Discuss the Various Ways in Which Globalisation Is Affecting the World of Work.Essay Preview: Discuss the Various Ways in Which Globalisation Is Affecting the World of Work.Report this essayThe term globalisation is a particularly elastic concept. Not only does it embrace a wide range of things, it also straddles the realms of fact and value of idea and reality, thus to define the word globalisation requires an amalgamation of both moral and material values which may include and encompass events as dynamic as economic, political and social. At its simplest globalisation has tended to denote the idea that societies are becoming increasingly affected by events of other societies, thus the idea of an interconnected world is a central theme for many scholars who have remarked upon the focus of globalisation. It should be noted however that there has been and continues to be schism surrounding what some commentators constitute as being a limitless phenomena as others stand in direct contradiction and consider the globalisation thesis as merely a buzz-word to denote the latest phase of capitalism.
The word globalisation is often assumed to be a relatively recent emergence in world history, however although the ancestry and precise timescale of the use of the term is nebulous for ease of analysis many scholars suggest the 1980s to be the era in which the seeds of globalisation were set and subsequently initiated historians and fellow scholars alike to begin to question the existence and effects of globalisation.
It is visible that the globalisation thesis is not clear cut therefore in this essay I will not be looking at it in isolation but will also attempt to highlight the issues surrounding globalisation, whilst attempting to find a correlation between the neo-liberal stance of globalisation and how they regard this to be affecting the global domain in regards to employment, before concluding as to if we can conclusively say that globalisation is affecting the world of work in society today.
Endeavouring to find a specific definition of globalisation can be onerous as there are a multiplicity of both positive and negative ideas and beliefs of what the term actually implies, however Rosabeth Moss Kanter in Thriving Locally in the Global Ecomony (1995) has provided an original explanation of the term,
the world is becoming a global shopping mall in which ideas and products are available everywhere at the same time.M.Waters has also commented on this issue, but perhaps adopting a less positive stance,a social process in which the constrains of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding.
Kanter and Waters are but a few of many academics who have contributed to the globalisation thesis, and although it is evident their explanations are somewhat diverse their underlying assumptions are similar as they both consider globalisation and the shrinking of the global domain to be ever present and thus cannot be diluted as being a mythical assumption.
When adopting the stance that globalisation is occurring it is critical that we begin by observing its effects, especially in regards to the global market and how it can have a domino effect which will ultimately have an impact on individual societies and individuals within them primarily in the employment sector.
For some, globalisation is certainly a positive force especially in western industrialised societies where globalisation is said to have its origins, yet this compelling phenomena can certainly be recognised as being highly uneven in its effects. One of the most graphic examples of this can be identified by the net revolution, a phenomenal means of communication which has ultimately been a key player in the spread of globalisation, however in reality many of the worlds civilisations particularly those of the third world have been and remain unaffected, thus from a technological viewpoint globalisation can be said to only apply to the developed countries of the world. This vast inequality has inevitably had an impact on who is being employed across the globe and skills that are required in order for it to be advantageous for the individual.
One of the primary grounds of inequality in the employment sector in an increasingly globalised world can be reduced to the issue of gender. It is well documented that the effects of globalisation has led to a growth of exploitation process zones whereby women are being used for cheap labour especially in developing countries, this is primarily due to the fact that the lack of education, training and skills has unsurprisingly led to the ever present reality of the exploitation of women, whereby poor working conditions, long hours and mundane work is routine, yet their labour and exploitation has enabled great economic success for national economies in the western world.
Aside from gender issues, the idea of living in a borderless world and the increasing awareness of proximity due to technological advancements has raised concerns for national security, as within the discipline of International Relations states are ultimately sovereign and state sovereignty is premised on territorial geography, therefore for states to exercise exclusive authority over a specified territorial domain, events must occur on territorial locations. However states today are unable to control the phenomena of globalisation, for example global companies and global stock and bond trading therefore interconnectedness conceptually equates to the idea of loss of power for national governments and the theoretical erosion of sovereignty. Hirst and Thompson (1996) contributed to this
The notion of a regional power-sharing and inter-governmental process in the international arena is discussed in relation to this concept, at the following:
The concept of a regional power-sharing is discussed in a manner that emphasizes the need for regional cooperation in inter-federal conflicts between states. As the US states have a significant domestic and international influence in this area of international relations, the development and utilization of regional powers and the development of regional relations has led to a common understanding and recognition. Such regionalization may be useful in cases where regional power sharing issues might become conflicts, especially in Europe and Asia.
[2] Kopp et al. (1995) define regionalization and its application as the concept of cooperation by nations to “prevent, mitigate, or solve internal, external, or other internal (international) conflicts through the implementation of common, consistent, and differentiated policies, institutions and practices.” They then add,
It is important that regional and external political stability be provided in accordance with a common set of principles (i.e. the “common aim of global development”, “global strategic thinking and understanding”) that are mutually reinforcing. To that end, regionalisation of national power-sharing will provide countries with a common set of rules and frameworks about issues and obligations that will contribute to maintaining the stability and security of their internal and external policy areas. Regionalization, as described above, is a useful means for international development.
The following examples illustrate the use of geographical regions by the US. These examples are from a 2002 USAID Research Institute for the Development of State, Territorial, or Federal Systems (UNSAT) special report on the Regionalization of Local Communities and the United States with North America. The USAID special report did not present this data due to the difficulties that are associated with cross-country development of the USAID research institute and with the lack of cooperation between States. As mentioned earlier, the report on geographical regions was only published in January 1996. The USAID special report only looked at geographical regions for one to five years of data and only focused on regionalisation. Therefore the USAID special report relied on no more than 2 US states.
[3] Kopp et al (1995) are referred to in detail in the following:
[1] An early paper using the concept of regionalization (Kopp 1982) was presented at the UNSAT Symposium in 2007. It is not known whether all of the states, except Alaska, are regionalized. However, this is true even though some of Alaska’s major industries and industries are based outside the US and are located in Alaska.
[3] It is important to note above that it is likely that in the 1970s and 1980s, there existed a large number of states which were geographically isolated and therefore still did not have a similar set of priorities to the United States. Such states were represented as having different interests over the areas in which they were located in the US. As a result, they could not effectively coordinate between state interests at the US and also at foreign countries as well as at the world market as compared to the USAIDS Special Report on a Systematic Regionalization of State, Territorial, and Federal Systems (1992) that focused