viewpoint and Frederick Taylor, which focused on scientific

management and finding the best way of doing a particular job. The goal of this theory was to

increase productivity by standardisation and control. According to him there was a clear division

between managers and employees. The managers were supposed to do the thinking, while the

employees should only work and not think. It had a big influence on the mass production and

optimisation of the human machine. The rational view on the human nature was that economic

interests primarily drove humans and that their choices would maximise their self-interest. Since

this showed a conflict between the goals of the employees and the goals of the firm, the managers

had to direct, control and monitor. The way to get people to do their job was by giving them better

incentives. The rational view caused employees’ morale to fall and reduced the employees’

competences, since they only had one job task.

The human relations theory came as a response to the rational view. Because of the primitive view

on human needs companies only used economic incentives and no employee had influence on

their job. Therefore the human relations view started to focus on people, motivation, trust and

social needs. The Hawthorne study was the primary source to the human relation’s view on

humans, which was that they are primarily driven by social needs. Group norms and peer effects

are more important than incentives, and therefore the problems of motivation should be solved by

satisfying the needs of the employees, improving working conditions and improving the job

satisfaction.

This developed in the 1960’s into the human resources view, which focused on the self-actualising

being, where the manager had to motivate and develop his employees by giving them job

challenges. This included involving the employees and setting goals for them.

The latest view is the contingency view, which sees the human nature as a complex being. Here

the job of the manager is to place the right person in the right position at the right time, but the

“one best way to manage” view is no longer in favour and instead it is said that there are many

ways to motivate depending on factors such as the organisational context and the people working

there (Buelens et al. 2011).

This illustrates a development in society and in the concept of a worker, who has gone from

mostly being a worker doing his job at fabrics into an employee being an important asset for the

company. The work values have also shifted during the years, and it was found that a growing

importance is given to the opportunity for personal development in a job (Ester et al., 1993). The

development shows different views of humans and how to direct them to solve a given task, but it


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also shows that there has been focus on the humans and motivation for many years. This focus has

lead to more knowledge about humans and motivation, and many theories have tried to explain

motivation. The next sections will look into some of these theories.

3.2 Job satisfaction A famous quote said by Dwight D. Eisenhower is “Motivation is the art of getting people to do

what you want them to do because they want to do it”. Said with other words motivation is about

directing the behaviour of an individual without forcing it. This is an important thing, since it is

due to the fact that people want to do their job that they are happy and thereby a good working

environment is created. If the employees were forced to do their job, they would probably not be

satisfied with it, and it will lead to lower work efficiency. This shows that job satisfaction is

closely related to motivation and work performance, but also related to the working environment.

Furthermore it shows how important motivation is for the company in order to run efficiently and

thereby stay competitive.

Job satisfaction is related to positive and negative behaviour in an organisation. An example is

that it has a positive effect if employees are satisfied with they job and therefore it will positively

affect productivity and social affairs. On the other hand if people at not satisfied or even

dissatisfied with their job, it will negatively affect the employees for example to be indifferent

about the performance goals, committing theft or increase the absenteeism.

According to Furnham (2005) it is possible to divide the factors that have an effect on job

satisfaction into three categories: Organisational policies and procedures, which include things

like the reward system, supervision and decision making practices. The second category is specific

aspects of the job, such as overall workload, skill, variety, feedback and physical nature of work

environment. The last category is personal characteristics, including self-esteem, ability and

general life satisfaction.

Job satisfaction will be mentioned in more of the motivational theories, as it is an important factor

in connection with a good working environment.

3.3 Motivational theories Motivational theories are split into two categories, content theories and process theories. Content

theories work with the question of what motivates people, whereas process theories look at how

people get motivated. This means that content theories try to explain the things that motivate

people at work like the need theories, whereas process theories try to explain the process of

motivation. In this thesis we are going to look at both categories, since the content theories will


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help explaining what McDonald’s gives to their employees that motivate them. When explaining

the everyday motivation in the restaurant the process theories will become important, since it will

be analyzed how the manager motivates the employees. Furthermore modern theories are

discussed.

3.3.1 Content theories

One of the most well known content theories is Maslow’s need hierarchy. According to this theory

motivation is a function of five basic needs starting in the bottom of the pyramid with

physiological need and moving towards the top trough safety and security need, need for love and

belongingness, esteem-needs and need for self-actualisation in the top of the pyramid. Once the

bottom need is satisfied to some stage, the need above in the pyramid emerges.

Many people have learned about this theory during their study time, therefore the theory is also

widely used. Unfortunately there is little empirical evidence to support the theory (Berl et al.,

1984a).

Alderfer’s ERG theory is also a need theory, which compresses Maslow’s hierarchy needs into

three needs. The needs in this theory are Existence, Relatedness and Growth. All the needs emerge

at the same time, but in different combinations from person to person. Therefore there is no

hierarchical order, and the theory is supported more by research than Maslow’s hierarchy need,

but neither of the theories is well supported by studies (Berl et al., 1984a).

Herzberg’s two-factor theory

A content theory that works with job satisfaction is Herzberg’s theory. It is a two-factor theory,

which includes motivator factors and hygiene factors. The hygiene factors need to be fulfilled

before moving to the motivators. Hygiene factors concern all the extrinsic aspects of work, such as

pay, supervision, physical work conditions, rules and policies and benefits. If these are not

sufficiently covered, it will create dissatisfaction. Since Herzberg believed that satisfaction is not

the opposite of dissatisfaction, the hygiene factors cannot motivate and therefore if they are

sufficient the person will be in a place with no dissatisfaction but no satisfaction either. This can

also be seen from figure 3. Furthermore the figure shows that in order for the employee to move to

satisfaction, some of the motivators should be present in the job, since they create satisfaction if

sufficient. These include all the intrinsic aspects of work, for example achievement, challenge,

responsibility, recognition and autonomous decision. If no motivators are present in the job

design, then it will not create dissatisfaction, but again the employee will just stay in a position


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with no satisfaction and no motivation, as can also be seen from figure 3. According to Herzberg’s

theory a manager needs to include both extrinsic and intrinsic aspects of work in order to create

job satisfaction and motivation among the employees (Herzberg et al., 1959).

Figure 3 – Herzberg’s two-factor model. Source: https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/PSYCH484/10.+Job+Design

Also Herzberg’s theory is criticised. First of all when the study was conducted only people at the

medium or top level in the company were selected, therefore the general validity of Herzberg’s

theory should be questioned, when it comes to non-managerial or non-specialist positions.

Furthermore it is said that Herzberg were only looking for similarities and not differences, which

is also criticised. Secondly Maslow’s theory led the following thinkers to believe that people

would respond in the same way when exposed to a certain stimuli, and this is also the fact for

Herzberg and Aldefer (Scheuer, 2000). The main power of the need theories is that they explain

job satisfaction (Furnham, 2005). Some of the criticism has led the way to theories that include

more knowledge and overcome the flaws in the first theories.

McClelland’s Need theory

McClelland’s need theory is a content theory that is more supported by studies. The theory

consists of three needs; need for achievement, need for affiliation and need for power. According

to the theory each person has his own combination of the needs (Buelens, 2011).


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Different people have different kind of needs, and this theory supports that some people have a

high need for achievement, while others have high need for affiliation and others again have a

high need for power. In the end a person has his own combination of the needs.

The need for achievement covers the desire to accomplish something difficult, to attain a high

standard, to rival and surpass others or to master or organise human beings or ideas. The high

achievers prefer to work on tasks of moderate difficulty, including moderate risk taking, personal

responsibility and getting feedback. The high achievers get personal satisfaction from

accomplishing a task of moderate character, which is solved by effort and not by luck.

People with high need for affiliation are social people. They prefer to maintain their social

relations, rather than working hard and will therefore not be the most efficient employers. This can

be explained by the fact that they have difficulties making hard decisions, since some decisions

will make others sad, and people with high affiliation will then worry about being disliked.

