Ritzer's Macdonaldization
In this essay, I aim to explore the term ‘McDonaldization’ dubbed by esteemed Sociologist and University of Maryland Professor, George Ritzer, to correlate his findings with those of the English Sociologist Les Back and then ultimately examine the effect both Globally and Locally.
Ritzer’s concepts are fundamentally built around the theories of Max Weber, a German Sociologist who first established the idea of ‘Rationalization’. More specifically, four headings were used to define this shift in the organizational structure of society: Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability and Control of new technologies increasing the productivity of the modern world. I will explore the relevance of these headings later in this essay.
Weber maintained it was bureaucratization that contributes to this advance in achieving the “optimum means to ends” (Ritzer, 2008, 25). The bureaucracy as Weber defines it seems to be the prototype for flawless corporate functionality.
“A bureaucracy is a large-scale organization composed of a hierarchy of offices. In these offices, people have certain responsibilities and must act in accordance with rules, written regulations, and means of compulsion exercised by those who occupy higher-level positions”
With an operating structure as tightly knit as described above, it is no surprise that the paradigm of formal rationality according to Ritzer, McDonalds, is one of the most envied business models in the world. 50 million customers a day will find restaurants in 118 nations (Ritzer, 2008, 3). Thousands of businesses strive to emulate their successful rational framework yet fail to conquer, such as the fast-food giants, MacDonald’s. Franchising at an unbelievable rate, McDonalds profits are being maximized year after year as it expands worldwide.
A British author Martin Plimmer captures the mastery of their expansion “There are McDonalds everywhere. There’s one near you, and there’s one being built right now even nearer to you” (Ritzer, 2008,
Ritzer’s concepts are fundamentally built around the theories of Max Weber, a German Sociologist who first established the idea of ‘Rationalization’. More specifically, four headings were used to define this shift in the organizational structure of society: Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability and Control of new technologies increasing the productivity of the modern world. I will explore the relevance of these headings later in this essay.
Weber maintained it was bureaucratization that contributes to this advance in achieving the “optimum means to ends” (Ritzer, 2008, 25). The bureaucracy as Weber defines it seems to be the prototype for flawless corporate functionality.
“A bureaucracy is a large-scale organization composed of a hierarchy of offices. In these offices, people have certain responsibilities and must act in accordance with rules, written regulations, and means of compulsion exercised by those who occupy higher-level positions”
With an operating structure as tightly knit as described above, it is no surprise that the paradigm of formal rationality according to Ritzer, McDonalds, is one of the most envied business models in the world. 50 million customers a day will find restaurants in 118 nations (Ritzer, 2008, 3). Thousands of businesses strive to emulate their successful rational framework yet fail to conquer, such as the fast-food giants, MacDonald’s. Franchising at an unbelievable rate, McDonalds profits are being maximized year after year as it expands worldwide.
A British author Martin Plimmer captures the mastery of their expansion “There are McDonalds everywhere. There’s one near you, and there’s one being built right now even nearer to you” (Ritzer, 2008,
Bibliography: • Ritzer, G. 2008. The McDonaldization of Society. London: Pine Forge. • Back, L. 1997. 'Local/Global ' In Jenks, C. (ed.) Core Sociological Dichotomies. London: SAGE. • Klein, N. 2005. No Logo. London. Harper Perennial. • Macionis and Plummer. 2005. Sociology: a global introduction. Dublin. Pearson Education. • Watson. L. 2007. Golden Arches East: McDonalds in East Asia. California. Stanford Press.