University Essay: Analyzing the Societal Impact of McDonaldization

This essay explores the concept of McDonaldization, a term coined by sociologist George Ritzer to describe the increasing rationalization of society, drawing parallels to the fast-food industry. The essay begins by tracing the historical context of industrialization and capitalism, highlighting how these forces have shaped the modern world. It then delves into the core components of McDonaldization: efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control. Efficiency is examined in terms of optimizing processes, while predictability refers to the standardization of products and services. Calculability emphasizes the quantification of goods and services, and control focuses on the automation and standardization of labor. The essay further discusses the impact of McDonaldization on various aspects of life, including education, and concludes by reflecting on the broader implications of this phenomenon on the social world.

Running head: MCDONALIZATION OF THE SOCIETY
McDonalization of the Society
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MCDONALIZATION OF THE SOCIETY
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
The McDonaldization of the society................................................................................................2
Impact of McDonaldization.............................................................................................................4
Components of McDonaldization....................................................................................................5
Example of McDonaldization..........................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References:......................................................................................................................................9

2MCDONALIZATION OF THE SOCIETY
Introduction
The progress and development of the human society can be judged from the various land
marks it achieved in its course. One of the major land marks of the development of the human
society was that of the period of industrialization (Ritzer, 2018). Before the onset of the
industrial activity, the individuals of the society used to believe in the idea of self-sufficiency and
produce only that much quantity of food that was required to ensure their existence. However,
with time, this idea of self-sufficiency relegated to the back ground when the individuals started
to produce in excess. They exchanged the commodities available with them for the other
agricultural goods which were available with the other individuals of the society (Dustin, 2016).
Soon thereafter, such people started to find out ways in order to ease such process of agricultural
production. This led to the development of various tools and machinery. The age of such
development was termed as industrial revolution whereby the individuals of the community
manufactured machineries and tools which would do the work on their behalf (Nicholson, 2015).
The purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of such industrialization on the society. To
this extent, the paper focuses on the idea of McDonaldization of the society as observed within
the present society.
The McDonaldization of the society
The onset of industrial revolution brought about many changes in the society. The
development of the tools and the use of machines ensured that human labor was effectively
reduced (Hayes & Wynyard, 2016). Furthermore, it led to the increase in the production level of
the society in the sense that now more commodities could be produced within a shorter time

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period. This, in turn, led to the rise in the prospect of various capitalist businesses of the society
whereby they were able to sell the excess products in lieu of financial resources.
One of the main implications of the industrial revolution was the rise in the capitalist
ideology of the economic market place of the word. Capitalism refers to that form of the
economy where the producers of the society have the freedom to produce and manufacture the
goods and services of their choice (Garland, 2019). They can impose competitive prices on such
commodities and sell them to the customers of the society. One of the unique features of the
capitalist form of society is that the governments of the country paly a minimalist role within the
process of manufacture of such industries.
With the development of the human society, the various businesses around the world
slowly started to spread across the globe in order to earn a higher level of profit margin (Hayes,
Wynyard & Mandal, 2017). This capitalist and accommodating society led to the rapid growth in
the fast food restaurant sectors, the packages tours, TV dinners and the use of industrial robots.
All of them aimed to ease the kind of life that was followed by the individuals of the society. The
rapid growth of such businesses has led to the rationalization of the historical processes of the
society and the generation of rationality as the end result of such a process of development.
Rationalization is seen to have its toots within the western advanced society of the world.
It was in the nineteenth century that the sociologists of the community, such as that of Max
Weber evidenced that the community was centered on the process of rationalization and that if
the bureaucracy (Baudrillard, 2016). In this respect, in the contemporary world the process of
rationalization has now given way to the rise of the fast food restaurant within the American
society. In this context, it has been stated that while the fast food chain of restaurant might not be
the correct depiction of rationality but in the contemporary scenario, it is the exemplar for

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rationalization for the future developments (Yolal, 2016). A community which is found to be
characterized by the aspect of rationality has the features of efficiency, substitution of human
labor by the use of technology, calculability and that of control over the uncertainties of the
society.
Impact of McDonaldization
The issue of McDonaldization emerged the fastest within the region of the United States
of America. It is known as McDonaldization because of the rapid growth of the fast food
restaurant known as McDonalds (Hartley, 2014). The prices of the fast food items that are
charged by this restaurant chain is the cheapest when compared to its rival companies. The main
reason behind this was that McDonalds managed to make efficient use of the competitive
advantage that was provided by the underdeveloped and developing countries of the world. It
was the basis of the capitalist form of market structure which allowed the firms to make use of
the products from different countries of the world (Davydova, 2019). In this respect, it can be
seen that the issue of McDonaldization rose to prominence riding on the wave of capitalism and
a free economy.
The McDonaldization of the community refers tit e rise in the presence of the various fast
food businesses in the world. The business models of such firms included the aspect of
efficiency, predictability, control or monitoring and that of calculability. This had the ability to
bring about a significant change in the entire structure of the economic market place as was
known to the society during that period of time (Woolridge & Stanley-Stevens, 2016). The
customers had an easy access to the various commodities in the market. The quality of such
commodities and services were guaranteed and the prices that were charged from the customers
were competitive in nature. The advancement in the use of technology and the various forms of

