Strengths and Weaknesses of Globalization - Essay Example

GLOBALISATION The term globalisation is a broad notion of modern age, which has captured the entire world in its wide fold by turning the globe from the vast planet into a tiny community of seven and half billion humans. “Globalisation involves, Friedman suggests, the inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before.” (1999, p. 7) Apparently, it looks the amalgamation of corporate cultures and business ventures of the world. “Globalisation is a form of advanced capitalism that turns everything into a commodity that can be bought or sold. It values people and things only for their rate of return to distant or anonymous shareholders.” (McIntosh, 2010, p. 4) However, in real sense it consists of social, economic, cultural, religious, and technological interaction between the all individuals of the globe at large, which share countless ideas, principles, products, brands, commodities and entertainment items without entering into long travelling or making hard efforts for that all. There are many different definitions of globalisation, but most acknowledged one is this that “it is the greater movement of people, goods, capital and ideas due to increased economic integration which in turn is propelled by increased trade and investment. It is like moving towards living in a borderless world.” (Globaleducation.edna.edu.au) Hence, globalisation simply refers to the shrinking of world into one small village, where all humans are inter-linked to one another and have access to similar things and products on the one hand, and can communicate with one another within a jiffy through latest technological and communication equipments and can share their views, ideas, knowledge, talent, joys, sorrows, problems, products and services etc. The present study aims to explore the advantages and disadvantages of globalisation with special reference to the incorporation of world famous brands and companies from the developed areas of the world to the poor and developing regions. Thus, the study looks for examining the impact of globalisation on the people of third world countries on the one hand, and its affects on the small scale manufacturers of these countries on the other. Globalisation is certainly the invention of later part of twentieth century, which has brought the nations closer to one another with the help of revolutionary developments in the fields of IT and communication. Consequently, moving from one part of the planet towards other regions has become very fast and easy. Now people travel to distant places for the better employment, business, health and education prospects, which have given birth to the idea of multiculturalism. Outsourcing is also the outcome of globalisation, according to which companies hire the services of the foreigner professionals against comparatively low wages. Consequently, talented and proficient personnel obtain respectable and career-oriented jobs in the USA and Europe, and the reputed companies find big brains for the acceleration of the pace of their growth. “Outsourcing is the practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally.” (Answers.com) The big multinational brands observe the same strategic scheme by hiring competent staff members from developing countries for their corporate firms and their various branches against cheap and low wages to reduce the costs and expenditures of their companies on the one hand, and increase their sales and profit volume on the other. Somehow, large scale unemployment of the indigenous graduates is the notable disadvantage of globalisation. The IMF (2000:2) also indicated that globalisation lead to unequalled economic growth during the twentieth century. The global GDP per capital almost increased five times during in the twentieth century. This growth also did not happen in a stable manner. The biggest improved in growth happened in the second half of the century due to the increased in trade and the process of financial liberalisation. It is fact beyond suspicion that in the UK and Australia, the companies prefer outsiders for their offices and production houses against cheap rates, which confines the scope of the local UK and Australian citizens to a great extent. It creates the problem of unemployment in the local countries, and increases frustration and tension in the society. As a result, the local population starts demanding for the expulsion and exclusion of the foreigners from their country in order to provide safeguard to the financial career of the native public. It is therefore the uncertainty and turmoil of contemporary era is regarded as the outcome of lenient immigration policies launched by the political authorities. A big number of countries developed serious financial problems, which led to an increase in the income gap between developed and developing nations. Between 1980 and 1990 more that 90% of all financial transactions of the world were executed in 25 of 121 countries world wide (Hak-Min, 1999:2). Globalisation is often blamed of creating joblessness in the world. The critics of globalisation neglect the very reality that it is globalisation that undoubtedly has created millions of jobs in Asian and African countries as soon as the multinational brands have started their operations in the third world. Establishing of offices of these companies in hundreds of cities could not keep the native people away from jobs and employment against various positions. In addition, an overwhelming majority of the heads, in-charges and managers of these offices of western companies working in the third world is certainly European, though Asians and Africans are also enjoying these positions due to rapid expansion of globalisation. Hiring of non-Europeans i.e. outsourcing is also the mixed blessing of globalisation. “Outsourcing is a natural outgrowth of this relentless search for better ways to do things because it helps accelerate the process of developing benchmark capabilities. Instead of building a centre of excellence from scratch—incurring the costs