“McDONALD”…IZATION of the Society Impacting on Cultures

Improving the functioning and outcomes of any system is a critical issue especially for formal organizations. Rationalizing on the processes and inputs is universally considered a technique to improve system-wide performance.
 
The simple input-output ratio forms the basis of all attempts at ensuring greater outcomes. Achieving near perfect ratio in a mechanical non-living system is easily achievable but in a human system, rationalization beyond a limit can kill authenticity, spontaneity, authentic human gesture and several ways of relating.
 
Earliest attempts at improvement and efficiency could be traced back to the evolution of the wheel and the consequent development of efficient machines of transport and several other innovations, comforting humanity at large. Efficiency as a means and also as an end in the mechanical systems is always considered desirable with fruitful results.
 
But rationalization as an idea to improve the functioning of human systems to ensure survival has been one of the major modernist attempts (Max Weber) at reorganizing and making human systems more “efficient”.
 
Techniques of rationalizing range from improving the performance of the individuals (from time and motion studies to “downsizing/rightsizing”) to improving the production and delivery processes (Mechanization/automation to “business process reengineering”).
 
An attempt at achieving near perfect mechanical efficiency in human systems is a modernist venture impacting on cultures all over. With the onset of the neo-globalization phenomena, one of the most impacting organized phenomena is “McDonald”…ization.
 
An organization operating as a restaurant has impacted over the large number of cultures changing their eating habits and a lot many facets of life and relationships. Although, in the United States, the hamburger chain- McDonald has been around long enough for academics and other commentators repeatedly to have drawn attention to its social effects and analogies in other fields, it is the sociologist George Ritzer who coined the phrase in his book "The Mcdonaldization of Society" (Ritzer, 1996).
 
In his book, Ritzer analyses ways in which the success of the American hamburger chain has impacted upon not only economic patterns, but in particular on a multitude of facets of social life in general. Basing his analysis on Max Weber's theory of rationalization, he draws on extensive empirical and anecdotal data to trace these influences.
 
McDonald's revolutionizing influence on the fast-food industry not only in America, but increasingly across the globe, has led to the establishment of dozens of clones in just about every branch of the retail industry and has led to other social institutions adapting McDonald's principles to their operations.
 
The process by which these principles are coming to dominate more and more sectors of society, is perceived by Ritzer to extend to education, work, health care, travel, leisure, dieting and many more fields. Key features of McDonaldization of society are reported to be Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability and Control…killing uniqueness of smaller sub-systems and local cultures.
 
Efficiency ensures that each and every process of the system is organized to ensure that everything happens at the right time and the right place (never too early and never elsewhere) to ensure that the maximum gratification for the customer and the maximum profit for the company are ensured. Perhaps it is in its dimension of calculability that the character of the McDonald's model is best revealed.
 
Exactly so many patties have to come from a pound of meat, the buns must be of a certain exact size and the patties again have to have a certain limited fat content so that, after being cooked, it will still have a larger diameter than the buns, the fries must be of a certain thickness and the bags must never be too full or too empty.
 
It is easy to see how seemingly neutral measures, meant to ensure standardization, eventually lead to the reduction of the processes of production to a game of numbers. Even though this may not be too harmful in the case of hamburgers and fries, the spread of an attitude like this in the case of the majority of industries of necessity lead to “depersonalization” of both customers and workers.
 
This inevitably leads to quantity being mistaken for quality leading to dehumanization of work places. Predictability is one dimension of the McDonald's setup that is most directly aimed at how it is perceived by its customers. It is imperative that the products must be the same everywhere, so that being in Moscow or Allahabad (or Johannesburg, for that matter) wouldn't be that big a problem if you get homesick: at least McDonald's would be the same as it is back at home.
 
Naturally this would preclude any possibility of customers expecting anything else than the standard McDonald's fare and, more importantly there is no scope of any McDonald's employee showing a tendency towards innovation or initiative. The dimension of control, in so far as it has not been implied by the foregoing, is attained "...especially through the substitution of nonhuman for human technology..." (Ritzer, 1996).
 
