McDonaldization: The Dehumanization of Workers
McDonaldization is becoming the new wave of job types where workers are being deskilled, dehumanized and exploited. Machines are taking over tasks which the employees used to do such as bank machines (interact). The McDonaldized jobs now instead of making the employee do all the work they have the customer working too, for example when the customer cleans up after eating. These jobs are becoming less interactive and personal because workers are becoming dehumanized and only allowed to follow a script, there is also the fact that fast food Company’s use drive through, where limited interaction occurs and are many restrictions. These types of jobs which the author George Ritzer labeled
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George Ritzer’s main argument, in this article is that McDonaldization has taken over many lower level jobs and is deskilling and dehumanizing employees, which in turn has reversed the roles of customer to employee relation. He shows this by stating that employees are given menial repetitive tasks and are to do every task a certain way which is time efficient such as how they flip a burger and how they cook it. “McJobs” are routinized and scripted, keeping the worker within interaction boundaries, deskilling the employee for future occupations, or social situations. He brings up the point that the relationship between customer and employee is starting to deteriorate, these lower types of jobs are ensuing much more work on the customer than ever before, in some situations there isn’t even any human mployees at all, he brings up a very popular piece of technology the ATM where the customer does all of the work necessary for loaning or withdrawing money, formerly done by a bank clerk.
The article, I quite liked because, I’ve never looked at this industry before,it opened my eyes to it, and from a point of view that has never worked in aplace like this taught me new things and gave a me a new outlook. I liked how the author started it out with statistics because it gave an overview of why he chose to write
The film introduces the concept of McDonaldization to the food companies. McDonalds first introduced this concept in the first fast food chain; the idea was to make the restaurant more efficient. In the 1930’s, McDonalds own a very successful chain of restaurants, but they McDonald brothers wanted to expand their brand; while doing this they would revolutionize the restaurant industry. They would hire employees to do only one just, such as cooking the fries, and this would be the only thing the employee would do all day at work. The purpose was to be able to get food out faster and hire workers for lower wages because of the small amount of responsibilities the worker would have. The restaurant would fire all the extra employees and simplify the menu, and then the first fast food restaurant would be born. The concept of McDonaldization spread to many other restaurants and is still in use today. The idea of McDonaldization also made its way to meat packing companies; the assembly line concept will be used. Employees do the same demeaning task all day, and their pay reflects the low level of creativity. Many other businesses have incorporated the idea of simplifying decisions and decreasing the time it takes to make a sale. Think about the mall, every store is laid out and organized in a manner where
In working at McDonalds, Amitai Etzioni asserts that working at a fast food chain restaurants is dangerous for teenagers. He feels this because of the mass production jobs offered to these kids. Etzioni argues that McDonalds if a pioneer, trendsetter, and sign that give jobs to the teenagers. He asserted that McDonalds has a job that is not educational in many ways but it is far from offering opportunities for self-scheduling, self-supervision, self-reliant and entrepreneurship.
After reading the article called “The McDonaldization of Society” by George Ritzer I wholeheartedly agree that in today's society people simply want pretty much everything in a fast, efficient way. Everyone is guilty of falling into the McDonaldization of society, whether is from shopping online to the way they obtain food. For example, when I wake up late for work or when I’m seriously not in the mood to cook I would either call Domino's or go to the nearest fast food place. However, when I’m able to prepare food for myself I make meals like tofu with brown rice, green bell peppers and orange sauce. Or make a vegan pizza out of cauliflower topped with sundried tomatoes and vegan cheese. I also agree with the article when it says, “Another dehumanizing aspect of fast-food restaurants is that they minimize contact among human beings (Ritzer 5).” I believe this is somewhat true when it concerns with customers since I actually know some people who are currently working as a cashier at McDonald’s. Though whenever I’m there it’s hard to really speak to them since there are usually people nearby who want to order as well. So, usually I only talk to them briefly.
Passage “For example, the fast-food restaurant is often a dehumanizing setting in which to eat or work. People lining up for a burger, or waiting in the drive-through line, often fell as if they are dinning on an assembly line.”
In his book “The McDonaldization of Society” the author George Ritzer provides us a very clear explanation of the kind of world we currently live in. According to Ritzer, Mcdonaldization influences many other companies, such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot, to follow the same principles of the fast-food industry. This fast food moved a step up, it is no longer considered just a company like other ones, it has become a part of our culture. For example, before I moved from my home country if anyone mentioned the name “McDonald’s” around me I would instantly think about United States.