The last need is the need for power and it covers a persons desire to teach, coach, influence or

encourage other to achieve. People having a high need for power like to work and are concerned

with self-respect and discipline.

McClelland proposed that top managers should have a low need for affiliation together with a high

need for power. Furthermore he believed that people with high need for achievement do not fit in

top management positions. This is supported by studies (Stahl, 1983; McNeeseSmith, 1999).

A flaw with all the content theories is that they only tell what is motivating, but do not say

anything about the process of motivating employees. Even though people have the same needs

they strive to satisfy, they might not be satisfied in the same way for everyone. Therefore it is not

enough to look at the content theories, but also necessary to introduce the process theories, which

will explain how people are motivated.

3.3.2 Process theories

As already mentioned process theories work with how people are motivated. Here some well-

known theories are introduced.

Goal theory

The goal theory is a process theory. Goals can work as a motivating tool. Specific and challenging

goals lead to higher performance than easy goals or no goals. The theory has three steps; first the

goal needs to be set, afterwards the goal commitment needs to be achieved, before support and


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feedback are given in the last step. This will according to the theory motivate the employees, but

the goals should not be too difficult, since the employee then will see the goal as impossible and

the performance level will go down. The reasons to provide goals for the employees are many.

This includes the fact that setting goals will direct the employee’s attention to the goal, regulating

the effort so it fits the goal and increase the persistence of the employee. Feedback is given in

order to show the progress in relation to the goal. Furthermore giving rewards when the goal is

reach is a good goal attainment (Locke et al., 1981). Clear and difficult goals have proved to

increase employee productivity, but the theory does not account for absenteeism, turnover or

satisfaction (Furnham, 2005).

Vroom’s and Porter & Lawler’s Expectancy models

Porter & Lawler’s Expectancy model is an extension of Vroom’s model. Vroom’s model is in

simplicity about the expectation of which level of effort is needed to get to a performance goal.

The value of the outcome to a person is what motivates him. Individuals have their own

perceptions and expectancy is the probability of a person getting from effort to performance.

Looking at figure 4, expectancy is the arrow from effort to performance and it is the first

relationship. The next relationship is performance-outcome instrumentality. This is to what degree

a certain performance lead to a desired outcome; it could be that finishing the task early leads to

leaving early. The last relationship is valence, which is the relation between the outcome and the

personal goals. It is the leisure that the person gets out of it, which ranges from negative to

positive; if the person does not succeed the valence would be negative and vice versa. In order to

reach the goal it is necessary to put some effort into the work and in order to reach the outcome

the performance need to be of a certain standard.

Porter & Lawler’s model introduces intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards are

intangibles outcome and extrinsic rewards are tangible outcomes. Whether a company is using

intrinsic or extrinsic rewards does not matter, according to the model it will motivate people just

as much. The extended model also introduces feedback loops, where a person learns from

experience what effort is needed in order to get to a certain performance. This can also be seen

from figure 4, which also shows that the future effort will be affected by the feedback. In addition

equity in rewards, ability and role perceptions are added to the model. Equity in rewards means

that the employees will compare their outcome with their peers. If they think they have been

treated equally, when comparing the effort, performance and the outcome, being in the form of

intrinsic or extrinsic rewards, their job satisfaction will increase. Ability means that people with


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higher ability achieve higher performance for the same effort, than people with lower ability.

Likewise effort will give higher performance when the employee understands his role.

Figure 4 - Porter & Lawler's extended expectancy model. Source Buelens et al. 2011.

Even though the expectancy theory has been tested and showed that the theory does predict

performance, effort, intentions, preferences and choice, it is also criticised. The theory can be

difficult to test and measuring the relationships expectancy, instrumentality and valence can have

questionable validity (Mitchell, 1974).

3.3.3 Modern theories

Four drives theory

Nohria and Groysberg, who both are professors of Harvard Business School, have together with

Lee, of the Centre for Research on Corporate Performance worked with how to motivate

employees using a four-drives theory. According to them, being in an environment that meets the

four basic emotional drives will motivate the employees. The four drives are the drive to acquire,

the drive to comprehend, the drive to bond and the drive to defend. Nohria, Groysberg and Lee

acknowledge that earlier thinkers about human behaviour, such as Freud and Maslow, have taught

a lot about why people act the way they do, but they add that the old theories are only based on

observation, whereas now, modern brain science contributes to the understanding of human

behaviour and to their four-drive theory.

The drive to acquire is about obtaining goods that only exist in a limited quantity. The goods can

both be tangible and intangible. An example of an intangible good is a social status, which can

only be acquired by a limited number of people. The drive to acquire is relative since people


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always compare what they have with what others hold, and they want to hold more than the

others.

Next is the drive to comprehend, which covers the fact that people want to make sense of the

world around them. In relation to work it accounts for the desire to make a meaningful

contribution. Motivation comes from challenging jobs that enable employees to learn and grow. A

talented employee who does not find the job challenging will often leave the company to find

challenges in another company. The drive to comprehend is therefore linked with employee

engagement.

The drive to bond and form connections with individuals and groups has the greatest influence on

employee commitment. When the drive is met it is associated with strong and positive feelings

and at work people feel proud of belonging to the organization, which will lead to motivation. The

drive can also be negatively strong and in a case where the company betrays the employees they

will loose their morale.

The last drive is the drive to defend, meaning protecting against external threats and promote

justice. We naturally defend ourselves, out property, family and friends, ideas and beliefs against

an external threat. When the drive is fulfilled it will lead to feelings of security and confidence,

whereas negative feelings like fear will occur if the drive is not fulfilled. At work this can be seen

from people’s resistance to change, where they want to defend the routines or the work team in the

company.

Even though the drives contributes individually to the overall motivation, the company will do

best by improving the satisfaction of all four drives and this way create general satisfaction among

the employees. Doing great in three out of four drives is not enough. The bad performing drive

will diminish the impact of the other three and lower the overall satisfaction. Therefore in order to

fully motivate the employees all four drives must be addressed within the company.

The drives can be satisfied through different systems. The drive to acquire can be met by an

effective reward system, where rewards are tied to performance and the best people get

opportunities for advancement. The best way to fulfil the drive to bond is by creating a culture that

promotes teamwork, collaboration, openness and friendship. Job design is important for the drive

to comprehend, as a meaningful, interesting and challenging job will address the drive. The last

drive can be met by constructing transparent processes for performance management and resource

allocation (Nohria et al., 2008).

Paul R. Lawrence, who is professor in Organisational Behaviour at Harvard Business School,

supports the four drives theory. The theory is according to him a part of the decision making


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process in the human brain. The four drives operate independently in the brain, each of them are

important for the species survival and they are each an equal component of good leadership. An

example could be when a CEO is in the situation that business has dropped 25 percent in the

economic crisis. Here the drive to defend tells him that it is necessary to cut staff in order for the

business to survive. At the same time the drive to bond tells him not to lay off loyal and

experienced employees. This show a conflict of drives, but the brain knows how to gather the

imperatives from the four drives together with knowledge and experience, and from this suggest

different courses of action that all are good enough for all four drives. This decision-making

process shows that the human brain deals with the complexity of the world by solving it as it

comes. Lawrence emphasizes that it is not a metaphor, but how the brain is actually working,

which he has backed up by examples from research (Lawrence, 2011).

Modern individual managers might find it difficult to work with all four drives, since the board of

directors require them to favour the drive to acquire and make money together with the drive to

defend in order to stay in business. But the four-drive theory says otherwise, since the human

beings has evolved to accomplish the most good together and with doing least harm to each other

(using the drive to comprehend and bond) (Lawrence, 2011).

