Globalization Business (Essay Sample)

Globalization
There has been sweeping changes all over the world experienced over the past few decades. Firms are spreading their wing and investing in other countries or continents. Taking business beyond borders involves some form of transactions thus forming one global economy. This has been supported by the removal of barriers that were hindering globalization. Globalization can therefore be defined from two different perspectives; economic and sociological. In the economic sense, it is a means of increasing international business engagements. This can happen anywhere in the world regardless of the geographical location. In the economic sense, the ease transportation and fast flow of information has made it easy for people to communicate making it a global village.
Trade, which forms the economic part of globalization, has been existent for hundreds and thousands of years. Barter trade was one of the earliest forms of trade. The form of international trade observed today has been in existent since the days of the industrial revolution. The growth of globalization can be largely attributed to modernization. This is explained by the economic theory, which states that countries evolve from a primitive to an advanced form of economy. Due to the formation of these global economies, there has been a rise in multinational companies some of which control a vast amount of resources.
Many theories have been brought forward to try to explain why nations trade. These are international trade theories. These trade theories include Mercantilism, Theory of Absolute Advantage, Theory of Comparative Advantage, Heckscher -Ohlin Theory of Factor Endowment, Linder Theory of Overlapping Demand, International Product Life Cycle, First Mover Theory, National Competitive Advantage and many more. Globalization has both advantages and disadvantages.
Understanding Cross-Cultural Management Dimensions
Organizations all over the world are faced with cultural diversity. This mostly affects countries with different cultures. This trend affects most European and African countries due to the high rate of immigration. To ensure mergers succeed and international businesses run smoothly, it is important for organization to understand cultural differences. This is due to the fact that what is acceptable in one culture may be considered a taboo in another culture. Therefore it is prudent to adopt a management strategy that takes cognizant of all cultures. For a manager to succeed in running any organization, he/she should have a clear understanding of his/her own culture.
Management theories come in different perspectives. One of them is the values orientation model that was developed by Kluckhohn and Strodbeck. According to this model, cultural orientation of societies is explained by five basic dimensions. These dimensions include, first the way different cultures understand human nature which can be good or bad. The second basic dimension is about how people relate in the world. Some dominate nature and others are cowed by it. The third is on human relationships. This tries to explain the source of motivation for human beings which might be individual goals or collective goals. The fourth basic dimension reflects on activity. Many culture measure results. Lastly, I look at time. Many cultures are based on past events or traditions, which are passed from one generation to the other. This is mainly observed in African and Asian cultures as opposed to western cultures.
Other culture based management theories include Hofstede’s cultural dimensions based on collectivism versus individualism and Trompenaar’s cross cultural dimensions. Cultural diversity also poses both advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages brought forward by cultural diversity include creativity and penetration of foreign markets. One of the major disadvantage of cultural diversity is that it creates confusion at the workplace. Cultural diversity at the workplace has to be well maintained. Some of the key strategies that can be employed to manage cultural diversity round the globe include equal distribution of resources, ensuring that all employees participate in decision-making and team building activities to foster clear understanding of different cultures in the organization.
Managers also ought to understand worldviews and religious beliefs as this have a very heavy bearing on beliefs and attitudes. Different religions have different set of beliefs and value systems. This binds all their members together as they have to abide to those set standards. Each religion claims it is the real one and the differences make it unique. There are different types of religions. This can be covered in two broader categories, monotheistic and polytheistic. Monotheistic believe that there is only one Supreme Being while polytheistic believe that are many Supremes. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are good examples of monotheistic religions. Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism represent polytheistic religions.
Different religious beliefs have different implications for managers. Managers should understand that different religions have set aside different days in the week marked as holy. Christians for example worship on Saturdays and Sund...