McDonaldization Thesis - Topics

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McDonaldization Thesis - Topics

• Labour Process Theory and Marx
• McDonaldization Thesis and Weber
• Labour Process Theory McDonaldization Thesis
• Continuity and Differences
• Labour Process Theory McDonaldization thesis
• Strengths and Weaknesses
• Modernity, Postmodernity and the McDonaldization
  thesis

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Labour Process Theory - Summary

• As capitalism moves from competitive to monopoly
  markets so the priority shifts from labour
  cheapening to labour control
• The latter goal is achieved through the process
  of deskilling reducing work to repetitive
  physical motions
• This is made possible by the separation of the
  performance of work from the planning of work
• A conflict of interests develops between
  planners managers, and performers workers

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Rationalisation

• the master concept of M. Webers analysis of
  modern capitalism, referring to a variety of
  related processes by which every aspect of human
  action became subject to rational calculation and
  control.the concept..was.. part of Webers view
  of capitalist society as an iron cage in which
  the individual, stripped of religious meaning and
  moral value would be increasingly subject to
  government surveillance and bureaucratic
  regulation.
• Source Abercrombie, N et al Penguin Dictionary
  of Sociology

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Rationalization (via Ritzer)

• Efficiency achieving goal with minimum use of
  resources
• Calculability enables assessment of efficiency
• Predictability calculation of possible outcomes
  removes uncertainty, shocks and surprises
• Non-Human Technology eliminates the uncertainty
  of human behaviour
• Outcome - Control

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The regular family

• Regular (adjective) habitual, usual conforming
  to a rule or principle conforming to correct
  procedure
• Regulate (verb) subject to restrictions adapt to
  requirements adjust to work accurately
• Regulation (noun) prescribed rule
• Regulator (noun) one who regulates part of a
  mechanism that maintains normal operating
  conditions
• Source (mainly) Concise Oxford Dictionary

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LPT McDonaldization Compared

• Does the McDonaldization thesis
• Restate LPT?
• Fail to explain as adequately as LPT?
• Cover a wider range of sociological issues than
  LPT?
• Cover a wider range of phenomena than LPT?
• Cover a wider range of social processes than LPT?

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1.

• McDonaldization thesis simply restates the
  practise of workplace surveillance and control
  or does it?

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2.

• McDonaldization thesis describes but does not
  explain the growth of workplace surveillance and
  control is rationalisation an explanation?

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3.

• McDonaldization thesis has sociologically
  interesting things to say about the maintenance
  of dominant cultural values through
  McDonaldization.
• It draws attention to the possibility that
  workplace autonomy may be lost even tho skill is
  retained
• It is not limited to market based activities re
  its occurrence in health, education organisations
  etc

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4.

• Unlike LPT the McDonaldization thesis is not
  limited to workplace processes

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5.

• McDonaldization thesis does not attempt to reduce
  workplace organisation to class interests alone

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Extended Range of McDonaldization Thesis - Culture

• McDonaldization reinforces the commodification of
  time

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Extended Range of McDonaldization Thesis - Social
System

• Rationalisation of work has been extended
• beyond profit-oriented work.
• McDonaldization becomes a norm for all types
• of organisations

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Extended Range of McDonaldization Thesis -
Interaction

• Attempts by McDonaldized organisations to deny
  the rationalisation of work result in the
  degradation of intimacy throughout society

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McDonaldization Postmodernisation

• Claim that Fordist based analyses of modern
  work are outdated
• McDonaldization said by Ritzer to have affinities
  with the superficiality, impermanence,
  hyper-reality and consumerism of postmodern
  culture
• McDonaldization merges with Disneyisation re
  Bryman