GS 336: WORK AND SOCIETY

LECTURE 21
 6: PRESENT WORK:
THE AGE OF EMPLOYMENT
Outlines/Objectives:

McDonaldization
• Definition
• Components of McDonaldization
• McDonaldization: Irrationalities of rationality
 MODELS FOR 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATION

 Max Weber argued that bureaucracy were becoming

the organizational model of the 19th Century.

 George Ritzer (1990) argued that McDonald is

becoming the model for organizations in the 21st
Century.
 McDonaldization: Ritzer Thesis
 “the process by which the principles of the fast food restaurant
are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American
society as well as of the rest of the world.”(Ritzer 1993)
 Organizing force is representing and extending rationalization
into everyday life and interaction, facilitated by, and driving
technology.
 Evidences of the proliferation of non-human technologies into
the realms of production and consumption on a global scale.
 It includes the idea of standardisation and of making things the
same. Unfortunately this happens at the expense of individual
cultures.
 PROCESS OF MCDONALDIZATION
 A task is taken and breaks it down into smaller tasks.
 The resulting tasks are then rationalized to find the single most efficient
method for completing each task.
 All other methods are then deemed inefficient and discarded.
 The result is an efficient, logical sequence of methods that can be completed
the same way every time to produce the desired outcome.
 The outcome is predictable.
 All aspects of the process are easily controlled.
 Additionally, quantity (or calculability) becomes the measurement of good
performance.
 COMPONENTS OF MCDONALDIZATION
1. Efficiency: The optimum method of completing a task.

 It Includes streamlining processes, simplifying goods and services, and

using customers to perform work.

 Requires ‘putting customers to work’ (e.g. supermarket scanners,

Technogym printouts).

Examples:
 Selling machines
 Online ticket sales (cinema, football, etc.)
 Electronic queuing/parking systems
 Drive through restaurants
 Online travel booking/shopping
 Exercise machines
 Credit cards
 Search engines
 Email and virtual chat (e.g. Messengers)
 COMPONENTS OF MCDONALDIZATION

2. Calculability: emphasis on things that can be calculated, counted, and

quantified.

 Assessment of outcomes based on quantifiable rather than subjective criteria. In

other words, quantity over quality. They sell the Big Mac, not the Good Mac.
 The computer is central as it enables the calculation of vast amounts of data quickly
and accurately; facilitates the computerization of society (Lyotard, 1994).

Examples
 Sports statistics and ‘chatter’,
 TV (ratings over quality)
 Fast-food delivery
 COMPONENTS OF MCDONALDIZATION
3. Predictability: Emphasis on things being the same from one
time or place to another.

 Achieved through offering uniform products, replications of settings, and scripting

of employee behaviors.
 Technologies promise predictable outcomes and a standardized quality
again and again…(e.g. kit houses, IKEAisation).
 Service employees monitored to ensure predictable outcomes

Examples:
 Sports grounds (predictable or facilities; e.g. The Adventure Centre,
Wimbledon Roof)
 Shopping malls
 Hotel chains
 Amusement parks (Disney)
 COMPONENTS OF MCDONALDIZATION
4. Control by technologies
“…replacement of human by non-human technology is often oriented towards greater control. The
great source of uncertainty and unpredictability in a rationalizing system, are people - either the
people who work within those systems or the people who areserved by them.” (Ritzer, 1994)

 The computer is central as it enables the calculation of vast amounts of data quickly and
accurately; facilitates the computerization of society (Lyotard, 1994).
 Control of employees/customers: rules, regulations, computers, surveillance. ‘systems’
encourage servitude
 Man-machines: pre-packaged, pre-measured, automatically controlled: eradicating uncertainty:
 Removes ‘thinking human’/follow instructions (surrender authority)
 Dependence upon/subordination to machine (de-skilling)

 Controlling customers: routes, queues, directing behavior

Examples:
 Barriers
 Swipe cards
 Touch screen cash registers
 Automated customer service
 IRRATIONALITIES OF RATIONALITY
Ritzer claims that although McDonaldization is supposed to be
rational, it can lead to results that are irrational. These include:
 Efficiency is replaced by Inefficiency and higher costs:
McDonaldization isn’t efficient for everyone, especially customers
(long lines and long waits), and may cost extra (parking, etc).
 Health and environmental hazards: Includes health risks of fast food,
food poisoning, litter, environmental hazards of factory farms.
 Homogenization: Similar products are offered through the U.S. and
world.
 Dehumanization: McDonaldization offers low-skill jobs, treats
customers impersonally, minimizes contact between human beings,
and has negative effects on families. (Eating in the car).
 Thanks!

Any Question?