Mcdonaldization
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McDonaldization is a term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society. He describes it as the process by which a society takes on the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization, or moving from traditional to rational modes of thought, and scientific management. Where Max Weber used the model of the bureaucracy to represent the direction of this changing society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as having become a more representative paradigm contemporarily (Ritzer, 2004:553).
Ritzer highlighted four primary components of McDonaldization:
- Efficiency - the optimal method for accomplishing a task
- Calculability - objective should be quantifiable (i.e. sales) rather than subjective (i.e. taste)
- Predictability - standardized and uniform services
- Control - standardized and uniform employees
The process of McDonaldization can be summarized as the way in 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, 1993:1).
Alternatively, McDonaldization can refer to the replacement of traditional restaurants with McDonald's.
See also
- McWords
- McDojo
- McJob
- McMansion
- McWorld
- McChurch
- Cocacolonization
- organizational studies
- Fast Food Nation
- Disneyfication
- Walmarting
Literature on McDonaldization
- The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer (ISBN: 0761988122)
- McDonaldization: The Reader by George Ritzer (ISBN 0761987673)
- The McDonaldization Thesis: Explorations and Extensions by George Ritzer (ISBN 0761955402)
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