Max Weber's Rationalization: The Building Block Of Mcdonaldization

The fourth concept is control. We become more dependent on the very things that McDonaldization creates because we are in less control while computers are in more control. The companies control the wages they pay to each of their employees. There is a huge wage gap among males and females. Currently, the pay for women is approximately 79% less than what men are paid for performing the same job or holding the same position. The gap is even worse for women of color. Since the 1970’s, the vast majority of women have been part of the labor force, yet these family ideals and the assumption that women are better suited to domestic responsibilities with the family live on. There is legislation against this type of exploitation, but it still exists. As Weber states on his chapter of bureaucracy, “the ruled, for their part, cannot dispense with or replace the bureaucratic apparatus once it exists, for it rests upon expert training, a functional specialization of work, and an attitude set on habitual
Even though there is an efficiency to this method, it often results in burnout. The building block of McDonaldization is Max Weber's concept of rationalization which is the process of replacing traditional and emotional thought with reason and efficiency. Weber believed that most societies throughout history were governed by tradition and that the most significant trend in modern sociology is an increasing rationalization of every part of our daily lives. He also believed that rationalization would continue until our society would become an iron cage, dehumanizing everyone and creating an extreme level of uniformity. Weber says that “the strength of power is the chance of a man or a number of men to realize their own will in a social action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action”. This is likened to women competing against men for the power to succeed in their