Flat World - Essay Example

Long back in 1881, Samuel Rowbotham, an English writer published Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe (Macherez, 2014), however, the context of writing carried altogether a different meaning at that time. Later, in April 2005, Friedman published, The World Is Flat which throws light on altogether an unusual happening in terms of economic development across the world. The book highlights the fact that there is a convergence of technology owing to globalization, facilitating China and India to emerge as a global supply chain in terms of manufacturing and services. Friedman further enunciated that the flattening of the world took place just at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

Globalization is an imperative feature of political and economic discourse as it has paved the way to spread thoughts as wildfire, leaping borders and now information is not confined to the industrial world. According to Friedman (2005), globalization has its success and discontents and thus improvises one think that The World Is Flat! However, such views find little support from authors like Ghemawat (2007), Florida (2005, October), and Christopherson et al. (2008). The World Isn’t Flat!

According to Ghemawat, one cannot consider the world to be flat, in fact, only 10-25 percent of all economic activities are international or global while the remaining are regional, further, he affirms the failure of globalization theories in terms of geographical and cultural factors, if there is 1 percent raise in the geographic distance the trade between the two locations will diminish by 1 percent. Further, Ghemawat enunciated that countries with a common language share 42 percent more trade compared to dissimilar cultures while common currency potentially enhances trade by 114 percent (Shermer, 2011; Ghemawat, 2007). 

Considering the views of Ghemawat, it is true in the real sense if an analysis is carried out that globalization has actually created peaks and valleys in every aspect of life, not only globalization is confined to peaks as depicted by Florida (2005), but the workforce, facilities, infrastructure, development, access to the fast track of development it is all confined to peaks while the valleys are still deprived of all the latest avenues (Fox, 2014).

Migration of mass is towards developed and better prospects which resulted in the clustering of resources, progress, amenities, and opportunities in particular provinces. Florida (2005) has categorized these peaks in terms of population (talent or skill), light emission (economic activity), patents (innovations), and scientific citations (research). Globalization has not provided the same platform to all and thus, the world is not flat even today! It is spiky, with developments in specific areas only and thus an economic drift is going on.

One geographical drift has separated continents, allowed oceans to move, and lead to the peaks in the form of mountains millions of years ago! The present epoch is witnessing economic drift which has created new peaks of development and there is no place for those who are in valleys. One has to be fast, quick, and prompt in grabbing the ever-increasing heights of new peaks imposing new-flanked challenges. Those who are part of the peaks/ spikes are still dominating the world and the world in turn looks upon them for all sorts of help and funds, honoring them as liberators/ saviors and accepting their dominance which people residing in the valleys call leadership.

The leadership style prevailing in the world which is not flat is more transactional where new tasks are set to be accomplished every passing moment. Managers are rewarded for their speedy and swift moves towards the set objectives while those who lag behind are punished. Considering the world to be flat where the distribution of resources and progress is even, the leadership style would be transformational with a high level of communication, motivation, and promotion opportunities for all and there is no bias! But it is still a dream to confess that the world is flat owing to globalization (Johnson, n.d.).