As an additional thing, researchers found that the organisation does not have all the motivation

power or said in another way, the companies do not have monopoly on fulfilling the emotional

drives. The employees’ perception on the immediate manager also matters. Therefore it is not only

up to the company to motivate by making company policies, it is also how the manager

implements the policies and processes and how the manager works with the employees (Nohria et

al, 2008).

Motivating environment theory

The theories discussed so far show how employees are motivated, but does not tell much about

how the manager is suppose to work with his employees on a everyday basis in order for them to

be motivated and perform at their best. According to Capozzoli (1997) a manager cannot motivate

his employees, but they have to motivate themselves. Instead the manager has to create a

motivating environment and thereby encourage the employees to motivate themselves to perform

at their best. A motivating environment is where the expectations of each employee are to perform

the best at their capability. Capozzoli mentions eight conditions where the manager can contribute

to a motivating environment. The conditions are high standards, clear objectives, adequate


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training, adequate management contact, adequate feedback, rewards that employees value,

adequate working conditions and effective leadership. The conditions are explained below.

‘High standards’ mean that the employees should be expected to produce at high standards, but

not so high that they are unreachable for the employees. The standards have to be understood by

the employees; otherwise they will not contribute to the motivating environment. Also the

employees want to be challenged, so setting the standards to low or not adjusting the standards to

the individual employee will be a loss for the company.

When the employees know what is expected from them then the ‘objectives are clear’. This also

includes the overall objectives for the company and how their job task contributes to these

objectives. This could be, knowing how their task is related to the finished product.

‘Adequate training’ is important in order for the employee to be able to conduct the task given to

them. If the employees are not trained they will become frustrated, since they do not know how to

do the job. In addition to training the necessary tools and resources also have to be available in

order to contribute to the motivating environment.

The next condition is ‘adequate management contact’. This covers the fact that the employees

want to know that the management is concerned with them, their problems and their interests,

meaning that the employees want to be more than a number in the company. As a manager it is

important to show interest for the individual employee, not only by talking with them, but also

listening to what they have to say, since every employee has different needs.

‘Adequate feedback’ is also a part of the contact with management. The employee needs to know

if he is doing something wrong, but also if he is doing something right. The last is important, since

if the employees are only given negative feedback, they will start thinking that it is irrelevant what

they do, it will always be wrong and the desire to produce will be lowered. Also it is important to

give the feedback close to the event, otherwise the employee will find it difficult to relate the

feedback to the event and it will not give the intended outcome.

Giving ‘rewards that the employees value’ is an important contribution to the motivating

environment. A manager does not always have the opportunity to give monetary rewards, but the

manager has to figure out what the employee value and what is at the manager’s disposal. From

this knowledge it should be possible to reward the employees in a manner, which they value.

‘Adequate working conditions’ cover for the equipment that is provided for the employees. In

order for the employees to provide quality work the proper tools and equipment have to be

available. If this is not the case the employee will get the impression that quality and productivity


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are not important for the company. This will not contribute to a motivating environment, but

rather make the employees less productive.

The last condition is ‘effective leadership’, which is expected by the employees. They would like

to trust their leader and know that he tells the true. As a manager it is important to have integrity

and be trustworthy. This includes keeping promises (Capozzoli, 1997).

Creating this motivating environment should according to Capozzoli (1997) give the best

conditions for the employees to motivate themselves and thereby perform at their best capability.

3.4 Discussion The well-known theories have been on the market for a while they have been tested various times.

The theories have all been criticised for different aspects, therefore using only those theories

would not have high validity. On the other hand the modern theories have not been published for

as long and therefore they have not been studied to the same extent as the well-known theories.

Therefore one could argue that the also the modern theories do not have a high validity, as they

are not well tested. Looking at the theories many of them carry some of the same characteristics

like drives or needs that should be satisfied or saying that a task has to challenge the employee.

For that reason the modern theories are not something entirely new, but they are developed from

already known facts about human behaviour and motivation. As a result of this the theories should

be better than the older theories, since the researchers have gained more knowledge. As stated in

the introduction to the four drives theory it includes brain-science to explain human behaviour, an

opportunity that Maslow and Herzberg did not have, as they could only build their theories on

observation. The development in theories is also related to changes in society, as it is becoming a

more individualised society. Now a days most of the population has a high level of consumption

that is way more that the necessities of life (Ester et al., 1993). Therefore it is assumed that the

modern theories have validity and that the conclusion of the theories can be accepted as a valid

outcome of the analysis.

In this case the important factors for the survey made by Great Place to Work® are related to job

satisfaction and in detail they are found to be:

• Trust in relation to management concerning respect, credibility and fairness

• The relationship with the other employees should be enjoyable

• The employees should be proud of their work.

When choosing theories to conduct this analysis, these aspects should be remembered. One the

other hand the criticism of some of the theories might make the theory less suitable. Herzberg’s


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theory incorporates a satisfaction aspect, which makes it a possibility to choose this theory.

McClelland’s need theory includes the need for achievement, which could be related to trust to the

management, since the employee trust management to provide a challenging task. The need for

affiliation is closely related to the relationship with other employees and the need for power could

be related with pride, depending on how the need is satisfied.

The goal theory does not have relation with satisfaction, but there is a trust between the employee

and management that when the goal is reach, reward and feedback will be given.

The expectancy theory is also related to trust, since it is important for instrumentality that the

manager keeps promises. Also satisfaction is included in the theory, if the employee perceives the

reward to be equal or fair, another aspect of trust.

The four drives theory also covers some important aspects. The drive to bond covers for the

relationship with the employees, the drive to defend covers the pride, since people will defend the

things they are proud of. Trust will be covered by the drive to acquire and comprehend. The

employee trust the management that it is good for them to acquire something and they trust the

management that their contribution is meaningful.

The last theory, the motivating environment theory includes a lot of trust to the management that

they can provide and will keep on to provide this environment, as all of the aspects include trust to

the management.

3.5 Conclusion The importance of motivation is shown from the fact that it has been focus of studies for many

years, also in connection with job satisfaction. More of the theories show that when people are

motivated, they will also be satisfied. Satisfied employees means happy employees and a good

working environment. This is important, as it will also increase the efficiency of the employees.

Different theories explain motivation in diverse ways. What motivates employees can be

explained according to content theories, but even though the theories are trying to explain the

same thing, they differ in their perception of what is most important. The theories do not agree on

how the motivational factors should be presented. Comparing Maslow and McClelland, it is

possible to see that there are similarities in their theories, but at the same time differences. Maslow

is of the opinion that the needs emerges one at a time, whereas McClelland says that they occur

different for every individual and that the needs can be more compressed. Herzberg is also of the

opinion that some factors need to be covered, before others can be satisfied.


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Looking at the process theories, that tell how employees are motivated, the expectancy model and

the goal theory are alike, but they do not give importance to the same aspects. The expectancy

theory, as the name indicates, focuses on the connection between expectation and outcome,

whereas the goal theory focuses on the goals only.

The four-drives theory introduces brain-science in order to explain the human motivation path,

whereas Capozzoli shows another way of thinking about motivation, by not directing the

motivational factors directly at the employee, but on the work environment.

It is shown that the theories are related with the aspects found to be important in the “Best

Workplace in Denmark” survey. In order to know which of the theories will be better to explain

the relationship between the motivation and the election, it is necessary to know more about

McDonald’s. This will be introduced in the next chapter.


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4. McDonald’s

4.1 Introduction The focus of this chapter is McDonald’s and what they do in order to motivate their employees.

The company policies, which are relevant for conducting the analysis of how the employees are

motivated by the company, will be examined.

Furthermore the chapter will go into detail in a restaurant in Paderup, Denmark. A structured

interview is conducted with the manager of the restaurant and with one of the employees. It will

give an overview of how the manager is working in order to motivate her employees on daily

basis. This will introduce further knowledge about the procedures, than the policies made by the

company. The interview with the employee is made in order to confirm that the manager is using

the procedures that she introduced in the interview. This will increase the validity of the source.

