Line managers as the linchpin in implementing corporate HR standards

Walk into any McDonald’s restaurant and you know what you’re going to get, but how do fast food corporations standardize how employees are managed at franchise locations across the country? A new study shows that investing in line managers plays an important role in implementing corporate HR standards. Tashlin Lakhani, assistant professor at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, and her colleagues published their findings June 19, 2026, in Human Resource Management.

To examine how corporate HR standards are implemented in fast food franchises, researchers analyzed survey data and franchise disclosure documents from 908 franchised restaurants across 143 U.S. fast food chains. They focused on HR investments in line managers, an underexamined area in previous research.

The research pointed to a three-pronged approach to support adherence to corporate HR standards among franchisees.

“You want to establish the standards, you want to motivate your franchisees to make investments in their line managers and then you want to have enforcement mechanisms to ensure that those corporate standards do ultimately get implemented,” Lakhani explained.

They discovered that the more extensive the corporate HR standards, the more franchisees invest in training and compensation for their line managers, which enhances line managers’ ability and motivation to implement HR practices for frontline employees.

The focus on HR investments in line managers offers a new perspective in organizational theory and strategic human resource management research.

“It’s the HR investments in line managers that then influence whether or not HR practices for frontline employees are ultimately implemented in line with corporate standards,” she said.

Motivation matters

The presence of corporate standards isn’t enough line managers must have both the ability and motivation to implement them.

“The more training and the more compensation provided to line managers, the more we see them implementing skill-enhancing HR practices for frontline employees, including more selective hiring and employee training in line with the organizational routines we’d expect from corporate,” Lakhani said.

Investments in line managers were also associated with less discretion for frontline employees over how they perform their jobs, consistent with greater adherence to standardized procedures and tasks. 

Notably, investments in line managers were associated with more motivation-enhancing HR practices, such as higher pay and benefits for frontline employees. “Corporate often avoids directly prescribing these practices because of joint-employer liability concerns,” Lakhani said. “But we find that corporate standards can still influence these practices indirectly through investments in line managers.”

Enforcement enhances results

Consequences can also be a motivating factor.

“It wasn’t just ‘Do they have standards?’ and then ‘How do franchisees comply with those standards?’,” she said. “But we also found that corporate enforcement strengthens franchisee compliance with these standards.”

The researchers measured corporate enforcement based on franchise contract terminations over the previous three years. They found that at higher levels of contract terminations, corporate standards were more strongly linked to franchisees’ HR investments in line managers and, in turn, to HR practices for frontline employees.

Franchisees have made significant investments in their restaurants. The threat of franchise termination can provide a powerful incentive to adhere to corporate standards.

Lakhani explained how proper investment in the line manager is analogous to the service profit chain she discusses in her Nolan School classes. In that context, your treatment of employees will translate into how they treat customers. Similarly, how franchisees treat line managers can translate to how line managers treat frontline employees.

“We’re always talking about investing in HR practices for employees because it leads to lower turnover, higher commitment, more organizational citizenship behaviors and ultimately higher customer satisfaction,” she said. “But you can’t realize those outcomes if you don’t first invest in your line managers so that they can effectively implement HR practices for employees.”

From the corporate side, Lakhani suggests corporations share policies or case studies from their parent-company-owned restaurants with franchisees. The sharing of best practices and educating franchisees on the importance of line managers during franchisee training can promote compliance from the beginning of the partnership. Equally imperative, according to Lakhani, are the enforcement mechanisms that demonstrate how important compliance with corporate standards is to the brand.

Continuing the conversation

Lakhani has done extensive research in the hospitality space, and while this study focused on fast food franchise locations, she said that she sees widespread applications for the findings. 

“I think our study provides really interesting insights into how corporate standards from the top can be implemented in any organization that has decentralized operations,” she said.

Next, Lakhani said that she wants to dig deeper into how organizations manage line managers, a critical group she believes is often forgotten and seen as an extension of the employer, rather than as individuals who themselves need investment and support.

“We looked at training, we looked at pay, we looked at benefits, but I’d love to look at other HR investments for line managers as well,” Lakhani said. “This was really exciting for us, and there’s a lot more we’d like to explore.”