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Chapter 12: Promoting Safety and Health: 12.3a Ergonomics
Book Title: Managing Human Resources
Printed By: Cedric Turner ([email protected])
© 2016 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning
12.3a Ergonomics
One way to help eliminate health hazards in the workplace is
via ergonomics. Recall that we
discussed ergonomics in Chapter 4 when we looked at job
design. Ergonomics focuses on
ensuring that jobs are designed for safe and efficient work while
improving the safety,
comfort, and performance of users. Ergonomics can be as
simple as rearranging a
workstation so fewer steps are needed to gather items or
organizing items so they are within
easier reach. Part of ergonomics involves looking at the design
of equipment and the
physical abilities of the operators who use it. There is
substantial variation in the way people
move depending on their physical sizes, genders, ages, and
other factors. Designing
equipment controls to be compatible with both the physical
characteristics and the reaction
capabilities of the people who must operate them and the

environment in which they work is
critically important. Ergonomics also considers the
requirements of a diverse workforce,
accommodating, for example, women who may lack the strength
to operate equipment
requiring intense physical force or Asian Americans who may
lack the stature to reach
equipment controls.
An ergonomically designed computer workstation like this will
reduce the strain on
the worker’s eyes, neck and shoulders, wrists, and back.
Phanie RGB Ventures/SuperStock/Alamy
Ergonomics has proven cost-effective at organizations such as
Compaq Computer, 3M,
Pratt and Whitney, and the U.S. Postal Service and has
eliminated, or at least reduced,
many repetitive motion injuries, particularly those related to the
back and wrist. At Cessna
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Aircraft, factory employees use specially designed hand tools to
reduce hand and arm
tension. Rockwell Automation reduced shoulder injuries to
punch-press operators by
purchasing hydraulic fork trucks to lift metal dies, a process

formerly done manually, and
Maple Landmark Woodcraft employed ergonomic education to
reduce repetitive motion
injuries caused by hammering. The key elements of successful
ergonomic programs are
shown in Figure 12.6.
Figure 12.6
Key Elements for a Successful Ergonomics Program
Companies with award-winning ergonomics programs list the
following as common
elements of success:
Provide notice and training for employees. Implement a well-
publicized
ergonomics policy or present ergonomic information in safety
policies or
training programs. Train employees, supervisors, and managers
in basic
workplace ergonomics.
Conduct preinjury hazard assessment. Survey the workplace and
work
processes for potential hazards and adopt measures to lessen the
exposure
to ergonomic risk factors. Answer the question: “Are certain
work areas more
prone to ergonomic hazards than others?”
Involve employees. Include employees in risk assessment,
recognition of
MSD symptoms, design of work-specific equipment or tools,
and the setting of
work performance rules and guidelines.

Plan and execute. Integrate ergonomic responsibilities into the
performance
plans for all personnel. Demand accountability for program
success.
File injury reports. Encourage early reporting of MSD
symptoms or injuries.
Refer employees to the company’s medical facilities or to the
employee’s
personal physician for treatment.
Evaluate and assess the ergonomics program. Periodically
review the
effectiveness of the ergonomics program. If the program
appears to be
ineffective, determine the underlying causes for failure and
propose corrective
changes.
© Cengage Learning
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Highlights in HRM 4
Job Safety and Health Protection Poster

Chapter 12: Promoting Safety and Health: 12.3a Ergonomics
© 2020 Cengage Learning Inc. All rights reserved. No part of
this work may by reproduced or used in any form or by any
means -
graphic, electronic, or mechanical, or in any other manner -
without the written permission of the copyright holder.
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LO 3
How are health and safety related? If your
workplace is safe, does that mean it is also
healthy? Why or why not?
Chapter 12: Promoting Safety and Health: 12.3 Creating a
Healthy Work Environment
12.3 Creating a Healthy Work Environment
As is apparent from its title, the
Occupational Safety and Health Act was
clearly designed to protect the health of

employees as well as their safety.
However, because of the dramatic
impact workplace accidents have,
managers and employees sometimes
pay more attention to them than health
hazards. Accidents happen quickly. The effect of health hazards
show up only over time.
When they do show up, though, they adversely affect workers,
their families, and their
companies.
Highlights in HRM 3
Emergency Readiness Checklist
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Source: National Safety Council.
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Chapter 12: Promoting Safety and Health: 12.3 Creating a
Healthy Work Environment

means -
LO 4
How would you describe the physical and
emotional health of the people you work with
or have worked with in the past? What role
do employers play when it comes to the
emotional health of their workers?
Chapter 12: Promoting Safety and Health: 12.3c Building Better
Physical and Emotional Health among Employees
12.3c Building Better Physical and Emotional Health among
Employees
Along with improving working conditions

that are hazardous to employee health,
employers today are cognizant of the
physical and emotional health of their
employees and thus provide them with
programs to maintain and improve both.
Firms are doing so not only to lower
their health costs but also because they
recognize that employees not distracted
by health problems are able to operate
more safely. Better health can also reduce absenteeism, increase
efficiency and creativity
on the part of employees, and lead to better morale and
teamwork among them. An
organization with a healthy, safe, resilient, and creative
workforce is certainly in a better
position to compete than an organization with unhealthy
workers.
Recall that we discussed EAPs in Chapter 11. As we have
indicated, EAPs can help
employees with a range of problems. We mentioned how the
U.S. Postal Service utilized its
EAP to locate workers after Hurricane Katrina. EAPs can also
help workers with
relationship, marital, and family problems; anger, depression,
anxiety, and stress; and elder
care demands. Workplace issues, addiction, and self-
improvement are other areas in which
EAPs provide workers with help. If an employee’s situation
necessitates it, the EAP refers
the worker to in-house counselors or outside professionals.
Next, we look at some of the
issues employees face in terms of their physical and emotional
health that EAPs and other
workplace programs can address.

Wellness and Weight Issues
In Chapter 11 we mentioned wellness programs. Discovery
Communication in Silver Spring,
Maryland, provides a wellness center. The company employs a
medical assistant, nurse
practitioner, and physician who offer health services, including
stress management,
consultation and techniques, fitness programs, and podiatry
care. Google encourages
employee wellness through their “small changes” program in
which Google headquarters
encourages employees to ride scooters to meetings, eat healthier
food at their cafeteria with
portion sizes in check, be active and playful with their in-office
slide and Ping-Pong tables,
and take advantage of their onsite physical therapist and
chiropractor. An organization
might also distribute wellness literature to its employees
obtained from the Association for
Worksite Health Promotion or the National Wellness Institute.
Xerox gives its employees
a publication titled Fitbook that includes chapters on the
hazards of smoking and the effects
of alcohol and drug abuse, facts on nutrition and weight control,
and guidelines for
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managing stress and learning to relax. It is also not uncommon
for wellness programs to
utilize alternative medicine approaches such as relaxation
techniques and hypnosis,
chiropractic care, acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal therapy,
special diets, and massage to
help employees with a variety of health problems. For example,
Paula Cates, a massage
therapist in Denver, Colorado, uses massage to reduce the stress
and tension employees
experience and improve their circulation and range-of-motion
activities.
We also mentioned weight-related problems and obesity in
Chapter 11. As you know,
excess weight can affect the health of a worker and his or her
productivity. A study by Duke
University researchers, who examined the records of nearly
12,000 university employees,
found that obese employees experienced medical costs that were
more than five times
higher than those of non-obese workers. They also missed eight
times the number of
workdays, which by some estimates costs companies an
estimated $5.5 billion a year in lost
productivity. The Duke study also found that morbidly obese
workers file 45 percent
more workers’ compensation claims and take longer to recover

from injuries.
Not surprisingly, employers are launching or improving
programs specifically designed to
help employees maintain or lose weight by exercising and
eating properly. For example,
a nutritional component is part of the wellness program of JWT,
a New York advertising firm.
Nutritional programs address two lifestyle changes:
increasing a person’s physical exercise (via walking, jogging,
bicycling, etc.) and
adopting nutritional dietary programs that emphasize eating lots
of fruits and
vegetables, fish, and low-fat dairy products.
Stephanie Pronk, the chief health officer at RedBrick Health, a
Minneapolis health
technology and services company, notes that employers today
are trying to create a “culture
of wellness” that makes thinking about maintaining a healthy
weight second nature to
employees.
Case managers, who manage the care of employees injured on
the job, are now taking
people’s weight into account when planning for their recovery
and, if they are obese, getting
them the resources they need to return to work more quickly
than they otherwise would. For
example, until they are fully recovered, they might be put on
light duty, which is work that is
less demanding.
Job Stress and Burnout