More specific the questions that will be answered in this chapter are the following:

• What kind of company is McDonald’s?

• What policies does McDonald’s have concerning their employees?

• What offers does McDonald’s give to the employees?

• What kind of motivational activities take place in the restaurant?

• How does the employees feel about their work?

4.2 About McDonald’s Denmark It all started in the 50’s with a small hamburger restaurant in California. Today McDonald’s

servers more than 60 million people in more than 32.000 restaurants in more than 100 countries

worldwide (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013e). McDonald's Denmark Aps was established in 1989 as a

head office for the Danish restaurants. It is a daughter company of McDonald’s Corporation.

McDonald’s Denmark is in charge of the overall policies and strategies of the company on

national level. On a daily basis they work with the franchisers in connection with education,

marketing, communication, strategy, economy, and running the restaurant. The restaurants in

Denmark had a turnover of 1,6 billion Danish Kroner in 2011 (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013a).

The focus areas under the strategy of McDonald’s Denmark are the quality of their food,

modernizing their restaurants and offering a thorough training and education for their employees.

Modernizing the restaurants is in order to create a good environment for the customers, but also

for the employees working there (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013c).


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McDonald’s has four conditions that have to be fulfilled every day. These are quality, which

includes that their commodities are of the best quality. The next condition is service, which

includes a lot of different things that could be a smile, eye contact or fast and competent service.

Third condition is cleanliness, since it is what makes it nice to enter the restaurants and is also

important for the hygiene. The last condition is value, which covers the fact that the customers are

supposed to feel like they get value for their money (McDonald’s Corporation, 2007a).

McDonald’s Denmark wants to improve the performance at the restaurants and keep track of how

they are doing. This is done by an evaluation called store performance. The evaluation includes

different operational issues, but an employee satisfaction survey accounts for a big part. This

survey is conducted on a yearly basis for internal purposes only. McDonald’s wants to create a

good social environment with happy and satisfied employees, since it will create results in the

long run (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).

4.2.1 Values

According to McDonald’s (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013b) the company wants to be an attractive

workplace that can attract and keep competent and engaged employees. They continue to work

with developing their employees with training and personal feedback. They have a People

Promise to the employees, which is “We appreciate you, your development and your engagement”

(McDonald’s Corporation, 2007a). Based on this promise they focus on five areas that they find

important for the employees’ job satisfaction. These are ‘Respect and recognition’, ‘Competitive

wages and benefits’, ‘Resources to execute the work’, ‘Manager values’ and the final one is

‘Learning, progress and personal growth’.

By ‘Respect and recognition’ the company means that they appreciate and recognise the

individual employee and everyone respect each other and keep a good tone. In order to strengthen

the internal team they encourage doing activities together such as sports, competitions and parties

(McDonalds, 2013d). They also provide money for such activities if the restaurant wins a

competition set up by McDonald’s Denmark (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).

‘Competitive wages’ means that the employees get a salary equivalent or higher than in similar

jobs. The benefits include pension and discounts at different stores, but also the possibility to take

part in a lot of social activities (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.4).

The next area is ‘Resources to execute the work’, which includes that the employees are trained to

do the job professionally. The company wants to be flexible when it comes to working hours,


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since the employees should also have time for family and hobbies. Education also has priority at

McDonald’s Denmark; so working hours should fit with the employees’ timetable at school

(www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013d).

‘Manager values’ are about open and honest communication among all employees. They

encourage the employees to suggest their ideas and discuss their problems at a rap session every

six months.

Furthermore McDonald’s is very interested in the attitudes of the employees, and therefore

McDonald’s conduct a survey each year in order to measure the employees’ satisfaction. This is

done for the internal purpose in the company and at the restaurants. When having the results the

restaurant managers are required to make a plan on how to improve the measures (Stine Halkjær,

appendix 1, p.3).

The last area ‘Learning, progress and personal growth’ covers the company’s focus on the

employees developing both professional and personal through their work. Therefore the company

offers individual growth and training through courses and education. This means, according to

McDonald’s Denmark that the employees gain valuable experience, which they can use in their

future career, whether at McDonald’s or not (www.mcdonalds.dk, 2013d).

Thinking about Great Place to Work® in connection with figure 2 showing the criteria to measure

effect of programs and practices, one could argue to evaluate the People Promise in order to give a

good indication of what Great Place to Work® does when they evaluate companies. In order for

the People Promise to be good and create unity (gestalt) it has to include the five components

showed in the figure. Starting with human touch, it can easily be concluded that the policy is made

with a human touch, since it is made for the employees. Integration is if the policy is integrated in

the company culture as a whole. Since the company is building their values on this promise, one

have to say that it is integrated. Next is variety, which can be argued to be incorporated in the

policy, since the policy is considering different values, it does not just have one side. It is original,

since it is something that McDonald’s has made for their employees. It is incorporated because

McDonald’s want it to be present among their policies. The last component is all-inclusiveness.

There can be more aspects to this, like it includes all the employees or the fact that it includes all

aspects. It seems like McDonald’s has made the policy to cover both.

Since the policy covers all the aspects, it is according to the tool from Great Place to Work® an

effective company policy, and this would be good for McDonald’s and their evaluation.


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These areas, which are important for McDonald’s Denmark in order for them to keep their

promise, will be discussed at restaurant level in the next sections.

4.3 McDonald’s Paderup The restaurant with about 35 employees and 8 managers was a part of the survey from Great Place

to Work®. On a daily basis they are about 7-8 people at work during the day and in the busy

evenings they are up to 20-22 people. The restaurant employs mostly young people, who starts

there as their first spare time job. Out of the employees, approximately eight of them have a

fulltime job, whereas the rest are working part time next to school (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1,

p.1).

4.3.1 Respect and recognition

Appreciating and recognising the individual employee is important for the company, including the

employees appreciating each other. In order to encourage this, the manager tries to solve issues

before they become big. This could be done at the performance sessions, but if an employee is

suddenly underperforming, the managers react to the situation. The reasons for underperforming

can be many, like busy at school or personal things, but might also be something at work, that

needs to be improved (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).

In order to improve the relationship among the employees McDonald’s Paderup make an effort for

the employees and managers to participate in social activities during their spare time. An activity

plan is made every year and includes an activity every one or two months. This includes activities

after a staff meeting such as bowling or eating out, but also sports evenings, parties and an

annually full dress award party, where different prices are awarded. The employees are nominated

in categories like employee of the year, employee with the best mood and employee with best

customer service. Furthermore they have a team-building weekend, which includes competitions

and sleeping outside. According to the manager all the activities contribute to people being happy

with the job (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2).

According to the employee the team is important at the restaurant and the employees feel

important in the team, since they each have their responsibilities to fulfil and the team members

depend on each other. The employees also help each other when it comes to personal things, like

after having a bad experience with a customer. Then the others comfort the unlucky employee and

help to move on (Mie, appendix 2, p.1).


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Another way of strengthening the team spirit is done by organising competitions. McDonald’s has

competitions for the restaurants and for the employees. This means that some competitions are

made by McDonald’s Denmark, whereas others are held in the restaurant among the employees.

The competitions made by McDonald’s Denmark often include a prize in form of money for the

restaurant, which can be used for social activities. McDonald’s Denmark uses this to improve

operational issues such as to long waiting time or introducing new products. Then it is up to the

restaurant what they will do in order to win. An example is when McDonald’s Denmark

introduces a new burger, and makes it a competition which restaurant sells most of them. Then the

individual restaurant might decide also to make a competition within the restaurant about who

sells most burgers.

The restaurant might also have other competitions like who is smiling the most or who is using the

most exact amount of salad in the burger. The winner sometimes get a price like candy or a pin for

their t-shirt saying ‘super seller’ or it might be tickets to a football match. In order situations it is

the worst performing people who are punished and has to do something funny, like running

around the restaurant (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).

