McDonaldization Process in the Fast Food Industry - Case Study Example

MCDONALDISATION al Affiliation) McDonaldization is a rationalization process that started in the United s of America. This rationalization process takes to extreme levels, which involves the replacement of technologically advanced rules to traditional rules. The principles of McDonaldization are recently put into practice by a majority of fast foods in the American society to dominate in their specific sectors. This concept is common in fast foods but it has now been put into practice by many industries such as bookstores, newspapers, stores, learning, toys, and childcare. This process involves breaking down tasks into smaller tasks then repeating the breaking down process to the smallest units possible. The smaller units go through a process of rationalization to come up with the most efficient method. This most efficient method is put into practice to complete the various tasks while the other inefficient techniques are deemed (Bakardjieva, 2014). Three important environmental factors drive McDonaldization. These factors heavily contribute to the increase in popularity of this process. These environmental factors are: the extent to which this process is in line with other essential changes that take place in the society, the American culture which readily accepts the McDonaldization process and the material interests. Using these process of McDonaldization, many companies in various sectors are able to attain there goals and objectives. This process is highly in demand due to its high consistency levels with other social changes that take place worldwide. This process thrives well in a set up that encourages high mobility in its sector such as high movement of the customers in restaurants (Esmer, 2006). Four clear dimensions illustrate the process of McDonaldization. The first angle is efficiency. The restaurants design an efficient way to ensure that their clients are able to get maximum satisfaction. In order to achieve this process efficiency, the workers at the fast foods and other industries that use this rationalization process have to operate efficiently by following well designed steps. Despite McDonaldization, not creating emphasis for efficiency it has become a reality to many industries in many sectors around the world. It has become a critical tool in the everyday life (Galland and Ritzer, 1996). The rationalization process of McDonaldization has massively spread to other outlets in the fast food industry. These restaurants and outlets include Burger King, Taco Bell, and Domino’s bell. These companies use well organized processes to ease the movement of customers in and out of their premises. The frozen food industry has become more popular recently due to the high demand of simple and faster cooking at consumers’ homes. The use of diet books is a more convenient way to achieve weight loss. There is distribution of pills to facilitate weight loss while fast foods increase the sale of prepackaged food and snacks. Multinational corporations are have incorporated the use of this process in there today businesses (Luhman, 2005). Many industries such as the department stores, gas stations, and shopping malls have streamlined their outlets to enable consumers to purchase their products faster and efficiently. In the modern times, higher institutions of learning use machines to assess and grade their students to leave more time for scholarly research and publication. In the entertainment industry the McDonaldization, process efficiency has been of great help by enabling the watching of DVDs at consumers’ specific premises than going to the theatre to watch these movies. It is more time saving as well as being cheaper and convenient. The second dimension of McDonaldization is calculability. This dimension focuses on the quantitative aspects of products in their various industries. A good example of this dimension is the calculation between the hours an individual prepares their food and the time it takes one to go to a fast food and get some food. The American society puts concentration on quantity over quality. It is not appropriate to use the emphasis of quantity over quality on industries since it leads to a reduction in the quality of customers. A convenient way to have increased quantity output without affecting the quality is by breaking down the output process. This method of breaking down processes is very applicable in the fast food process, in most industries that hire many employees. Employees end up getting very small tasks making them do so little tasks that they lack a sense of pride in their job. This aspect also reduces the quality and level of experiences of these specific employees (Matheson, Moorman and Winburn, 1997). This aspect also affects the sector of higher learning. Nowadays, many universities only concentrate in producing many students through the system instead of concentrating with the quality of education. The quality of education considers what the students have learnt and the experience they gain. This system has gone to extreme levels; students are ranked according to the grades they score against their colleagues while institutions of higher learning are also ranked against each other in determining a student’s quality (Sharkey and Ritzer, 2000). Predictability is also another dimension of McDonaldization. This aspect comes into realization and actual practice when an individual expects to find the same product they always find in a specific store. For example, when consistent consumers shop from a fast food, they expect to get the same treatment. Workers will be wearing the same attires and their advertisements and branding will more likely be the same too. Predictability has advantages as well as shortcomings in these industries that put McDonaldization into practice (Strawbridge, 2003). This dimension facilitates efficiency by enabling consistent production of similar goods and services. However, this is achieved at the expense of making the industries