Impact of Economic Globalization on Work Environment - Essay Example

There was a time when the world was fragmented into small communities that traded with their immediate neighbours. The world has experienced significant changes since then, with instances such as the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and Vasco da Gama's tours and discoveries in Africa in 1498 (Sach, 2017). Between the years 1500 and 1900, many processes changed across the world, economically and socio-politically. At the core of this transformation in the world was globalisation. Olympia & Stella (2017) defines this terminology as the speedup in the movement and exchanges of people, goods, services, technology, capital, and cultural processes across the globe. Globalisation has three dimensions, namely, political, cultural, and economical. The latter refers to the extensive movement of capital, technology, services, information, and goods across the planet. Olympia & Stella (2017) relates economic globalisation with an intensified cross-border transfer of capital items across nations and regions. Various scholars have written texts highlighting the impact of economic globalisation to the world. These texts have sparked debates on whether economic globalisation has any meaningful impact on the world. This paper asserts that economic globalisation has had a positive impact on the world because, among other reasons, jobs have been created in mass across the world while labour conditions and working environments have improved relatively to conform to world ethical standards. The first section of this paper argues for this position, while the second phase provides certain contrary opinions to this issue. The final segment offers a response and conclusion affirming the value of economic globalisation on the world.

First, today, people have the opportunity to work anywhere across the world. According to Mankins & Garton (2017), companies today can hire special talent from anywhere. Due to this provision, people have had the chance to explore employment opportunities in several opportunities. Today, a professional from Beijing can apply and secure a job offered in the United Kingdom. Mankins & Garton (2017) adds that certain jobs offered across borders, as such, often come with higher remuneration perks that can lift someone out of poverty. This point is particularly addressed by Fields (2019), who highlights the conditions of most developing countries as scarce in the capital and rich in labour making their citizens open to explore better working conditions in Western and certain Eastern countries such as Japan and China. Data from the Office of the National Statistics indicate that the United Kingdom alone employs approximately 5 million people overseas (Fields, 2019). This figure is a 13% increase in one year from 2014 to 2015.

Secondly, international trade has also heightened over the past century leading to the emergence of Transnational Corporations across the world. Several countries have noticed the value of cross-border exchange on a global scale. As a result, most of these nations have created trade conditions and tariffs that have enabled various Multinational Corporations to expand to foreign countries. Miroudot & Cadestin (2017) adds that the main enabler for this movement has been the global supply chain system. Through this interconnected network, corporations have expanded their outreach in search of better markets for their products and the most cost-effective labour. Miroudot & Cadestin (2017) argue that these firms have boosted the countries' economic positions that they created their subsidiaries, hence improving the living conditions of the locals. Examples of British companies that have created an international presence in Asian and African countries include BP, HSBC, Vodafone, Lloyds, and Oil companies (Bhatia & Tuli, 2018). These firms have improved the employment opportunities and economic value exchange from their parent companies to the outlets. Further, these outlets have redefined best practices for these MNCs leading to a multi-layered diffusion of economic practices across the planet.

Additionally, labour and environmental conditions have relatively improved due to the emergence of global movements in support of these causes. Although this is a controversial topic owing to the increase in cheap labour offered in sweatshops in countries like Bangladesh, the conversation on labour and environmental conditions have gradually improved across the globe due to the emergence of labour and fair-trade movements globally (Raynold, 2017). The past two decades have seen an upsurge of movements such as fair trade and anti-sweatshop agencies that have claimed to promote a just global economy. Their operations have focused on improvements in the trade and the supporting disadvantaged producers to access markets and develop competitively alongside other large corporations. How effective are they? Raynold (2017) reports that fair trade reached approximately 1.6 billion US dollars in their annual sales. In their report, the movement spokesperson indicated that their work was to raise consumer awareness of the varied exploitation happening in developing countries. Their central objective is to improve the quality of life of traders and farmers by enabling them to participate in direct sales and ensure higher profits. Their efforts have led to the adjustments of labour regulations across most countries and the move by Transnational Corporations to improve the remuneration and working conditions for most of their offshore workers. Chouhun et al. (2018) sum the role of the fair-trade movements and anti-sweatshops as a positive impact in the right direction to raise awareness and improve labour and environmental regulations across the planet.