Another competition or way to recognise the employees is that the restaurants announce employee

of the month and write a small text saying why he is a good employee, and what has made him

special this month. The reasons to get this recognition can be many, like a new employee doing

well, an employee developing with the job or an employee who helps the others (Stine Halkjær,

appendix 1, p.3). By recognising the employee of the month it is visible for everybody what

McDonald’s expects from the employees, and this way they assume to get employees to behave

the way they want them to (www.3f.dk, 2012).

Employees can also compete with themselves in the manner that when they are evaluated at the

workstation, they have a possibility to gain a pin for their nametag. This pin can be in gold, silver

or bronze. This makes it possible for them to make an effort to get a better pin than last time (Stine

Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2).

4.3.2 Competitive wages and benefits

There are different kind of benefits when working with McDonald’s, such as fitness at a

discounted price, discount at Apple products and discounts in different local shops. Furthermore

McDonald’s Paderup is a sponsor for the local football team and therefore they get tickets for the

games, which the employees have a possibility to get. The employees also get presents for

Christmas and chocolate at Easter (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p. 4).


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4.3.3 Resources to execute the work

It is important for McDonald’s that the employees are trained to do the job professionally;

therefore the employees are invited to a conversation with their manager twice a year. These

performance sessions are in order to get feedback on their performance and to discuss the future

development of the employee. The meetings are an important part in the employee development.

The employees are given a questionnaire they have to fill out before the session. This makes the

employees think about their strengths, weaknesses, what they like at work and what they would

like to be better at. This makes it easier to conduct a meeting with a successful outcome. For the

manager it is important that the employees are prepared before the session, but also that the

manager has something in return to the employees. This comes from an evaluation made by all the

managers in the restaurant. The employees are continuously evaluated and tested. This makes it

possible for the manager to give constructive criticism and let the employee know what is done

correctly, but also what should be better. At the performance sessions a plan for the future of the

employee is also made. According to the restaurant manager the employee is the only one

restricting his own development (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2).

McDonalds’s employees have different titles in the job. Most of them start working in the lobby or

as a cashier and then they work their way through the different stations at the restaurants. When

they are familiar with all the stations procedures, they have the possibility to further development.

The employee can gain titles such as trainer, hostess and area manager, which all gives more

responsibility. Before getting the titles there are some requirements, but it is possible to achieve

the requested (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2). Developing and learning new skills are also an

important thing for the employees and development should take place for as long as the employee

is working in the restaurant. The opportunities for development are really good at McDonald’s and

the chance to develop skills is important for the employees (Mie, appendix 2, p.1).

4.3.4 Manager values

In order to provide open and honest communication McDonald’s has, besides from the

performance sessions already mentioned, a thing called rap sessions. At the rap sessions at

McDonald’s Paderup they choose five employees to represent all the employees. Then all

employees fill out a questionnaire and hand it to the representative. This way the employees can

stay anonymous, and possible issues will be discussed at a meeting between the representatives

and the managers. From this there will be made an action plan, in order to improve such issues

(Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).


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4.3.5 Learning, progress and personal growth

In order to encourage both personal and professional growth, McDonald’s offers a range of

possibilities when it comes to education of their employees. They offer the option to take an

education in order to become a trainee, study single subjects or academic educations, become a

trade economist or end up as a manager of a restaurant.

The trainee programme has duration of approximately one year. It is mix between school and

practical work, but school is only four times with duration of one week each time. The education

is wide since you will be trained in economy and marketing, but the speciality is sales and service.

At school you will learn sales theory and techniques and at the restaurant you will use the theory

and thereby gain experience. The employee will receive wage during the education. The four

focus areas for the trainee education are stream of customers, stream of goods, stream of money

and stream of information (McDonald’s Danmark A/S, 2013).

The manager education consists of courses, which are internal at McDonald’s. These courses are

Basic Shift Management, Advanced Shift Management, Effective Management Practices,

Restaurant Leadership Practices, Business Leadership Practices, and Operation Consultant’s

Course. Some of them are held in Denmark, while others are in Chicago or London (McDonald’s

Corporation, 2007b).

Trade economists deal with purchase, sales and marketing and it is possible to take the education

while working at McDonald’s. The company pays the education, and since it only takes place in

Randers, where are some costs for the restaurant to offer the education. Therefore it is a decision

made by the restaurant manager, whether an employee can take the education. Furthermore it

works better for both the restaurant and the employee if the employee uses the restaurant as an

example when writing essays. A lot of the employees do accept the educational offer from

McDonald’s (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3).

4.4 Conclusion At McDonald’s their employees are an important asset and their People Promise “We appreciate

you, your development and your engagement” show that the company values the employees. The

values ‘Respect and recognition’, ‘Competitive wages and benefits’, ‘Resources to execute the

work’, ‘Manager values’ and ‘Learning, progress and personal growth’ are incorporated down to

the restaurant level, showing that McDonald’s is aware of their own promise, and they want to

keep it.


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At McDonald’s they offer the employees to develop in the restaurant together with a range of

educational possibilities. Other motivational activities worth mentioning are competitions within

and among the restaurants, recognition of employee of the month and benefits such as pension and

discounts at local stores. The employees at McDonald’s feel that it is a great place to work and the

development possibilities are good. There is always something to learn in the restaurant, which

keep them busy.


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5. Analysis of McDonald’s

5.1 Introduction This chapter is going to link the policies and practices used by McDonald’s to the theory

introduced in the first part of the thesis. It will try to find theories to explain the fact that

McDonald’s has been elected as the Best Workplace in Denmark two years in a row. Explaining

the practices by using theory will help to verify or invalidate the hypothesis that McDonald’s’

election as the best working place in Denmark can partly be explained by their way of creating job

satisfaction by motivating their employees.

It is necessary to use more than one theory, since all the theories have flaws. The older theories are

all more criticised than the modern theories, this implies that the validity of using the modern

theories will be higher. The older theories will be explained briefly, while the modern theories will

be described more in detail.

More specifically the questions, which are going to be handled in this chapter, are:

• What theories can explain the way of motivating in McDonald’s?

• How can the manager’s way of motivating be explained by theory?

• How can the success be explained by motivational theory?

5.2 Theories and job satisfaction

This section is going to evaluate job satisfaction. Using the theory of Furnham (2005) described in

section 3.2, the three categories that affect the job satisfaction are organisational policies and

procedures, specific aspects of the job and personal characteristics. This shows that it is not only

the job itself that has an impact on the employees’ satisfaction, but also policies around the job.

At McDonald’s they are concerned with their employees and incorporate them into the policies.

This can be seen from the People Promise that the company has made. This shows that

McDonald’s is concerned with the job satisfaction of their employees. The job aspects can have

many variations at McDonald’s, since there are different workstations. When the employee learns

all the stations, it might be that he finds his favourite place. Therefore if he gets to work at that

station, he will be satisfied with the job aspects. The personal characteristics are not something

that can be changed, but at McDonald’s they are open to difference among employees. They are

open to hiring people with a handicap in order to help them (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.1).


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5.2.1 Herzberg’s two-factor theory

Herzberg’s theory described in section 3.3.1 incorporates job satisfaction into the model and

shows how it is created. Therefore one could argue to look at the model in this case of

McDonald’s, as the most important aspect in the survey from Great Place to Work® is job

satisfaction among the employees. At the same time the model is criticised for not taking personal

differences into account. This means that the theory assumes that people respond in the same way

when exposed to a certain stimuli, which is not the case. The theory is also criticised for only

being tested on medium or top management people (Scheuer, 2000). Using Herzberg’s two-factor

model the job satisfaction among the employees at McDonald’s can be explained. According to

the model the company does the things that are necessary in order to motivate their employees and

satisfaction is a result of this. Looking at the People Promise from McDonald’s both intrinsic and

extrinsic aspects of work are included. They promise their employees that they will be satisfied

with working at McDonald’s. But in the case of McDonald’s the employees are mostly young

non-specialists, and even though it is possible to show that McDonald’s covers both the hygiene

factors and the motivational factors in the People Promise values, using the theory will not be

valid to use in this situation, due to the flaws in the theory.

