FREE ESSAY ON MCDONALDIZATION

MCDONALDIZATION

The way that Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers does business and markets it's product to
consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest,
fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be
attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied
to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Wendy's Old
Fashioned Hamburgers. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization, where the
ideology of McDonald's has come to dominate the world, has caused Wendy's Old Fashioned
Hamburgers to emulate McDonald's style of running a franchised restaurant chain in terms
of efficiency, calculability, and control. However, since McDonald's has become the
epitome of fast-food in our society, Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers has had to change
their focus to giving the consumer a higher quality product in a relatively fast amount
of time. So, Wendy's still caters to a McDonaldized society in terms of giving them a
meal as fast as possible but making quality their number one priority to give people a
viable option from McDonald's. In addition, I have used my girlfriend who manages at
Wendy's and observations I gathered while at McDonald's as further information for this
paper. 
First, before I discuss the impact of McDonaldization on Wendy's Old Fashioned
Hamburgers, I will define what McDonaldization is. McDonaldization is the process by
which the principles of fast-food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more
sectors of American society, as well as, of the rest of the world. (Ritzer 1998,Page 1)
George Ritzer created this concept of McDonaldization as a continuation of Max Weber's
theories on bureaucracies. 
Max Weber defines a bureaucracy as a large hierarchical organization that is governed by
formal rules and regulations and has a clear specification of work tasks. Its three main
characteristics are that it has a division of labour, hierarchy of authority, and an
impartial and impersonal application of rules and policies. (Newman 1997, Page 271) Thus,
from that definition of a bureaucracy, one would conclude that both McDonald's and
Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers are bureaucracies. The fact that both restaurants are
bureaucracies is supported by the fact that each assigns workers to a specific job where
each worker individually contributes to the overall success of the restaurant by doing
his or her job. For example, workers at each restaurant could be assigned to working the
grill, making fries, working the front register, or taking orders at the drive-thru
window. Both restaurants have a hierarchy of authority from worker, crew chief, shift
manager, salary manager to owner of the store. Also, each restaurant enforces an
impartial and impersonal application of rules and policies. Both McDonald's and Wendy's
have standard, impersonal greetings at the register and at the drive-thru window. The
exception when this impersonal attitude towards the customer is changed is when a worker
knows the customer outside the restaurant. In this case, the worker will probably ask
their acquaintance how they are doing or what they are up to. The worker might even throw
in an extra cheeseburger that a regular customer might not get. Despite this exception
where standardization is broken, both these restaurants have become bureaucracies because
they are the most efficient means of managing large groups of people. 
That leaves one to wonder why the process of McDonaldization has been so successful for
both companies. The first reason is that it offers efficiency where consumers know that
it means the quickest way to get from one point to another. In the case of McDonald's, it
offers the best available way to get from being hungry to being full. This is so
important in today's society because so many people are in a rush to get from one place
to another. Therefore, the quick, efficient setup of McDonald's allows consumers to eat a
fast-food meal without having to leave their car. On the other hand, Wendy's strives for
as efficient service as possible without effecting the quality of their product. This is
because McDonald's already has imprinted on people's minds throughout the many years of
its existence that they will get the same burger each visit in the quickest amount of
time. They reinforce this idea on the minds of consumers through advertising and other
clever tools. For example, on every McDonald's sign is a tally of how many people in the
world have eaten there, which is currently at 99 billion served. The use of this sign
reinforces to people that McDonald's is an icon in our society and many people will
equate that large number with McDonald's being the best restaurant. As a result, Wendy's
has tried to make quality their number one priority but with no serious deficiencies in
the speed of their product. This can be attributed to the fact that they do not pre-make
their burgers and leave them under heat lamps to sit like McDonald's does. Instead, they
have their staff assembled to make the burger as the customer orders it. This is an
especially important benefit because many people like to customize their burger and the
process that Wendy's uses allows them to do that. This allows them to target another
group of society which McDonald's product doesn't appeal to. For example, older people
who would rather sit down and have a quality meal would most likely rather go to Wendy's
Old Fashioned Hamburgers. Even, the name of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers suggests
that their style is more like how things used to be done many decades ago in terms of
making quality the number one priority for a restaurant. Therefore, they would provide an
alternative for people who were not interested in getting a burger that has been slopped
together and sitting under a heat lamp for an hour. This would be reflected in which
demographic of people each restaurant targeted. McDonald's traditionally has targeted
families as their key demographic but recently they have shifted to make their product
more appealing to teenagers as well. This can best be demonstrated in their new style
commercials that use many young adults and refers to McDonald's as Mickey D's as a hip
place to hang out. So, for young people who are in a rush to get from place to place,
McDonald's provides a fast, cheap meal that they can eat on the run. On the other hand,
Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers targets people who aren't in such a rush and would
rather sit down and eat a slow, relaxing meal. They still cater to those who are in a
rush by offering a drive-thru. However, they know that most of their business will come
from people looking for a quality alternative to McDonald's.
