BURGER KNG: A WORLDWIDE ORGANIZATION

Organizations can be described as formal entities in which human beings are prone to

cooperating with each other in order to acquire pre-determined goals. In other words, it can be

said that individuals,goals and related certain techniques league together and constitute an

organization. In any type of organizations, we can inevitably observe some set of features.

The main ones are structure,actors or participants,goals,technology and environment. In this

context, it is obvious that organizations are set up in a conscous manner which refers to order,

pre-determination,structure,cooperation and formalization. Goals and objectives are designed

and to accomplish these goals, organizations constitute an order which means superior-

subordinate relations,cooperation and standardization. In order to have a closely look at these

characteristics and to analyze what they really means, I have particularly choosed Burger

King Corporation for this assignment which is well-known almost by everyone as

hamburger and fast food restaurants all around the world. Burger King (BK) ,which was

firstly founded in 1953 as a fast food hamburger restaurant chain and began selling their

products like hamburgers, cheeseburgers around Miami-Florida in US, has been operating in

79 countries recently. The company follows an approach which is called as‘stakeholder

engagement’. Also, it lays emphasis on four key areas which are ‘ food, people, environment

and corporate governance. In this essay , I will try to examine and present my ideas about

Burger King Cooperation according to the questions that we have to responsible to answer

them coherently and systematically. Therefore, first, I will describe my organization in

accordance with goals and objectives and then I will look at how the organization is structured

and the elements that are appropriate for the environment of this organization. After that, I

will determine a structure for this organization and lastly discuss how it increases its chances

of survival hereafter.
 First of all, Burger King which is a private oriented organization seeking for profits

manufactures hamburgers, burgers, drinks, cookies, pies, ice creams,etc. It is very useful to

have look at description of target of Burger King restaurants so that the goals and objectives

of it can be seen explicitly. The former vision was ‘ offering reasonably priced quality food,

served quickly, in attractive, clean surroundings.’ ( Burger King, 1967). However, this has

changed later and was added ‘commitments’ to lead its consumers. Thus, the commitment of

Burger King is ‘ our commitment to premium ingredients, signature recipes and family

friendly dining experiences is what has defined our brand for more than 50 successful years’ (

Burger King, 2014). Besides, as we probably witness in restaurants, an effective phrase is ‘

What We Believe’. It reflects another goal of Burger King to the recipient. What I mean with

this statement is that company has surrounded as missions like to cooperate and work its

employees, recipients, business partners together. According to them, they preserves

environment, shares their employees and clients ‘ worries by doing that, so customers needs

are highly important for them. They believe that to be successful in business environment, the

goal should be to meet clients exigences with a high quality service and within a cleanest

environment. In this context, Burger King supplies their raw materials from very well-known

producers such as Pınar, Sütaş, Nestle, Ülker,etc in Turkey. However, they are partly not

dependent to these products because of domestic suppliers in countries where restaurants are

founded. I am of the opinion that the argument of resource dependency theory that we

analyzed in modern organizational theories in lectures is very appropriate to the Burger King

case. What we said in lectures about resource dependency is that in explaining the dependence

of the organizations on the environment, this theory refers to organizations’ need for

resources such as raw materials, labor, capital, equipment, knowledge, and markets for its

products and services. Because of this dependency for sustaining the resources, the

organization is vulnerable to its environment. For that reason, Burger King somehow needs
raw materials from partnerships like Pınar, Banvit, Tamek,etc as well, so they become

dependent in terms of raw materials although they have local supporters and suppliers in that

country. Another goal of Burger King is to enlarge its business gainfulness . Burger King

made new plans and goals to increase its profitability. For example, by considering what

classical and neo-classical theories would emphasize, they try to motivate their employees

needs and customers so that their profits increased highly and started to open new restaurants

all over the world. In this sense, Abraham Maslow’s human motivation was used on

employees. According to him, human behavior is goal driven and driven by needs which are

unsatisfied. By using hierarachy of needs theory, they aimed to increase employees’s working

performances.