5.2.2 McClelland’s need theory

The content theory, which will be used to explain the success of McDonald’s, is McClelland’s

need theory, described in section 3.3.1. The theory is chosen, since it helps to understand the fact

that McDonald’s is hiring a lot of different kind of people and still doing well. As this theory will

show the employees do not need to have a special combination of needs, since the policies at

McDonald’s will help to fulfil them all. According to the manager at McDonald’s they employ

students at different levels, different nationalities and also people having a handicap can possibly

get a job at McDonald’s (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.1). Furthermore it was shown that the

theory covers some of the aspects that are important in the “Best Workplace in Denmark” survey.

This theory consists, as already explain in chapter three, of three motivation needs, which are the

needs for achievement, affiliation and power. Linking this to the McDonald’s case will show

whether the company can fulfil all three needs, or whether there according to the theory are some

flaws in the policies that mean that McDonald’s should be hiring people with the same

characteristics in motivation needs.


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People with high need for achievement, can find challenges in achieving the announcement

‘Employee of the month’, getting a ‘Super Seller’ pin to wear for everyone to see or achieving the

goals set for the individual employee by the employee himself and the manager.

The tests that the managers make can also fulfil high need for achievement, since they will have to

do very well, if they want to achieve a gold pin for their nametag. At the same time the manager

will also give them feedback after the test and achievers appreciate this, since it will help them to

improve. This continuous development possibilities and challenges should be something that can

fulfil the need for achievement, even for those having a high need.

The need for affiliation is about making bonds to the people surrounding you, having a feeling of

belonging and feeling loved. At McDonald’s it is important for the manager that everyone

understands that they are a part of a team. If one employee does not perform, the whole team

cannot perform. Therefore the manager will talk with the employee who is underperforming in

order to solve a possible issue or help the employee with handling personal things. This creates a

feeling of belonging and being important to the rest of the team. For people having a high need for

affiliation the activities arranged to take place after work are also important. At McDonald’s social

activities are taking place between once or twice during a two month period. The activities change

a lot from time to time and therefore it should be possible for everyone to participate in something

they find interesting (Mie, appendix 2, p.1). This aspect is closely related with the Great Place to

Work® survey, as they find it important that employees enjoy the people they work with.

The last need for power is related to the progress it is possible to make in the restaurant. The more

an employee performs and shows that he is capable of doing, the more responsibility he will be

given. At the performance session it will be possible for the employee to wish to climb higher in

the hierarchy at the restaurant. This includes gaining the titles as trainer, where the employee will

be in charge of teaching the newcomers how to do or being a hostess controlling the birthday

celebration of children. The need for power is also related to the education policy, since the more

education an employee take, the more power he will get. McDonald’s focus on the individual and

his progress in the system. An employee can plan his own education together with the manager

and work his way up to become a manager either inside McDonald’s or use the education

elsewhere in the job marked. The employees can start out by becoming an area manager at

McDonald’s controlling a few other staff members, and organising how the shifts are going to

take place in the kitchen. The education system of McDonald’s is recognised by managers of other

companies as being a good education (McDonald’s Corporation 2007b).


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The need for power will also be important in the team, since a positive side of power will be that

the employee will focus on accomplishing the goals of the team. All in all if a person has a high

need for power, it is possible to fulfil the need by working the way up in the company by taking

the education offered by McDonald’s.

McClelland’s need theory shows that McDonald’s has the possibility to hire people with different

combinations of needs, since it seems to be possible to fulfil the three kind of needs and thereby

get motivated employees. They do not have to focus on only hiring people with high need for

power, since their policies will help to cover all three needs that a person can have according to

McClelland. McClelland proposed that people with high need for power and low need for

affiliation are better in high manager positions. The fact that McDonald’s covers the need for

power very well will attract people who might be future managers. As they also manage to cover

the other needs many different people will be attracted to the company. According to the theory,

they will then have to find out who has a low affiliation need and high need for power, when it

comes to offering leader education.

As McClelland’s need theory and Herzberg’s two-factor theory are content theories, they only tell

what will motivate the employees, not how the company is going to do it. Therefore it is necessary

to look at process theories in order to explain how the practices that McDonald’s have, help them

to gain the title ‘Best Workplace Denmark’. Furthermore McClelland’s need theory only tells

about what satisfy the needs for different people, it does not include job satisfaction, but includes

trust in relation to achievement and camaraderie in relation to affiliation.

5.2.3 Goal theory

The first process theory described in section 3.3.2 that will be used in order to explain the

motivation at McDonald’s is the goal theory. This theory is chosen since it seems to be important

for McDonald’s that their employees are in progress all the time. They all have a plan for the

future, meaning what they have to achieve within the next couple of months. These are goals

made for the employees. The three steps of the theory can be found at McDonald’s. First they set

the goal at the performance session. The goal made in cooperation between the manager and the

employee. This way the manager can make sure that the goal is achievable and at the same time

challenging. This also allows the employee to get influence, and thereby making sure that the

employee finds it interesting. Afterwards the employee has to give the effort necessary in order to

achieve the goal, and at the same time the manager is aware of the goal and might be able to coach

the employee in the right direction if necessary. During the next performance session the


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employee will be given feedback on the work done and if the goal was achieved, the next goal will

be set (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2). This way the manager makes sure that all the employees

have a goal to work with and thereby keep them motivated.

According to the goal theory the employees at McDonald’s do have increased productivity. In

relation to the survey made by Great Place to Work® the theory incorporates trust. This is due to

the fact that the employee has to trust the manager that he will be given feedback and a reward

when the goal is accomplished, otherwise the goal will not be motivating. The theory does not

include other employees, pride or job satisfaction, and therefore it does not give reasons enough

why McDonald’s was chosen at the best workplace.

5.2.4 Porter and Lawler’s Expectancy theory

Using the expectancy theory described in section 3.3.2 the aspect of job satisfaction is included.

According to the theory companies cannot motivate their employees directly, but they have to

create a good environment, where people get self-motivated. The employees need to feel that they

are a productive and involved in the work, and it is good for them to know how their contribution

helps with the company visions. Therefore it is important to pay attention to the three relationships

introduced in the expectancy theory, which are expectancy, instrumentality and valence (Buelens

et al., 2011).

The theory argue that employees will be motivated in accordance with what they expect to get out

of a certain level of effort. According to the theory the expectancies are important for the effort

given by the employee. Therefore by helping the employee to accomplish their performance goals

the company can enhance the expectancy and thereby the effort. This is done by coaching and

supporting the employees and given them challenging work (Isaac et al., 2001). In the case of

McDonald’s it is found that the employees are given support in the performance session on how to

improve and what to do in order to gain a new title, and the requirements for the employees seems

clear. According to the manager the employee gets a precise task that needs to be fulfilled before

the employee can expect to progress. This could be the employee wanting to become a trainer, but

who has to increase his own performance levels at certain stations. It could also be an employee

that wants to get a gold pin instead of a silver one, when being tested at a certain station. The

employee will then know he has to improve at the station and get a higher performance level

(Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2). This shows that McDonald’s is dealing with the effort-

performance expectancy relationship.


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The next relationship is the performance-outcome instrumentality. Saying that an employee can

gain a new title if he improves his performance level includes a promise from the organisation.

