THE MCDONALDIZATION OF

SOCIETY: IMPACT OF
GLOBALIZATION ON INDIANS
Aratrika Aug 13, 2019·3 min read

Ever since it threw open its doors to the global forces after
Independence, India has been on the rising arm of development, its
global trade being spearheaded by the export of modern services. Even
though at a disadvantage on being a relative latecomer to the concept of
global proliferation, India steadily became the new face of globalization
by better managing trade-offs between economic growth and the
environmental degradation. However, the challenges still persist and
India has a long way to go, mainly because of one particular speed
bump- the McDonaldization of Indian society.
A term coined by American sociologist George Ritzer, McDonaldization
essentially means the rationalization of production, efficiency and
technology that swept human society off its feet and set up a
hierarchical chain of command and organizational level, not unlike
what happens at the famous fast-food chain. Max Weber found this
inherent in bureaucracy and Ritzer conceptualized it by linking it to
profit-maximization, risk-minimization and efficiency.
McDonaldization consists of four main elements: efficiency,
calculability, predictability and control. Efficiency contributes towards
minimization of outliers in production- by reducing the time taken to
manufacture even one single product, it is creating an optimization of
resources. Calculability is a page taken directly from the fast-food chain
book- it encourages the seeing of quantity rather than quality. This can
be a major disadvantage: although production is higher and profits are
on the rise, a sizeable number of the finished goods have defects which
could have been easily avoided, but to do so would have been an
expense on the cost of production. Consumers can also predict being
offered the same type of service as well as product in every
McDonaldized organization. There is also the additional fact that slowly
human employees are being replaced by non-human technologies as a
means to perpetuate the first three elements. This control over humans
by technology is slowly making us cripples on our own inventions-
there are actually several technology-induced diseases, which came into
being only after globalization, such as nomobilephone-phobia (where
the person becomes paranoid when there are no bars of network on
their cell phone).
In more recent times, digital globalization has propagated cross-border
trade and investment through the flow of data and information. E-
commerce platforms allow individuals to purchase overseas goods
directly to the extent that it constitutes 12% of global trade. This has
seriously impinged on the resources of a nation, especially human
capital and health. Shopping malls and grocery stores are slowly
becoming relics as global megalomaniacs like Amazon, Flipkart and
Zomato take over.
Needless to say, McDonaldization has increased the divide by sinking a
major chunk, especially the lower strata of Indian society, into debt.
The demand for debt is a big factor of globalization and in propitiating
the technological control aspect, McDonaldization has led to
involuntary unemployment on a huge scale. Reduced to staying at
home with fast-depleting resources, the Indian man is relying more on
gambling and debt to run his household. Without a reliable source of
income and poor credit scores, they are unable to borrow from banks
and are being increasingly driven into degeneration by the vicious cycle
of poverty.
The only ray of hope in this society are the relatively newer concept of
microfinance institutions which are giving credit to small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) at low interest rates. However, their complete
adaptation and success in India is still a distant speck of light because
unlike other organizations, these are relatively low on the rungs of the
McDonaldization ladder.