McDonaldization refers to a process through which the fast-food values are becoming increasingly dominant in the present American society and other regions globally. The concept reflects a contemporary world’s form of the rationalization concept. Rationalization entails a sociological term, which revolves around replacing the rationally dependable illogical or traditional rules. A major aspect attributed to McDonaldization is that it is possible to rationalize any task. The concept usually adopts a task and divides it to minor activities. The process is repeated until it is not possible to break the tasks further. What follows is rationalizing the resultant tasks to identify the most effective approach of undertaking every task with the other strategies deemed ineffective and rejected. For the McDonaldization, experts argue that it will emerge as an organizational factor, which will represent as well as lengthen the rationalization process further to the domain of daily interaction. For this paper, therefore, it discusses the advantages and disadvantages attributed to the rationalization concept.
Advantages of McDonaldization
The McDonaldization concept features several advantages, most of which relate to convenience as well as affordability. For the present American society, it is realizing tremendous progress, while directing major emphasis toward convenience. For instance, a large number of people visiting fast-food establishments or purchasing from other stores, they are not looking forward to establishing personal relationships with the people serving them the products. When people are in social settings, such as when dealing with colleague at school, friends, coworkers, and family members, most of them feel that their personal relationships are overwhelming. The capacity for handling daily tasks rapidly provides them with opportunities for addressing the things they care for the most more efficiently. The concept of McDonaldization has afforded people the opening for handling their task more efficiently thus making it relevant in the present society, which features rapid advancements in technology and the ever-growing busy lifestyles.
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The idea of affordability also serves as a benefit attributed to the idea of McDonaldization. It has provided people with the ability of engaging in regular activities while affording them luxuries, which even the wealthiest workforce would not have imagined in the past. Today, almost all people can access a computing device to handle their diverse tasks. For the McDonaldization system, they have made the practice possible. In the past, many merchandizes were significantly expensive. However, they are quite cheap in the present world while almost all people can access them in developed nations. The immense information that cyberspace provides has made it possible to access any service or goods. The possibility has emerged due to the McDonaldization concept. In this sense, it would not be possible to downplay or overlook the positive influences that McDonaldization has brought to the society.
Disadvantages of McDonaldization
Despite the benefits attributed to McDonaldization, the concept also features certain drawbacks. For instance, a major negative associated with the phenomenon is that challenges prevail when it comes to differentiating between consumers and employees in McDonaldized systems. The practice is attributed to various panics, particularly when it comes to harms that the environment experiences, the challenging tasks attributed to McDonaldized occupations, as well as the hindrances of adopting a McDonaldized educational structure. Whereas McDonaldized companies utilize symbolic frames aimed at symbolizing the care that they direct toward communities, workforces, and patronages, these re usually superficial. In the event of McDonalds, for example, it utilizes symbols, including resort areas, Ronald McDonald House Charity, and friendly characters, including Ronald McDonald to depict the kind of care that they direct toward individuals. Nevertheless, this does not serve as the case. If such companies actually cared about the welfare of individuals, it would be possible to witness sturdier deployment of the human resource frame inside the companies. A major attack directed toward this approach would be the usage of the Theory Yin an effort to realize predictability and efficiency while minimizing reliability on control and calculability.
The deskilling idea also emerges as a drawback attributed to McDonaldization. The concept in this case applies to a workforce having minimal capabilities of performing certain simple focused duties. For instance, it is possible to trick the employees into training them cheaply and quickly making it easy to replace them. For instance, fast-food restaurants employ adolescents and those with inadequate education to fill the empty positions in an effort to minimize costs. The practice harms the employees and leads companies to lose their reputation in the eyes of the public and the community as well.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the McDonaldization practice features various benefits and drawbacks. For instance, regarding pros, it facilitates on matters related to affordability and convenience. The initiative also features certain drawbacks, including challenges of differentiating between the employees and the consumers as well as deskilling notion. In this sense, with the advancements that the society is witnessing in the present world, a need has arisen for assessing practices, such as McDonaldization to determine whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. In doing so, it becomes possible to adopt approaches that would make it possible to address the pressing needs of the society while making sure to cater for the welfare needs of consumers, employees, the community, and other organizational stakeholders for a proper functioning community.