and delays of trial and error—bring in experts to build, operate, and manage a benchmark operation for you.” (Kelly, 2008, p. 34) Since contemporary world has witnessed ground-breaking alterations in almost all fields of individual and collective human life, which have paved the way towards continuous changes in the activities, approaches and mannerism at massive scale, it has also invited the entrance and emergence of grand brands of the world from industrialised nations to poor countries, so that the subjects of these states could take benefit of these international brands too. The credit goes to the stupendous cultural transformations and tremendous inventions in the departments of IT, communications and navigation, which not only brought societies, nations and states closer to one another, but also wide opened the doors of opportunities for the individuals belonging to divergent cultures, civilisations and ethnic groups to rise to the occasion for making rapid progress in one particular field or the other. Globalization of information is materialized through the globalization of telecommunications and communication, i.e. new information technologies, which are the communication networks and satellite TV channels which convey information across the planet, making the world a small village. (Boutaleb, 2003, p.6) Hence, IT revolution has introduced the concept of globalisation to the world by introducing acculturation and global intermingling with corporate, strategic, business and cultural perspectives. Thus, the characteristics and economic schemes of one nation are being shared with to the entire world. “Globalisation means that the residents of one country are more likely now than they were fifty years ago: to consume the products of another country; to invest in another country; to earn income from other countries; to talk on the telephone to people in other countries; to visit other countries; to know that they are being affected by economic developments in other countries; and to know about developments in other countries.” (Fischer, 2003, p. 5) However, continuous and useless application of mobile phones and internet causes wastage of precious time and money. The youth in almost all countries of the world remains busy in sending and receiving messages and calls and thus undergoes failures in studies and examination. Moreover, use of mobile phones and other IT and communication equipments has caused the rapid increase in crime rates. The criminals and offenders use IT tools for their purpose, which becomes very difficult to detect the place of the person engaged in criminal activity. Similarly, cyber crimes have also got their place in the wake of multiculturalism and globalisation. Though crimes seek no boundaries, yet inclusion of globalisation has invented technical and cyber crimes in all parts of the earth. (Broadhurst & Grabosky, 2005, p. 154) One of the most effected area of globalisation is undoubtedly the corporate sector, which has witnessed tremendous alterations including sharing of trade and commerce strategies, commencement of joint business ventures, entrance of big and renowned international brands in every country, problem of outsourcing and unemployment and inclusion and availability of every product and services in international markets etc have occurred in the aftermath of globalisation. “The evidence of globalisation can be seen everywhere: in the home, in the workplace, in the discount stores, in the newspapers and business journals, in the flow of monthly government statistics, and in academic literature. The backlash was on display in Seattle in November 1999, when thousands of protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO).” (Griswold, 2002, p. 1) Consequently, globalisation has completely eliminated the concept of isolated state, and thus has captured the entire world into its broader fold. One of the most dominant advantages of globalisation includes the high probabilities of the companies’ expansion in this age of perfect competition. Since every company seeks maximum sales, reduction in cost proves supportive for the decrease in the prices of the products, which certainly increases profit volume of the firms observing outsourcing in them. “As a company grows, it is inevitable that its processes expand as well; back-office operations such as payroll, human resources, and takes up a significant percentage of a company’s resources. Such activities, when outsourced, allows the company to focus on its main operations without necessarily compromising the quality of service in all the other aspect such as the ones mentioned.” (advantagesofoutsourcing.net) Health and medicine companies are also growing in the wake of the expansion and arrival of strange diseases including HIV, bird flu, dengue virus, congou virus and others. People travel to remote areas of the world for adventure, recreation and business purposes, and bring germs of fatal and contagious diseases with them, which is spread in the whole environment making people ill and ailing. The assertion that emerging infections are a global problem requiring a global strategy echoes observations made in other spheres of public policy: the traditional distinctions between national and international political, social, and economic activities are losing their importance.” (Fidler, 1996, p. 122) Thus, attack of new viruses and discovery of new fatal diseases is also the outcome of modern age of globalisation. “The global nature of the threat posed by new and re-emerging infectious diseases will require international cooperation in identifying, controlling, and preventing these diseases.” (Aman, 1993, p. 76) Thus, people all over the globe are ambitious to combat with the fatal diseases with an iron hand. Another great advantage of globalisation is the wide opportunities of seeking higher education at well reputed educational institutions of the world. Hence, globalisation has increased the percentage of foreign educated, skilled and qualified stratum of society. Since globalisation has paved the way towards rapid