McUniversities revisited: a comparison of university and McDonald's casual employee experiences in Australia

The McDonaldization of higher education refers to the transformation of universities from knowledge generators to rational service organizations or ‘McUniversities’. This is reflected in the growing dependence on a casualized academic workforce. The article explores the extent to which the McDonaldization thesis applies to universities by comparing the experiences of casual academics with those of McDonald’s employees. Survey and interview findings from an Australian university are compared with Gould’s research on McDonald’s casual employees in Australia. Aside from their employment status, the two groups have nothing in common. McDonald’s employees experience routine work organization with good management and career prospects while casual academics experience stimulating work within a context of poor management and lack of career paths. This article questions the accuracy of applying the McDonaldization thesis to higher education based on the failure of the McJobs descriptor to withstand empirical scrutiny.