Presented by Di Wu
Globalization
Barbara Parker and Stewart Clegg
The SAGE handbook of organizational study Chapter 2.9
Introduction of authors
Barbara Parker Professor in Mangement, Albers School of Business and
Economics, Seattle University globalization and international management cross-sector partnerships strategic management of diversity joint venture management student learning outcomes
Stewart Clegg Professor, School of Management, University of
Technology Sydney Organisation and Management Theory, Power, Theory,
and Projects
First glance at Globalization
Government Advertisement Made in China and Made with the world
Introduction
The world are moving toward a single, highly integrated system
Organizations contributed to, and were increasingly affected by, global shifts in Political activities Industries Culture Technology The natural environment Economics
Globalization Topics
Research on globalization tackles disparate topics Economics: focus on prime movers
analyses singular sources shaping globalization
Communication and transportation technologies
Increasing numbers of joint ventures The share of assets Culture factors
Three main approach
Analysis a particular global sphere (Economics) (Stiglitz, 2003; Bhagwati, 2004)
Examines interconnections among two or more global spheres. (Castells,1998; Giddens, 1999)
Cross disciplinary and organizational boundaries. (Osland,2003)
Definitions of Globalization
Global and international are synonyms. (management scholar perspective)
Globalization is a process. (Held et al. 1999; Parker 2005)
Globalization characterized by: Growing worldwide interconnections Rapid and discontinuous change
Research on Globalization
International business IB Research emerged as a separate field only in 1965
while international business began centuries ago. (Wright and Ricks 1994)
At the beginning, IB research excluded other disciplines such as economic development, foreign trade, international monetary system, foreign legal ,political, and economic and social environment.
Actually, IB research is borrowing theories from other disciplines
Debate: IB research should narrow the focus to enterprise or expand to examine the global business
Research on Globalization
Sociology Focus is broader than IB: tendencies to a
worldwide reach, impact, or connectedness of social phenomena or to a world-encompassing awareness among social actors
A number of features develop from the 1970 onwards: Political administrations New international division of labour New international financial system More complex notions of personal identity
Global Interconnections
Nature Environment Defined to include “the oceans, the sea beds, the
atmosphere, space, Antarctica, the planet’s biodiversity, as well as the Earth’s electromagnetic spectrum (Henderson, 1999:24)
Two opposed perspectives on environmental preservation: A future “boom” leading to unprecedented prosperity
Economic development generates technologies to address environmental problems
Global warming, species reduction, and global disease as harbingers of “doom” in an environmentally impoverished future
Technology is part of the environmental problem rather than its solution
Global Interconnections
Global Economics Economic globalization: trade, foreign direct
investment, and capital. World trade has grown to about 25% of world GDP as
compared to 10% about 30 years ago (Govindarajan and Gupta 2000)
FDI increasingly moves between developing economies and from them to advanced economies as compared to they moved mostly between advanced economies (Mathews 2002; Aykut et al. 2003)
Capital moves freely in the new worldwide market: “hot” money flees or floods lead to more responsibility for central banks
1992 English Pound Crisis 1996 Asian Financial Crisis
Global Interconnections
Political/Legal Environment Growing need for global governance system to agree on
weights and measures, provide a systematic financial system, develop guidelines for sustainable development, ensure equity, and provide unified responses to development needs, disaster relief and security.
The nation-state is a “robust” form of political organization (Sobel 2003:422)
Trade agreements OPEC, EU, ASEAN, WTO
Common defense North American Treaty Organizations UN global peacekeeping forces
Global Interconnections
Technologies Focus on processes and products with greatest global
impact Today’s technological revolution: Computerization
Processing, micro computers, and networks Telephone, internet, television, and other media Just-in-time inventory management, total quality
management, and organizational learning The innovation rate has increased markedly during last
200 years Rapid speed of information transfer also alters many
traditional assumptions about knowledge Questions about justice
Global Interconnections
Culture There neither is nor could there be a global culture (Smith 1990)
English as business language but also limited Smile Symbol “” shown in Beijing 2008, also shown in 2010 new
year Disneyland. Explores tensions between existing and emerging global
cultures Hybridization or cross vergence in values (Robertson 1995)
Emphasis on environmental protection, women rights, participation in decision-making in economic and political life, and national cultural shifts toward secular-rational values (Ingelhart and Baker, 2000)
Within-culture homogeneity set against a backdrop of increased worldwide heterogeneity
Dissolving national cultures, economies, and borders.
Global Interconnections
Business Activities and Industries Transnational corporations: biggest 1000
generate 4/5 of world industrial output; A global industry Industry convergence: consolidation,
alliance building ( Drucker,1999), and value (Porter, 1986) and supply chain management.
Debate on relationship between nations and business High technologies, national security Real industry ( products, services)
Perspectives on Outcomes from Globalization
The skeptical Thesis Globalization is simply internationalization by
another name (Scholte, 2000)
G3: Europe, Japan, and North America Being significant regional players emerging in Latin
America, East Asian, and elsewhere. Pursues two themes:
Empirical data and closely define terms Nations rather than businesses remain the global actors
(Veseth 1998)
Critics: the issue is less one of historical comparisons per se, but rather the scale of current interconnections.
Perspectives on Outcomes from Globalization
The Hyperglobalist Thesis Globalization is a new stage of human history through
which the power of nation-states is supplanted by business activities (Ohmae, 1995)
Businesses more than nation-states are the primary economic and political units of world society (held et al. 1993)
Two variations: Self-interest perspective views organizations as
dispassionate actors on a global scale working pragmatically in pursuit of economic ends.
More malevolent form, global business primacy is coming about by design and it is not indifferent.
New World Order
Perspectives on Outcomes from Globalization
The end-point of the globalization process is not yet decided
Interconnections and interdependence will forge new links and dissolve some existing ones
Proponents of transformation comes from: Voluntary sector and work through transnational
organizations Business activities Interconnections among businesses,
governments, and members of civil society.
Conclusion
Globalization is a complex and confusing process
Challenges the increasing isolation of organization studies, and challenges their dependence on a limited rage of disciplines
Scholars need to reach out: out of their countries, cities and faculties, to other places, other realities, and other disciplines.
Can we engage the phenomena of globalization – globally?
Big questions in OT
Why do organizations exist? Why are firms the same/different? What causes changes in organizations? Why do some firms survive and others
don’t? Emerging issue?
Thank you!