immigration and migration of the individuals belonging to poor and backward countries of the world towards prosperous and developed societies, the educated professionals travel to the USA, Europe and Australia in search of respectable career opportunities. These qualified young individuals get the opportunities of earning in foreign currency, which turns into a huge amount on being exchanged in their native country, and thus brings the message of their financial stability and economic prosperity within few years only. As a result, they not only work more diligently for the good name, fame and growth of the company which has hired their services, but also become indispensable for their organisation gradually. Thus, the graduates leading a life of uncertainty and depression turn out to be business tycoons by dint of the blessings this age of globalisation offers to them in the form of universality. Additionally, globalisation provides the opportunity to corporate firms for the maintenance of control and command over the employees. It has often been observed that the workers belonging to same country establish trade workers union for their benefits and keep the owners under pressure. Hence, they waste lot of time and energies in the name of strike and demands. On the contrary, globalisation provides the companies chances of recruiting the staff from different cultures and states of the world. Different national, religious and cultural backgrounds serve as great impediment in the establishment of a strong union to challenge and blackmail the managers and owners. Moreover, since they have arrived from different parts of the globe for earning, they seldom get involved in politics and union making. Thus, their cultural backgrounds do not let them waste the time and energies of companies and they work diligently for the progress of their work place. Another great hurdle created in the wake of globalisation phenomenon is the undue and unpleasant competition and conflict among the personnel belonging to divergent communities and societies of the world working in one and the same organisation. Every regional, religious, ethnic and racial group views itself as superior to others and discards the rights of others to grow more swiftly than their own group, which gives a go to the augmentation of tensions and bitterness within the organisation. Ethnic and religious hatred and prejudice does not let the individuals co-operate with one another while offering their services. Consequently, unpleasantness finds continuous growth instead of the company’s development in profit generation activities. Perturb and condemnable state of affairs at corporate level definitely disturbs the overall corporate activities of the economy of developed country, and the globalisation appears to be a curse both at organisational and national scale. To conclude it becomes evident that globalisation has brought both positive and negative aspects in its wake, among which advantages are comparatively far more than the disadvantages. Though globalisation has wide opened the doors to successes, triumphs and glories to different strata of all countries of the globe, yet it also created obstacles on the way to progress and growth. The globalisation has increased competition, uncertainty and discomforts in the world in the form of gap between developed and developing nations, large scale unemployment, job insecurity, immorality and crimes because of excessive use of mobile phones, internet and other things of such type and lack of privacy and individuality. Excessive travelling to remote areas and involvement of business class into revelries during and after successful business ventures invites the spread of fatal contagious disease from one part of the world to others. HIV is the most alarming example of such diseases. Furthermore, tremendous rise in crime rate, racial and ethnic discriminative behaviour observed by the elite societies and uncertain business and trade situations are also the drawbacks of globalisation. Inclusion of international brands in small local markets of third world countries and has put their business ventures in grave jeopardy. In addition though globalisation wide opens the doors to successes, triumphs and glories to the educated stratum of all countries of the globe, yet creates obstacles on the way to the graduates of European and American societies, which have to undergo large scale unemployment and job insecurity because of the cheap labour available against low wages in the international market. The big brands and large organisations must include the local communities as the part of their professional team in order to run the corporate affairs in a smooth way. However, it is globalisation that has showed the humanity new dimensions of individual and collective growth at large. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Aman, A. C. (1993) Introduction Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies I: 1-8. Boutaleb, Prof. Abdelhadi (2003) Criticism of Globalization: Positive and Negative Aspects http://www.isesco.org.ma/english/publications/Islamtoday/20/P1.php Broadhurst, Roderic G. & Grabosky, Peter N. (2005) Cyber-crime: the challenge in Asia. Hong Kong University Press pp 149-161 Fidler, David P. (1996) Globalization, International Law, and Emerging Infectious Diseases Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana, USA Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol2no2/fidler.htm Fischer, Stanley (2003) Globalization and Its Challenges http://www.iie.com/fischer/pdf/fischer011903.pdf Friedman, T. (1999) The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. 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IMF, 2000 International Capital Markets: Developments, Prospects and Key Policy Issues. Washington: IMF pp 10-47 Outsourcing http://www.answers.com/topic/outsourcing Globalisation http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/178 http://www.essa.org.za/download/2003Conference/MostertJ_The%20Impact%20Of%20Globalisation%20On%20Developing%20Countries.pdf Read More