Globalisation a Minefield for Corporates by Hammond - Article Example

Sustained Writing Student’s Name Course Tutor’s Name Date Introduction This essay applies several theories on a newspaper article authored by Hammond (2013). In the story, Hammond (2013) indicates how Google Inc.’s decision to change a homepage name from ‘Palestinian territories’ to ‘Palestine’ had placed the firm in the middle of a diplomatic row pitting Israel against Palestine. While Palestine celebrated the name change, Israel was clearly against it. Hammond (2013) further indicates how decisions made by firms can have such firms intertwined in the social political aspects of states and other non-state parties. This essay uses three theoretical principles in the Hammond (2013) article (i.e. values and identity; dynamics of systems; and theories of global commerce), and concludes that although unintentional, the diplomatic row that Google sparked would have been avoided had Google done some research and understood the dynamics involved in the Middle East, and especially between Israel and Palestine. The essay therefore recommends that besides understanding the dynamics of a system, corporate organisations must understand the social, cultural and economic implication of any changes they might want to make. Values and Identity From Hammond’s (2013) article, it is evident that both the Israeli and Palestinian sides knew that they belonged to the previously indicated ‘Palestinian territories’, and that a name change to ‘Palestine’ specifically left out Israel, which was an interested party in the Palestinian territories despite having its own domain name. This fits into the social identity theory, which indicates that people (or countries in this context), know that they belong to a specific social group or category (Stets & Burke 2000). Further, the story is a reflection of the social comparison process where people categorise the self and others, and labels them as the in-group or the out-group as indicated by Stets and Burke (2000). In the article, it would appear that the home page ‘Palestinian territories’ was perceived by both the Palestinian and the Israeli side as encompassing all groups. In that case, both sides were in the in-group category. The renaming of the homepage to Palestine however meant that the Palestinian side became the in-group, while the Israeli side became the out-group. True to Stets and Burke’s (2000) opinion, social categories exist because people contrast themselves with others. For example, Palestine as a country would want to be perceived and recognised as a distinct independent entity from Palestinian territories. Reading the Hammond (2013) article, one gets the impression that Israel perceives the renaming of the homepage as paying too much homage to Palestine at the expense of other countries in the Palestine territory/region. According to Dewey, social identity is birthed into cultural associations, which can take the form of nationality, social and/or political associations. The foregoing associations have specific accepted actions and behaviours, which define the group’s attributes. From the newspaper article, it would appear that the ‘Palestinian territories’ as previously used by Google on its homepage was a loose-fitting social identity based on the geographic position of both Palestine and Israel in the Middle East region. The renaming of the homepage however gave some sort of satisfaction to the Palestinian side because as Stryker (2007, p. 1085) asserts, social identity is sometimes perceived as “the ready-made set of endowments and identifications that every individual shares with others from the moment of birth by the chance of the family into which he is born at that given time in a given place”. Naturally, it would be easier to feel a sense of social identity in a specific country as opposed to a territory especially if there are political and religious differences in a given territory. This explains why Palestine welcomed the renaming of the Google homepage. However, it appears better to belong to a not-too-specific social identity than to belong to a social identity that one feels does not describe them. As such, Israelis felt they did not fit into the Palestine social identity, and if it was expected that they would use the same homepage, it is probable that they regarded themselves the out-group, since they clearly belonged to a different national identity. It is however worth noting that Israel has its own Google domain . The contention however seems to be related to the fact that Google changed the name without negotiating with the interested parties, namely Israel and Palestine. According to Stryker (2007), people assume a common identity by sharing a belief system and making collective action possible. Evidently, and judging from the historical differences between Palestine and Israel, the two countries cannot share the same identity since each has a different belief system among other aspects that make the population in the two countries different. Why would the Israeli side lament the decision to rename the Google homepage? The reason could be because the renaming gave Palestine a state identity, something that Israel contends is still under negotiation. Theories and global commerce The newspaper article by Hammond (2003) is also a reflection of theories and global commerce. The theme of global commerce is especially pronounced in the article with Google acting as an agent of such commerce. As indicated by Singh, Alhorr and Bartikowski (2010) however, global commerce, and especially electronic global commerce (or e-commerce) needs to be guided by frameworks, theories, perspectives and best practices that help companies and governments define how they interact with each other. Singh et al. (2010) specifically refers to the need to understand such issues as culture and e-commerce, security, web localisation, and global development of e-commerce. Singh et al. (2010) further notes that globalisation has been perceived as operating in a similar manner and constancy in all markets across the world. Google’s attempt at constancy is reflected in an attempt to give Palestine a domain, which reflects a state of statehood, without first understanding the implications that such an action would have. While localising is a domain is different from localising a website, a few lessons can be borrowed from the latter. Brandel (2007) for example indicates that successfully localising a website (or in this case a domain) is done in consideration of several factors which include language, programming, spatial design, customs, culture, and colour preferences among other aspects that distinguish one population from another. Subsequent articles to the Hammond (2013) article featured herein indicate that despite relabeling the domain, the relabeling of the Israeli-Palestinian borders was greatly objected by the Palestinian side (Peterson, 2013). In protest, all traffic to the Google Palestinian domain was redirected to an anti-Israeli site. As Singh et al. (2010) indicate, the country-environment should be significantly considered when an enterprise is