Secondly, the organizational structure of Burger King can be explained by referring to the

organizational structure of classical organizational theories and scholars. Although Burger

King has an idea in which we work together with our employees and meet their social,

psychological needs, it is not correct as I see. First of all, the organization is structured to

achieve maximum effectiveness and efficiency, so they wanted to rationalize the

organizations as much as possible. In Burger King case, in terms of specialization, there is

degree of divison of work. There are divisions or departments and each of them focuses on

different task. For example, an employee who works in sales department does the same work

over and over again, and do not make another departments works. There is a high degree of

specialization. As well as specialization, centralization is another important point. In Burger

King companies, there is highly centralized levels and a strict hieararchy is valid. It means

that higher levels make the decision, lower levels just implement these decisions. Also,

written rules and regulations are applied in everyday. Rules are permanent, so formalization

in Burger King is an inevitable principle. Purpose of formalization is to keep everything under

control. The company headquarters are placed in Miami-Florida, but the lower departments
are distributed all around the world. The decisions taken in cental was applied. In this sense,

standardization and configuration of company depends upon high degree. There is step type

of organization which points out more control over employees in Burger King. Moreover, I

would like to explain the studies of two important scholars which was called Max Weber(

Bureaucratic Type of Organization) and Henry Fayol( Father of Management) in order to

compherend organizational structure of my organization. Weber tries to conceptualize

organizations by identifying key elements. He defined five main characteristics in bureacratic

organizations. These are ‘ fixed compensation and permanency, professionalism, division of

labour(specialization and jurisdiction), hieararchy and rules&regulations, In Burger King

case, the first feature is directly linked to the employees since regardless of the performance

salary is paid on regularly and employees feel secure, he is not afraid of about money. Also,

Burger King employees has a limited jurisdiction. There are confines and workers do not

intervene in works. Just they do what they are ordered. Hieararchy is also applicable since in

Burger King, there is superior-subordinate realtionship. Lastly, everything is formalized. As

well as Weber’s work, Henry Fayol’s father of management and principles are available in my

organization. As we know, 14 principles exist. I will mention about some of them by referring

to my organization. The ‘equity’principle is seen in Burger King company since in company,

there is no discrimination against workers in terms of gender, race, age, ethnicity. All

employees are treated equally. Also, the remuneration, stability of tenure personnel and scalor

chain exist in my organization. As a result, I can say that the organizational structure of

Burger King is composed of what the classical organizational theories emhasize.

Thirdly, there are certain elements that form the environment of Burger King. If we

remember from the lectures, three elements are available. These elements which are inter-

organizational network, general environment, and international global network can be ranked

from inside to outside. Firstly, inter organizational network are composed of suppliers,
customers, competitors, unions, regularity agencies and special interest groups in which

organizations interact with on a daily basis. Suppliers are raw materials producers for Burger

King. For instance, in Turkey, Banvit is the distributor of white meat, sauces are supplied by

Tamek, Tukaş or TAT. Milks are provided by Sütaş, red meats are supplied by Pınar,etc.

Clients are all the people around the world where companies are present. They are vital for the

survival of the organization. Competitiors of Burger King organization are mostly listed as ‘

McDonald’s, KFC, Sbarro, Domino’s Pizza, Popeyes, DelTaco, Starbucks, and many local

competititors. Burger King tries to dominate fast food sector, so sometimes as a strategy, it

can create a special interest groups, unions. Secondly, in terms of general environment,

Burger King affects and is affected by social, cultural, legal, political, economic,

technological, and physical sectors. First, social sector of a country where Burger King is

located reflects socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics which has an impact

on organization. In Burger King companies, teenages have been generally working, so the

population,lifestyles,class structure of the country determines organization. Economic sector

is another determinant factor since it includes involves factors such as inflation,

unemployment rate, labor market and price indexes. For instance, if Burger King restaurants

are opened in a country, it has an step-down affect on unemployment rate, inflation or vice-

versa. Legal and technological sectors are regulatory for Burger King since legal directions

tell organizations what to do or what not to do, restrict organizations. Also, Burger King

needs to keep up with technological updates and innovations in order to compete with

competitors. Thirdly, Burger King can be viewed as an international organization ,but it is

not like IMF, World Bank, UN, EU since these are much more political and economical.