products look predictable instead of shoeing some level of creativity. The movie industry is a good example of such an industry that is heavily affected by this dimension of McDonaldization. This has led to the production of movies that lack originality such as Spiderman, Shrek, Saw, and The Matrix. Due to this trend of producing movies that lack originality, consumers now seem to appreciate them more and these increases their demand in the market. Latest statistics show that the probability of an unoriginal movie succeeding in the box office is higher than that of an original movie. This fact also makes their sales and profits predictable. Another aspect in which the McDonaldization has affected the way of life of through predictability is how they shop for goods and services. Many people especially those from an urban setting shop in shopping malls that are full of McDonalized stores. These stores offer predictable products and services, which makes consumers to adopt a system of using the same products over a long period (The McDonaldization of society, 2004). The last dimension of McDonaldization is control. Many firms through the limited menus, using of lines to serve customers and using uncomfortable seats, apply this dimension. This aspect of control is very applicable in firms in the service industry since it allows serving many customers at a given duration. In fast foods, it enables customers to have their food very quickly and leave the food outlets for other customers to enjoy the services. This system is not only controlling customers but also workers. This system ensures that the employees in various departments within an organization deliver according to customers’ expectation. The practice of this aspect of control is in many fields such as healthcare and aviation. In healthcare when an individual goes to consult a doctor the doctor only does basic examination and refers them to another expert. This process of transfer from one expert to other experts goes on until the experts get the solution of the problem. This is contrary to the norm of expecting one doctor such as the family doctor to deal with an individual’s problem completely. One would think that the pilots do significant amounts of tasks while flying airplanes. This is usually not the case as almost all the work is done by computers and many other experts in the control room. What they do is to run these planes in the taking off and landing. The McDonalized stores have a control system that they control their workers and customers in a specific manner that they want them to behave. In fast foods, the process of food preparation is normally predetermined. The food that is sold is always pre-cooked, cut, wrapped and seasoned. McDonaldization has many advantages such as providing goods that have uniform quality, availing a large proportion of goods to support the high demands of these goods and lastly to provide individuals with goods instantly when needed. Despite these advantages, the process entails it largely suffers from irrationality of rationality. The bureaucracies that come because of McDonaldization might have a dehumanization effect. They can provide poor working conditions for employers when overemphasized. Too many regulations and rules also lead to a situation where these systems largely become inefficient. In situations where clients are not sure to receive their expectations and employees do not know what is required of them the systems become unpredictable. A good example is the way people still go to have their meals on fast foods despite them knowing the health consequences associated with them. This system of McDonaldization fixes peoples’ mind into getting used to getting products instantly. As a result of this process many households prefer going to fast foods than cooking since it is quicker and cheaper hence seems more convenient. Parents nowadays substitute their parental duties of reading storybooks to their children by giving them audio books. This affects the parent child relationship. This effect of McDonaldization has gone to extreme levels where individuals now really on medications to give them quicker arousals thus McDonalizing intimate relationships. This process brings adverse effects to the environment too. The large output of products and services from fast foods and other McDonaldized sectors increase the wastages that are deposited in the environment. These wastages include farm animals’ waste, packaging waste, and chemical waste. The application of McDonaldization in institutions of higher learning has greatly affected the teacher student relationship. In conclusion, it is of great importance to acknowledge the application of McDonaldization in many sectors such as the fast food sector. Institutions and customers should come up with appropriate ways of dealing with the issue of increasing McDonaldization in recent times. It has to the realization of many individuals that McDonaldization is a general concept and proper scrutiny should be put in place when dealing with it to apply it. This scrutiny may involve the weighing of advantages and disadvantages of applying this process in the various sectors. The system is flexible and gives room for changes. References Bakardjieva, M. 2014. Social media and the McDonaldization of friendship. Communications, 39(4). Esmer, Y. 2006. Globalization, "McDonaldization" and Values: Quo Vadis?. Comparative Sociology, 5(2), pp.183-202. Galland, O. and Ritzer, G. 1996. The McDonaldization of Society. Revue Française de Sociologie, 37(3), p.480. Luhman, J. 2005. Marx and McDonaldization. Philosophy of Management, 5(2), pp.17-23. Matheson, B., Moorman, R. and Winburn, D. 1997. The McDonaldization of Advising. NACADA Journal, 17(1), pp.13-14. Sharkey, S. and Ritzer, G. 2000. The McDonaldization of Society. Teaching Sociology, 28(3), p.273. Strawbridge, S. 2003. McDonaldization or fast food therapy. Dramatherapy, 25(1), pp.20-23. The McDonaldization of society. 2004. Choice Reviews Online, 42(03), pp.42-1911-42-1911. Read More