Bajen, Jasmin P.

BSPsych 1-1
COMM 1100

MEANING:
McDonaldization is a McWord coined by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The
McDonaldization of Society, published in 1993. Ritzer defines "McDonaldization" as a society
adopting the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. The McDonaldization process can be
defined as "the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more
sectors of recent idea about the worldwide homogenization of cultures as a result of
globalization."

McDonaldization is a new way of thinking about rationalization and scientific

management. Whereas Max Weber used the bureaucracy model to represent the decelerating
of society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as a more representative contemporary
paradigm. Pieterse, Jan Nederveen. Globalization and Culture: Global Melange. Rowman & Littlefield,
2009.3.28

DEFINITION:

McDonaldization of society is a phenomenon that occurs when society, its institutions,

and its organizations adopt the same characteristics as fast-food restaurants. Efficiency,
calculability, predictability, standardization, and control are examples of these.

FEATURES:

McDonaldization popularized the idea that quantity equals quality, and that delivering a
large amount of product to a customer in a short period of time is equivalent to delivering a
high-quality product. This allows people to compare how much they get versus how much they
pay.
 Ritzer claims that changes in science, economy, and culture have shifted societies away
from Weber's bureaucracy and toward a new social structure and order known as
McDonaldization. This new economic and social order is defined by four key aspects, as he
explains in his book of the same name.

1. Efficiency entails a managerial focus on minimizing the time required to complete individual
tasks as well as the time required to complete the entire production and distribution operation
or process.

2. Calculability refers to a focus on quantifiable goals (counting things) rather than subjective
goals (evaluation of quality).

3. Predictability and standardization can be found in repetitive and routinized production or

service delivery processes, as well as in the consistent output of identical or similar products or
experiences (predictability of the consumer experience).

4. Eventually, management exerts Control within McDonaldization to ensure that employees

appear and act consistently from moment to moment and on a daily basis. It also refers to the
use of robots and technology to replace or reduce the number of human employees wherever
possible

EXAMPLES:

1. Target: An example that demonstrates the efficiency of McDonaldization would be

Target having different department employees and managers that know the specifics of
the department.
2. Mos Burger: It is the second-largest fast-food franchise in Japan after McDonald's Japan,
and owns numerous overseas outlets over East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania, including
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines
and Australia. It is also the name of the standard hamburger offered by the restaurant, being
its first product when it opened in 1972.
REFERENCES:

1.  Pieterse, Jan Nederveen. Globalization and Culture: Global Melange. Rowman &
Littlefield, 2009.3.28
2. Ritzer, 2004:553
3. Ritzer, George (2009). The McDonaldization of Society. Los Angeles: Pine Forge
Press. doi:10.4135/9781446279007. ISBN 978-0-7619-8812-0.
4. Ritzer, George (2008). The McDonaldization of Society. Los Angeles: Pine Forge
Press. pp. 351–384. ISBN 978-07619-8812-0.
5. Turner, Bryan S. (2003). "McDonaldization: Linearity and Liquidity in Consumer
Cultures". American Behavioral Scientist. 47 (2): 137–
153. doi:10.1177/0002764203256180. S2CID 220676247.
6. John Scott and Gordon Marshall (eds.), "McDonaldization". A Dictionary of
Sociology. 1998. 8 Apr. 2013
7. Shichor, David (1997). "Three Strikes as a Public Policy: The Convergence of the
New Penology and the McDonaldization of Punishment". Crime &
Delinquency. 43 (4): 470–
492. doi:10.1177/0011128797043004005. S2CID 145111157.
8. McDonald's UK. "Questions Answered". Make up your own mind.
Retrieved 2007-09-15. Due to the global scale of the McDonald's business, many
commentators seek to use its brand and international presence to support
various positions and theories that they wish to put forward.
9. Slater (1999)
10.Wong (2010)
11.Carroll, Noel (2013). "E-learning – the McDonaldization of
education" (PDF). European Journal of Higher Education. 3 (4): 342–
356. doi:10.1080/21568235.2013.833405. S2CID 54702355. Archived from the
original (PDF) on 2018-12-01.
12.Ritzer (2013)

 Ritzer, G. (2013) ‘MOOCs and the McDonaldisation of Education’ Introduction to

Sociology.. http://georgeritzer.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/moocs-and-the-
mcdonaldization-of-education/ (Date accessed 30 October 2013)
 Slater, R.O. (1999),(trans.)‘La MacDonalizacion de la Educacion’, Educacion, Vol. 8,
No. 15. http://firgoa.usc.es/drupal/node/5029 (Date accessed 30 October 2013)
 Wong D.
(2010),http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/ccrblog/2010/02/mcdonaldization_and
_higher_edu.html. (Date accessed 30 October 2013)
 Ritzer, George. "The McDonaldization of Society: 20th Anniversary
Edition." Los Angeles: Sage, 2013