The employee's expected outcome would then be, that if he succeeds with the task, then he will be

given a new title. When working with this relationship it is important to keep promises and giving

the employees fair treatment (Buelens et al., 2011). In the case of McDonald’s it seems that the

employees trust their manager to keep promises. This is seen from the fact that the employee

expects that if she does well in her tests, she will gain more responsibility (Mie, appendix 2, p.1).

This aspect is also important in relation to trust in the survey conducted by Great Place to Work®.

Looking at the last relationship between outcome and personal goals called valence, it is important

for the company to know what the employees value. Even though money is often used as a

reward, the content theories showed that people are motivated by other needs than monetary.

McDonald’s uses this fact, as money is not one of their main tools for motivation. Instead they

reward the employees with responsibility and possibilities for further progress. They also

announce “the employee of the month”, which for some employees can be valuable to be

recognised in such a manner. When talking about valence it is important to align the goals of

McDonald’s with the goals of the employees. It might be hard for McDonald’s to know what each

and every employee values, and therefore it might be difficult to offer something for everyone, but

the as the manager has holds the performance session, she should be able to tell what is important

for the individual employee.

Rewards come both as extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. The rewards mentioned in connection with

McDonald’s are mostly extrinsic, because they are related with public recognition (getting a pin or

gaining a title) but the rewards can also be intrinsic. These rewards are intangible and self-granted,

and could be daily or periodic goals that an employee have for herself, which she accomplishes

and therefore reward herself with satisfaction.

McDonald’s is a place where you can gain work experience and learn how to handle

responsibility, and according to the employee, it is a good thing to learn how to manage other

people and handle pressure and she will be able to use it in the future. For her the valence seems

positive and she therefore values the outcome (Mie, appendix 2, p.1).

Another aspect introduced in the extended model is job satisfaction, which is high at McDonald’s

according to the surveys made by themselves and by Great Place to Work®. Job satisfaction is

according to the theory created when the employees feel equitably rewarded. This means that the

employees feel like they have to put the same level of effort at the same performance standard into


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the task in order to get the same outcome. At McDonald’s everyone has a chance to progress and

they are rewarded according to their future plan, so this could be an explanation of the high job

satisfaction.

Also past experience influence the reward possibilities and effort of the employee. The employees

at McDonald’s feel that there is a good opportunity for development and if they succeed in

completing a task, they get rewarded (Mie, appendix 2, p.1). Therefore it seems that they have

good experiences with the effort and rewards. This can also be explained by the fact that many of

the employees are working at McDonald’s as their first job. There are therefore no bad

experiences to overcome, as long as McDonald’s keep their own promises and reward the

employees equitably.

All in all the theory supports the procedures at McDonald’s as being a good for motivation and job

satisfaction. It seems that McDonald’s gain from having a lot of young employees, since they have

no expectation level from other companies. Therefore the employees learn what is expected at

McDonald’s and as long as everyone gets the same treatment, it will lead to satisfied employees.

The theory also covers some of the important aspects of the survey, like trust and satisfaction, and

therefore explains parts of why McDonald’s have been elected. The three aspects of trust are

incorporated into the theory, since fairness is related to equity in rewards, credibility is about

getting what it expected and respect is about giving the employee a task that is possible to solve

with his abilities. As not all of the important factors for Great Place to Work® are covered in the

theory other models will be used to explain these.

5.2.5 Four drives theory

Modern theories use more than observations to understand the human behaviour, including how

people are motivated, as modern brain science can also contribute to understand the complexity of

humans. The four-drives theory described in section 3.3.3 is one of these modern theories, and it is

in simplicity saying that humans are motivated on the ground of four drives; the drive to acquire,

comprehend, bond and defend (Nohria et al., 2008).

In the case of McDonald’s the drive to acquire is covered by the possibility of acquiring a status in

the restaurants, since the drive to acquire is covered by an effective reward system. Again, this can

be the possibility of gaining a title, but it could also include the education system as the employees

have the possibility to become managers in the restaurants if they work their way up in the

hierarchy. According to the manager it is the best employees that are offered the manager


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education. As a result of this the employees who think they have an opportunity for advancement,

will strive to become among the best and since the reward system is tied to performance, the best

get a change of advancement.

The drive to comprehend is about making sense of what the individual employee contributes with.

At McDonald’s the employees can easily see how their effort contributes to the serving of

customers on the everyday basis. Without the cashier the customers cannot make orders, without

the kitchen employees, there is no food to serve, without the lobbyist the customers will not be

able to sit down, or might not even want to enter the restaurant if it looks like a mess. At the same

time the job task has to challenging and enable the employee to learn and grow. McDonald’s tries

to keep their employees motivated by making a good job design, which challenges the employees

through performance tests, progress and new tasks. This should be enough to cover the drive to

comprehend.

Bonding is important for McDonald’s, as it is important for company that the employees feel as a

part of a team. When the employees form a connection with the people they work with it will

increase the commitment and making the collaboration easier. Different activities are organised

for the employees to take part in at McDonald’s, which are parties, competitions among the

employees, but also team-building activities such as a weekend trip and competitions among the

restaurants. One of the important measures that Great Place to Work® used was the fact that the

employees are proud of working for the company. According to the four-drive theory a strong and

positive bond feeling will make people feel proud of belonging to the company. This shows that

McDonald’s are doing the right thing according to the theory, when improving the teamwork.

Defending is the last drive that should be addressed by a company in order for the employees to be

motivated. Fulfilling the drive will make the employees confident and let them feel secure,

whereas if it is not fulfilled the employees will worry and this way not be satisfied with their job.

At McDonald’s the employees make their future plan together with the manager. This should

make the employees secure in their job, since the plan involves that they keep their job. Defending

is also about defending their workplace from competition. In order for the drive to defend to be

fulfilled it good for the company to have a common enemy, like Burger King. The employees will

then defend McDonald’s against e.g. Burger King. This is also connected with pride, since the

employees will defend what they are proud of.

Another important part of the theory is the fact that it is not only up to the company to fulfil the

drives, as the employees’ perception of the manager also matters. So how the manager implement


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the policies and work with the employees are important aspects. At McDonald’s the manager is

also working as a part of the team from time to time (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.1). This forces

the manager to have a good relationship with the staff in order for the teamwork to function.

According to the manager there is a good relationship among the employees and managers, but at

the same time everyone knows who is in charge (Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.2). This shows that

the manager is working together with the employees and at the same time keeps a distance in

order to get respect from the employees.

All in all the four-drives are all mastered by McDonald’s. The company has to make sure that all

the drives are met at all times. It might be necessary to look through the practices, in order to

improve the drives. This could be in the case of a lot of new employees then it might be necessary

for the company to have more social activities than usual in order both for the new employees to

bond, but also for the rest to get to know and accept the new as a part of the team. In relation to

the Great Place to Work® survey, the theory covers for the pride and camaraderie aspects, as

already mentioned in the analysis. Further it should be mentioned that trust is important in order to

cover the drive to achieve and comprehend. Therefore this theory explains how McDonald’s got

high scores in those aspects and thereby creates job satisfaction.

5.2.6 Motivating environment

This theory described in section 3.3.3, says that the manager cannot motivate the employees, they

have to motivate themselves, but the manager has to create the right environment. A motivating

environment has expectations for the employees to perform at their best. The manager has to

include the eight conditions that according to Capozzoli contribute to a motivating environment.

The conditions are high standards, clear objectives, adequate training, adequate management

contact, adequate feedback, rewards that employees value, adequate working conditions and an

effective leadership.

Some of them have already been touch upon in connection with the other theories and in relation

with McDonald’s. ‘Rewards that the employees value’ have been discussed in connection with the

expectancy theory, where it was found that it can be difficult to know what the employees value,

but at McDonald’s the rewards mostly take form of public recognition.