It is no secret that employees today are more stressed out than
they have been in years
past. A Gallup poll recently found that 30 percent of employees
were dissatisfied with the
amount of stress they experience in the workplace, a number
that is up 10 percent since
2002. Stress (Any adjustive demand caused by physical, mental,
or emotional factors that
requires coping behavior) is any demand on the individual that
requires coping behavior.
Stress comes from two basic sources: physical activity and
mental or emotional activity. The
physical reaction of the body to both types of stress is the same.
Psychologists use two
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separate terms to distinguish between positive and negative
forms of stress, even though
reactions to the two forms are the same, biochemically. Eustress
(Positive stress that

accompanies achievement and exhilaration) is positive stress
that accompanies
achievement and exhilaration. This type of stress is regarded as
a beneficial force that
helps us to forge ahead against obstacles. What is harmful is
distress (Harmful stress
characterized by a loss of feelings of security and adequacy) .
Stress becomes distress
when we begin to sense a loss of our feelings of security and
adequacy. Helplessness,
desperation, and disappointment turn stress into distress.
Burnout (A severe stage of distress, manifesting itself in
depression, frustration, and loss of
productivity) is a severe stage of distress. Career burnout
generally occurs when a person
begins questioning his or her own personal values. Quite
simply, the person no longer feels
that what he or she is doing is important. Depression,
frustration, and a loss of productivity
are all symptoms of burnout. Burnout is primarily due to a lack
of personal fulfillment in the
job or a lack of positive feedback about one’s performance. In
organizations that have
downsized, remaining employees can experience burnout
because they must perform more
work with fewer coworkers. Overachievers can experience
burnout when unrealistic work
goals are unattainable.
The causes of workplace stress are many. However, according
to a study by Lluminari, a
national health care company, four factors have a major
influence on employee stress:
High demand: having too much to do in too short a time

High effort: having to expend too much mental or physical
energy over too long a
period
Low control: having too little influence over the way a job is
done on a day-to-day
basis
Low reward: receiving inadequate feedback on performance and
no recognition for a
job well done.
Other job stressors include layoffs and organizational
restructuring; disagreements with
managers or fellow employees; prejudice because of age,
gender, race, or religion; inability
to voice complaints; and poor working conditions. Even minor
irritations such as lack of
privacy, unappealing music, and other conditions can be
distressful to one person or
another.
Job stress places both women and men at risk for fatigue, high
blood pressure,
cardiovascular problems, depression, and obesity and increases
employee susceptibility to
infectious diseases. Studies have shown that work-related stress
contributes to injuries and
illnesses. All of these contribute to higher health care costs and
can lower productivity, job
satisfaction, and retention. Stress is also the most frequently
cited reason employees
give for why they would leave a company.
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HR professionals are well aware of the negative effects of
workplace stress on employees’
health and job performance. In one study, the top three sources
of stress employers
think negatively effect the workplace are lack of work-life
balance, inadequate staffing, and
technologies that expand availability during nonworking hours.
Armed with this
awareness, many employers have developed stress management
programs to teach
employees how to minimize the negative effects of job-related
stress. A typical program
might include instruction in relaxation techniques, coping
skills, listening skills, methods of
dealing with difficult people, time management, and
assertiveness.
All of these techniques are designed to break the pattern of
tension that accompanies
stressful situations and to help participants achieve greater
control of their lives.

Organizational techniques, such as clarifying the employee’s
work role, redesigning and
enriching jobs, correcting physical factors in the environment,
and effectively handling
interpersonal factors should not be overlooked in the process of
teaching employees how to
handle stress. Stress management counselors recommend several
ways to resolve job-
related stress as described in Figure 12.8.
Figure 12.8
Tips for Reducing Job-Related Stress
Build rewarding relationships with your coworkers.
Talk openly with managers or employees about your job or
personal concerns.
Prepare for the future by keeping abreast of likely changes in
your job’s
demands.
Do not greatly exceed your skills and abilities.
Set realistic deadlines; negotiate reasonable deadlines with
managers.
Act now on problems or concerns of importance.
Designate dedicated work periods during which time
interruptions are
avoided.
When feeling stressed, find time for detachment or relaxation.

Do not let trivial items take on importance; handle them quickly
or assign them
to others.
Take short breaks from your work area as a change of pace.
© Cengage Learning
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Depression
Emotional problems and personal crises become organizational
problems when they affect
people’s behavior at work and interfere with their job
performance. The most prevalent
problems among employees are personal crises involving
marital, family, financial, or legal
matters. Most personal crises are resolved in a reasonable
period of time. Unfortunately,
when a personal crisis lingers, it can lead to depression.
Depression (A negative emotional
state marked by feelings of low spirits, gloominess, sadness,
and loss of pleasure in
ordinary activities) is a decrease in functional activity
accompanied by persistent symptoms

of low spirits, gloominess, and sadness. The National Institute
of Mental Health estimates
that nearly 7 percent of the adult population experience
depression each year.
Fortunately, with available treatment, 80 percent of depressed
individuals will significantly
improve, usually within a matter of weeks. Managers are in a
good position to identify the
signs of depression on the job. They include decreased energy
on the part of an
employee, concentration and memory problems, guilt feelings,
irritability, and chronic aches
and pains that do not respond to treatment. Managers and
supervisors who suspect an
employee is depressed are encouraged to express their concerns
to the person, actively
listen to him or her, and—should the depression persist—
suggest professional help.
Under no circumstances should managers attempt to play
amateur psychologist and try to
diagnose an employee’s condition. Mood disorders such as
depression are complex in
nature and do not lend themselves to quick diagnoses.
Furthermore, in reviewing such
cases, the organization should pay particular attention to
workplace safety factors because
there is general agreement that emotional disturbances are
primary or secondary factors in
a large portion of industrial accidents and incidents of violence.
Alcoholism
Nearly 6 million working Americans bring their alcohol
problems to the workplace. It has
been estimated that business and industry lose more than $20

billion each year because of
alcoholism. It is a disease that affects both the young and old, is
prevalent across the sexes,
and affects workers in every occupational category—blue-collar
and white-collar.
Alcoholism follows a rather predictable course. It typically
begins with social drinking getting
out of control. As the disease progresses, the alcoholic loses
control over how much to drink
and eventually cannot keep from drinking, even at inappropriate
times. The person uses
denial to avoid facing the problems created by the abuse of
alcohol and often blames others
for these problems.
The first step in helping the alcoholic is to awaken the person to
the reality of his or her
situation. A supervisor should carefully document evidence of
the person’s declining
performance on the job and then confront the employee with
unequivocal proof to that
effect. The employee should be assured that help will be made
available without penalty.
Because the evaluations are made solely in terms of poor on-
the-job performance, a
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supervisor can avoid any mention of alcoholism and allow such
employees to seek aid as
they would for any other problem.
Employers must remember that alcoholism is classified as a
disability under the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA—see Chapter 3). Alcoholism is
regarded as a disease, similar to a
mental impairment. Therefore, a person disabled by alcoholism
is entitled to the same
protection from job discrimination as any other person with a
disability. However, under the
ADA, employers can discipline or discharge employees when
job performance is so badly
affected by alcohol usage that the employee is unable to
perform the job.
Drug Abuse
Like alcohol abuse, the abuse of illegal drugs by employees
costs businesses billions
annually in terms of safety risks, theft, reduced productivity,
absenteeism, and accidents. A
wide range of employers, including federal contractors and
private and public transportation
firms, are subject to regulations aimed at eliminating the use of
illegal drugs on the job. The
federal antidrug initiatives include the following:

1. The Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988, which requires
federal contractors and
recipients of federal grants to take specific steps to ensure a
drug-free work
environment. One of the main provisions of the act is the
preparation and distribution
of an antidrug policy statement, a sample of which is shown in
Highlights in HRM 5.
2. Department of Defense (DOD) contract rules, which specify
that employers entering
into contracts with the DOD must agree to a clause certifying
their intention to
maintain a drug-free workplace.
3. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations, which
require that employees whose
jobs include safety- or security-related duties be tested for
illegal drug use under DOT
rules.
To help employers benefit from being drug-free and to further
its mission to help companies
maintain safe, healthy, and productive workplaces, the U.S.
Department of Labor created
the Working Partners for an Alcohol and Drug-Free Workplace.
This goal of the agency is to
raise awareness about the impact of substance abuse in the
workplace and provide
employers with substance abuse prevention information.
Additionally, the Department’s
Drug-Free Workplace Advisor provides information to
employers about how to establish and
maintain an alcohol- and drug-free environment.

Highlights in HRM 5
Substance Abuse Policy Statement for the “Red Lions”
The policy for the Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, or
“Red Lions” reads:
Substance abuse degrades the effective performance of Marines
and Sailors, is a
detriment to our combat readiness, and is contrary to our Core
Values and,
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therefore, will not be tolerated. Additionally, substance abuse
destroys the health of
our Marines and Sailors, their careers, and eventually their
families. As Red Lions,
we are professionals and are responsible for our actions and will
be held
accountable. Those who tolerate substance abuse in others have
let me and the
squadron down as well. If you test positive for illegal drug use
you will be charged
under the UCMJ and processed for separation from the Corps.
Red Lions will not engage in, or tolerate in others, the

possession, use, trafficking,
or distribution of illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia—zero
tolerance. Substance
abuse is not just illegal drugs. Any drug not used for its
intended purpose or used in
excess constitutes substance abuse. Any substances used for the
intent of getting
high are included in substance abuse. We work daily in a
hazardous environment.
Drug and alcohol abuse reduces our ability to think clearly,
assess risks, and react
properly. This puts everyone in danger, which is why it is
intolerable.
We will take care of our fellow Red Lions through prevention
and timely
identification. Anyone classified as having a drug or alcohol
incident will be referred
to the Substance Abuse Control Officer, screened, counseled,
and, if needed, sent
to the Substance Abuse Counseling Center for a medical
evaluation. If diagnosed
as drug or alcohol dependent, they will be assigned to the
appropriate treatment
program.
We must ensure that every member of HMH-363 is committed
to eradicating
substance abuse from our squadron. Leaders at all levels shall
use available
resources to eliminate substance abuse. We will take preemptive
action through
engaged leadership, training, counseling, and constant
vigilance. Failure to do so
unnecessarily exposes us to potential loss of life, damage to
valuable equipment,

degraded readiness, and the inability to complete our mission.
The ADA considers an individual with a serious, life-affecting
drug problem to be disabled,
provided the person is enrolled in a drug treatment program and
not currently using drugs.
The person’s employer therefore must make reasonable
accommodations for his or her
disability. Reasonable accommodations might include time off
from work or a modified work
schedule to obtain treatment. As we noted earlier, federal
regulations require employers to
test their workers for drug use under certain specified
conditions. The issues related to
drug testing under state and local laws are discussed in Chapter
13 in the context of
employee rights.
The abuse of legal drugs can also pose a problem for employees.
In fact, unlike
marijuana, cocaine, and other illegal drugs, according to Quest
Diagnostics, a blood-testing
company, both employees’ prescribed use and misuse of opiates
such as hydrocodone and
oxycodone have been rising sharply. Employees who abuse
legal drugs—those prescribed
by physicians—often do not realize they have become addicted
or how their behavior has
changed as a result of their addiction. Also, managers should be
aware that some
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employees may be taking legal sedatives or stimulants as part of
their medical treatment
and that their behavior at work may be affected by their use of
these drugs.
Chapter 12: Promoting Safety and Health: 12.3c Building Better
Physical and Emotional Health among Employees
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Chapter 11: Employee Benefits: 11.2a Social Security Insurance
11.2a Social Security Insurance
The Social Security Act was designed to protect workers against
the loss of earnings
resulting from old age and unemployment. The act was later
amended to include disability,
or, in the case of dependents, the death of the worker supporting
them. Together the
programs have become referred to as Old Age, Survivors, and
Disability Insurance
(OASDI). According to the Social Security Administration, in
2014 over 60 million people
received retirement benefits from Social Security.
OASDI has become nearly universal for work performed in the
United States, covering
approximately 96 percent of the American workforce. Workers
excluded from coverage
include railroad workers and civil service employees covered by
their own systems as well
as farmers, domestic workers, and the self-employed whose
earnings do not meet certain
minimum requirements. The Social Security program is
supported by means of a tax
levied against an employee’s earnings that must be matched by
the employer in each pay
period. In 2014, the tax was 6.2 percent. This percentage can
vary, though. For example, to
stimulate the economy during the last recession, the rate

employees paid during 2011 was
temporarily reduced to 4.2 percent. (The amount self-employed
individuals paid was
reduced from 12.4 to 10.4 percent.) The tax revenues are used
to pay three major types
of benefits:
retirement benefits,
disability benefits, and
survivors’ benefits.
Because of the continual changes that result from legislation
and administrative rulings, as
well as the complexities of making determinations of an
individual’s rights under Social
Security, we will describe these benefits only in general terms.
Highlights in HRM 1
A Personalized Statement of Benefits Costs
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A Personalized Statement of Benefits Costs
Retirement Benefits

To qualify for retirement benefits, a person must have reached
retirement age and be fully
insured. A fully insured person has earned 40 credits—a
maximum of four credits a year for
10 years, based on annual earnings, a figure adjusted annually.
The amount of monthly
Social Security retirement benefits is based on earnings,
adjusted for inflation, over the
years an individual is covered by Social Security. Under Social
Security guidelines, an
individual’s full retirement age depends on the year of his or
her birth. Workers born
before 1938 can collect full benefits at age 65. Because of
longer life expectancies, for
those born after that date, the age to collect full benefits has
been gradually raised to age
67.
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Currently individuals can receive Social Security benefits as
early as age 62, but the amount
they receive each month will be less than monthly benefits
received at full retirement age. In
addition, many people who are younger than full retirement age
but are 62 or over work
part-time as well as collect Social Security. However, they can

only earn so much money
before the government begins reducing their monthly Social
Security checks. (In 2013 the
earnings limit was $15,120). However, once workers reach their
full retirement ages there is
no limit on the amount they can earn; their Social Security
checks will not be reduced.
Human resources managers need to keep this in mind when they
develop programs to
retain and attract older workers.
Disability Benefits under Social Security
Social Security pays benefits to people who cannot work
because they have a medical
condition that is expected to last at least one year or result in
death. Although some
government programs provide money to people with partial
disabilities or short-term
disabilities, Social Security does not. In addition to disability
payments to the worker,
certain members of an employee’s family, such as spouses over
62 and dependent children,
may qualify for benefits based on the person’s work history.
The Social Security
Administration uses a five-step process to decide if a worker is
disabled and eligible to
collect benefits. Highlights in HRM 2 outlines this process.
Survivor’s Benefits
Survivors’ benefits represent a form of life insurance paid to
members of a deceased
person’s family who meet the eligibility requirements.
Survivors’ benefits can be paid
only if the deceased worker had credit for a certain amount of

time spent in work covered by
Social Security. The exact amount of work credit needed
depends on the worker’s age at
death. As with other benefits discussed earlier, the amount of
benefit survivors receive is
based on the worker’s lifetime earnings doing work covered by
Social Security.
Medicare
The Social Security Administration also administers the
Medicare program, which is funded
by a separate payroll tax. Retired people age 65 or older are
eligible for Medicare, which
includes both medical and hospital insurance and prescription
drug coverage. The
program helps with the cost of health care, but it does not cover
all medical expenses or the
cost of most long-term care. A portion of the payroll taxes is
paid by workers and
matched by their employers. In 2011, workers and their
employers each paid 1.45 percent
on every dollar of salary or wages paid. Medicare is also
financed in part by monthly
medical premiums deducted from Social Security recipient’s
checks.
Highlights in HRM 2
Who Is Eligible to Collect Disability Payments under the Social
Security Act?
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If you experience a disability, the Social Security
Administration in conjunction with a
state agency will use the following five-step process to
determine if you are eligible
to collect benefits.
1. Are you working? If you are working and your earnings
average more than a
certain amount each month, you will generally not be
considered disabled.
The amount changes each year. If you are not working, or your
monthly
earnings average this amount or less, a state agency will then
look at your
medical condition.
2. Is your medical condition “severe”? For the state agency to
decide that
you are disabled, your medical condition must significantly
limit your ability to
do basic work activities—such as walking, sitting, and
remembering—for at
least one year. If your medical condition is not that severe, the
state agency
will not consider you disabled. If your condition is that severe,
the state
agency goes on to step three.

3. Is your medical condition on the List of Impairments? The
state agency
has a list of impairments that describes medical conditions that
are considered
so severe that they automatically mean that you are disabled as
defined by
law. If your condition (or combination of medical conditions) is
not on this list,
the state agency looks to see if your condition is as severe as a
condition that
is on the list. If the severity of your medical condition meets or
equals that of a
listed impairment, the state agency will decide that you are
disabled. If it does
not, the state agency goes on to step four.
4. Can you do the work you did before? At this step, the state
agency decides
if your medical condition prevents you from being able to do
the work you did
before. If it does not, the state agency will decide that you are
not disabled. If
it does, the state agency goes on to step five.
5. Can you do any other type of work? If you cannot do the
work you did in
the past, the state agency looks to see if you would be able to
do other work.
It evaluates your medical condition, your age, education, past
work
experience, and any skills you may have that could be used to
do other work.
If you cannot do other work, the state agency will decide that
you are
disabled. If you can do other work, the state agency will decide

that you are
not disabled.
Source: Disability Benefits, SSA Publication No. 05-10029
(Washington, DC: U.S. Social Security
Administration, 2010), www.ssa.gov/diplan/dqualify5.htm.
101&nbId=116383& 5/5
One of the concerns employers have about Medicare relates to
the eligibility age. As we
explained, it is currently 65, but legislators are considering
increasing the age to 67 as they
have done with Social Security. If this happens, employees aged
65 and older might
continue to use their company-provided health care coverage
rather than Medicare. This
could more than double the cost employers pay for health care
coverage for this group of
employees and retirees whose union contracts require their
former companies cover them
until Medicare does. According to one survey, the cost of
employer-sponsored health care
spent on Medicare-eligible retirees averaged just $4,654 per
person compared to an
average of $10,872 for pre-Medicare eligible retirees.
Chapter 11: Employee Benefits: 11.2a Social Security Insurance

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Chapter 11: Employee Benefits: 11.2c Workers’ Compensation
Insurance
11.2c Workers’ Compensation Insurance
Workers’ compensation insurance (State-mandated insurance
provided to workers to
defray the loss of income and cost of treatment due to work-
related injuries or illness) is a
system whereby employers purchase private or state-funded
insurance to cover employees
injured at work. Workers’ compensation law is governed by
statutes in every state.
Therefore, specific laws vary with each jurisdiction. For

example, each state has different
regulations governing the amount and duration of lost income
benefits, including provisions
for medical and rehabilitation services and how the state system
is administered. Workers’
compensation laws also provide death benefits to surviving
spouses and dependent.
Workers’ compensation insurance covers workers injured on the
job, whether injured on the
workplace premises, elsewhere, or in an auto accident while on
business. It does not matter
if the employee was at fault. In addition, workers that collect
compensation cannot sue their
employers for their injuries unless gross negligence by the
employer led to the injury or the
employer lacked the level of insurance required by law.
Workers’ compensation insurance
also covers certain work-related illnesses. Before any workers’
compensation claim will be
allowed, the work-relatedness of the disability must be
established. Also, the evaluation of
the claimant by a physician trained in occupational medicine is
an essential part of the claim
process.
While employers in all states pay “workers’ comp” insurance,
the amount they pay—through
payroll taxes—varies. Like with unemployment insurance rates,
the rate an employer pays
depends upon its experience rating, which is based on various
factors including the
company’s frequency and severity of employee injuries
(referred to as the company’s
experience rating). Not surprisingly, organizations will strive to
have good safety records

(see Chapter 12 on creating a safe work environment) in order
to pay a lower payroll tax
rate.
Chapter 11: Employee Benefits: 11.2c Workers’ Compensation
Insurance
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Chapter 11: Employee Benefits: 11.2b Unemployment Insurance
11.2b Unemployment Insurance
Unemployment insurance is part of a national program
administered by the U.S. Department

of Labor under the Social Security Act and coordinated with the
states. It protects workers
who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Employers
entirely foot the bill for this
benefit via a payroll tax, which can vary widely by the state.
The rates firms pay also depend
upon their layoff records, or what is referred to as their
experience ratings. Generally
speaking, a firm with a record of laying off large numbers of
employees will have to pay a
higher rate than those that do not. This means that companies
most likely to lay people off
will have to pay a larger share of unemployment taxes that end
up going to their former
workers. In addition, these tax rates will vary from one state to
the next. As you can see,
unemployment taxes are something HR managers must consider
when they make decisions
about where to locate their operations and hire employees as
well as lay them off.
Employees who are laid off are generally eligible for up to 26
weeks of unemployment
insurance benefits during their unemployment. During periods
of high unemployment, the
federal government has sometimes passed legislation extending
the amount of weeks
employees can collect benefits. Extended-unemployment benefit
programs in states with
high unemployment rates have also been established. However,
some states are backing
away from 26 weeks. Despite its high unemployment rate, in
2011, Michigan became the
first state to cut the number of weeks to 20 because its
unemployment fund was so far in the
red. HR managers need to stay abreast of federal and state

changes such as these so
they communicate the right information to workers.
Workers eligible for unemployment benefits must submit an
application for unemployment
compensation with their state employment agencies, register for
available work, and be
willing to accept any suitable employment that may be offered
to them. However, the term
“suitable” gives individuals considerable discretion in accepting
or rejecting job offers. The
amount of compensation workers are eligible to receive, which
also varies by the state, is
determined by a worker’s previous wage rate and length of
employment.
Chapter 11: Employee Benefits: 11.2b Unemployment Insurance
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4
1
An Introduction to
McDonaldization

George Ritzer
��
Ray Kroc (1902–1984), the genius behind the franchising of
McDonald’srestaurants, was a man with big ideas and grand
ambitions. But even
Kroc could not have anticipated the astounding impact of his
creation.
McDonald’s is the basis of one of the most influential
developments in con-
temporary society. Its reverberations extend far beyond its point
of origin in
the United States and in the fast-food business. It has
influenced a wide range
of undertakings, indeed the way of life, of a significant portion
of the world.
And in spite of McDonald’s recent and well-publicized
economic difficulties,
that impact is likely to expand at an accelerating rate.
However, this is not a book about McDonald’s, or even about
the fast-
food business, although both will be discussed frequently
throughout these
pages. I devote all this attention to McDonald’s (as well as the
industry of
which it is part and that it played such a key role in spawning)
because it
serves here as the major example of, and the paradigm for, a
wide-ranging
process I call McDonaldization—that is,
Editor’s Note: From Ritzer, G. (2004). An Introduction to
McDonaldization. The

McDonaldization of Society, Revised New Century Edition (pp.
1–23). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
01-Ritzer-4852.qxd 1/4/2006 3:44 PM Page 4
the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant
are coming to
dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as
of the rest of the
world.
As you will see, McDonaldization affects not only the
restaurant business
but also education, work, the criminal justice system, health
care, travel, leisure,
dieting, politics, the family, religion, and virtually every other
aspect of society.
McDonaldization has shown every sign of being an inexorable
process, sweep-
ing through seemingly impervious institutions and regions of
the world.
The success of McDonald’s (in spite of recent troubles; see the
closing
section of this chapter) itself is apparent: In 2002, its total sales
was over $41
billion, with operating income of $2.1 billion. McDonald’s,
which first
began operations in 1955, had 31,172 restaurants throughout the
world as
of early 2003. Martin Plimmer, a British commentator, archly
notes: “There
are McDonald’s everywhere. There’s one near you, and there’s

one being
built right now even nearer to you. Soon, if McDonald’s goes on
expanding
at its present rate, there might even be one in your house. You
could find
Ronald McDonald’s boots under your bed. And maybe his red
wig, too.”
McDonald’s and McDonaldization have had their most obvious
influ-
ence on the restaurant industry and, more generally, on
franchises of all types:
1. According to the International Franchise Association, there
were
320,000 small franchised businesses in the United States in
2000 and they
did about $1 trillion in annual sales. Although accounting for
less than 10%
of retail businesses, over 40% of all retail sales come from
franchises and
they employ more than 8 million people. Franchises are growing
rapidly
with a new one opening every 8 minutes in the United States.
Over 57% of
McDonald’s restaurants are franchises.
2. In the restaurant industry, the McDonald’s model has been
adopted
not only by other budget-minded hamburger franchises, such as
Burger King
and Wendy’s, but also by a wide array of other low-priced fast-
food busi-
nesses. Yum! Brands, Inc. operates nearly 33,000 restaurants in
100 countries
under the Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, A&W

Root Beer,
and Long John Silver’s franchises and has more outlets than
McDonald’s,
although its total sales ($24 billion in 2002) are not nearly as
high. Subway
(with almost 19,000 outlets in 72 countries) is one of the
fastest-growing
fast-food businesses and claims to be—and may actually be—
the largest
restaurant chain in the United States.
3. Starbucks, a relative newcomer to the fast-food industry, has
achieved
dramatic success of its own. A local Seattle business as late as
1987,
Introduction to McDonaldization——5
Starbucks had over 6,000 company-owned shops (there are no
franchises)
by 2003, more than ten times the number of shops in 1994.
Starbucks
has been growing rapidly internationally and is now a presence
in Latin
America, Europe (it is particularly omnipresent in London), the
Middle East,
and the Pacific Rim.
4. Perhaps we should not be surprised that the McDonald’s
model has
been extended to casual dining—that is, more upscale, higher-
priced restau-

rants with fuller menus (for example, Outback Steakhouse,
Chili’s, Olive
Garden, and Red Lobster). Morton’s is an even more upscale,
high-priced
chain of steakhouses that has overtly modeled itself after
McDonald’s:
“Despite the fawning service and the huge wine list, a meal at
Morton’s con-
forms to the same dictates of uniformity, cost control and
portion regulation
that have enabled American fast-food chains to rule the world.”
In fact, the
chief executive of Morton’s was an owner of a number of
Wendy’s outlets
and admits: “My experience with Wendy’s has helped in
Morton’s venues.”
To achieve uniformity, employees go “by the book”; “an
ingredient-
by-ingredient illustrated binder describing the exact
specifications of 500
Morton’s kitchen items, sauces, and garnishes. A row of color
pictures in every
Morton’s kitchen displays the presentation for each dish.”
5. Other types of business are increasingly adapting the
principles of the
fast-food industry to their needs. Said the vice chairman of Toys
‘R Us, “We
want to be thought of as a sort of McDonald’s of toys.” The
founder of
Kidsports Fun and Fitness Club echoed this desire: “I want to be
the
McDonald’s of the kids’ fun and fitness business.” Other chains
with simi-
lar ambitions include Gap, Jiffy Lube, AAMCO Transmissions,
Midas

Muffler & Brake Shops, Great Clips, H&R Block, Pearle
Vision, Bally’s,
Kampgrounds of America (KOA), KinderCare (dubbed
“Kentucky Fried
Children”), Jenny Craig, Home Depot, Barnes & Noble,
PETsMART.
6. McDonald’s has been a resounding success in the
international
arena. Over half of McDonald’s restaurants are outside the
United States (in
the mid-1980s, only 25% of McDonald’s were outside the
United States).
The majority (982) of the 1,366 new restaurants opened in 2002
were over-
seas (in the United States, the number of restaurants increased
by less than
four hundred). Well over half of McDonald’s revenue comes
from its over-
seas operations. McDonald’s restaurants are now found in 118
nations
around the world, serving 46 million customers a day. The
leader, by far, is
Japan with almost 4,000 restaurants, followed by Canada with
over 1,300,
and Germany with over 1,200. As of 2002, there were 95
McDonald’s in
Russia, and the company plans to open many more restaurants
in the former
Soviet Union and in the vast new territory in Eastern Europe
that has been
6—— B A S I C S , S T U D I E S , A P P L I C A T I O N S ,
E X T E N S I O N S

laid bare to the invasion of fast-food restaurants. Great Britain
has become
the “fast-food capital of Europe,” and Israel is described as
“McDonaldized,”
with its shopping malls populated by “Ace Hardware, Toys ‘R
Us, Office
Depot, and TCBY.”
7. Many highly McDonaldized firms outside of the fast-food
industry have
also had success globally. Although most of Blockbuster’s
8,500 sites are in the
United States, more than 2,000 of them are to be found in
twenty-eight other
countries. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer with 1.3
million employees
and $218 billion in sales. Over three thousand of its stores are
in the United
States (as of 2002). It opened its first international store (in
Mexico) in 1991, but
it now has more than one thousand units in Mexico, Puerto
Rico, Canada,
Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, Germany, and the United
Kingdom. In any
week, more than 100 million customers visit Wal-Mart stores
worldwide.
8. Other nations have developed their own variants of this
American insti-
tution. Canada has a chain of coffee shops, Tim Hortons
(merged with Wendy’s
not long ago), with 2,200 outlets (160 in the United States).
Paris, a city whose

love for fine cuisine might lead you to think it would prove
immune to fast
food, has a large number of fast-food croissanteries; the revered
French bread
has also been McDonaldized. India has a chain of fast-food
restaurants,
Nirula’s, that sells mutton burgers (about 80% of Indians are
Hindus, who eat
no beef) as well as local Indian cuisine. Mos Burger is a
Japanese chain with
over fifteen hundred restaurants that, in addition to the usual
fare, sells Teriyaki
chicken burgers, rice burgers, and “Oshiruko with brown rice
cake.” Perhaps
the most unlikely spot for an indigenous fast-food restaurant,
war-ravaged
Beirut of 1984, witnessed the opening of Juicy Burger, with a
rainbow instead
of golden arches and J. B. the Clown standing in for Ronald
McDonald. Its
owners hoped that it would become the “McDonald’s of the
Arab world.”
Most recently, in the immediate wake of the 2003 war with Iraq,
clones of
McDonald’s (sporting names like “MaDonal” and “Matbax”)
opened in that
country complete with hamburgers, french fries, and even
golden arches.
9. And now McDonaldization is coming full circle. Other
countries with
their own McDonaldized institutions have begun to export them
to the United
States. The Body Shop, an ecologically sensitive British
cosmetics chain had,
as of early 2003, over nineteen hundred shops in fifty nations,

of which three
hundred were in the United States. Furthermore, American firms
are now
opening copies of this British chain, such as Bath & Body
Works. Pret A
Manger, a chain of sandwich shops that also originated in Great
Britain (inter-
estingly, McDonald’s purchased a 33% minority share of the
company in
2001), has over 130 company-owned and -run restaurants,
mostly in the
United Kingdom but now also in New York, Hong Kong, and
Tokyo.
10. Ikea, a Swedish-based (but Dutch-owned) home furnishings
company, did about 12 billion euros in business in 2002 derived
from the over
286 million people (equal to about the entire population of the
United States)
visiting their 150-plus stores in 29 countries. Purchases were
also made from
the 118 million copies of their catalog printed in over 45
languages. In fact,
that catalog is reputed to be the second largest publication in
the world, just
after the Bible. An international chain to watch in the coming
years is H&M
clothing, founded in 1947 and now operating over 900 stores in
17 countries
with plans to open another 110 stores by the end of 2003. It

currently employs
over 39,000 people and sells more than 500 million items a
year.
MCDONALD’S AS A GLOBAL ICON
McDonald’s has come to occupy a central place in American
popular culture,
not just the business world. A new McDonald’s opening in a
small town can
be an important social event. Said one Maryland high school
student at such
an opening, “Nothing this exciting ever happens in Dale City.”
Even big-city
newspapers avidly cover developments in the fast-food
business.
Fast-food restaurants also play symbolic roles on television
programs
and in the movies. A skit on the legendary television show
Saturday Night
Live satirized specialty chains by detailing the hardships of a
franchise that
sells nothing but Scotch tape. In the movie Coming to America
(1988), Eddie
Murphy plays an African prince whose introduction to America
includes
a job at “McDowell’s,” a thinly disguised McDonald’s. In
Falling Down
(1993), Michael Douglas vents his rage against the modern
world in a fast-
food restaurant dominated by mindless rules designed to
frustrate customers.
Moscow on the Hudson (1984) has Robin Williams, newly
arrived from
Russia, obtain a job at McDonald’s. H. G. Wells, a central

character in the
movie Time After Time (1979), finds himself transported to the
modern
world of a McDonald’s, where he tries to order the tea he was
accustomed
to drinking in Victorian England. In Sleeper (1973), Woody
Allen awakens
in the future only to encounter a McDonald’s. Tin Men (1987)
ends with the
early 1960s heroes driving off into a future represented by a
huge golden
arch looming in the distance. Scotland, PA (2001) brings
Macbeth to the
Pennsylvania of the 1970s. The famous murder scene from the
Shakespeare
play involves, in this case, plunging a doughnut king’s head
into the boiling
oil of a deep fat fryer. The McBeths then use their ill-gotten
gains to trans-
form the king’s greasy spoon café into a fast-food restaurant
featuring
McBeth burgers.
Further proof that McDonald’s has become a symbol of
American cul-
ture is to be found in what happened when plans were made to
raze Ray
8—— B A S I C S , S T U D I E S , A P P L I C A T I O N S ,
E X T E N S I O N S
Kroc’s first McDonald’s restaurant. Hundreds of letters poured

into
McDonald’s headquarters, including the following:
Please don’t tear it down!. . .Your company’s name is a
household word, not
only in the United States of America, but all over the world. To
destroy this
major artifact of contemporary culture would, indeed, destroy
part of the faith
the people of the world have in your company.
In the end, the restaurant was rebuilt according to the original
blueprints
and turned into a museum. A McDonald’s executive explained
the move:
“McDonald’s. . . is really a part of Americana.”
Americans aren’t the only ones who feel this way. At the
opening of the
McDonald’s in Moscow, one journalist described the franchise
as the “ulti-
mate icon of Americana.” When Pizza Hut opened in Moscow in
1990, a
Russian student said, “It’s a piece of America.” Reflecting on
the growth of fast-
food restaurants in Brazil, an executive associated with Pizza
Hut of Brazil
said that his nation “is experiencing a passion for things
American.” On the
popularity of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Malaysia, the local
owner said,
“Anything Western, especially American, people here love. . . .
They want to
be associated with America.”
One could go further and argue that in at least some ways

McDonald’s
has become more important than the United States itself. Take
the following
story about a former U.S. ambassador to Israel officiating at the
opening of
the first McDonald’s in Jerusalem wearing a baseball hat with
the McDonald’s
golden arches logo:
An Israeli teen-ager walked up to him, carrying his own
McDonald’s hat, which
he handed to Ambassador Indyk with a pen and asked: “Are you
the
Ambassador? Can I have your autograph?” Somewhat
sheepishly, Ambassador
Indyk replied: “Sure, I’ve never been asked for my autograph
before.”
As the Ambassador prepared to sign his name, the Israeli teen-
ager said
to him, “Wow, what’s it like to be the ambassador from
McDonald’s, going
around the world opening McDonald’s restaurants everywhere?”
Ambassador
Indyk looked at the Israeli youth and said, “No, no. I’m the
American ambassador—
not the ambassador from McDonald’s!”
Ambassador Indyk described what happened next: “I said to
him, ‘Does
this mean you don’t want my autograph?’ And the kid said, ‘No,
I don’t want
your autograph,’ and he took his hat back and walked away.”
Two other indices of the significance of McDonald’s (and,
implicitly,

McDonaldization) are worth mentioning. The first is the annual
“Big Mac
Index” (part of “burgernomics”) published by a prestigious
magazine, The
Economist. It indicates the purchasing power of various
currencies around
the world based on the local price (in dollars) of the Big Mac.
The Big Mac
is used because it is a uniform commodity sold in many
different nations. In
the 2003 survey, a Big Mac in the United States cost an average
of $2.71;
in China it was $1.20; in Switzerland it cost $4.52. This
measure indicates,
at least roughly, where the cost of living is high or low, as well
as which
currencies are undervalued (China) and which are overvalued
(Switzerland).
Although The Economist is calculating the Big Mac Index
tongue-in-cheek,
at least in part, the index represents the ubiquity and importance
of McDonald’s
around the world.
The second indicator of McDonald’s global significance is the
idea
developed by Thomas Friedman that “no two countries that both
have
a McDonald’s have ever fought a war since they each got

McDonald’s.”
Friedman calls this the “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict
Prevention.”
Another half-serious idea, it implies that the path to world
peace lies through
the continued international expansion of McDonald’s.
Unfortunately, it was
proved wrong by the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999,
which had six-
teen McDonald’s as of 2002.
To many people throughout the world, McDonald’s has become
a
sacred institution. At that opening of the McDonald’s in
Moscow, a worker
spoke of it “as if it were the Cathedral in Chartres . . . a place to
experience
‘celestial joy.’” Kowinski argues that indoor shopping malls,
which almost
always encompass fast-food restaurants, are the modern
“cathedrals of con-
sumption” to which people go to practice their “consumer
religion.”
Similarly, a visit to another central element of McDonaldized
society, Walt
Disney World, has been described as “the middle-class hajj, the
compulsory
visit to the sunbaked holy city.”
McDonald’s has achieved its exalted position because virtually
all
Americans, and many others, have passed through its golden
arches on
innumerable occasions. Furthermore, most of us have been
bombarded by
commercials extolling McDonald’s virtues, commercials

tailored to a variety
of audiences and that change as the chain introduces new foods,
new
contests, and new product tie-ins. These ever-present
commercials, combined
with the fact that people cannot drive very far without having a
McDonald’s
pop into view, have embedded McDonald’s deeply in popular
consciousness.
A poll of school-age children showed that 96% of them could
identify
Ronald McDonald, second only to Santa Claus in name
recognition.
Over the years, McDonald’s has appealed to people in many
ways. The
restaurants themselves are depicted as spick-and-span, the food
is said to be
fresh and nutritious, the employees are shown to be young and
eager, the
managers appear gentle and caring, and the dining experience
itself seems
fun-filled. People are even led to believe that they contribute
through their
10—— B A S I C S , S T U D I E S , A P P L I C A T I O N S
, E X T E N S I O N S
purchases, at least indirectly, to charities such as the Ronald
McDonald
Houses for sick children.

THE LONG-ARM OF MCDONALDIZATION
McDonald’s strives to continually extend its reach within
American society
and beyond. As the company’s chairman said, “Our goal: to
totally dominate
the quick service restaurant industry worldwide. . . . I want
McDonald’s to
be more than a leader. I want McDonald’s to dominate.”
McDonald’s began as a phenomenon of suburbs and medium-
sized
towns, but in more recent years, it has moved into smaller towns
that sup-
posedly could not support such a restaurant and into many big
cities that
are supposedly too sophisticated. You can now find fast-food
outlets in
New York’s Times Square as well as on the Champs-Elysées in
Paris. Soon
after it opened in 1992, the McDonald’s in Moscow sold almost
thirty thou-
sand hamburgers a day and employed a staff of twelve hundred
young
people working two to a cash register. (Today McDonald’s
controls an
astounding 83% of the fast-food market in Russia.) In early
1992, Beijing
witnessed the opening of the world’s largest McDonald’s, with
seven hun-
dred seats, twenty-nine cash registers, and nearly one thousand
employees.
On its first day of business, it set a new one-day record for
McDonald’s by
serving about forty thousand customers.

Small satellite, express, or remote outlets, opened in areas that
cannot
support full-scale fast-food restaurants, are also expanding
rapidly. They
are found in small storefronts in large cities and in
nontraditional settings
such as department stores, service stations, and even schools.
These satellites
typically offer only limited menus and may rely on larger
outlets for food
storage and preparation. McDonald’s is considering opening
express outlets
in museums, office buildings, and corporate cafeterias. A flap
occurred not
long ago over the placement of a McDonald’s in the new federal
courthouse
in Boston. Among the more striking sites for a McDonald’s
restaurant are
the Grand Canyon, the world’s tallest building (Petronas Towers
in Malaysia),
a ski-through on a slope in Sweden, and in a structure in
Shrewsbury,
England, that dates back to the 13th century.
No longer content to dominate the strips that surround many
college
campuses, fast-food restaurants have moved onto many of those
campuses.
The first campus fast-food restaurant opened at the University
of Cincinnati
in 1973. Today, college cafeterias often look like shopping-mall
food courts
(and it’s no wonder, given that campus food service is a $9.5
billion-a-year
business). In conjunction with a variety of “branded partners”
(for example,

Pizza Hut and Subway), Marriott now supplies food to many
colleges and
universities. The apparent approval of college administrations
puts fast-food
restaurants in a position to further influence the younger
generation.
We no longer need to leave many highways to obtain fast food
quickly
and easily. Fast food is now available at many, and in some
cases all, con-
venient rest stops along the road. After “refueling,” we can
proceed with our
trip, which is likely to end in another community that has about
the same
density and mix of fast-food restaurants as the locale we left
behind. Fast
food is also increasingly available in hotels, railway stations,
and airports.
In other sectors of society, the influence of fast-food restaurants
has
been subtler but no less profound. Food produced by
McDonald’s and other
fast-food restaurants has begun to appear in high schools and
trade schools;
over 20% of school cafeterias offer popular brand-name fast
foods such as
Pizza Hut or Taco Bell at least once a week. Said the director of

nutrition for
the American School Food Service Association, “Kids today
live in a world
where fast food has become a way of life. For us to get kids to
eat, period,
we have to provide some familiar items.” Few lower-grade
schools as yet
have in-house fast-food restaurants. However, many have had to
alter school
cafeteria menus and procedures to make fast food readily
available. Apples,
yogurt, and milk may go straight into the trash can, but
hamburgers, fries,
and shakes are devoured. The attempt to hook school-age
children on fast
food reached something of a peak in Illinois, where McDonald’s
operated a
program called, “A for Cheeseburger.” Students who received
As on their
report cards received a free cheeseburger, thereby linking
success in school
with rewards from McDonald’s.
The military has also been pressed to offer fast food on both
bases and
ships. Despite the criticisms by physicians and nutritionists,
fast-food outlets
increasingly turn up inside hospitals. Although no homes yet
have a McDonald’s
of their own, meals at home often resemble those available in
fast-food
restaurants. Frozen, microwavable, and prepared foods, which
bear a strik-
ing resemblance to meals available at fast-food restaurants,
often find their
way to the dinner table. There are even cookbooks—for

example, Secret Fast
Food Recipes: The Fast Food Cookbook—that allow one to
prepare “genuine”
fast food at home. Then there is also home delivery of fast
foods, especially
pizza, as revolutionized by Domino’s.
Another type of expansion involves what could be termed
“vertical
McDonaldization.” That is, the demands of the fast-food
industry, as is well
documented in Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, have forced
industries
that service it to McDonaldize in order to satisfy its insatiable
demands.
Thus, potato growing and processing, cattle ranching, chicken
raising, and
meat slaughtering and processing have all had to McDonaldize
their opera-
tions, and this has led to dramatic increases in production.
However, that
growth has not come without costs. Meat and poultry are more
likely to be
disease-ridden, small (often non-McDonaldized) producers and
ranchers
have been driven out of business, and millions of people have
been forced to
work in low-paying, demeaning, demanding, and sometimes

outright dan-
gerous jobs. For example, in the meatpacking industry,
relatively safe,
unionized, secure, manageable, and relatively high-paying jobs
in firms with
once-household names like Swift and Armour have been
replaced by unsafe,
nonunionized, insecure, unmanageable, and relatively low-
paying posi-
tions with largely anonymous corporations. While some (largely
owners,
managers, and stockholders) have profited enormously from
vertical
McDonaldization, far more have been forced into a marginal
economic
existence.
McDonald’s is such a powerful model that many businesses
have
acquired nicknames beginning with Mc. Examples include
“McDentists” and
“McDoctors,” meaning drive-in clinics designed to deal quickly
and effi-
ciently with minor dental and medical problems; “McChild”
care centers,
meaning child care centers such as KinderCare; “McStables,”
designating the
nationwide racehorse-training operation of Wayne Lucas; and
“McPaper,”
describing the newspaper USA TODAY.
McDonald’s is not always enamored of this proliferation. Take
the case
of We Be Sushi, a San Francisco chain with a half dozen
outlets. A note
appears on the back of the menu explaining why the chain was

not named
“McSushi”:
The original name was McSushi. Our sign was up and we were
ready to go. But
before we could open our doors we received a very formal letter
from the
lawyers of, you guessed it, McDonald’s. It seems that
McDonald’s has cornered
the market on every McFood name possible from McBagle [sic]
to McTaco.
They explained that the use of the name McSushi would dilute
the image of
McDonald’s.
So powerful is McDonaldization that the derivatives of
McDonald’s in
turn exert their own influence. For example, the success of USA
TODAY has
led many newspapers across the nation to adopt, for example,
shorter sto-
ries and colorful weather maps. As one USA TODAY editor
said, “The same
newspaper editors who call us McPaper have been stealing our
McNuggets.”
Even serious journalistic enterprises such as the New York
Times and
Washington Post have undergone changes (for example, the use
of color) as
a result of the success of USA TODAY. The influence of USA
TODAY is
blatantly manifested in The Boca Raton News, which has been
described as
“a sort of smorgasbord of snippets, a newspaper that slices and
dices the
news into even smaller portions than does USA TODAY,

spicing it with
color graphics and fun facts and cute features like ‘Today’s
Hero’ and
‘Critter Watch.’” As in USA TODAY, stories in The Boca
Raton News
usually start and finish on the same page. Many important
details, much of
a story’s context, and much of what the principals have to say is
cut back
severely or omitted entirely. With its emphasis on light news
and color
graphics, the main function of the newspaper seems to be
entertainment.
Like virtually every other sector of society, sex has undergone
McDonaldization. In the movie Sleeper, Woody Allen not only
created a
futuristic world in which McDonald’s was an important and
highly visible
element, but he also envisioned a society in which people could
enter a
machine called an “orgasmatron,” to experience an orgasm
without going
through the muss and fuss of sexual intercourse.
Similarly, real-life “dial-a-porn” allows people to have intimate,
sexu-
ally explicit, even obscene conversations with people they have
never met

and probably never will meet. There is great specialization here:
Dialing
numbers such as 555-FOXX will lead to a very different phone
message than
dialing 555-SEXY. Those who answer the phones mindlessly
and repetitively
follow “scripts” that have them say such things as, “Sorry,
tiger, but your
Dream Girl has to go. . . . Call right back and ask for me.” Less
scripted are
phone sex systems (or Internet chat rooms) that permit erotic
conversations
between total strangers. The advent of the webcam now permits
people even
to see (though still not touch) the person with whom they are
having virtual
sex. As Woody Allen anticipated with his orgasmatron,
“Participants can
experience an orgasm without ever meeting or touching one
another.” “In a
world where convenience is king, disembodied sex has its
allure. You don’t
have to stir from your comfortable home. You pick up the
phone, or log
onto the computer and, if you’re plugged in, a world of unheard
of sexual
splendor rolls out before your eyes.” In New York City, an
official called a
three-story pornographic center “the McDonald’s of sex”
because of its
“cookie-cutter cleanliness and compliance with the law.” These
examples
suggest that no aspect of people’s lives is immune to
McDonaldization.
THE DIMENSIONS OF MCDONALDIZATION

Why has the McDonald’s model proven so irresistible? Eating
fast food at
McDonald’s has certainly become a “sign” that, among other
things, one
is in tune with the contemporary lifestyle. There is also a kind
of magic or
enchantment associated with such food and its settings.
However, the focus
here is the four alluring dimensions that lie at the heart of the
success of this
model and, more generally, of McDonaldization. In short,
McDonald’s has
succeeded because it offers consumers, workers, and managers
efficiency,
calculability, predictability, and control.
Efficiency
One important element of McDonald’s success is efficiency, or
the
optimum method for getting from one point to another. For
consumers,
McDonald’s offers the best available way to get from being
hungry to being
full. In a society where both parents are likely to work or where
a single par-
ent is struggling to keep up, efficiently satisfying hunger is very
attractive.

In a society where people rush from one spot to another, usually
by car, the
efficiency of a fast-food meal, perhaps even a drive-through
meal, often
proves impossible to resist.
The fast-food model offers, or at least appears to offer, an
efficient
method for satisfying many other needs, as well. Woody Allen’s
orgasma-
tron offered an efficient method for getting people from
quiescence to
sexual gratification. Other institutions fashioned on the
McDonald’s model
offer similar efficiency in losing weight, lubricating cars,
getting new glasses
or contacts, or completing income tax forms.
Like their customers, workers in McDonaldized systems
function effi-
ciently following the steps in a predesigned process. They are
trained to
work this way by managers who watch over them closely to
make sure that
they do. Organizational rules and regulations also help ensure
highly efficient
work.
Calculability
Calculability is an emphasis on the quantitative aspects of
products sold
(portion size, cost) and services offered (the time it takes to get
the product).
In McDonaldized systems, quantity has become equivalent to
quality; a lot

of something, or the quick delivery of it, means it must be good.
As two
observers of contemporary American culture put it, “As a
culture, we tend
to believe deeply that in general ‘bigger is better.’” Thus,
people order the
Quarter Pounder, the Big Mac, the large fries. More recent lures
are the
“double” this (for instance, Burger King’s “Double Whopper
with Cheese”)
and the “super-size” that. People can quantify these things and
feel that they
are getting a lot of food for what appears to be a nominal sum
of money
(best exemplified by McDonald’s current “dollar menu”). This
calculation
does not take into account an important point, however: The
high profit
margin of fast-food chains indicates that the owners, not the
consumers, get
the best deal.
People also tend to calculate how much time it will take to drive
to
McDonald’s, be served the food, eat it, and return home; then,
they compare
that interval to the time required to prepare food at home. They
often con-
clude, rightly or wrongly, that a trip to the fast-food restaurant
will take less

time than eating at home. This sort of calculation particularly
supports home
delivery franchises such as Domino’s, as well as other chains
that emphasize
time saving. A notable example of time saving in another sort of
chain is
LensCrafters, which promises people, “Glasses fast, glasses in
one hour.”
Some McDonaldized institutions combine the emphases on time
and
money. Domino’s promises pizza delivery in half an hour, or the
pizza is free.
Pizza Hut will serve a personal pan pizza in five minutes, or it,
too, will be free.
Workers in McDonaldized systems also tend to emphasize the
quantita-
tive rather than the qualitative aspects of their work. Since the
quality of the
work is allowed to vary little, workers focus on things such as
how quickly
tasks can be accomplished. In a situation analogous to that of
the customer,
workers are expected to do a lot of work, very quickly, for low
pay.
Predictability
McDonald’s also offers predictability, the assurance that
products and
services will be the same over time and in all locales. The Egg
McMuffin in
New York will be, for all intents and purposes, identical to
those in Chicago

and Los Angeles. Also, those eaten next week or next year will
be identical
to those eaten today. Customers take great comfort in knowing
that
McDonald’s offers no surprises. People know that the next Egg
McMuffin
they eat will not be awful, although it will not be exceptionally
delicious,
either. The success of the McDonald’s model suggests that
many people have
come to prefer a world in which there are few surprises. “This is
strange,”
notes a British observer, “considering [McDonald’s is] the
product of a
culture which honours individualism above all.”
The workers in McDonaldized systems also behave in
predictable ways.
They follow corporate rules as well as the dictates of third
managers. In
many cases, what they do, and even what they say, is highly
predictable.
McDonaldized organizations often have scripts (perhaps the
best-known is
McDonald’s, “Do you want fries with that?”) that employees are
supposed
to memorize and follow whenever the occasion arises. This
scripted behav-
ior helps create highly predictable interactions between workers
and cus-
tomers. While customers do not follow scripts, they tend to
develop simple
recipes for dealing with the employees of McDonaldized
systems. As Robin
Leidner argues,

McDonald’s pioneered the reutilization of interactive service
work and remains
an exemplar of extreme standardization. Innovation is not
discouraged . . . at
least among managers and franchisees. Ironically, though, “the
object is to look
for new, innovative ways to create an experience that is exactly
the same no
matter what McDonald’s you walk into, no matter where it is in
the world.”
Control Through Nonhuman Technology
The fourth element in McDonald’s success, control, is exerted
over the
people who enter the world of McDonald’s. Lines, limited
menus, few
options, and uncomfortable seats all lead diners to do what
management
wishes them to do—eat quickly and leave. Furthermore, the
drive-through
(in some cases, walk-through) window leads diners to leave
before they eat.
In the Domino’s model, customers never enter in the first place.
The people who work in McDonaldized organizations are also
con-
trolled to a high degree, usually more blatantly and directly than
customers.

They are trained to do a limited number of things in precisely
the way they
are told to do them. The technologies used and the way the
organization is
set up reinforce this control. Managers and inspectors make sure
that work-
ers toe the line.
McDonald’s also controls employees by threatening to use, and
ulti-
mately using, technology to replace human workers. No matter
how well
they are programmed and controlled, workers can foul up the
system’s oper-
ation. A slow worker can make the preparation and delivery of a
Big Mac
inefficient. A worker who refuses to follow the rules might
leave the pickles
or special sauce off a hamburger, thereby making for
unpredictability. And
a distracted worker can put too few fries in the box, making an
order of
large fries seem skimpy. For these and other reasons,
McDonald’s and other
fast-food restaurants have felt compelled to steadily replace
human beings
with machines. Technology that increases control over workers
helps
McDonaldized systems assure customers that their products and
service will
be consistent.
THE ADVANTAGES OF MCDONALDIZATION
This discussion of four fundamental characteristics of
McDonaldization

makes it clear that McDonald’s has succeeded so phenomenally
for good,
solid reasons. Many knowledgeable people such as the
economic columnist,
Robert Samuelson, strongly support McDonald’s business
model. Samuelson
confesses to “openly worship[ing] McDonald’s,” and he thinks
of it as “the
greatest restaurant chain in history.” In addition, McDonald’s
offers many
praiseworthy programs that benefit society, such as its Ronald
McDonald
Houses, which permit parents to stay with children undergoing
treatment for
serious medical problems; job-training programs for teenagers;
programs to
help keep its employees in school; efforts to hire and train the
handicapped;
the McMasters program, aimed at hiring senior citizens; an
enviable record
of hiring and promoting minorities; and a social responsibility
program with
social goals improving the environment and animal welfare.
The process of McDonaldization also moved ahead dramatically
undoubtedly because it has led to positive changes. Here are a
few specific
examples:
� A wider range of goods and services is available to a much

larger portion of
the population than ever before.
� Availability of goods and services depends far less than
before on time or
geographic location; people can do things, such as obtain money
at the gro-
cery store or a bank balance in the middle of the night, that
were impossible
before.
� People are able to get what they want or need almost
instantaneously and
get it far more conveniently.
� Goods and services are of a far more uniform quality; at least
some people
even get better quality goods and services than before
McDonaldization.
� Far more economical alternatives to high-priced, customized
goods and ser-
vices are widely available; therefore, people can afford things
they could not
previously afford.
� Fast, efficient goods and services are available to a
population that is work-
ing longer hours and has fewer hours to spare.
� In a rapidly changing, unfamiliar, and seemingly hostile
world, the compar-
atively stable, familiar, and safe environment of a
McDonaldized system
offers comfort.

� Because of quantification, consumers can more easily
compare competing
products.
� Certain products (for example, diet programs) are safer in a
carefully regu-
lated and controlled system.
� People are more likely to be treated similarly, no matter what
their race,
gender, or social class.
� Organizational and technological innovations are more
quickly and easily
diffused through networks of identical operators.
� The most popular products of one culture are more easily
diffused to others.
A CRITIQUE OF MCDONALDIZATION:
THE IRRATIONALITY OF RATIONALITY
Although McDonaldization offers powerful advantages, it has a
downside.
Efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control through
nonhuman tech-
nology can be thought of as the basic components of a rational
system.
However, rational systems inevitably spawn irrationalities.
Another way of
saying this is that rational systems serve to deny human reason;
rational
systems are often unreasonable. The downside of
McDonaldization will be

dealt with most systematically under the heading of the
irrationality of ratio-
nality; in fact, paradoxically, the irrationality of rationality can
be thought
of as the fifth dimension of McDonaldization.
For example, McDonaldization has produced a wide array of
adverse
effects on the environment. One is a side effect of the need to
grow uniform
potatoes from which to create predictable french fries. The huge
farms of the
Pacific Northwest that now produce such potatoes rely on the
extensive use
of chemicals. In addition, the need to produce a perfect fry
means that much
of the potato is wasted, with the remnants either fed to cattle or
used for
fertilizer. The underground water supply in the area is now
showing high
levels of nitrates, which may be traceable to the fertilizer and
animal wastes.
Many other ecological problems are associated with the
McDonaldization
of the fast-food industry: the forests felled to produce paper
wrappings,
the damage caused by packaging materials, the enormous
amount of food
needed to produce feed cattle, and so on.

