Effects McDonaldization example essay topic

People At Work Coursework Question To what extent do you consider this concept of the McDonaldization of society disturbing, expected or inevitable, for employees in the century. Also the possible consequences for theories of human motivation and whether the concept applies equally to all jobs. In this paper I will be analyzing the effects McDonaldization has on society and the employees of the century. I will be discussing whether McDonaldization is to be expected, accepted, rejected or is inevitable. I will also be arguing that McDonaldization does effect employee motivation, and how it fits in the numerous theories on motivation. McDonaldization as defined by George Ritzer is "the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of society".

This concept originally stems from the concept of bureaucracy, which was a type of organisational structure that aimed to rationalism and standardize its products and services and the processes it took to produce them. McDonaldization differs somewhat from bureaucracy as it concerns itself with its five main points: Efficiency, Calculatability, Predictability and Control. For the emphasis to be on these points it has an effect on employee's jobs. Often it involves the de-skilling of the employees, under McDonaldization employees do not need a wide range of skills, In fact just to be productive they only need to know how to complete a single task. This has numerous benefits for the organisation, primarily it cuts down on training costs as it does not cost much to train for low skilled jobs, and as these jobs are so low skilled employees can be paid minimum wage. It also leaves employees with little bargaining power as staff can be replaced so easily.

Jobs often become standardized and continually repetitive and leave room for little or free thinking or initiative to be employed. Staff are often replaced or governed by technological changes. However it is argued that the effects McDonaldization has on employees depends on the many variables surrounding your job i.e. public or private, Blue collar (professional) or white collar (menial) jobs or simply the type of industry retail, service or tertiary. Public sector jobs tend to be as less affected by McDonaldization than private sector jobs, this is primarily because most public sector organisations are run primarily to benefit the nation rather than to make profit.

The public sector is seen to be more customer orientated than most private organisations which are profit orientated, and therefore will look upon employees as being more valuable tend to prefer not to have high levels of staff turnover. Although some effects of McDonaldization still effect employees in the public sector such as the de-skilling of workers due to the introduction of new and improved technologies. McDonaldization is less likely to effect those in professional positions because in most cases professionals tend to have more creative control, as their assets tend to be in their knowledge or creative thinking, rather then a more menial job which include working with your hands and in most cases require less skills. As most menial jobs have had many introduction's of new technology making human employees obsolete and thus standardizing the work of many white collar workers. Among the different industries none have seen the effects of McDonaldization as much as the service industry, which incidentally instigated the process McDonaldization. There have been radical changes in the service industry as a result of McDonaldization.

This is due to the fact that in order for many organisations in the service to remain competitive they must employ some form of rationalization into their structure in order to achieve maximum profit minimum waste. This is evident when we look at catering, the fast-food restaurant, the drive-through, set meals etc or for example if you call the phone company for a query you will have to go through at least 3 different switchboards before you can speak to someone who can address your query. These are examples of how rationalization has played a part in the service industry. The retail sector has also been changed drastically by McDonaldization, in many factories factory have been replaced by robots which do the work for a fraction of the cost and are easily controlled, and usually the extent of staffs tasks are to push a button or supervise the robots. But Upon saying that a lot of the high street retail outlets are not subject to dehumanization as of yet, although they are subject to the standardization of jobs with one person dealing with all customer queries and others behind the till. It can be argued that McDonaldization and this level of standardization and rationalization is to be expected.

With the growth of the service sector and the globalization of many big organisations McDonaldization is the best option for providing an efficient and competitive service. McDonaldization reaps many benefits for these organisations as I have outline earlier, although what benefits do they hold for the consumer? Primarily McDonaldization has made it possible to structure our environments so that surprises and differentness do not encroach our sensibilities. People tend not to stray to the unknown and rather stick with what we know i.e. A burger from McDonalds will taste the same in London and in New York. But from a sociological standpoint could McDonaldization be an underlying reason why we are so scared of change, in something as trivial as meal. The sociological effects of McDonaldization are more widespread and profound than just in workplace.

