Multinational Corporations Power and Visibility - Assignment Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Essay Questions Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Question 2 Regional organizations are international organizations that call for international membership encompassing different geographical and political entities into forming a single nation state. These organizations are formed to promote political and economic cooperation and integration and encourage dialogue among the member countries within a certain geographical or political boundary. Regional organizations are beneficial to the member countries since they translate the principles under which they operate into the member countries. Their main duties are to maintain security, settling international disputes peacefully, and promoting economic stability. Universal organizations in the member countries are in most cases founded upon these principles and therefore transfer the same into their national operations. Member countries therefore enjoy security that is maintained by the regional organizations, there is peace due to peaceful settlement of regional differences, and they progress economically with the help of the regional organizations. Regional organizations also have benefits over human resource management and employee relations. This is because they facilitate intraregional labour migration. The member countries promote free movement of labour across them by fostering cooperation between the labour exporting and labour importing countries. The organizations also ensure that there are protocols in place to facilitate residence of the imported labourers. Their policies also allow for proper remuneration of the imported workers and also ensure that they are given a temporal citizenship. For example, the members of ECOWAS enjoy free movement of people without visas by means of ECOWAS travellers’ cheque and passport. The foreign labourers are also granted rights to participate in national voting and are later given a permanent citizenship. The regional organizations also promote flexible working policies that ensure that employees do their duties cooperatively towards attainment of a common goal. The policies are also flexible due to changing environments under which they operate. Question 4 Multinational corporations (MNCs) have recently increased in their power and visibility. However, they are increasingly being viewed as hesitant by both the governments and the consumers. They have been viewed with much suspicion due to their decreased concern over the economic wellbeing of their countries of operation. Governments have also feared for their growing power due to fear that they can displace them from operating in some countries for them to have simple regulation and legislation requirements. Governments have turned into regulating the activities if MNCs in their countries. For example, the desire to introduce GMOs in Europe by US based biotechnology companies. The governments of EU member countries have adopted a legislation policy for the release of GMOs that also requires authorization for experimental release of the GMOs in the community. To protect its citizens form harmful health effects of processed foods, India set up Food Safety and Standard Act in 2006. The objectives of this act were to have single decree relating to food products and to call for scientific development of the food processing industries. This was following to competition that had increased in the food industries involving the multinational food industries resulting to release of sub standardised food products in the market. Therefore multinational corporations wishing to trade in food products in India must be licensed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority. Another regulation of MNCs was evidenced in U.S and Canada to curb the importation of conflict diamond from Sierra Leone. This diamond was being imported to fund rebel groups and war activities in some countries of Africa. Multinational corporations dealing with the conflict diamond were banned from importing the diamond in U.S and Canada. In U.S, this trade was regulated by Clean Diamond Trade Act while in Canada any company had to obtain a certificate as required by the Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act. Question 5 Employment relations systems are different across countries. For any organization’s success, there must be healthy employee relations. Following the current trend of the global business world, it is very important for investors to understand the employment relations systems that are used in the countries they are investing. Maintaining strong employee relations is very essential for increased productivity and satisfaction of the human resources. Employee relations systems in most countries are established from the business laws that exist in that country. Understanding the business laws helps the investor to deal with the employees in the country of investment without entering into legal crisis. Technology has however changed the working environment and each employer expects the employees to meet the technological requirements of the business. When hiring staff in a foreign country, the employer should understand the employment relations laws that apply in that country. One of the most important factors to consider is the working hours. Some countries allow that employees should work for eight hours per day, and five days per week. Beyond this, it is paid as overtime. Others allow that employees can work for more than eight hours without overtime. Another factor to consider is the standard payments that are established in each country. Every country has the standards for minimum wages and for various critical positions. There countries which have set holidays and do not allow the employees to work during such days. There are countries that also do not celebrate the common holidays such as Christmas, Ramadan and Boxing Day. So before investing in the foreign country, it is important to know what the government recognizes as the legal non-working days. Other countries also allow that if employees work during the legal holidays, they should be paid their normal amount plus 100 percent of the same rate. These are among the important aspects of employment relations that investors should understand before setting up businesses in foreign countries. Failure to understand the employment relations systems hinders the productivity of the business and its growth. Question 8 Convergence in the aspects of globalisation is defined as growing in similarity of the major aspects in employment related issues and industrial relations systems in the global business countries. Divergence is the opposite of convergence where there is no adoption of a similar pattern in employment relations. Considering the employment relations (ER) in most countries, there is a pattern of convergence, only that the convergence patter is not voluntary of many countries. This is due to interdependence among most countries which is therefore forcing some of them to adopt the similar pattern in ER. Success in global business has been contributed to by the international trade bodies that have policies which dictate how business will be carried out in the member countries. These bodies therefore promote convergence in the member countries by coercing them to follow similar procedures. Convergence is also being evidenced due to the increased competition in the global business. Employees play a very critical role in enabling the firms to survive the global competition. Every firm has to adopt what others are doing pertaining employment relations so that they do not lose the experienced employees. Matters of payment and employee training are being well looked at so that a firm can be able to face the international competition. Individual uncertainties that may be experienced by employees working in foreign nations have also contributed to convergence in ER. This is because employees fear working in those organizations that are taking an independent path. This therefore forces the firms to follow the common aspects in ER and this promotes convergence. Read More