Another unreasonable effect is that fast-food restaurants are
often dehu-
manizing settings in which to eat or work. Customers lining up
for a burger
or waiting in the drive-through line and workers preparing the
food often
feel as though they are part of an assembly line. Hardly
amenable to eating,
assembly lines have been shown to be inhuman settings in
which to work.
Such criticisms can be extended to all facets of the
McDonaldizing
world. For example, at the opening of Euro Disney, a French
politician said
that it will “bombard France with uprooted creations that are to
culture
what fast food is to gastronomy.
As you have seen, McDonaldization offers many advantages.
However,
this book will focus on the great costs, and enormous risks of
McDonaldization.
McDonald’s and other purveyors of the fast-food model spend
billions of
dollars each year outlining the benefits of their system.
However, critics of
the system have few outlets for their ideas. For example, no one
is offering
commercials between Saturday-morning cartoons warning
children of the
dangers associated with fast-food restaurants.
Nonetheless, a legitimate question may be raised about this
critique of
McDonaldization: Is it animated by a romanticization of the

past and an
impossible desire to return to a world that no longer exists?
Some critics do
base their critiques on nostalgia for a time when life was slower
and offered
more surprises, when people were freer, and when one was more
likely to
deal with a human being than a robot or a computer. Although
they have a
point, these critics have undoubtedly exaggerated the positive
aspects of a
world without McDonald’s, and they have certainly tended to
forget the
liabilities associated with earlier eras. As an example of the
latter, take the
following anecdote about a visit to a pizzeria in Havana, Cuba,
which in
many respects is decades behind the United States:
The pizza’s not much to rave about—they scrimp on tomato
sauce, and the
dough is mushy.
It was about 7:30 P.M., and as usual the place was standing-
roam-only,
with people two deep jostling for a stool to come open and a
waiting line
spilling out onto the sidewalk.
The menu is similarly Spartan. . . . To drink, there is tap water.

That’s it—
no toppings, no soda, no beer, no coffee, no salt, no pepper.
And no special
orders.
A very few people are eating. Most are waiting. . . . Fingers are
drumming,
flies are buzzing, the clock is ticking. The waiter wears a watch
around his belt
loop, but he hardly needs it; time is evidently not his chief
concern. After a
while, tempers begin to fray.
But right now, it’s 8:45 P.M. at the pizzeria, I’ve been waiting
an hour and
a quarter for two small pies.
Few would prefer such a restaurant to the fast, friendly, diverse
offerings
of, say, Pizza Hut. More important, however, critics who revere
the past do
not seem to realize that we are not returning to such a world. In
fact, fast-
food restaurants have begun to appear even in Havana. The
increase in the
number of people crowding the planet, the acceleration of
technological
change, the increasing pace of life—all this and more make it
impossible to
go back to the world, if it ever existed, of home-cooked meals,
traditional
restaurant dinners, high-quality foods, meals loaded with
surprises, and restau-
rants run by chefs free to express their creativity.
It is more valid to critique McDonaldization from the

perspective of the
future. Unfettered by the constraints of McDonaldized systems,
but using
the technological advances made possible by them, people
would have the
potential to be far more thoughtful, skillful, creative, and well-
rounded than
they are now. In short, if the world were less McDonaldized,
people would
be better able to live up to their human potential.
We must look at McDonaldization as both “enabling” and
“constrain-
ing.” McDonaldized systems enable us to do many things that
we were not
able to do in the past. However, these systems also keep us from
doing things
we otherwise would not do. McDonaldization is a “double-
edged” phenom-
enon. We must not lose sight of that fact, even though this book
will focus
on the constraints associated with McDonaldization—its “dark
side.”
WHAT ISN’T MCDONALDIZED?
This chapter should give you a sense not only of the advantages
and dis-
advantages of McDonaldization but also of the range of
phenomena discussed

throughout this book. In fact, such a wide range of phenomena
can be linked
to McDonaldization that you may be led to wonder what isn’t
McDonaldized.
Is McDonaldization the equivalent of modernity? Is everything
contempo-
rary McDonaldized?
Although much of the world has been McDonaldized, at least
three
aspects of contemporary society have largely escaped the
process:
� Those aspects traceable to an earlier, “premodern” age. A
good exam-
ple is the mom-and-pop grocery store.
� New businesses that have sprung up or expanded, at least in
part,
as a reaction against McDonaldization. For instance, people fed
up with
McDonaldized motel rooms in Holiday Inns or Motel 6s can
instead
stay in a bed-and-breakfast, which offers a room in a private
home with
personalized attention and a homemade breakfast from the
proprietor.
� Those aspects suggesting a move toward a new, “postmodern”
age. For
example, in a postmodern society, “modern” high-rise housing
projects
would make way for smaller, more livable communities.

Thus, although McDonaldization is ubiquitous, there is more to
the con-
temporary world than McDonaldization. It is a very important
social process,
but it is far from the only process transforming contemporary
society.
Furthermore, McDonaldization is not an all-or-nothing process.
There
are degrees of McDonaldization. Fast-food restaurants, for
example, have
been heavily McDonaldized, universities moderately
McDonaldized, and
mom-and-pop groceries only slightly McDonaldized. It is
difficult to think
of social phenomena that have escaped McDonaldization totally,
but some
local enterprise in Fiji may yet be untouched by this process.
MCDONALD’S TROUBLES: IMPLICATIONS FOR
MCDONALDIZATION
McDonald’s has been much in the news in the early 21st
century, and most
of the time, the news has been bad (at least for McDonald’s)—
bombings
(some involving fatalities) and protests at restaurants overseas,
lawsuits
claiming that its food made people obese and that it mislabeled
some food
as vegetarian, declining stock prices, and its first-ever quarterly
loss.
McDonald’s has responded by withdrawing from several
nations, settling
lawsuits, closing restaurants, reducing staff, cutting planned
expansions,

replacing top officials, and remodeling restaurants.
It is hard to predict whether the current situation is merely a
short-term
downturn to be followed by renewed expansion or the beginning
of the end
of McDonald’s (after all, even the Roman Empire, to say
nothing of A&P
and Woolworth’s, among many others, eventually declined and
disappeared).
For the sake of discussion, let’s take the worst-case scenario—
McDonald’s
imminently turning off the griddles in the last of its restaurants.
This would clearly be a disastrous event as far as stockholders,
fran-
chisees, employees, and devotees of Big Macs and Chicken
McNuggets are
concerned, but what of its broader implications for the
McDonaldization of
society? The hypothetical demise of McDonald’s would spell
the end of the
model for this process, but it would be of no consequence to the
process
itself. We might need to find a new model and label—
“Starbuckization” sug-
gests itself at the moment because of Starbucks’ great current
success and its
dramatic expansion around the globe—but whatever we call it,

the process
itself will not only continue but grow more powerful. Can we
really envision
an alternative future of increasing inefficiency, unpredictability,
incalculabil-
ity, and less reliance on new technology?
In the restaurant industry, the decline and eventual
disappearance of
McDonald’s would simply mean greater possibilities for its
competitors
(Subway, Wendy’s) and open the way for more innovative
chains (In-N-Out
Burger). However, which fast-food chains dominate would be of
little con-
sequence to the process of McDonaldization since all of them
are highly
McDonaldized and all are based on the model pioneered by
McDonald’s.
What would be of consequence would be a major revival of old-
fashioned,
non-McDonaldized alternatives like cafes, “greasy spoons,”
diners, cafete-
rias, and the like. However, these are not likely to undergo
significant expan-
sion unless some organization finds a way to successfully
McDonaldize
them. And if they do, it would simply be the McDonaldization
of yet another
domain.
What is certainly not going to happen is a return to the pre-
McDonald’s
era dominated by the kinds of alternatives mentioned above.
Can we really
envision the approximately 13,000 sites currently occupied by

McDonald’s
restaurants in the United States being filled by a like number of
indepen-
dently owned and operated cafes and diners? The problem of
finding skilled
short-order cooks to staff them pales in comparison to the
difficulty in find-
ing people who will frequent them. It’s been nearly fifty years
since the fran-
chise revolutionized the fast-food industry with the opening of
the first of the
McDonald’s chain. The vast majority of Americans have known
little other
than the McDonaldized world of fast food, and for those born
before 1955,
the alternatives are increasingly dim memories. Thus,
McDonaldized sys-
tems for the delivery of fast food (e.g., drive-through lanes,
home-delivered
pizzas), and the McDonaldized food itself (Whoppers, Taco
Bell’s watered-
down version of the taco), have become the standards for many
people. A
hamburger made on the grill at a diner or a taco from an
authentic taco
stand are likely to be judged inferior to the more McDonaldized
versions.
Furthermore, those who are accustomed to the enormous
efficiency of the

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