McDonaldization in brief

George Ritzer defines the phenomenon of McDonaldization as "the process by which the principle of the fast-food industry are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world" (Ritzer, p. 7). Four components are essential to the McDonaldization theory, and are as follows; efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control through non human technology (Ritzer, p.16). McDonaldization can occur in varying degrees, and a McDonaldized service or commodity may or may not exhibit all four components in full (Ritzer, p.23).

George Ritzer, ed. "An Introduction to McDonaldization," McDonaldization: The Reader (Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge, 2002), 7-23.