Besides, information and technology have also spread rapidly across the globe as a result of economic globalisation. Today, business transactions happen at the click of a button regardless of location or time. The world has gradually become a global economy due to the improvements in the information and technology devices and connections. Technological advancements such as mobile networks, computer applications, and various infrastructural tools have emerged over the past few decades, enhancing business environments (Baylis, 2020). Some examples of these advancements include digital media software such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram that have consequently led to the growth of digital marketing tools that enable companies to source and acquire clients globally without establishing any offshore offices or units in these countries. Baylis (2020) asserts that this new form of marketing is so effective that even small and medium enterprises can compete with multinational corporations. In 2019, KingKong corporation based in Melbourne Australia made sales of close to 200 million dollars from digital marketing without any investments in physical locations (Chaffey et al., 2019).

Finally, in the process of business pursuits, other domains of human interaction have been improved, including cultural awareness and human cohesion. When people meet to conduct businesses, Singh & Zammit (2019) notes that they also exchange several nuances such as attitudes, values, and behaviours that later define their way of life. Culture has continued to change as more businesses emerge globally, and more people migrate to better employment and education opportunities. The cultural fusion has also led to the language modifications that have eventually made certain languages such as Chinese easier to analyse and understand. Previously, Chinese was a secluded language that did not have much research due to the complexities of their phonetic and syntactic systems. However, with a growing need to do business with China, scholars have explored various research on how to break down the complex language and make it applicable to global business domains. Such an advancement improves not only the business scale of China with other worlds but also the cultural elements and human wellbeing index in China and the broader global communities (Sing & Zammit, 2019).

On the other hand, Bhatia & Tuli (2018) argue that the emergence of Transnational corporations in search of cheap labour has led to the exploitation of workers in developing countries. Most countries that are developing have a high number of people and fewer opportunities for capital growth. Globalisation has enabled Multinational Corporations to tap into this eager population at minimal wages. In most cases, these people are bundled to work in poor environmental conditions at minimum wage, leading to health hazards. On 24th April 2013, Rana Plaza collapses in Bangladesh, a dilapidated building that housed and killed over 1,132 people, injuring 2500 others (Barua & Ansary, 2017). These people were low paid workers in garment factories that resided in the plaza. Reports from Barua & Ansary (2017) indicate that over 109 others have occurred in Bangladesh alone since this incident. This kind of poor working and environmental conditions mock the financial independence that Multinational corporations promise their offshore partners.

Furthermore, as most people migrate to developed countries overseas in search of better opportunities, developing countries continue to lose their best talents. Each year, the US, New Zealand, and the UK continue to offer permanent work permits to the best talents from Eastern and African countries (Chaison, 2018). In this migration, best doctors, engineers, IT experts and other lucrative professions end up building foreign economies at the expense of their local nations. It is a no wonder developing countries continue to lag behind as emerging economies thrive in the business world (Chaison, 2018).

Also, most multinational corporations have wielded power and destabilized developing countries in pursuit of their selfish interests. Today, economies such as Democratic Republic of Congo have continued to have civil unrests several decades after they got their independence (Landry, 2018). The data continues that this country has one of the highest deposits of diamonds and gemstones. However, nothing exists to show for these rich resources as the country hardly has any established infrastructure. In fact, the roads from one city to the next is hardly accessible to the locals. Baylis (2020) argues that Multinational corporations fuel these unrests and distracts the attention of the government and locals from their resources to handle their immediate concern which becomes security and survival.

