Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.: Managing an Undocumented Workforce

Authors
McMackin, J., Park, B., Parrish, B., and O'Rourke, J. S. (Editor)
Region
North America
Topic
Strategy & General Management
Human Resources & Organizational Behavior
Length
9 pages
Keywords
quick service restaurant sector
restaurant industry
management
government probes
Hiring
Copyright Holder
Notre Dame
Student Price
$4.00
Target Audience
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students

Following Chipotle’s meteoric rise to prominence in the Quick Service Restaurant sector, management now faces a threat to their longstanding brand of “food with integrity.” Executives must decide how to respond to government probes into their hiring of undocumented workers as well as customer protests of those workers being fired.

Learning Outcomes
  1. To highlight an example of a business conflict between two important stakeholder groups;
  2. To encourage critical thinking regarding the best course of action to balance the competing interests between these groups;
  3. To illustrate a situation in which a company must consider taking actions that could jeopardize its carefully crafted image;
  4. To encourage discussion about the appropriateness of companies taking positions regarding contentious social issues (even if these positions reinforce company values).