However, Burger King is a type of food organization which is located in many areas in the

world. Because of the fact that three types of the environments are not mutually exclusive,

they all affect each other and affected by others.

 Fourthly, in my opinion, Burger King can be constituted as more flexible and

innovative in accordance with theories of organizational environment since not only structure

and people, but also interdependency with the environment also needs to be understood. I

think that environment is not constant, it is not stable. Organization is dependent on this

environment. Therefore, organizations have to be flexible to adopt the constant changes.

Instead of excessive hierarchy and bureaucracy with higher specialization, standardization,

formalization, centralization and configuration, it is appropriate flexible structure where

employees are enabled to participate in decision making process. I am of the opinion that

Burger King exists in a changing environment, and therefore we cannot structure it in a very

formal way. Strict structure does not operate for this sort of organization since everything

(customer profile, economy, technology, regulations etc. etc.) is constantly changing. For

example, in terms of customary profile, there are vegetarian customers,so organization may

needs to keep up with them. They have to prepare vegetarian menus for these people. Thus,

contingency theory is very vital in this context since its claim is that each organization is

unique because their environment and characteristics are unique. Therefore, you cannot run

every organization with the same strategy. I am saying that excessive formalization and

centralization can be removed thanks to interdependency with the environment. Instead of

closed system, I think, Burger King can be regarded as open system since organization started

to be regarded as a system like a living organism. In addition to the flexible structure that it is

suitable for my organization, human factor can also be important rather than goal. Although

the goal of my organization is to achieve higher efficiency,effectiveness and durability,

human factor should not be disregarded for them. I think cooperation is very vital for my

organization since it decreases higher specilization and formalization.

Lastly, according to organization’s goals and environment, Burger King can increase

its chances of survival by means of getting rid of strict structure. What I mean is that it should
pay attention to the recent changes. The only way to survive for this organization is to create a

more flexible and innovative structure. Furthermore, There should be less division of labor,

employeees should not have a limited jurisdiction, hieararchy should be overthrown, there

should be less specialization,standardization, formalization, cenralization and configuration

for the survival of the Burger King. In addition to that, in order to achieve maximum

efficiency and effectivenes, and to make profit, individuals should not be ignored. Today in

the world, people become obese due to fast foods and there occurs protests against it.Thus,

Burger King should consider human being by selling products to them. It should not sell

unhealty products. As a result of it, it should pay attention to double loop learning that we

learned during the lectures and Burger King should re-organize according to its environment.

In conclusion, I have particularly analyzed Burger King as a private, profit

organization in terms of the questions that we are responsible for. First, I have described the

organization and looked at the goals and objectives of it. Afterwards, I have closely examined

how the organization is structured although I did not find organizational chart on the website

of Burger King specifically. Thirdly, I have defined all the elements that form the

environment of this organization and then I have offered my ideas about the structure that is

suitable for this organization. Lastly, I have pointed out the ways that the organization can

increase its chances of survival.

REFERENCES

BURGER KING® Corporate Responsbility. (n.d.). Retrieved June 4, 2015, from

http://www.bk.com/corp-respon

Farfan, B. (2012, April 8). Burger King Mission Statement - Mission, Vision,Commitments,
 Headquarters, Founders Facts, and Trivia About the Burger King FastFood. Retrieved

June 4, 2015, from http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailbestpractices/ig/Company-

Mission-Statements/Burger-King-Mission-Statement.htm

Friesner, T. (2014, May 9). Burger King Marketing Mix - Marketing Teacher. Retrieved June

4, 2015, from http://www.marketingteacher.com/burger-king-marketing-mix/

DERVİŞ DOĞRUER

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