Integrating Ethics Across Disciplines: The McDonald’s Case and Poverty Alleviation

laura hartman, DePaul University
regina wolfe, DePaul University
patricia werhane, DePaul University and university of virginia

Abstract

The question of whether ethical issues should be integrated throughout an undergraduate or graduate business curriculum is no longer relevant. To the contrary, it is instead the urgency of how those challenges are most effectively addressed and where to find models of positive corporate performance that occupies our current attention. While no single organization exemplifies the entirety of “ethical” behavior, it is vital to consider models of conduct that have generated value through ethical means, both domestically and on a global scale. The purpose of this discussion is to introduce McDonald’s practice of promotion from within an example of a cross-disciplinary model of an effective strategy. McDonald’s approach, while ultimately oriented toward sustaining the organization’s success, in fact and in practical application results in the present alleviation of poverty for those living at what has come to be know as the base of the economic pyramid.