Rationalization and Globalization - Essay Example

? Rationalization and globalization Max Webber brought forth in his writing that rationalization draws heavily from order as well as logic and authority. While highlighting this, Max Webber captures on the division of labor and promotion based on performance as well as good control as key in making an organization runs smoothly almost in perfection. Most organizations implement this mode of running business with a view of increasing its output by realizing efficiency. He also took a look at the increasing advancement in modern technology which has taken much control in the workplace. In order to increase efficiency for maximum productivity Webber saw a need for increased bureaucracy that is ideal (Kindleberger, 1969). Frederick Taylor on his saw scientific management as working towards making work easier by following principles already put in place (Konecna, 2006). This Frederick principal aim at making work a repetitive exercise and by so doing it will increase in its efficiency; it also makes managers have more control of the business. Henry Ford's assembly line represented a remarkable step forward in the rationalization of manufacturing and was utilized globally in a number of manufacturing operations (Konecna, 2006). Like bureaucracy and the fast-food restaurant, the automobile assembly line is a classic demonstration of the basic elements of formal rationality. Webbers’ views are being seen up to today. He recommends that there should be hierarchical in management with clearly defined roles. He also recommend for management to be conducted under set, specific and identifiable rules. Taylor came up with a model that centers on the relationship between the workers and their managers in the modern world of science and technology (Kindleberger, 1969). Scientific ways of organizations as brought forth by Frederick insist on improving the productivity of the organizations by scientifically looking for one best way to achieve that. Besides Taylor coming up with multiple of ways to improve the productivity of the organizations he also managed to change the psychological perceptions between the workers and their employees. His methods include overhauling the wage management system and designing new ways of assessing the input vs. output in the production activities (Buckley &Casson, 1976). The method has however never been devoid of a critic who sees it as a new way of exploiting workers and dehumanizing them. Despite the critics Taylors way has impacted a lot on the management with various organizations adopting it either in one way or the other. Taylor postulates that the rational design selected by business depends mostly on the size of business running, therefore, small business organization borrows from simple designs because they comprise of les staff and example of such business are small kiosk that are being run solely by one person which is the authority and manager controlling other junior staff (Buckley &Casson, 1976). This simple design shows a pyramid kind of hierarchical control with manager exercising larger control of business. This kind of control put all the responsibility on the manager as being responsible for all matters relating to organization and its workers, it therefore means that the employee’s only carries out activities assigned to them by the manager. Upon Taylor taking the position of management in a company the management strategy changed significantly breaking away from the past and adopting the new scientific way of management. He was determined to ending the soldiering problem in the company and bringing in change of mind between the workers and their managers based on four principles; Scientifically coming up with a way of performing specific task, picking workers best suited for a specific task, working according to the principal of science and specifying the roles of managers and workers. The scientific management increased the productivity of both workers and managers and in extension increasing their living standard and success due to increased earnings. Henri Fayolhas also interest in the bureaucracy but he was mostly interested with the main functions that are needed for effective management. His work centered on the key elements of management which include; planning for the future, organizing both resources and people, giving directions, co-coordinating people and process and exercising control over resources (Malcolm, 2001). With this theory he came up with fourteen others that was a pack up to the above mentioned five principlesFayol as opposed to Webber saw more need to evaluate individuals contribution as opposed to groups because individual is critical in the success of the organizations (Malcolm, 2001). It can be seen that most of Webber Fayol and Taylors work applies to the era of that times but when critically analyzed by looking at it on a broader perspective it is still applicable to the modern organizations,it is applicable today as it was then. Rationalization will increase the productivity because rationalization refers to increasing human mastery over the natural and social environment according to Webber. Therefore the change in social structure will definitely change the character of human by altering its values beliefs and philosophies (Hymer, 1976). Those values as self discipline, efficiency, calculability, and individualism will boost the running of organizations and they are being supported by bureaucracy. Weber defines bureaucracy as "a hierarchal organisation designed rationally to coordinate the work of many individuals in the pursuit of large scale administrative goals" [Haralambous, 1985]. Webber also brought forth the fact that hierarchy based on specialization or division of labor bonded together by rational-legal authority ensures that each of the aspect in the hierarchical strata was waiting for instructions from above therefore higher strata exercising authorities within their jurisdiction over the lower strata (Hymer, 1976). That is each stratum expects the authority of higher strata and exercises vested authorities over lower strata, Individuals gain position by ability and competence. The 