Question: How does globalisation affect you as an international business student?

Introduction

Just as the Depression, the Cold War Era, the Space Age and the Roaring 20’s are used to

describe particular periods of history, globalization is the best term to describe the political,

economic and culture atmosphere of today (Porter, n.d. ).

The society which we live in today enables us to contact people on the other side of the

world at the touch of a few buttons. Every day, we are driving to work in a car may designed in

Europe, assembled in South America, manufactured in Asia, and shipped by a Middle Eastern

company. And as for our dining preferences, we can choose to eat Italian, Japanese, American or

Chinese food. Globalization is not only the movement of goods and services and people around

the world but also movement of knowledge, culture and ideas across national borders that have

led to the increased interconnectedness among the world (Stief, 2010).

The trend towards greater economic, cultural, political and technology interdependence

among national institutions and economies means that an increasing number of firms need to

deal with business issues in an international context. The effects of globalization are manifold

affecting us in term of the economy, information technology, politics, business, as well as the

education. Thus, how can an international business student best respond to the impact posed by

globalization?
Discussion

A worldwide market

In the world economic arena, globalization eases the formation of a common worldwide

market where allows firms to more easily trade and move around the world. This will happen

through the reduction of barriers to different countries both economically and politically. A result

of these looser regulations is that increasingly the cross border transactions in goods and

services, international capital flows, and more widespread diffusion of technology. Beside,

companies worldwide can gain the advantages of economies of scale by hiring in cheap labor

and raw material which are not produced domestically. For example, China and India are

tremendously benefiting from this trend of global business outsourcing, while the global

companies in US and Europe take advantage of the cheaper labor and highly-skilled workers that

countries like India and China can offer (Definition of Globalization, n.d.). The increase in

economic transaction across the globe raises both world GDP and development on new industries

in economic liberation.

In addition to implying a different nature to economic transactions and a diverse set of

players, globalization of markets causes the individual firm to operate within a more complex

political, legal, social context. Therefore, in order to operate successfully in less familiar

environments, managers must develop an understanding of the government sector, regulatory

frameworks and cultural of the markets where they wish to do business.

Changing Business environment

All business in spite of Multinational Corporation or small and medium enterprise cannot

function in isolation. They are influenced by their external business environment. However, the
business environment is changing due to the globalization and transmission of technology. Each

of us only has to operate in a globalized economy, then needless to say we have to understand

and work in social, political and legal context that are also becoming globalized. There is need

for organization to respond in different ways to the changes in environment.

Among the most influential changes is the increasing important of knowledge as a driver

of growth in the context of the global economy, the information and communication revolution,

the emergence of a worldwide labor market, and global sociopolitical transformations. Today,

economic growth is as much a process of knowledge accumulation as of capital accumulation.

Knowledge is increasingly become the competitive advantage of a country and organization.

Many firms today are more focus on the investment in the intangible that make up the knowledge

base such as research and development (R&D), education and computer software (The changing

global environement, n.d.).

In addition, in the past decades, increasing amount of restructuring taken place in both

public and private sectors and there is speculation that it will continue for a numbers of years

(Millett & Harvey, 1999). The restructuring occur in various strategies which include mergers,

acquisitions, strategic alliances and outsourcing. The strategies enable the firm to enter the cross-

border market by dealing with domestic companies. Therefore it is important to become skilled

in the international markets by either learning how thing are done locally in other countries or

how the various turnaround practices in individual countries can be harmonized in a cross-border

situation.

Changing in nature of work

Next, globalization allows us to find opportunities and freedoms. It exposes us to new

influences of different cultures allowing us to grow individually and globally (Stief, 2010).We
able to access to various opportunities available all over the globe for every citizen of different

countries and awareness of citizens that they are not destined to be oppressed by the local

political parties and rulers.

Most importantly, globalization had changes the nature of work today. Technological

innovation has always been an important factor of change in work. It implies the possibility of

breaking down the traditional way of time and place in work. This had increase the flexibility

and automation in work setting. Today, practically every work take place in many parts of the

world is affected by the computer. The work can be just done on networked computers and can

be done from anywhere, even from overseas. Moreover, most of the work had also replaced by

the computer because of time saving and well-organized.

New information technologies have also transformed the work life for everyone. Most

employees spend their hours daily in front of the computer screens to connect with their senior

management, customers or even colleagues through real-time e-mail. After all, the introduction

of new technologies and the concomitant increase of automation in work followed the rationale

of making the production process more controllable and more independent of human action

(Wilpert, 2009). However, at the opposite point of view, the work becomes ever more dependent

on responsible, competent and committed human work activity.

Therefore, making oneself competitive, marketable and desirable to a potential employer

is becoming a part of new reality. The reason for that is that the contemporary employers need to

hire quality people who posses top financial, technological and entrepreneurial skills to face the

challenge of global competition. Those who embraced the change and earned the high-end

technological knowledge and skills became in demand for employers seeking people who having

the modern skills in the workplace. As an example, consider the corporate rivalry between
Facebook and Google for recruiting and retaining the top talents in the information technology

and computer science fields. While the demands of the employers keep going up, one must

continually improve skills and build upon strength so that competent to perform better under

tough or different conditions.

Culture in the globalized world

Culture is the main component that is crucial in the process of globalization.

Globalization has increased the spread of popular culture easily and efficiently through the

advancement of technology nowadays. The exchange and spread of ideas such as religion, music,

food, and traditions toward global had an immense and diverse impact on business strategy as

well as the people’s cultural behavior. People have had to change their living ways compared to

the old times (Semere, 2010).

The reason is that the different culture had integrated across the globe where the values,

taste and preference are homogenized in the globalization process. One best cited example of this

phenomenon is the McDonald and Starbuck where these two American companies had growing

in the worldwide and had greatest impact on the lifestyle in the countries they operating. Besides,

there are emerging number of golfers in China, the usage of Chinese character in tattoos and the

necessary to learn Mandarin and Hindi due to the rise of China and India.

Therefore, there is no longer a fixed thinking pattern or lifestyle in one country because

when the society is open, one culture will have a significant influence on other cultures (Y.

Zhang & et.al, 2009). The theory of globalization enables to share and adopt culture of other

countries. To survive in this age of globalization the skills, experience, and languages are become

important to work across cultures and nationalities.

Globalization is an inevitable trend in human history that's been bringing the world closer

through the exchange of goods and products, information, knowledge and culture.

Globalization is re-shaping the world economy due to the mutually reinforcing

relationship with technology. Technology not only transforming the nature of work but it is also

transforming the way we do business and the nature of the products and services we consume.

Globalization has changed the nature of competition and re-contextualized the nature of doing

business. The strategies that have been engaged by managers today are strongly implanted in the

mindsets that encompass the general business environment. Therefore, businesses today have to

face a great challenge as the economy moving from the industrial age to the information age.

On the other hand, culture and globalization interconnected to each other via movie,

television, business, tourism and Internet today. People are getting closer and easier to be

exposes to other culture. The world will continue to change at ever-increasing rates. Hence, it is

important that an international business student should understand and adapt to the changes in

the globalization.