SOCI201 Exam 3 Material Exam on Nov 11th 10 23 What o o o o o o is McDonalds Food chain Multinational corporation Cultural icon Massive employer More McDonalds outside of the US than there are in the US Process Tables in the front have to enter through the sides close to the counter Get to the front of the line and order Get food take it to a table clean up mess Not able to deviate from process model Set up to be highly efficient Highly efficient customers do most of the work food is predictable know what you re getting flourishes because it is able to make a lot of food focuses on quantity not quality Little opportunity to deviate from highly controlled process The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer o Rationalization There is a best way to do something Generally involves making it more efficient controlled predictable more calculated etc Ex McDonalds online Banking supermarkets etc o To participate in social activities as efficient as possible there are inefficiencies that are created from this o Ironically the systems we think are the optimum things can create their own inefficiencies o Helps to facilitate mass production and mass consumption o 4 principles Efficiency Look for best route Predictability Things are the same from 1 time to another Calculability Quantity rather than quality Non human technology Different degrees of McDonaldization o Ex Home Depot Before it you would hire other people o Role of the customer is very important o We are part of process in a way we never used to be o Would not be successful without the need to consume something o Ability to change the way we used to do things Obliterates all other ways of doing things o Becomes an imperialistic force o The model will overtake all preexisting models Max Weber and George Ritzer o Iron cage of rationality 2 components Imperialistic force Degrees of this Idea that it can take over old ways of doing things Once it becomes successful it becomes the only way of doing it Trapped in a process Process becomes more important than the end it was desired to meet o Ex DMV Has division of labor Different booths counters tellers that are generally numbered and do something different Don t necessarily take people in like a McDonalds would Not every counter can do everything Each person has a very specific defined task Supposed to mean people do very specific tasks that s all they do Idea is that it will be most efficient way to meet all those ends Ironically this doesn t always happen Very specific defined way of meeting the end you need met o Adherence to the model took precedence to result it was supposed to meet Human condition of these environments o Scripted environments in a McDonalds o Depersonalization effect Middle ground where everything we do is scripted Results in depersonalization Dehumanizes the situation when everything is scripted Confines people to a particular way of interacting with people 10 25 McDonaldization o the process by which the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world Ritzer 2011 o McDonalds Cheap Creates jobs Profitable Highly efficient Predictable Comforting Notion that there s an experience they have available to them if they want it Wider range of goods and services available New consumers goods methods of production technologies and forms of organization Placed in very specific locations Quality of food is consistent relatively uniform o Everyone is treated the same equality of condition o Key aspects Efficiency calculability predictability control o Based on Weber s rationalization of society Bureaucracy optimum means to an end Structured organization Division of labor variety of offices A way to provide for a division of labor to ultimately accomplish a goal Applied to production and consumption allows for McDonald s to flourish Trapped in the iron cage of rationality cannot deviate from the formal rules Rules become more important than the end they were meant to facilitate System takes precedent over the end it was meant to achieve in the most optimal way Experience of the people involved Customer and employees Scripted interaction o Depersonalizes and dehumanizes o Potential for development of other skills left unrealized in this system Fundamental irrationality of iron cage o Not personal scripted dehumanizes Employee System has very limited opportunities many constraints Notoriously treated poorly at McDonalds Working in positions that never really let you leave the positions 10 28 IKEA o o o o o o o o o o o o o Economic level of dehumanization Constraints in system that create and perpetuate the inability to do anything else but work at McDonalds Pay is so poor that it doesn t let you get a whole lot of skills or leave this economic system in life 52 of fast food families use public assistance 1 out of 2 fast food workers families are forced to use public assistance that costs taxpayers nearly 7 billion can work full time and not get above the poverty threshold Dehumanization as an interesting example of McDonaldization Arrows on the floor Controls you Want you to see products in a particular way When you get off path you get lost disoriented Try to sell you on the idea of how efficient it is to put together your own furniture Saves them from doing work Selling us on the idea we re saving money by doing it ourselves Contradicts in many ways that its actually efficient Its controlled arrows mazelike Only way to be in IKEA is to participate the way they want you to Few employees on the floor at IKEA Don t really need them Highly calculated dimensions weight cost are all displayed clearly Tells you where to pick them up in warehouse To IKEA they think their process is efficient Most of them are identical on the outside and inside Predictable Rationalization Optimum means to an end o o Each o o Touches on the values we embrace IKEA is not just in America it s international Globalized Epidemy of globalization of the dimensions of McDonaldization Efficiency Calculability 10 30 IKEA o Efficiency customers do much of the work one stop shopping most items on sale o Calculability huge size of the stores feeling that you are getting lot at a low price furniture in boxes o Predictability size store layout types of furniture Globalitems are more or less the same around the world o Control the maze like layout leads consumers through selfcheck out the norm o Irrationality of rationality