In todays world, technology has become a large contribution to everyones daily life. We ese it to check the time, weather, get in contact with other people, and to stay in the loop on social media. Even so more dependent on your phone that without it you feel a void. Ritzer uses the example when someone Googles something or blog about a recent trip, he relates that to McDonaldization. According to George Ritzer, McDonaldization "is the process by which principles of fast food restaurants have to come to dominate virtually every aspect of society.” He uses the example McDonalds and other fast foods such as Wendys, Domino, Burger King, etc that offers a different way of labor intensive. The reason why it has been so compelling is because it is so convenient and affordable. These reasons make it easy and important for our society
There are some things that have all the stages of it, but others are missing a few that could make it better in a certain way. For McDonaldization, there will always be more ways to make things more efficient and a better product. You will always have to plan, improve and progress certain aspects, along with there is always standardization like frenetic and stress. I sympathize with Ritzer’s critical stance because it is true that there is false friendliness and not all things are cheap. Sometimes there are poor quality items which becomes more of a waste rather than something that is helping the American culture. He also says how it is dehumanizing and I agree that we are now relying on robots to do things for us rather than us achieving them ourselves. Even though I agree with Ritzer, I am also optimistic about the future in hope that there will be more things that are easily quantified, simplified, time-saving and consistent over time. There just has to be more work put in to come up with ways we could accomplish these ideas in certain items and places. The main objectives are to produce one best way that you can get things done and replace the “rule of
The term was used to show how the principles of the fast food industry have come to dominate all parts of American society and the rest of the world. The main idea of McDonaldization is the process of taking a task and breaking it down into smaller tasks. This is repeated until all tasks have been broken down to the smallest possible level. The result is an efficient and logical sequence of tasks that can be completed in the same way almost every time to produce the desired outcome. What we can learn from my photo from a social sense is that McDonaldization has caused an over rationalization in society. This photo shows how we as people have continued to find new and innovate ways to break down task make them more efficient, predictable, reliable and use less human technology. This photo shows how subtly McDonaldization has affected every facet of our lives. Our culture continues to value efficiency, predictability, and quantity. Especially young people specifically college students having limited amount time in their day having things be time efficient and cost effective come as second nature to us. Also, compare this photo to what happens when you enter a place like Moe’s Grill. Workers shout welcome to Moe’s when you enter. The workers shout out a phrase like this because they are merely following a corporate script. This the major concept of Mcdonlzation following a script of efficiency in order to make your business operate as effective a possible. I think the biggest take away from this photo is the idea of McDonaldization of universities. The idea of focused curricula, delivering degrees in a fast-track pick and mix fashion to satisfy all tastes. Rather than focusing and continuing to work with students to expand make sure they understand the knowledge being presented to them many colleges are forced to fast track education to hit preferred profit margins
Never in my life did I think I would have to say the words, “Welcome to McDonalds, how may I help you?” I was a dedicated AP Student, the daughter of two colleghumbly standing under the golden yellow arches,dressed in my newly purchased American Eagle ripped jeans, suede wedges, and bright yellow floral tank top with my application in hand. As I hesitated outside the doors, the air laden with the smell of hopelessness and greasy burgers, I feared that I would soon be awarded the commonly characterized stigma of a McDonald’s worker: lazy and virtually worthless through the eyes of society. But as I discreetly walked inside and passed my application over a counter stained with coffee marks and french fries pasted to the surface, I had no idea of the transformation I would soon experience; lessons I would learn that would prove to be of greater worth than any wages ever made.
McDonaldization is the standardizing of our everyday life. The first principle is efficiency, which means that we want to do things as quickly as possible. The second principle is predictability, meaning that everything is the same from one place to the next. The third principle is calculability, where there is more focus on producing a large quantity of something and less focus on the quality. The fourth principle is non-human technology, that involves taking away skills from humans and putting them into machines. Some positive outcomes of McDonaldization are that people can get most anything they want instantly. Another advantage is that if you go to China, and get a Big Mac you expect to get the same quality and the burger to tastes the
McDonaldization of Society is a term created by a sociologist George Ritzer to define what is occurred in our society. Basically, McDonaldization is the method of rationalization, although taken to great levels. Rationalization is a sociological term that basically implies or explain the substitution of coherently steady guidelines for habitual or unreasonable rules. One of the crucial parts of McDonaldization is that any assignment can and must be efficient.
McDonaldization as a management logic has spread further than the fast food industry from which it originated. Choose a case study and discuss.
Mcdonaldization, according to George Ritzer, “is the rationalization taken to its extreme.” I have the “luxury” of being employed by Sears, company which is a chain of department stores across the country. At Sears, I am an appliances sales consultant. A normal day in this position consist of arriving on time to get my reports for the day. These reports are different customer information, complains, and request that have to be dealt with by either me, or I have to find the appropriate person to be able to help. Once that is taken care of, it is my job to catch up on the appliances the Sears sells and formulation a sales pitch that will successfully persuade the customer to buy their appliances during their visit. This consist of finding out the known problems, known questions, and solutions that have worked for other people. After this is done, it is time to engage the customer.
McDonald’s is a multinational fast-food hamburger chain. The company was founded in 1940 by two brothers named Maurice and Richard McDonald (“McDonald’s”). McDonald’s currently has over 35,000 restaurants and serve over 68 million customers a day on average (“History of”). The fast-food giant makes 28 billion dollars annually, and are the largest fast-food chain in the world (“McDonald’s”). That calculates to 75 million dollars a day, which is unreal. This paper will examine the working conditions of the employees.
Since the day that McDonald’s Corporation was founded, the company has devoted to provide the high quality food and best service to customers. However, the truth is there is no delivery services in the UK’s McDonald’s system. In order to satisfy customer’s needs and wants, and for those customers who are not convenient to go outside, McDonald’s is planning to develop the food delivery system in the UK. On one hand, this move might increase the number of consumers, so that more profit could be made. On the other hand, more employees are required for the company, then more job opportunities are created, it has positive influence to the society.