making decisions about e-business activities. In Google’s case, not only did renaming the domain name require consultations, but mapping the boundaries between Palestine and Israel would also have required consultations especially considering the sensitive nature of the Israeli-Palestine conflict over the same borders. Although ignorant, Google’s behaviour in the Palestine-Israel case is perhaps best explained through the cultural congruency theory, which indicates that website owners (and in this case domain owners) need to induce trust in consumers and evoke positive attitudes towards a site in order to effectively reach their target users (Singh et al. 2010). The renaming of the domain must have been an attempt to be culturally congruent with the Palestinian target market. Yet, one would argue that the new domain and especially the Google Maps function of the same did not inspire trust among the targeted consumers. The hacking attack can therefore be interpreted as an illustration of this mistrust and negative attitudes that the targeted consumers had towards Google after the latter failed to live up to the consumer’s expectations. Theoretically, the cultural aspect of an electronic framework (e.g. a website) has three levels namely: the perceptual dimension – i.e. society’s implicit assumptions; the behavioural dimension – i.e. the society’s beliefs and values; and the symbolic dimension – i.e. the society’s signs and symbols (Singh 2003). In the first instance, that is when the domain was renamed, Israel was discontented, while Palestine thought that Google’s action was tantamount to recognising it (Palestine) as a state. Google engaged the implicit assumptions of both sides whereby Israel still believed Palestine was not a state yet; while Palestine had a contrary opinion. Google’s action also engaged (albeit unintentionally), the beliefs and values of both Israel and Palestine. Finally, Google engaged the symbolic dimension of Palestine’s culture through the map, which disconfirmed what Palestinians had believed Google had meant all along. Dynamics of systems According to Bertenthal (2004), dynamics of systems is concerned with the fundamental concepts of time and change. Notably, given time, even corporate organisations such as Google undergo change, which may involve the corporate memory, and/or cognitive development as indicated by Bertenthal (2004). The changes that occur in a system are influenced not only by the passage of time, but also by any feedback that the system receives. With a time, the system can remodel behaviour and even make changes to the initial definitions it had worked with. Arguably, the renaming of Google’s domain in Palestinian territories could be a reflection of the firm’s dynamics of systems. According to Bertenthal (2004) systems form new patterns (of beliefs based on convictions), and therefore represent the new patterns using some central themes in the dynamics of systems. Applied in context, it can be argued that Google Inc. acquired a new conviction to the effect that a Palestine domain would be more attractive to the target market and as such, renamed their domain in the Palestinian territories. However, the feedback received from both the Israel and Palestine sides must have left Google in a tight position not knowing which side to take. As such, it is probable that the decision to uphold the renamed domain name and a map that favours Israel was meant to appease the latter. Arguably, Google appears not to have considered the implication of the renaming its domain in Palestine, and as such, only realised the complex nature of the dynamics of systems once the criticism started coming in. As indicated by Blinick (2007) every solution that an e-commerce company puts in place must be practical. It must also be easy to implement and cost-effective. It can be said that the renaming process was easy to implement and even cost-effective. However, the practicality of the outcome is debatable. Blinick (2007) further indicates that global commerce demands sophistication and understanding coupled with management capabilities. As a search engine, Google Inc.’s, position was arguably to provide a platform from where Palestinians could access and deliver knowledge, understand the rest of the world, and perhaps create local infrastructure for e-commerce. Through its actions, largely based on the lack of understanding of the dynamics of the system in which it operated, Google ended up fuelling a diplomatic row, which culminated in the hacking of the Palestinian Google homepage, which was redirected to an anti-Israel page as indicated elsewhere in this essay. Conclusion From this essay, it would appear that Google made a hasty decision, based on no substantial research to change its Palestinian domain. Consequently, the change sparked a row which culminated in a hacker attack on the same website domain. While differences in values and identity may have fuelled the diplomatic row, theories of global commerce (and especially localising the domain) in order to appeal to more users may have informed Google’s motivation to rename the domain. It is also possible that Google’s actions were taken from an ignorant position with the implementers at Google failing to understand the dynamics of the system. Most specifically, it would appear that the Google team had not done enough background check to understand why the term Palestinian territories is used officially in reference to Palestine. The Google case however should serve as a lesson to other global companies; specifically, besides understanding the dynamics of a system, corporate organisations must understand the social, cultural and economic implications of any changes they might want to make in markets where they do not possess full knowledge of the political, social, economic, and technological environments. Only then can they avoid adopting processes or practices that entwine them in political, social or legal battles. References Bertenthal, B I 2004, ‘Dynamical systems: It’s about time’, In S M Boker & M J Wenger (Eds.), Data analytic techniques for dynamical systems, pp. 1-22, Erlbaum, Mahwah. Blinick, N 2007, ‘Minimizing the costs and risks of global commerce’, Supply & Demand Chain Executive, April/May, pp.. 20-21. Brandel, M 2007, ‘The global/local web site: Why you need it; how to build it’, Computerworld, vol. 19, pp. 29-32. Hammond, A 2013, ‘Globalisation a minefield for corporates’, The New Zealand Herald, p. A.32. Peterson, A 2013, ‘Hackers deface Google Palestine, object to Google maps labelling of Israel’, Washington Post, viewed 12 September 2013, Singh, N 2003, ‘Analysing cultural sensitivity of websites: A normative framework’, pp. 32-53. Singh, N, Alhorr, H & Bartikowski, B P 2010, ‘Global commerce: A portal bridging the world markets’, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1-5. Stets, J E & Burke, P J 2000, ‘Identity theory and social identity theory’, Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 224-237. Stryker, S 2007, ‘Identity theory and personality theory: mutual relevance’, Journal of Personality, vol. 75, no. 6, pp. 1083-1102. Read More