According to Ritzer, McDonaldization is comprised of four main components: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control.

Cultural homogenization is an aspect of cultural globalization, listed as one of its main characteristics, and refers to the reduction in cultural diversity through the popularization and diffusion of a wide array of cultural symbols—not only physical objects but customs, ideas and values.

The McDonaldization of Society (Ritzer 1993) refers to the increasing presence of the fast food business model in common social institutions. This business model includes efficiency (the division of labor), predictability, calculability, and control (monitoring).

Clearly, and very generally, there are advantages and disadvantages to these four dimensions: advantages point to profit-making and customer satisfaction to a certain extent; disadvantages to workers’ and customers’ personal preferences, food safety and quality.

According to Ritzer, the McDonaldization of society is a phenomenon that occurs when society, its institutions, and its organizations are adapted to have the same characteristics that are found in fast-food chains. These include efficiency, calculability, predictability and standardization, and control.

The term was famously coined by sociologist George Ritzer, who identified four features of McDonaldization, which we can briefly illustrate with reference to universities: efficiency – getting more students successfully through the system by introducing new and varied forms of assessment; predictability – through the …

Ward calls it the “McDonaldization” of universities and colleges, “where you produce more things, but they’re not as good,” Ward says, reviving a term first used in 1983 by the sociologist George Ritzer to describe a dehumanizing drive toward efficiency and control.

McDonaldization developed the notion that quantity equals quality, and that a large amount of product delivered to the customer in a short amount of time is the same as a high quality product. This allows people to quantify how much they are getting versus how much they are paying.

The basic argument to be made here is that while the McDonaldization thesis remains profoundly relevant to still-important bricks-and-mortar consumption locales such as McDonald’s, it is even more applicable to today’s digital, as well as mixed “bricks-and-clicks,” consumption sites (Belk, 2013).

These terms derived from the philosophy of science of the German sociologist Max Weber. Value neutrality was advocated by Weber as a recommendation that sociology should adhere to a position of neutrality without denying the relevance of their research to values.

The McDonaldized jobs now instead of making the employee do all the work they have the customer working too, for example when the customer cleans up after eating. “McJobs” are routinized and scripted, keeping the worker within interaction boundaries, deskilling the employee for future occupations, or social situations.

McDonaldization can be recognized by four key characteristics – efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. The system of McDonaldization causes dehumanization in modern society. It also causes a romanticization of the past and creates a longing for a future with human potential that is unobtainable.

The McDonaldization theory defines the process of which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world (Ritzer 1).

Quick Reference. The situation in which a participant in a controversial situation is impartial and not influenced by personal beliefs, attitudes, or values, a situation that may often be more theoretical than real.

Value neutrality, as described by Max Weber, is the duty of sociologists to identify and acknowledge their own values and overcome their personal biases when conducting sociological research. They caution readers, rather, to understand that sociological studies may, by necessity, contain a certain amount of value bias.

Although terms like neutrality are less useful to qualitative researchers, some researchers find the term important. Qualitative procedures used during the research process can aim toward neutrality by seeking a balance of perspectives and a fair reflection of the circumstances of the research.

For qualitative researchers, the methods used to establish trustworthiness include credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. For quantitative researchers, the methods used to establish trustworthiness include internal validity, external validity, reliability, and objectivity.

8 ways to determine the credibility of research reports

1. Why was the study undertaken?
2. Who conducted the study?
3. Who funded the research?
4. How was the data collected?
5. Is the sample size and response rate sufficient?
6. Does the research make use of secondary data?
7. Does the research measure what it claims to measure?

So for your findings to be valid they must be accurate and appropriate, whilst referring to the question you originally aimed to answer. They must represent what you tested and they must be strong in the sense that the content validity is high; clearly showing that what you have tested represents your field of study.