Globalization and Unemployment - Research Paper Example

Globalization and unemployment Due to major changes that have been experienced as a result of globalization, the paper will have a deep insight on impacts of these changes to the society and business in a general. Different cultures are impacted different by these two aspects therefore; the paper will analyze the extent of globalization and employment to various cultures. The paper will also analyze how to reverse the negative impacts of globalization. The major hypothetical question will be “globalization has impact on culture both in the organization and society” Introduction In the current decade the world has experience major changes in terms of business operation. This has been as a result of opening up of trade barriers by counties and liberalization of markets. Globalization has also improved flow of information among different countries due to increased technological advancement. Business has been able to make use this opportunity through opening up various branches in the world as it has become easy to operate various businesses in the world through decentralized management (Wagner, 2000). Literature review Historical perspective of globalization Globalization history can be traced from the time people started moving others out of Africa to other parts of the world to work as slaves. Since then people have integrated immensely leading to a world with a generation that lacks cultural identity. Since then people has intermarried with each other leading to erosion of their identity. The level of globalization increased the level of technology since the period between first and second war. Since this time people have been trying to conquer different parts of the world (Wagner, 2000, p. 40). The world has even gone ahead to establish global organizations that are mandated with governing the globe e.g. international monetary funds, World Bank and United nations. Cultural and social impact of globalization One major impact that globalization is has brought is erosion of culture as a result of flow of information from different parts of the world. Currently, it has become so easy to get access to information from different countries at the current time. Some of the western culture has therefore, been integrated in societies that had previously maintained their cultures. This has made these communities to uphold new culture and do away with their culture (Wagner, 2000, p. 56). Globalization has seen introduction of unethical cultures from other parts of the world. Current technological advancement have seen increased sharing of information e.g. in social networks. As a result it has become so easy for the terrorist to plan and execute crimes. Other behaviors that have seen tremendous increase include prostitution and drug abuse. The most affected are the young people who try to copy great musicians and celebrities. This has increased crime rate in different cities in America (Wagner, 2000). Globalization has increased the level of interaction of different people in the world therefore making the world a global village. An individual can be able to move from one place to another easily due to technological advancement. This has increased cultural interaction among different people in the world. People have been able to learn from other’s cultures on different aspects that their culture lacks. This has played a greater role in increasing cultural understanding among different people in the world. Globalization has resulted in social stratification and division of roles in the society. Since time when globalization started taking place, the family roles have changed tremendously. Initially women main role was to raise children and take care of their husbands. These roles have changed with more women entering the job market. Women has gone ahead to take up high positions in various organizations in the world. On the other hand, husbands have become involved closely with family matters e.g. caring for children unlike in the past where such a role was wholly the responsibility of women. Globalization has also impacted on illiteracy levels of women with more women venturing in higher education (Wagner, 2000). Globalization has sensitized people about their rights. This has seen more bodies being formed to fight for human rights of the local population. Uprisings in different countries e.g. the current uprising in Syria has been highly spearheaded by globalization. Citizens are able to interact through various media e.g. face book thereby increasing efficiency of the uprising. Globalization has increased the effect of women groups that are advocating for equality in the society. Many women have been for a long time denied a chance to air their grievances. Nevertheless, this condition has changed with proliferation of women groups that are fighting for equal rights for women both in economic, social and political arena. This has increased the number of women involved in political and economical sectors in various countries (Wagner, 2000, p. 79). Global mushrooming of communication carriers have sensitized and opened up the remote areas towards a mutual agenda. Since increased level of globalization marginalized areas that were previously left back as they were unable to get information has been opened up. People from these areas are now able to interact with the larger community. This has also improved their economic conditions as they are able to get access to latest information on how to improve their living conditions. Some people even lacked knowledge concerning the important of hygiene e.g. toilets but such ideas concerning hygiene have become easy to access (Wagner, 2000, p. 87). Major interrelation between globalization and society is that globalization defines the cultural structure of the society. Globalization has enabled the society to learn from other cultures in the world. It therefore provides the society with variety of opportunities to choose elements that they wish to integrate into their culture. Many cultures have therefore integrated a mixture of cultures from various parts of the world as a result of globalization. Society on the other hand sustains the spirit of globalization through sharing information from people of other regions in the world. A mutual relationship therefore, exists between the society and globalization as society plays a great role in sustaining globalization in the world. Major challenge that society faces in relation to globalization is lack of technological gadgets such as television, computers, radios etc to enable them get access to information. This is mainly in developing countries. These areas still retains traces of their original