Day 134 - 13 Jun 95 - Page 37
1 most of the questions, the vast majority, are positive
2 questions, are they not? I mean: "The restaurant has a
3 good reputation as an employer"; "I am free to take
4 problems to a higher level". I mean all the questions are
5 positive if you answer "yes"?
6 A. Yes.
7
8 Q. The feel good factor; if you answer "yes" you feel good,
9 everything is fine?
10 A. I am not sure I would describe it like that, but they
11 are worded positively, yes.
12
13 Q. Is this not a well-known technique to ensure you get
14 favourable results?
15 A. I have no idea if it is a well-known technique; it is
16 not one I am aware of.
17
18 Q. But if you are going to be relying on this survey, which
19 you have said, to gauge whether McDonald's workers have
20 grievances or are unhappy or happy or whatever, you would
21 want to be sure you were getting a fair picture, would you
22 not?
23 A. Yes.
24
25 Q. So why are not some of the questions balanced with, for
26 example, questions such as: "I feel I am working in an
27 unsafe environment" or "My pay is too low for the work that
28 I do"?
29 A. I do not accept your description of why the questions
30 are worded in that way and why doing it that way would make
31 a different result. I simply do not know, but I do not see
32 why that would make any difference.
33
34 Q. Have you had advice from polling organisations or
35 professionals on the value of asking all positive questions
36 in a survey?
37 A. What we have had advice on is the content of the survey
38 from the consultancy which has advised McDonald's in the
39 USA who are, I think, experts in their field.
40
41 Q. They are experts in being paid for by McDonald's,
42 presumably, to -----
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Look, just hold on a moment because you are
45 assuming that which I do not know, that this was prepared
46 in order to publish to the outside world rather than to
47 find out what might be improved by McDonald's for their own
48 benefit.
49
50 Before your point can have any merit at all, I have to have
51 some evidence that it was prepared for publication to the
52 outside world. If it was prepared in order to try to find
53 out where things were going wrong, if they were going
54 wrong, in order to improve them, your point would have no
55 value whatsoever. So you had better establish what it was
56 for, first of all.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: My point is not that it is prepared for the outside
59 world, but that it is not an indicator of whether people
60 are genuinely satisfied or unsatisfied with McDonald's, is