Another aspect of McDonaldization that has made both companies successful is
calculability. This is where each restaurant puts an emphasis on quantitative aspects of
products sold like portion size and cost. For example, McDonald's has burgers like the
quarter pounder and big mac while Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburger has burgers like the
double bacon cheeseburger. This use of descriptive adjectives suggests to the consumer
that they are getting the most amount of food for their money. Both McDonald's and
Wendy's have the option to supersize or biggiesize an order. This makes the companies
successful in our society because of our belief that bigger is better. 
Finally, both companies use control, especially through the substitution of non-human for
human technology. For both companies that means using soft drink machines that
automatically shuts off when the glass is full, french-fry machines that rings and lifts
itself out of the oil when the fries are done, and the preprogrammed cash registers that
eliminate the need for the cashier to calculate any prices. The main reason that this is
done is because, [people are] The great source of uncertainty, unpredictability and
inefficiency in any rationalizing system.(Ritzer 1998, page 101) Thus, by increasing
control, through increased mechanization, both companies maintain a better control over
the entire organization. Also, this leads to employees not having to think about their
job because the tasks they are asked to do are very repetitive.
In conclusion, it is obvious that both restaurants have adopted a style of running their
restaurants that makes them successful. McDonald's style is to give the public the same
burger that they have always had so that they can come to depend that they will get the
same meal as they did last time. They have been a pioneer in the fast-food industry and
the model that other restaurants try to imitate. On the other hand, Wendy's style is to
make a quality product that reminds people of the good old days. They have been directly
influenced by McDonald's in terms of how to run their fast-food restaurant to maximize
speed and efficiency. However, since Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers would not have a
chance of competing with McDonald's at their own game, they have developed their own
niche in the market of making a quality product efficiently. What concerns me is the way
these companies are phasing out the roles of their employees to the point where they are
doing nothing but mindless, repetitive tasks. To me, the consequence of this will be that
someday all human workers will be replaced because it is more efficient for machines to
do the work. So, although McDonaldization has made both these companies very successful,
there is a very serious potential downside that could have an effect on everyone.
Bibliography
Alfino, Mark, Caputo, S. John and Wynyard, Robin. ( 1998). McDonalization Revisited:
Critical Essays on Consumer Culture. HF 5415.32.M395. Praeger Publishers.
Bacharach, B. Samuel and Lawler, J. Edward. (1984) The Sociology of Organizations. HM
131.R46. Jai Press Inc. 
Kellner, Douglas. (1998). Theorizing/Resisting McDonaldization: A Multiperspectivist
Approach. http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell30.htm
McIndoctrination: Selling the Big Mac Lifestyle.
http://www.interlog.com/~mattei/mcessay.html
Newman, M., David (1997). Exploring The Architecture of Everyday Life. Pine Forge Press.
Ritzer, George. (1998). The McDonaldization of Society. Sage Publications.
Ritzer, George. (1998). The McDonaldization Thesis. HM 131.R589. SAGE Publications.
Bibliography
Alfino, Mark, Caputo, S. John and Wynyard, Robin. ( 1998). McDonalization Revisited:
Critical Essays on Consumer Culture. HF 5415.32.M395. Praeger Publishers.
Bacharach, B. Samuel and Lawler, J. Edward. (1984) The Sociology of Organizations. HM
131.R46. Jai Press Inc. 
Kellner, Douglas. (1998). Theorizing/Resisting McDonaldization: A Multiperspectivist
Approach. http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell30.htm
McIndoctrination: Selling the Big Mac Lifestyle.
http://www.interlog.com/~mattei/mcessay.html
Newman, M., David (1997). Exploring The Architecture of Everyday Life. Pine Forge Press.
Ritzer, George. (1998). The McDonaldization of Society. Sage Publications.
Ritzer, George. (1998). The McDonaldization Thesis. HM 131.R589. SAGE Publications.