'consistent system of abstract rules' and norms are adhered to and administered in a spirit of 'moralistic impersonality. Benefit and cost are what matters in business decision of any nature this mirrorsthe rational organizational design, which generally strives to create the most efficient organization possible. Rational organization is of greater advantage as workers are able to perform their duties more quickly translating to greater proportion of work being done within the shorter time, this will lead to increase in the dynamics of the business in general (Zyglidopoulos, Fleming, and Rothenberg, 2008). Also, by defining the specific job to be done by individual worker also make each employee be aware all the time of what is expected of them and this will motivate them to accomplish their role. Employees can also specialize, which is a key inTaylorism one of the most influential methods of rational organization (He and Liu, 2010). Tylorism on his part can be effective if the task to be undertaken or rather work to be done is very specific with products being identical and human themselves being adhesive to set rules and procedures. This would bring the downside part of it if it is implemented at Junction Hotel. This is because a hotel is not a production line; it deals specifically with customers, whereas Taylorism and especially the more extreme Fordism, are more suited to manufacturing (George, 2011). A typical example of a business today which has used a rational organizational design to achieve this is McDonalds has borrowed heavily from. Ritzer (2008) helps to brought forth the dynamics of the organizational design McDonalds has implemented by quoting Ray Kroc’s thoughts on the arrangement; “I was fascinated by the simplicity and effectiveness of the system, Each step in producing the limited menu was stripped down to its essence and accomplished with a minimum effort” this words from Kroc shows that McDonald’s adoption of rationalization has maximized efficiency (Gareth, 2006). By producing shrinked number of menu varieties the business is able to give specific roles to certain departments, to be completed at a set time; reutilizing work. By reducing the choices of menu mc Donald have ensured that the ordering is fast and whatever is ordered is taken to the customers within a specified time hence fast food (Naomi, 2010). The higher authority supervises the workers by ensuring that they complete the assigned task within a specified time minimizing delays. The specialization by workers also ensures that what is produced is of high quality. The shrinking of menu sizes also helps in minimizing cost. The shortfalls to rational organization in junction hotel however include the coming up with organizational forms that are difficult to cope with in changing circumstances and also it can dehumanize employees especially in the top bottom way of managing employees(down the hierarchy). It can also lead to a large amount of bureaucracy, which compromises the ability of employees to operate effectively. The arrangement similar to tylorism can bring about the division within the organizations into segments and this will create some obstacles within the running of the day to day affairs of the organization. Though efficiency is a good thing it leads to dehumanizing of workers as business focus only on increasing in its efficiency. The bureaucracy within the organization at times overloads the workers with work. Because of the design within this organization many staff doesn’t find time to spend with their lovely families. What mostly dehumanizes is the concentration with paper work. Conclusion Rationalization makes organization more efficient in production though it may not be possible to rationalize multinational co-operations due to problem of diversity in beliefs values and culture across the nations of the globe. Globalization Globalization is the growth of a sector a unit or organization to a worldwide scale.Globalization involves integrating and interacting with various players of different nations in various parts of the world. This process of globalization is often made come a reality by international trade information technology and investment. This process however beneficial it may be is never short of pitfalls that include its effects on the environment culture, the positive side is the effects it brought to economic development, prosperity around the world (Danieland Scott, 2012). Globalization is not new because people from time immemorial have been buying from and selling to one another products from far across other countries. People and organizations have also been investing in enterprises in other countries. In central Asia there has been such activities going on through Silk Road connecting central Asia and Europe (McManus, 1972). However much a model can work in various parts of the world, there are a lot of hindrance to that in some other parts of the world. If a hotel like junction hotel for example wants to train its workers on certain sector to cook certain food the same diet can not be popular in some other countries. The way of dressing also can not be globalised such that when you have waitress on short skirts attending to the people that can not be possible in many of Arab nations, likewise as the western countries attendance can not be willing to dress on Arab outfits therefore a uniform model can not be achieved (Galliers, 2008). One model can also be achieved if the organization centered on few areas that can fit to the setting of all countries of this world. This will force the organizations to scale down in their operations and specialize in few areas. Culture will affect intensely the way organizations operate globally. Like if an hotel based in United States is to start operating in china the diet will definitely be distinct. In Chinese restaurant people eat snakes and snails and therefore the global hotel operating in china will have to train different staff and that will serve such meals differently. Also is an owner of a pub wants to go global the cultures believes and traditions of Arab countries wont allow you operate in such countries. This will therefore mean that