An Irrationality of Rationality of McDonaldization
Have you bought any clothing produced by H&M, queued up in Disneyland for enjoying
thrill rides, or used whichever ATM to make withdrawal? All these actions show that you
are involved in McDonaldization. George Ritzer (1993) devised the term
“McDonaldization” about a decade ago in terms of four main dimensions of performing
efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. According to John and Nijole (2009),
“the McDonaldzation of society is manifest at all levels and in all realms of the social
world”, many people seem to be attracted by the McDonaldized system because of few
causes that will be explained in this article. Yet, this process actually is not good for
society as a whole, as illustrated in the following reasons.
In the first place, by and large, great numbers of people throughout the world have come to
value McDonaldization and it has turned into a part of value system of humankind on
account of material interests. In order to lower costs and pursue higher profits,
profit-making enterprises seek McDonaldization (Rizer, 2011). It is quite normal for
merchants that aim to make profit maximization in their business. In an article in the Soc
2015 – Social Problems, “McDonaldization: Applying the principles” (2015) presented
that McDonaldized process increases profits. For example, McDonald’s has abridged
customers’ choices by just providing a simple menu to make it easier for the staffs with
receiving restricted training and being paid low wages. This layout palpably reflected that
enterpreneurs or enterprises are following McDonaldized system for bringing down costs
and boosting profits. More and more companies work in McDonaldized system around the
world and lead to McDonaldization seems to appeal to a lot of people.
WHY DOES MCDONALDIZATION SEEM TO APPEAL TO MANY PEOPLE? DO
YOU THINK THIS PROCESS IS GOOD FOR SOCIETY AS A WHOLE?
In addiction, many people have come to pursue the fundamental principles of
McDonaldization whether or not will come economic gains, meanwhile, be loyal to some
companies and neglect the disadvantages. For instance, having a meal in a fast-food
restaurant or a microwave dinner at home both are more efficient than home cooking
“from scratch” (Ritzer, 2011). People are willing to pay the additional cost as they value
efficiency. According to Erhan (2011), most of the companies firstly aim to make profit so
they do not take the social responsibility. It is easily to influence youngsters and children
when marketers target them by using multiple techniques and channels like through social
