Rational has a number of specialized meanings depending on which subject material. Humans are generally considered to be being of rationality. However, when it comes to financial success, humans who are motivated by greed have a tendency to take action irrationally. This article will discuss the statement with guide of Webers rationalisation theory and Durkheims division of labour theory. Weber refers to the change of tradition ideas into calculability idea sparks the spirit of capitalism, bureaucracy as an administration to capitalism and also recognise the likelihood of irrationality of rationality. On the other hand, Durkheim clarify how human are sociable beings through mechanical and organic and natural solidarity but also recognise the problem specialisation and diversification may face. Thus, this essay will discuss the assertion with reference to Weber and Durkheim theories and also use modern-day example such as McDonalization and Starbucks diversification to understand how workers act in the tote financial success.
Weber identified rationalisation as an alteration in the social craze whereby traditional norms or beliefs and substituted with the thought of technical and computation of energy when performing an activity. This is clearly shown in another of Webers most significant and famous studies, The Protestant Ethic and Soul of Capitalism (1965), where he represents the introduction of rationalisation from the move of events before Protestantism which gives beginning to the spirit of capitalism. The climb of logical capitalism and the change of cultural structure are highlighted through the Calvinist theory. Calvinism is an action to dedicating oneself to effort to be able to obtained gods elegance and secure a location in heaven after life (Weber, 2011). The income gained from the hard work shouldn't be used for sinful usage but it is to be invested back to the business. Since materials success was used a gauge to evaluate how blessed is someone, this resulted in the emergence of a fresh work ethic within the Calvinists people, who always work hard round the clock and reinvesting back again everything they owned or operated have caused those to unintentionally became capitalists. That is further backed by Weber interpretation of Benjamin Franklins work about the topic of money. In his publication, Benjamin Franklin says that time is money also to waste time is to spend money (Lemert, 2009). The actual fact of Benjamin not concern with surviving but with making money as much as possible is an ethic peculiar capitalism. This ethic of going after the maximum amount of money disregards the thought of your wellbeing as the main thing in life is signal of heart of capitalism.
Now, we shall look at Emile Durkheims view, who's another famous sociologist. In his book, The Division of Labour, Durkheim emphasise on the top of solidarity in the population. Society will need some type of cohesive force in order to carry humans collectively (Durkheim, 2014). Durkheim recognizes 2 type of such cohesion which he classifies it as mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. In mechanical solidarity, similarity and homogeneity is the main element aspect within an organization (Grint, 2005). Individuals get together because they reveal the same likeness which makes people feel connected through similar work, notion and lifestyle. Person wouldnt feel autonomous, because the culture here is a collective cohesion (Morrison, 2006). Mechanical solidarity usually identifies the old times where it is situated in villages and small cities. An historical exemplory case of mechanical solidarity is seen through farmers before the industrialisation. As opposed to mechanical solidarity, organic solidarity is where people are held together for their difference where population is now specialised and diversified (Durkheim, 2014). The division of labour requires everyone to depend on one another. In organic solidarity, individuals are bound along because each individual adds different things to the group and everyone is considered to be valuable. Durkheim argued that the bond between people develop stronger as division of labour increase because this add dependency on each other for success. Judging out of this, we can say human being can make rational action when going after financial success because of the diverse knowledge and various view of so many specialised individuals in the group (Gibbons et al. , 1994). Hence, they could make logical decision.
As can be seen from Weber and Durkheims work, they both concur humans are rational being (Watson, 2008). We are able to see a switch of human work from traditional norms towards rational efforts aimed at achieving economic gain. According to Weber, Protestantism is not the cause of capitalism but the idea of chasing capital gain give rise to capitalism (Weber, 2011). The money earned becomes its own end and rational capitalism is born. Much like Webers take on rationalisation, Durkheim says the development of the section of labour has led to the drop of collective conscious, which is the writing of similar values and ways, are changed with specialised and diverse individuals as something of modernisation (Durkheim, 2014). Traditionally, achieving human being satisfaction is a lot more important than achieving capital gain (Coleman, 1988). But under capitalism, the relation is opposite which cause it to be irrational. Weber presumed that industrialization was leading to a growing influence of logical ideas and thought in culture, which, in turn, led to the bureaucratization of world. Matching to Weber, bureaucracy is the most efficient administration towards capitalism. Bureaucracy can be utilized as an instrument or ideology to organize the increasingly pursuit of rational income in population. Webers ideal bureaucracy will need to have characteristics such as department of labour, hierarchical framework, written rules and regulations, fixed salaries, promotion predicated on performance (Grint, 2005). However, Weber and Durkheim both know that theories of bureaucracy and specialisation are bound to handle some issues and limitation.