George Ritzer argued that McDonaldization has a lot of social implications. In a society that acknowledges Efficiency, Predictability, Calcul ability and Control as its main objectives, have had perverse effects on those who experience it. Ritzer said that "It leads to people wanting everything fast, and having a limited attention span because we want everything fast to deal with something than takes longer to what we are accustomed to". McDonaldization has set the standard for what we are used to, if something is not as we perceive it should be we immediately reject it or subconsciously feel it's inferior to the norm.

We are constantly bombarded with advertising and persuasions telling us that "this way is the right way". Dr Ellen Langer argued that human brains take too much for granted, She argued "If we are told something is the 'correct' way for long enough we will stop looking for alternatives and simply accept it as the way things should be". With McDonaldised Organisations defining to us what to perceive as normal and different the sociological implications it holds are tremendous as it has the capabilities to mould the values of society. As I have just outlined that McDonaldization effects our everyday life so much that it has the power to define what we consider our norms, it must in turn effect our "wants and desires" and the motives behind achieving them. When looking at how McDonaldization fits in with the different theories of human motivation Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of needs probably is the most common practised. Maslow's theory suggests that there is a hierarchy of basic needs that must be met in order for someone to have the proper motivation at work.

He placed these into a series of different levels or the order of importance of these basic needs. They were in order Physiological, Safety, Love, Esteem and Self- Actualization. I will argue that McDonaldization has a profound and quite evident effect on the hierarchy of needs. Primarily are the physiological requirements that may include a good working environment by this I mean warm, dry, well lit etc. Also attractive wages and salary, McDonaldization has directed effected the wages and salaries offered as most Mcdonaldised organisations tend to look toward the replacement of human by non-human technology. This often leads to more jobs becoming single task jobs, Single task employees require less education, so they can be paid at a minimum wage.

McDonaldization does not effect the Safety conditions at work. Although it does pose a threat to job security, as most companies tend to favour the substitution of non-human for human technology. Love incorporates work relationships, affiliation and a feeling of belonging these are examples of human gregariousness. McDonaldization places shackles on these basis human needs in and outside of the workplace. McDonaldization aims to put restrictions on the relationships, communication and interaction between employees. If we look at the basis for McDonaldization and Bureaucracy we can see that they are so coldly logical and concern with efficiency they leave no room for human feeling to get in the way of achieving goals, even if it is at the employees expense.

George Ritzer described McDonaldised society as a system of "iron cages" which he described by saying "humans are instinctively creative, in a McDonaldised society constraints are always being placed on human creativity, like we were in an iron cage". This point directly effects the self-esteem, self-actualization and the self-fulfilment, by placing constraints on your thoughts, position and scope to further your knowledge and scope. It has been argued that standardization of jobs is not necessarily a de-motivator at work. This ties in with Fredrick Herzbergs 2 factor theory.

In which he said that Hygiene factors usually lead to dissatisfaction at work but are not always motivators. These Factors include Company Administration, Supervision, Working Conditions, Relationships, Salary, Status and Security. As I outlined in previous paragraphs that McDonaldization has a negative impact on all these things. Herzbergs model also names motivators as being achievement, recognition, interest in tasks, responsibility and advancement. McDonaldization by design makes it more difficult to make big achievements and even harder to be recognised for them.

With the standardization of many jobs interest in the tasks are unlikely to play a big part in motivation. Increased responsibility, growth and advancement have also been negatively effected by McDonaldization and opportunities for either of these motivators is become bleak. Overall one can see that the effects McDonaldization have had on society and its employees tend to be negative ones. But the reason it is so widespread is because huge organisations rely on it as a means to maximis e profit. But is the price too high for the rest of us to bear. It plays as a de-motivator, effects our everyday thinking.

Bibliography

George Ritzer 'The McDonaldization Of Society " Abraham Maslow Fredrick Herzberg Dr Ellen LangerMullinsBuchanan & Huczynski.