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‘High standards’ is the next condition; this is related to the fact that McDonald’s has a clear goal

of having a measure that is higher than 85 %1 in all tests and surveys. This might differ among the

restaurants, as they might have set a higher standard for themselves, but the standard is present

(Stine Halkjær, appendix 1, p.3). Therefore the employees know what the standards are supposed

to be, what the company expect of them and what the company is trying to achieve all the time.

This is also related with the next condition, which is for the company to have ‘clear objectives’.

Not only should they be clear, but the employees should also know them and the employees

should be able to se how their job contribute to the overall objective. McDonald’s Denmark has

the objectives that they want to serve quality, service, cleanliness and value every day. These

should be well known by the employees, since they are written in the material given to all new

employees.

From an employee starts McDonald’s gives what they believe to be ‘adequate training’. The

employee is given a schedule telling exactly where he is suppose to start and where he is going

next. Further they are given some material to read before starting to work at McDonald’s. Next

McDonald’s is using the employees who have recently been through the training themselves, to

train the new people. This is of course only if the employees have done well enough to gain the

title as trainer.

‘Adequate management contact’ is given through the rap sessions, the individual performance

sessions and during the everyday work, where sometimes the manager is working in the restaurant

next to the employees. This includes that the manager is a part of the working team and this will

decrease the distance between the employee and manager, and the employee will feel more

valued.

‘Adequate feedback’ is also to be found in the performance sessions, where the manager will talk

with the employee of how he has been performing during the last period of time. Also after being

tested at workstations the employees are given feedback. It might not be from the manager, but

can also be from the other leaders, who are also trained to give feedback to the employees.

In order to offer ‘adequate working conditions’ to the employees McDonald’s Denmark wants to

modernize their restaurants. This should both improve the environment for the customers, but also

for the employees. Furthermore McDonald’s has to replace the old equipment with new tools.

1 The measure is what the manager remembered it to be, unfortunately it is not known if it is the exact number in reality. In the restaurant at Paderup the measure is 90%.


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This should be done so the employees can see that the work is important, so important that it is

necessary to provide new tools2.

The last condition is ‘effective leadership’. McDonald’s Denmark has their own education system

for the leaders to make sure that all their leaders are trained to be in the position as leader,

leadership being one of the fundamental training objectives. As mentioned when discussing the

expectancy theory keeping promises is also important. In this theory it is a part of the effective

leadership that the employees trust the manager. It is assumed that since the employee trust that

she is going to get a new title or a new task as soon as she has reach the level expected of her, then

she trusts the manager (Mie, appendix 2, p.1). Again trust is mentioned as an important aspect.

According to the analysis McDonald’s is providing the conditions at a level that is sufficient for

the environment to be motivating. Therefore this theory supports the practices at McDonald’s in

the sense that they are doing the right things for the environment and therefore doing the right

things in order to get motivated employees. All in all the theory supports that McDonald’s is doing

the right things in order to motivate their employees and therefore they gain success. Also the

aspects shows that the employee should trust their management, since the analysis shows that

McDonald’s incorporates trust into their policies and practices.

5.3 Conclusion The first theory used to describe the way of motivating at McDonald’s was McClelland’s need

theory. This is a content theory, describing what McDonald’s does in order to motivate their

employees. The theory supported the policies well and therefore supports that McDonald’s

policies include the right things in order to motivate their employees. Unfortunately McClelland’s

need theory does not include satisfaction, which is one of the main factors in the survey conducted

by Great Place to Work®.

The next theories used were the goal theory and Porter & Lawler’s expectancy theory. These

theories were used in order to explain how McDonald’s is motivating their employees. The goal

theory is chosen since, it is found to have good relation with the practices at McDonald’s, but

since it does not include the satisfaction aspect either, the theory cannot be used to explain the

election of McDonald’s on this aspect, but as many of the other theories trust is incorporated in

the theory. As many of the theories include this aspect, it validates the statement from Great Place

2 Unfortunately the manager did not answer the question whether new equipment is provided, but as the restaurants are renovated continuously, it is assumed that the equipment is also updated.


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to Work® that it is an important factor. The expectancy theory’s three relationships expectancy,

instrumentality and valence were all analysed in connection with McDonald’s and it was found

that McDonald’s makes it clear what the employee can expect from a certain performance and

they keep their promises. The manager has to pay attention to valence, since it is hard to measure

what the employees value as rewards, she will have to figure out during the performance sessions.

At McDonald’s responsibility and progress are the reward used most, and according to the

employee interviewed the valence is positive. The last theory did cover all the aspects of trust,

since fairness, credibility and respect is incorporated into the theory.

Next the four-drives theory was used. The theory is built on observation and modern brain-

science. The drive to acquire is covered by a reward system; if an employee does well he has the

possibility to progress. The drive to comprehend was covered by meaningful and challenging job

design and the drive to bond was covered by a range of social activities. The last drive to defend

can be covered by following the future plan for the individual employee and thereby defending his

job and furthermore it is also covered from the fact that the employees at McDonald’s have a

common enemy e.g. Burger King. Again trust to the management is shown from the drive to

comprehend and achieve, while the drive to bond covers for camaraderie aspect and drive to

defend covers the pride aspect.

Last theory was the theory of motivating environment, where all eight standards were fulfilled in

the case of McDonald’s. This will create a motivating environment for the employees and

according to the theory it will help the employees to motivate themselves.

McClelland’s need theory, the expectancy theory, the four-drives theory and the motivating

environment all contribute to the understanding of the success of McDonald’s. The theories

explain how the motivation is correlated with the aspects that are found to be important for Great

Place to Work®. Since the theories supports the policies and practices to do the right thing in the

right way, it can be concluded that McDonald’s is motivating their employees in a way that

creates job satisfaction among the employees. With satisfied employees a good working

environment will be created, where the employees trust the people they work for, where they are

proud at working and where they enjoy the people they work with. This also implies that

motivating the employees will create a good working environment.


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6. Conclusion

This thesis has been working with the hypothesis that McDonald’s’ election as the best working

place in Denmark can partly be explained by their way of creating job satisfaction by motivating

their employees.

Great Place to Work® has been evaluated and the methods they use to analyse the companies have

been introduced. It was found that the important aspects of the survey were trust to the

management, camaraderie and pride. Furthermore some critique to the survey was discussed and it

was found that the critique was not meant for the tools that the company uses to evaluate, but

rather aimed at the fact that they give the title “Best Workplace in Denmark”, based on a small

sample of companies.

In order to understand how companies can work with motivation the thesis introduced different

motivational theories, which it used to explain how the policies at McDonald’s are working. Both

content theories and process theories were introduced, some of them well known, while others are

modern theories. They all explain motivation in different ways and emphasize diverse aspects,

which have been important during the years. The theories were evaluated according to the

important aspects of Great Place to Work® survey. It was found that motivation is important for

the company, in order to keep the employees performing efficiently and create job satisfaction.

Introducing the policies and practices at McDonald’s revealed that the employees are important

for the company. It showed from the People Promise, which is used in order to incorporate the

important values that McDonald’s has, into the policies that concern the employees. The policies

were introduced at corporation level as ‘Respect and recognition’, ‘Competitive wages and

benefits’, ‘Resources to execute the work’, ‘Manager values’ and ‘Learning, progress and personal

growth’ and it was discussed how the restaurant incorporates the values into everyday work.

McClelland’s need theory, the expectancy theory, the four-drives theory and the motivating

environment all contributed to the understanding of the success of McDonald’s. McDonald’s

policies and practices contribute to motivating their employees and creating job satisfaction

among the employees. This shows that the reason for McDonald’s election is that they motivate

their employees in a correct way and the aspect emphasized by Great Place to Work® are included

in the policies. Therefore it can be concluded that the hypothesis is verified and as a result of this

McDonald’s way of creating job satisfaction through motivation of their employees can partly

explain the fact that McDonald’s has been elected as the ‘The Best Workplace in Denmark’.


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