Bureaucracy is considers successful and logical because people who have expert calculability and knowledge will be the ones behind it. Bureaucracy can be seen as an organisation put together to obtain a specific goal (Lemert, 2009). More often than not, this goal is related to shareholders interest, which is to maximise wealth. However, there are a few issues with bureaucracy which has been criticised by other sociologist such as. Among the issues experienced by a worker in a bureaucratic company is that form of bureaucracy is made from the foundation of rules and regulations. Workers are confined to the rules established by the organisation and there are outcomes of breaking it. Since most bureaucratic company exercise a high down pyramid like composition, shareholders will be the one who make a decision the course and goal of the company and its up to the professionals to manage the employees to achieve it. In other words, individual freedom of a worker has been affected (Fry, 1989). Furthermore, regular targets are place for worker of course, if the worker needs a promotion of pay increase, he is likely to perform well. It is because the promotion in a bureaucratic company is based on the performance and qualification of the worker. With all this expectation and the employee personal capital needs, they are really motivated to work hard to become recognised. This may lead into irrational behavior such as working tirelessly at any hour and neglecting ones own heath in order to achieve the target place by management (Weymes, 2004). Company is run in the interest of shareholder is because shareholders will be the ones that invest and supply the capital to run the business enterprise. Weber known the possibility that bureaucracy might face with obstructions because the red tape that undermined the interest and control of the company (Grint, 2005). What start as a rational administration can turn out to become something irrational. Although market ability has increased, personnel are still tied down to position, property and identity which may be seen as the flat iron cage (Morrison, 2006). Specific must not relies only on bureaucratic control for rationality but instead self-rationality must be present in every specific in order never to confine into the iron cage.
Additionally, Durkheims theory may lead to irrational behaviour too. Whenever a group become more segmented, integration and coordination could be more of any problem (Korczynski et al. , 2006). Specialisation will decrease an organisation ideals and culture. Process specialisation and delegation of work can improve efficiency but this comes at the price of cohesion at the job, as too much department will cause staff member to be aimless and therefore losing vision of the main target (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1986). What may appear to be rational for the organisations might not be rational for the employees. Likewise, managers who are specialisation orientated reaches choose to market a particular section rather than the whole organisation. This is seen as an irrational behaviour if the manager does it for his own personal benefit but whatever the cause of the managers action, an act like that is consider to be unfair to staff member in other section.
We now can have a look at some contemporary examples of rationality a few market leaders are rehearsing today. Webers theory of rationalisation can be meticulously related to McDonalization. McDonalds is a popular fast food company that has franchise all around the globe. McDonalization is a process where the growing industry of junk food is seen to be dominating more and more sectors of contemporary society and the earth (Ritzer, 2004). McDonalds is so successful today is because it offers personnel and professionals calculability, predictability, control and efficiency. Calculability is a main sizing of both rationalisation and McDonalization. The management in McDonalds concentrate on the quantitative aspects of work rather than quality since the job opportunity doesnt change and there is a high dependency on machines. Employees are judges established on how fast they solve confirmed task. Individuals in McDonalds follow a certain rules and process when they carry out their job or connect to customers (Leidner, 1993). Control in McDonalds is discussed by how employees are trained to use the machines to prepare the burgers and fry can be considered a mundane task. This can be from the lifestyle of assemblage line workers. Finally, McDonalds stress on efficiency by putting in closed-circuit television set camera to keep an eye on how efficient their worker works. Very much like Weber, Ritzer considers that a rational business will undoubtedly have irrationalities that is dehumanising. Once we can easily see, Weber and Ritzer both agree that bureaucracy and rationalisation will spawn the irrationality of rationality.
On the in contrast, a contemporary example of Durkheims organic and natural solidarity is seen by how Starbucks include variety in their companys strategy. Starbucks recognise the importance of diversification and included it among the organisations responsibility (Starbucks, 2014) Starbucks is one of the most recognised coffee brands on the planet and stand out as a market innovator. Starbucks main appeal are their espresso and coffee beans. However, the company is slowing getting into the pastries and fruit drinks in order to fully capture more audience from the market. There are some critiques that points out the hazards of diversification for a big company like Starbucks. People associate Starbucks to espresso, and this might cause the new products never to sell. However, once we can easily see, Starbucks has been able pull it off effectively. It is reported that the business gains from the first three quarter of fiscal 12 months grew by 11. 7 % to $9. 9 billion dollars (New York Times, 2013). As we can see, Starbucks rationally carried out Durkheim theory of organic solidarity and gain a competitive benefits.
In final result, both sociologists declare that workers can begin off rationally but may end up doing things irrationally. Weber recognises the change in traditional idea into something calculable need a form of administration that is bureaucracy. The response to the soul of capitalism is bureaucracy but Weber is also well aware of the rationality of bureaucracy turning out to be something irrational which is the iron cage. Weber also says that specialisation and diversification can lead to a rational connection between individuals but should not lose look of the cohesion among individuals. Inevitably, individual must incorporate self-rationalisation, rationalisation of bureaucracy and also specialisation in order to be rational and ecological in the pursuit of success.
