This is an essay question and your answer must be in essay format; that is, it must be structured around an argument that answers the question. The essay will be marked according to the Marking Criteria Sheet which is included in this Guide. The criteria are: understanding of the question/comprehensiveness; written expression; structure; sources; originality; and presentation.
Work and employment relation is the relationship between managers and their employees in an organisation. (Tan, 2007) Employment relation in different countries varies mainly due to societies, cultures, laws and practices.
Generally, fast-food industry is made up of multinational corporations that operate on low wages and poor benefits. Fast-food industries have a wide variety of food from hamburgers, pizzas, chickens to sandwiches and more. (Royle and Towers, 2002) The common international fast-food restaurants include McDonald, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Burger King, A&W, Pizza Hut, Wendy's and Subway. With more than half a million employees in franchisee outlets globally, employment relations between the management and the employees need to be carefully planned and manage.
In this essay, I will further discuss the similarities and differences of employment practices, working condition, labour relations, and unionization across Singapore, United States (US) and Germany. As McDonald, the American-styled fast-food is the leading fast-food operator in the world and their model of labour management has been adopted by the rest of the fast-food operators, the factors will be based largely on them.
Singapore has a very small market compared to US and Germany as the population size is probably a fraction of US and Germany. There is minimal freedom of speech as government has great authority in all decision. Singapore, though located in Asia, its culture and influence by the diverse population of immigrants - British, Malay, Chinese, Indian, Peranakan and other foreigners. Similarly, United States situated in America is also a multicultural nation with wide culture and traditions. However, most of their cultures are influenced by the Western Europe. Since Germany is part of Europe, some of the cultures US contain are similar such as an open society for freedom of speech for both countries.
Fast-food usually has a limited menu and service. (Leidner, 2002) Like the name suggests, fast food are served quickly, can be eaten on the run and are usually served in disposal items. The industry caters to the need of people who want an inexpensive and quick meal.
Fast-food outlets are usually franchised to others to manage. Hence, standardization is required to maintain a global corporate image model for marketing and advertising purposes. (Ritzer, 1996) McDonald's corporation in Singapore has high centralized control all outlets has the exclusive right is awarded to Robert Kwan, the managing director. (Pereira, 2002) Singapore is able to achieve a full control of all outlets as Singaporeans has lesser freedom of speech and often relies on the government for decisions. Unlike US and Germany, citizens are often more expressive thus it's harder to gain full control of the companies. Hence, US franchisees operate 70 per cent of the outlets (Leidner, 2002) while Germany divides them into 65 per cent franchises, 15 per cent 'company' stores and 20 per cent in seven holding companies called Anver companies. (Royle, 2002)
As mentioned, employment practices vary due to the influences of societies, cultures and laws. In McDonald's, employee relations prefer individualism to collectivism. Singapore society's promotes individualism, hence this culture synchronized nicely with McDonald's Human Resource Management (HRM) programme. (Pereira, 2002) In addition, Singapore does not have a barrier of the owners and the management as they have centralized control of all outlets.
US's fast-food industry, there is a balance of power between owners and the management. Like Singapore, they have practices individualism and meritocracy. (Leidner, 2002) Thus, employers have high control over their employees as the crew are aware that strikes and demonstrations will not manipulate or change any decisions of the company.
Conversely, Germany is the only country that practices collectivism among the three. However, McDonald has high resistance to co-determination and union at restaurant level. (Royle, 2002) Due to the high level of unionization, which will be further discuss in the essay, they rely much on collective bargaining to defend employee rights while countries like Singapore and US depend more on the legalisation.
Therefore, labour relations in Singapore's fast-food staffs has least power as almost everything has been standardised and Germany's fast-food workers, with the aid of work council as representative, has the greatest power.
Workforce
All of the workers in fast-food industry often see the job as a temporary job that has no advancement. Hence the workforce is usually made up of full-time worker and students usually working as part-timer. Students usually work in fast-food industry as they have flexible timings and they do not require much knowledge to work in the restaurants. Hence, this contributes to the high turnover rate in fast-food industry and the transit from to another job very quickly. In order to tackle this problem, McDonald standardize all their work by having all the cooking equipments preset with timing and counter stipulated for the crew usage. This minimised the training required for the new staffs and ensure that they can adapt quickly to the environment.
To maintain cost effectiveness, 40 per cent of Singapore McDonald crew are retirees and housewives. (Pereira, 2002) Aside from having the students as the main group of employees, the replacement decreases the turnover rate in the company as they tend to stay longer in the job unlike students who often treats the job as a temporary with no career advancement. With the use of the 'new' group of employees helps to promotes and encourage the senior citizens and housewives to work hence, promoting a culture to return to the workforce again. The new group of older crew eventually became known as the 'McAunties and McUncles' in Singapore.
