Mcdonalds and you Essay Summary Example For Students

Mcdonalds and you Essay Summary In todays complicated and ever changing society, we often try to achieve a sense of stability and familiarity around us. One way our culture has tried to make life a little easier is by implementing a function now know as McDonaldization. McDonaldization is defined as 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. (1) The success of McDonalds, and of McDonaldization as a whole, is due to four basic factorsefficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. One of the first functions of McDonaldization is efficiency. Efficiency means choosing the optimum means to an given end. In our society, people like to have things go as quickly and as smoothly as possible, but they do not want to find out the fastest waythemselves. Instead, people like to have a system that has already been used and that theyknow works. Efficiency has its advantages for both consumers, who get what they wantquickly and with little effort, and for workers, who can perform their tasks in a simplemanner. The fast food industry is very streamlined, because hamburgers are the simplestfood there is to make. Other foods also do not need a lot of ingredients, and they aresimple to make and to eat. Most of the food is also prepared so one can eat it with theirhands, thereby reducing the need for utensils. In the process of McDonaldization,consumers are forced to do a good deal of work as well. They have to stand on line,carry their own food, and throw out the garbage. This is not as efficient for theconsumer, but it saves time for the workers. Education, health care, and the work placeare all becoming McDonaldalized in order to become more efficient. Efficiency inMcDonaldization has streamlined many processes, simplified goods and services, andforces the consumer to do work as well. Another factor of McDonaldization is calculability. This tends to put more of anemphasis on quantity rather than quality, but it allows the consumer to get a lot of foodquickly. When things are easily counted, it facilitates the process by making it morepredictable by using the same amount of materials. Part of McDonalds is an emphasis onsize. Everything is super sized, or have names that make food items seem larger thanthey actually are. Calculability, however, also leads to the quality of the food beingneglected. Because people feel as if they are getting a lot of food for their money, theyare not as worried about how good it tastes. Food is always weighed and measuredprecisely, which is another part of calculability. All burgers weigh the same amount, thereare the same number of fries in each container, and the new drink machines dispense thesame amount to each cup. This same theory is seen in our education system. Studentsare herded through, and no one really pays much attention to what or how they arelearning, just that they receive high grades so they can get into a good college. Healthcare has also seen the impact of these, because now patients are mainly treated just tosqueeze some money out of them, and doctors seemingly dont truly care about theirpatients anymore. Calculability basically reduces the quality of goods, but improves theThe third function of McDonaldization is predictability. In our society, peopleusually want to know exactly what to expect from a given situation. Predictability givesthe consumer a break from having to make difficult decisions, and the worker can performtheir task with little effort. The needs of everyone become easily anticipated. One of thefirst places predictability became common was with motel chains. Before motels becamefranchised, guests didnt know exactly what they would be getting, for the good or thebad. But then hotels such as Holiday Inn and Howard Johnsons started, and guests knewexactly what they were going t o get when they stayed there. This new practice wascopied in the food industry, namely by McDonalds. First, they started with a large andnoticeable sign, that could be easily recognized. People from around the world now knowthe McDonalds symbol is a giant yellow M. Something else that is predictable is theway employees are forced to interact with customers. Employees have a set script thatthey must follow, and this gives them some control over their customers. Their work isalso done in the same manner, for example, the hamburgers all must be cooked the exactsame way for the same amount of time. They also must dress and act in a certain way. - 1 - EssayThis system is fairly predictable, although not in a good way. During registrationtime, students know that they will have to spend many hours just waiting in line withnothing to do. They also can predict there will not be any seats left, that half of thewindows will be closed by lunch time, and that it will always be about a million degrees inthe waiting area. Students also are used to the gray schedule booklets, as well as theyellow registration cards. Seeing either of those items leads the students to think aboutexactly what they must go through, in order to register successfully. The final element, control, is seen as well. Students are being controlled by a tinylittle slip of paper they hold in their hand, which has a simple number on it. That numbersignifies their place on line, but it was generated by a computer, which keeps track of howmany people are waiting. Students also rely on the kiosk system, which shows whichclasses are still open, and which have been closed out. These factors help keepregistration as a controlled process. McDonaldization is becoming more and more prevalent in todays changing world. However, it allows us to expect certain things, helps us to manage our time better, andmake life in general a little bit simpler. It also, however, cuts down on the individuals ofour society, and forces them to conform to a set standard, which is considered the norm. Some places are able to use McDonaldization effectively, while others are still strugglingto implement it in a way which makes it work. It is a complicated process, which requiresa good deal of thinking and brainstorming to manage successfully. All in all,McDonaldization has both positive and negative impacts on our world. Bibliography: