McDonaldizaton - Irrationality of rationality (i) To what extent is Ritzer’s McDonaldizaton a realisation of Max Weber’s “irrationality of Rationality”?
To first answer this question we must understand some key underlying concepts. Rationality is the idea that humans are utility maximisers and as a result will make all decisions in an effort to generate the most benefit from them. A Bureaucracy is an organisation that takes on these traits to maximise their gains and be completely efficient. They do this through a number of steps; * Specialisation: Bureaucracies assign individuals to highly specialised duties, this maximises efficiency, these specialised duties are made as easy and unskilled as possible to make sure it can be done quickly and repeatedly to maximise output. * Hierarchy: Arrange personnel in vertical hierarchy of offices thus each person is supervised by a higher up. * Rules and Regulations: Cultural and tradition holds no sway, operations are guided by fixed rules and regulations. Ideally the bureaucracy seeks to operate in a completely predictable fashion. * Technical competence: Officials are expected to have technical competence to carry out duties, this is rational as technology maximises efficiency and work output by eliminating human error and unflinching performance of repetitive tasks. * Impersonality: Rules take precedence over personal feeling. Uniform treatment of clients and workers as personal feelings can get in the way of rationality. Take for example a worker who continuously breaks rules, the boss must fire him but personal feelings bet in the way. This in the grand scheme of things deteriorates the organisations ability to maximise utility. * Formal written communications: Bureaucracy relies on formal written reports and memos to guide all decisions.