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tools further ensured that the cost of human labor was reduced to a significant extent. This meant
that the extent or margin of human error was reduced to a significant extent (Hietanen et al.,
2016).
Components of McDonaldization
According to a study forwarded by Ritzer, it can be seen that there are four basic
components of the process of McDonaldization. These include that of efficiency, predictability,
calculability and that of control.
Efficiency refers to the optimal method through which a particular task can be fulfilled or
achieved (Palmer & Grace, 2014). Ritzer (2014), gave a very specific meaning to the aspect of
efficiency’. Using the example of the customers who came to McDonald’s, efficiency signified
the fastest way by which the hunger of a hungry customer was insatiated. As a consequence of
this, within the meaning of McDonaldization, the term efficiency includes all those ways and
measures by which the concerned firm is able to meet the expectations of the customers within a
minimized time framework.
The second aspect of McDonaldization is that of predictability. The issue of predictability
y talks about uniform and standardized services (Hossain & Ali, 2014). In other words, it opines
that in the event that an individual goes to another branch of a same firm, they would be given
the same services and the similar products in terms of prices and quality from that branch. This
issue of predictability is also found to be applicable to the workers working in a McDonaldized
form of the world. The workers are trained by a parent company in a way that they are expected
to give the same amount of service and behave in a similar way, no matter the branch of the firm
that they are assigned to. In this respect, it can be states that the tasks of McDonaldization are

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found to be highly repetitive, predictable and highly routinized. Thus, the issue of predictability
plays a significant role in determining the aspect of McDonaldization in the society.
A third aspect of McDonaldization is that of calculability. Calculability states that all the
objects of the world must be quantifiable in nature such as the sales of the society, rather than
being subjective which talks about the taste of the product (Izak, 2014). The process of
McDonaldization led to the development of the notion that the quantity of a product is equal to
the quality of the same product. In other words, if a large consignment of a particular order is
delivered to the customers within a short period of time, it is considered to be the same as the
high quality of the product. This aspect therefore, helps the individual of the people to quantify
the amount of money they pay versus to the quality of the product that they get from the
manufacturers. The organizations of the contemporary time period wants the customers to
believe that they are getting more of the product in terms of money when compared to the
amount of money that they are paying for it. The employees of such firms are judged on the basis
of how fast they are able to work rather than judging them on the issue of the quality of work
which is done by them.
The fourth aspect of the process of McDonaldization is that of control or monitoring. The
issue of control helps to set the standards of the employees and create uniformity among them
(Cisło, 2015). The replacement of the human individuals occur faster through this aspect of
McDonaldization. The human labor is found to be replaced by that of technologies and the use of
different machineries. The use of such machineries help the management of the firms of the
market to establish significant extent of control over the activities of the employees. Their
working hours, their behavior and their way of working, all can be judged and monitored with
the aid of such monitoring system of technology.

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Example of McDonaldization
One of the most pertinent examples of McDonaldization is that of education. An
increasing similarity can be noticed between the frame work of the western classrooms and the
rest of the world. The pedagogy which is adhered to within the environment of the classrooms
resemble the environment of America. Furthermore, the western culture is mainly focused on the
issue of transfer of knowledge to the various parts of the world (Hayes & Wynyard, 2016). The
western ideology is under the belief that their culture is more superior and practical than the
other cultures of the world. As a result of this, they have the tendency to ensure that they are able
to propagate their ideas and thought process in the under developed parts of the world and their
citizens. McDonaldization of such a form of education has a severe negative effect on the people
of the world as it does not promote creativity and inquiry. It seeks to bring all the various
differing ideas and opinions of the world in to one single umbrella.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be observed that the issue of McDonaldization revolutionized the
contemporary social world order. The various firms of the world, not only the fast food chain of
restaurants, have managed to spread their scale of operations to various parts of the world. The
capitalist form of market structure has aided in the growth of such operations. The relevant firms
have been able to use the various cheap raw materials that they have accumulated from the under
developed regions of the world and use them in the process of production. Since the money paid
for the various raw materials used in the process of input lessened, the management of such firms
could sell their product at a comparatively lesser price. The profit margin was not sacrificed
during this process of transaction, ensuring the satisfaction of both the customers as well as the
management level. In this scenario, it needs to be noted that McDonaldization included within

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itself the aspects of efficiency, calculability, predictability and that of control or monitoring. The
main idea behind this was to understand the impact that McDonaldization had on the various
spheres of life such as that of the cultural sphere, the political sphere and the economic sphere of
activity. The process of McDonaldization changed the living standard of the people as they got
more used to the easy access to the food commodities and the other necessities of life.

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Davydova, S. (2019, May). The McDonaldization of Society: Irrational Rationality. In 2019
International Conference on Pedagogy, Communication and Sociology (ICPCS 2019).
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revisited. Routledge handbook of the sociology of higher education, 74-84.
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