you are restricted to certain areas if your organization specializes in a particular product (Davis, 2007). Language is also another cultural aspect that affects the globalization of organizations. Some coding gave companies difficulty when they were translating certain languages to another because early SAP versions were not Unicode compliant. The naming and culture also was key because in some countries like Korea the title is very important while in Indonesia people only use one language. In a number of instances language and meaning were noted as being a matter of concerns as the workers could often be responding yes the command from the boss without actually understanding the meaning of what is being said. The managers therefore had to be very keen on meaning and often be checking on employees’ progress (Crowther and Green, 2004). Email were also to be short as long emails were being deleted before being read but the western culture are more serious on emails. Low level of media coverage also makes it difficult for organizations to go global because it makes it difficult for organizations to market and inform the people in a new country about their culture. By penetrating through the media they will be able to get across the message to the locals and can begin operating with ease in strange lands. Organizations have a way of managing staff that come from different national cultures. Organizations should borrow from the practices of top world economies with good and reliable strategies this is because majority of practices are based on the largest experiences in place. This practices adopted should be ensured that they are the practices that will be equally effective in other parts of the world where multiple national cultures are in harmony with different value system. CMMI-capability maturity model integration should be used as a framework from which models can be generated for different organizations. The usual multinational companies booming are as a result of efficient co-ordination in many countries as opposed to depending on agents located in different countries. Coordination in multinational companies brings about efficient social-networking and it affects the good position of companies. Another reason is, according to Hymer (1976), Kindleberger (1969) and Caves (1971), present of worldwide companies happens by structural market imperfections for final products. In Hymer's example, two firms are considered as monopolists in a market and isolated from competition by transportation costs and other tariff and non-tariff barriers. If these costs decrease, the competition will happen and it will reduce the profits. The firms can maximise the income and diminish the competition by cooperation. This is a case which picture it is easy for multinational companies to enforce price in different countries. Moreover, from the work of McManus (1972), Buckley &Casson (1976) Globalization brings a lot of changes to the countries cultural make as well as economy and standard of living. Globalization brings employment to the countries that companies and organization ship their plants to. This globalization will therefore bring about the improvement in the standard of living of the residents of those nations (Richard, 2001). Globalization has also increased the market for produce overseas. Majority of companies have benefited from this because of assured market in foreign countries. Increased market will mean the profit of the company will increase which will translate in to increased financial base, the companies will then expand in production hence creating more job opportunities. Key element of escalation in international marketing is the seen fall in the cost that stems from globalization. Due to globalizationOrganizations are able to access cheap resources and labor in developing countries. This accessibility to resources will enable the prices of products to go down and also avail a variety of good and in plenty to the people with high proportion of disposable income (Hales, 1993). Globalization has enabled the spread of the internet around the world and hence organizations can be managed from their domestic countries. This spread in internet have also changed the mode of shopping from the past tradition of having to travel to base of products to contemporary mode of shopping for products overseas while at the comfort of your home. Globalization has taken market competition to a whole new level as the dominant companies and organizations in the domestic countries faces competition from new entrants in to their field of specialization. Today there is more efficiency in transport and distributions network this trend has brought ease to the business world because products can easily be distributed to the consumers. Electronic transfers have also made making and receiving international payments faster and more secure. Increase in transport and distribution networks also make it possible for consumers to receive products in good time and in varieties. There has also been increased globalization in the financial institutions making it possible for organizations and individuals to readily access finances. Investors invest in different markets therefore reducing the risks that could be exposed to in concentrating only in one market. Globalization has also escalated the inequality in the world as the rich will continue to become richer and the poor becoming poorer.The rich will be accumulating the wealth and investing in overseas account at the expense of the poor in their home countries. Also Developing countries are not in the limelight of globalization therefore sidelining them further in the development. Conclusion Globalization is on his part brought with it improvement in the markets all around the globe for domestic products hence availing variety of produce in plenty to people with high disposable income. There are however international bodies like the world trade organizations and United Nations which countries have to play by their rules to ensure that there is fair play in the world of trade. Globalization therefore is taking the world a new direction. 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