This tendency, by far not unique to McDonald's, enables the company to far better control the uniformity of production and to at least partly eliminate the hassles of having to deal with human beings. Even the implied threat of replacing human with other technology enables further control over employees.
 
But it is not only the employees that need to be controlled, but also the customers. This is accomplished by a range of subtle measures, among which not the least is the restriction of menus to a limited number of items, the utilization of customers to do work themselves, such as carrying food to the tables and litter away from it, and of course the availability of hard chairs which certainly does not encourage customers to linger.
 
The process of McDonaldization takes a task and breaks it down into smaller tasks. This is repeated until all tasks have been broken down to the smallest possible level. 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.All this sounds good.
 
After all, being more efficient and predictable is a good thing. Controlled, consistent and measurable outcomes also sound good. So, what's the problem?It turns out that over-rationalizing a process in this manner has an unexpected side effect. It's called irrationality. In a sociological context that simply means that a rationalized system may result in events or outcomes that were neither anticipated or desired, and in fact, may not be so good.
 
The premise of fast food often turns out to be just the opposite - long waits in lines. Fast food is not a good food - in fact, McDonald's food is extremely unhealthy and the taste is average and bland. The system of efficiently producing and distributing their food has some other consequences, namely millions of tons of trash each year (disposability) and a food cultivation system of questionable ethics.
 
It is also not difficult to look at the role that Microsoft is playing at the moment and not to think of it as the McDonald's of the computer world. Its moves towards having a finger in just about every facet of the industry and its products, totally smacks of trying to control the user in every way. The growing importance of the Internet, and especially the way in which it is being marketed by service providers as a quick and easy way to instant gratification for upwardly mobile computer junkies, is in more ways than one a reflection of a McDonaldized society.
 
Quick and easy access to as many sites as possible and to as much information as possible, regardless of its value, is precisely the triumph of quantity over quality. Expression of love and hate, joy and sorrow, birth and death….is made easy by the Archie’s Cards Inc. and all the likes. Indeed a great way to serve the society - synthetic emotions delivered with real emotions appear authentic and valid.
 
Ever going number of days of celebration (of all kinds and for every one) have become an essential part of our lives already overloaded only by work. Employing almost all the principles of McDonaldization (rationalization) and pulling them a little too far for its employees “Big brand” names like Nike – known internationally for their sports wear which are also endorsed by a few “legendry” sports personalities in the world. Their slogan – “Just Do It” has the American symbol of the Statue of Liberty spreading an idealism of liberation and freedom.
 
Nike, for all its consumers signifies quality and status. Very few know where and who work under what conditions to produce these “liberation” enabling products. Manufactured mostly in the third world countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan, employing only on contract and piece-rate basis, mostly women as workers under extremely exploitative work conditions, instances of abuse and harassment have seldom been talked about that too remain within the academic circles.
 
The retail industry also experiences McDonaldization with giants like Wall Mart and all its clones like the giant mega stores and shopping complexes, ensuring availability of products by their super efficient supply chain network and highly mechanized ‘customer care behavior’ to its customers. What customers end up buying in these stores is, most of the times also in many of the cases, is what Wall Mart wants them to buy rather than what their needs are…creating a culture of over consumption, lust and greed.
 
Irony of all such McDonaldized systems operating across cultures is what not many even care to acknowledge. Public at large, gets swayed by the powerful gadgets of attraction (advertisements and glow-signs). This pull (attraction) is so strong and addictive that all other products, services and essentials, even alternate values of life and living although available at no cost (either provided by the mother nature or the one at home) appears spurious and unhealthy.
 
A culture only emphasizing efficiency and control leads to over-production in factories and agricultural fields, over-consumption by children and the entire nation, material and spiritual garbage, and an endless quest for profits and monetary earnings generating more and more of standardized and oversimplified “universal” culture.
 
Wherein would remain no space for celebrating uniqueness and differences. Creativity and art would then be considered an act of the past and only available as the dead in the museums. Visualizing a culture built on the values of over-consumption, lust and greed with no space for forms of art can only provide a life full of violence, destruction and machines!

[1] The write up borrows from www.mcdonaldization.com and tries to explore its impact on cultures. Any reactions or comments on this article may be posted at dwirohit@gmail.com