According to Pereira (2002), wages in Singapore are slightly higher than the 'market rate' as the older crew works for leisure and will leave the company if they are dissatisfied with the working environment. All staffs are entitled to meals from the current menu and in-house medical benefits. With these perks, McDonald's HRM in Singapore ensure that all the crews are satisfied and do not feel exploited. To adapt to the employee relations in Singapore, the older crew are allowed to choose their preferred working hours, students are allocated to work during weekend and after school while the rest of the crew are arranged to work during the rest of the timings. In addition, with the addition of the elder crews, managers are required to be more patient and supportive to their capabilities. On top of this, Singapore gives discrete benefits and incentives for the older crew such as day trip to parks or neighbouring countries and parties for youth to make them feel as part of the McDonald's family.
Leidner (2002) states that US's fast-food crews are usually inexperience young, female and part-timers. The crew is made up of nearly 70 per cent of students who has minimal experiences of work and often are not aware of the trade unions. Fast food industry made up the largest group of low-paid workers. These workers are usually employed by the franchisees and are part-time workers with minimal benefits with tight staffing. McDonald in US has relatively high turnover among the three. (200 per cent to 300 per cent annually) The company only gives discrete opportunity for jobs advancement such as a small wage increase or others usually non-monetary terms like providing recognition, crew meetings, small rewards and work evaluation which are clearly not sufficient to motivate the staffs. However, they do not make extra effort to retain staffs unlike Singapore as they are more motivated to automate and customise all tasks which reduce the hassle to train new staff intensively. To add on, the company exploits the staffs by having unpredictable working hours which are based on the customers' volume which has cause inconvenience to the crews.
McDonald has high resistance to trade unions globally. Therefore, in Germany, Royle (2002) states that they employment are based on the interest of individual in joining any trade union should not be considered to work in the company.
Wages slightly higher than "market rate"
Meals provided for staffs
Medical benefits provided
Employed by franchisees
Low-paid, part-time workers
Minimal benefits
Tight staffing
High turnover (200% to 300% annually) à corporation motivated to automate and make task routine
Discrete opportunity for jobs advancement à small wage increase
Largest group of low-paid workers
'anyone who might show any interest in joining a trade union should not be hired'
Low wages
Mainly retirees and housewives (McAunties and McUncles) (40%)
Students
Inexperience youths, elderly and women with school-age children
Temporary jobs
Students (70%)
Large number of foreign workers
Economic migrates
Small number of second income earners and students
Temporary jobs
Working condition
Flexible timing
Older crew are allowed to choose their preferred working hours
Discrete form of perks and benefits/incentives
Day trip to neighbouring country/ parks (for older crew)
Parties (for youths)
Provides workers with:
'Recognition',
'Fun' environment
Without increasing rewards
Benefits are often refer to:
Crew meeting
Work evaluation
Incentive (prizes)
But not material advantages
Unpredictability of earnings
Depends on customer volume
Unfair/ unpredictable scheduling
Unfair scheduling àeliminate undesirable workers
Wages?
Unionization
Trade union is an organised group of workers who collectively want to improve the terms and conditions at their workplace and to enhance their status in society. (Tan, 2007)
It is understood by all that government will not tolerate any demonstration of strikes.
Conclusion
Singapore
United States
Germany
Background Information
Small market
Lesser freedom of speech
Controlled by government
Freedom of speech
Open society
Freedom of speech
Open society
Fast food industry
Limited menu
Limited services
Standardization
Served quickly
Uses only disposal items
Inexpensive meal in a hurry
Can be eaten on the run
Fast Food Restaurants
Exclusive rights to Robert Kwan à highly centralized control
Taylorisim, Fordism
Franchisees operate 70% of outlet; corporation has extensive control
65% franchises, 15% sompany stores and 20% in Anvercompanies
Employment practices
Individualism
Practices implemented across the world to retain uniform and centralised control
Balance of power between owners and management
Employees weighted much more heavily in employers' favour
Collectivism (presence of collective bargaining)
Resistance to co-determination and union at restaurant level
Labour relations
Lesser power
Moderate power (employment-at-will)
Greater power (work council as representative)
Workforce
Wages slightly higher than "market rate"
Meals provided for staffs
Medical benefits provided
Employed by franchisees
Low-paid, part-time workers
Minimal benefits
Tight staffing
High turnover (200% to 300% annually) à corporation motivated to automate and make task routine
Discrete opportunity for jobs advancement à small wage increase
Largest group of low-paid workers
'anyone who might show any interest in joining a trade union should not be hired'
Low wages
Mainly retirees and housewives (McAunties and McUncles)
Students
Inexperience youths, elderly and women with school-age children
Temporary jobs
Large number of foreign workers (Turkey &Greece)
Second income earners
Some students
Working condition
Flexible timing
Older crew are allowed to choose their preferred working hours
Discrete form of perks and benefits/incentives
Day trip to neighbouring country/ parks (for older crew)
Parties (for youths)
Provides workers with:
'Recognition',
'Fun' environment
Without increasing rewards
Benefits are often refer to:
Crew meeting
Work evaluation
Incentive (prizes)
But not material advantages
Unpredictability of earnings
Depends on customer volume
Unfair/ unpredictable scheduling
Unfair scheduling àeliminate undesirable workers
Tasks involved
Minimal knowledge
Rigidly standardized
Wages
Minimum wages (legislative)
Minimum wages (legislative)
Minimum wages (trade union
?)
Unionization
Optional to join union
Lowest level
High level of acceptance
Summary
