McDonaldization

McDonaldization, as a modern version of Max Weber’s rationalization thesis, has been advanced by George Ritzer. For Ritzer, it is not Weber’s bureaucracy but the fast-food restaurant that is the convenient paradigm of the rationalization process for the contemporary world.

According to Ritzer, the main precursors of McDonaldization are bureaucracies, scientific management, and Fordism. Scientific management, which was advanced by Frederick Taylor in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, refers to the techniques applied to increase productivity and efficiency in the workplace. Taylor suggested that jobs should be broken down into several tasks so that each worker could be an expert in the corresponding task and do it in the most efficient way. Fordism, which was advanced by Henry Ford in the early 20th ...