Sociology Reading and Small-scale research

Aiden Cunningham
Mr. Roddy
IHSS
26 September 2021

IHSS HW: Sociology Reading and Small-scale research, blog, seminar

    I chose to research the topic of McDonaldization in the world. Written in 2013, this article shows

how the world overall is shifting more to a standardized, controlled workspace. One of the first major

examples of this, of course, is the large business chain: McDonald’s. Workers in McDonald’s are hired

with no matter to skill and are all trained in a standardized way. This takes away the advantage of skill

in hiring, and removes many opportunities for better pay and work. Because all McDonald’s are mostly

standardized, workers have to stay in the jobs allowed to them, and the only main route to improvement

is to become a manager, which leads me into the third characteristic of McDonaldization. Workers can

be controlled by the manager, and must follow orders from a higher authority. It allows for easier

changes in the way individual locations function, but gives very little flexibility to the workers. Finally,

McDonaldization focuses on making products in quantity, rather than quality, which causes less focus

on how good products are, and causes products to be less satisfying or reliable. While this major shift

may be a great thing for big business owners, allowing them to expand more and become more

standardized, I don’t think it is a good thing, as the world needs some kind of diversity, especially in the

available ways to participate in commerce. If the world was to become fully McDonaldized, products

would be more available to the average consumer, but it would cause more pollution and climate

problems, along with a large drop in product quality to help prices go down. Bottom line, I think 

McDonaldization gives more power to the large corporations, and takes power away from the average

employee, something that isn’t desirable in large amounts.


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