Weber and Rationalisation
The rationalisation process is the practical application of knowledge to achieve a desired end. It leads to efficiency, coordination, and control over both the physical and the social environment. It is the guiding principle behind bureaucracy and the increasing division of labour. It has led to the unprecedented increase in both the production and distribution of goods and services. It is also associated with secularisation, depersonalisation, and oppressive routine. Increasingly, human behaviour is guided by observation, experiment and reason to master the natural and social environment to achieve a desired end. Weber's general theory of rationalisation (of which bureaucratic evolution is but a particular case) refers to increasing human mastery over the natural and social environment. In turn, these changes in social structure have changed human character through changing values, philosophies, and beliefs. Such superstructural norms and values as individualism, efficiency, self-discipline, materialism, and calculability have been encouraged by the bureaucratic process. Bureaucracy and rationalisation were rapidly replacing all other forms of organisation and thought. Beginning to form a stranglehold on all sectors o
The ideal bureaucracy has an almost a machine like character - each parts fits perfectly, activates at the right time and in the right manner, known as "mechanistic" variety. Weber argued that "the monocratic variety of bureaucracy - is, from a technical point of view, capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency", [Weber, 1964]. He saw disadvantages and dangers in it, but argued it "makes possible, a high degree of calculability of results". "It told operators exactly how to draw milkshakes, grill hamburgers, and fry potatoes. It specified precise cooking times for all products and temperature settings for all equipment. It fixed standard portions on every food item, down to the quarter ounce of onions placed on each hamburger patty and the thirty-two slices per pound of cheese. It specified that french fries be cut a nine thirty-seconds of an inch thick. And it defined quality controls that were unique to food service, including the disposal of meat and potato products that were held more than ten minutes in a serving bin" [Ritzer, 1992]. The ultimate application of the assembly line is the Burger King's conveyor belt: A raw frozen, hamburger is placed on one end, it is moved slowly by the conveyor over a flame and emerges in about 94 seconds on the other end fully cooked [Ritzer, 1992] To Weber, the paradigm case of the rationalisation process was bureaucracy. In the modern world, while bureaucracies continue to exist and to be of great importance, George Ritzer believes that the fast-food chains have become the model of rationality. The process in which the principals of the fast food-restaurant become dominating in relation to more and more sectors in American society as well as the rest of the world. The principals Ritzer is referring to is: efficiency, predicability, calculability, and control. He states that "the foundations of McDonaldisation" entry in society creates a society in which creativity, intelligent insight, tr
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Approximate Word count = 1322
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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