culture (Wagner, 2000). Globalization and unemployment Globalization has seen mass movement of people, business and ideas from one country to another. As a result, people have been able to seek employment opportunities in different parts of the world. The beneficiary of this aspect is developed countries as their population is literate. These individuals are able to seek employment opportunities to developing countries. This has seen increased number of foreigners holding top positions in the organization situated in developing countries (Wagner, 2000, p. 166). This is a setback to the locals who are unable to compete with these literate foreigners therefore, becoming subjected to unemployment. This condition has seen increased poverty levels in these countries with deteriorating living condition of the local people Globalization has impacted on local companies of developing countries. Due to removal of trade barriers by different countries, foreign multinational companies have taken advantage of this opportunity to export their products to these developing countries. The prices of these products are lower as the countries have invested heavily in technological development. As a result, local products are unable to compete in the market as consumer rush for the cheap imports. This has contributed greatly to the closure of various industries in these countries. This aspect has increased the level of unemployment. The result of these increased levels of unemployment is increased crime rate (Wagner, 2000). Globalization has increased inflation in different countries of the world. As countries move in to prevent the effects of globalization, they come up with policies that are aimed at protecting the local companies from unhealthy competition from already established companies that are located abroad. These measures include imposition of tariffs and price floors. This encourages the local producers to hold the available goods due to reduced competition in order to create artificial shortage that will increase the level of demand. This will increase the number of money that is chasing few goods available in the market causing inflation in the country. This creates a high unemployment rates as government and co-operations may cut the number of employees in order to be able to sustain their operations (Wagner, 2000, p.317). Many authors relate the level of unemployment in developing countries with high illiteracy levels. Nevertheless, despite the countries having few professionals who are qualified they are unable to compete effectively in the market as local companies prefer managers who are from developed countries as they have experience on how to develop the local companies (Wagner, 2000). Globalization have increased brain drain. This is the migration of skilled and qualified personnel from developing countries to developed countries in search for good salaries. This has had an impact to the local society as these qualified personnel takes away their job opportunities. This has been the case where citizens from developing countries especially Africa and Asia have migrated into the developed countries and occupy positions that could otherwise be taken by the local communities. This has result to hatred among people of diverse cultures (Wagner, 2000). Globalization has made it possible for people to move undeveloped countries to developed countries creating a multicultural society. This has been a major cause of racism that is being experienced in developed countries (Wagner, 2000). This has impacted on the society diminishing the spirit of integration as people have started to treat each other on basis of tribal lines. Currently globalization can be cited as one of the factors that have increased the level of unemployment in the world. This is because it has led to increased technological levels in different parts of the world leading to human replacement by the machinery. The impact is worse for the developing countries as they act as consumers of manufactured goods from developed countries therefore, the economy benefits very little from imports in the world. Multinationals are opening up subsidiaries in different parts of the world so as to utilize cheap labor in those countries. Companies such as Wal-Mart and IBM have opened up different branches in developing countries such as India as it has become easy for the companies to centralize its management as there is efficient flow of information from one market to another. Shifting of company’s labor from developed countries to developed countries in order to exploit cheap labor is increasing unemployment levels in developed countries. Frustrated educated young generations are turning to drugs as a way of releasing their frustrations (Wagner, 2000, p.297). On the other hand instead of the companies improving the living conditions of people from developing countries, they are making their living conditions to deteriorate as the money paid by these companies cannot be able to sustain their families. Major social impact of unemployment is increased levels of insecurity in the society. When a large number of people in a society are unemployed, the crime rate and drug abuse among the unemployed people increase. The main factor towards this behavior is idleness. Unemployment leads to poor social development. People who lack a source of income are unable to come together as they spend much of their time looking for employment. Unemployment creates social classes with unemployed people forming the lowest group in the society and those with a descent income being on the top of the hierarchy. Unemployment leads to violation of cultural values that are held by the community. When members of a society are unemployment they are likely to involve themselves in behaviors that are against the community set rules. Some of these behaviors include prostitution, theft etc (Wagner, 2000). Learned information from the research One of the major lessons that I have learnt is that globalization has both positive and negative impact on the society. One of the positive is increasing diversity in the society while at the same time it enables the community to learn from other societies in the world. On the other hand, globalization exposes the society to bad morals such as prostitution and drug abuse. Globalization creates employment through increasing the size of job market while at the same time it exposes developing economies to outside competition. Opening up of the country’s boundaries increases migration and brain drain thereby increasing unemployment levels in both developed and developing countries. Work cited Wagner Helmut. Globalization and unemployment. New York: Springer, 2000, print. Read More