Nevertheless, the positive impact of economic globalisation surpasses the demerits. For instance, multinational corporations benefiting from cheap labour do so within the regulations of their host countries. Therefore, Raworth (2017) suggests that instead of trashing economic globalisation, movements such as fair trade can create environments that ensures that the corporations and local governments create meaningful working conditions in their trade regulations. Such treaties would also prevent unethical corporations from causing unnecessary unrests in developing countries for their own gains. Further, as the world becomes global, talents migrating in search for better opportunities can always still remit their taxes back to their home countries when such policies exist. Therefore, rather than focusing on preventing their expatriation, Chouhun et al. (2018) urges that economies focus on developing policies that enables their citizens to remit taxes back home.

Finally, economic globalisation has had a positive impact in the world for the reasons highlighted above. These reasons include the availability of better working opportunities across the globe, the emergence of multinational corporations and trade movements that enhance the living conditions of locals in developing countries as well as the information technology boost that enables small and medium enterprises to compete with multinational corporations. Despite a few objections to economic globalisation, the benefits of this movement surpass the demerits.

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As a result, most of these nations have created trade conditions and tariffs that have enabled various Multinational Corporations to expand to foreign countries. Miroudot & Cadestin (2017) adds that the main enabler for this movement has been the global supply chain system. Through this interconnected network, corporations have expanded their outreach in search of better markets for their products and the most cost-effective labour. Miroudot & Cadestin (2017) argue that these firms have boosted the countries' economic positions that they created their subsidiaries, hence improving the living conditions of the locals. Examples of British companies that have created an international presence in Asian and African countries include BP, HSBC, Vodafone, Lloyds, and Oil companies (Bhatia & Tuli, 2018). These firms have improved the employment opportunities and economic value exchange from their parent companies to the outlets. Further, these outlets have redefined best practices for these MNCs leading to a multi-layered diffusion of economic practices across the planet.

Additionally, labour and environmental conditions have relatively improved due to the emergence of global movements in support of these causes. Although this is a controversial topic owing to the increase in cheap labour offered in sweatshops in countries like Bangladesh, the conversation on labour and environmental conditions have gradually improved across the globe due to the emergence of labour and fair-trade movements globally (Raynold, 2017). The past two decades have seen an upsurge of movements such as fair trade and anti-sweatshop agencies that have claimed to promote a just global economy. Their operations have focused on improvements in the trade and the supporting disadvantaged producers to access markets and develop competitively alongside other large corporations. How effective are they? Raynold (2017) reports that fair trade reached approximately 1.6 billion US dollars in their annual sales. In their report, the movement spokesperson indicated that their work was to raise consumer awareness of the varied exploitation happening in developing countries. Their central objective is to improve the quality of life of traders and farmers by enabling them to participate in direct sales and ensure higher profits. Their efforts have led to the adjustments of labour regulations across most countries and the move by Transnational Corporations to improve the remuneration and working conditions for most of their offshore workers. Chouhun et al. (2018) sum the role of the fair-trade movements and anti-sweatshops as a positive impact in the right direction to raise awareness and improve labour and environmental regulations across the planet.

Besides, information and technology have also spread rapidly across the globe as a result of economic globalisation. Today, business transactions happen at the click of a button regardless of location or time. The world has gradually become a global economy due to the improvements in the information and technology devices and connections. Technological advancements such as mobile networks, computer applications, and various infrastructural tools have emerged over the past few decades, enhancing business environments (Baylis, 2020). Some examples of these advancements include digital media software such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram that have consequently led to the growth of digital marketing tools that enable companies to source and acquire clients globally without establishing any offshore offices or units in these countries. Baylis (2020) asserts that this new form of marketing is so effective that even small and medium enterprises can compete with multinational corporations. In 2019, KingKong corporation based in Melbourne Australia made sales of close to 200 million dollars from digital marketing without any investments in physical locations (Chaffey et al., 2019).

Finally, in the process of business pursuits, other domains of human interaction have been improved, including cultural awareness and human cohesion. Read More