Globalization Forces
Introduction
Globalization is the world's interconnectedness in social, economic, political, technological, and cultural settings. The constant increase and spread of globalization is attributed to several factors. This paper discusses such factors as trade flow and free market, communication, and human migration. The main factor which drives globalization is the ability of organizations to interlink and exchange ideas. The factors of globalization range from economic and political ones to new technological advancements. The other important factor is human migration to different parts in the world resulting in interacting and exchanging ideas. With globalization, there is a global consciousness increase since the societies come together. Furthermore, globalization success is evident with the increase in international trade and capital flow. With many countries opening up their economies to other nations, GDP and growth rates are increasing, especially in the economic context. Most successful economies like Chinese owe their economic growth to globalization. The paper will discuss three major forces, which have contributed to an increase in globalization in the last few decades of the 20th and 21st century. The three forces include trade flow and free market, communication and human migration. Mainly, the paper will focus on these forces and explore their impact on the current and future organizational communication issues in the United States.
Trade Flow and Free Market
Free market has proved to be the greatest driving force for globalization. The different forms of business in the free market result in opening up the international market despite geographic location, which is sometimes a hindrance to globalization. The success of free trade results from the failure of communism. The latter, in its turn, results in opening up communistic markets to global trade and other forms of investment. Research studies show that the openness in trade has significantly improved from 25 to 40% . For free trade and its continuous flow, there has been the development of trading blocs such as North American Free Trade Agreement, which eliminates import and export tariffs. This brings in the concept of trade flow. The elimination of trade barriers by different countries facilitates the increased growth rates in international trade. With the revolution in information technologies, it has become difficult for some countries to block distribution channels in the protectionist trade policy. The need for raw materials in production of goods and services resulted in the development of free trade with countries lacking some of these materials. Free trade implies that no country is self-sufficient. Moreover, every country plays a particular role in globalization, and this may begin with the provision of raw materials, production and distribution of goods and services (Li, 2008).
With free market and trade flow, there is a consequent reduction in costs of transactions globally as well as an increased capital mobility. Additionally, there is an existence of policies that minimize restrictions on all forms of foreign investment as well as the service inclusion. Furthermore, there is an increased capital mobility resulting in the globalization's enhancement. Free capital flow from one country or region to another provides straightforward ways of locating and investing abroad while generating profits (Boehne, 1998). This enables countries to specialize in the production of goods and services that brings such comparative advantage as low production costs. Along with free trade come such benefits as low-cost provision of products and services, the variety of goods to choose from, and healthy competition. Additionally, there will appear large export markets as well as the economies of scale.
The other important aspect in terms of globalization is outsourcing of skilled labor with the aim for achieving business performance and economic development. In this context, the most developed countries end up losing their brainpowers to the developed countries. Free trade and markets have negative effects on the developing regions, which struggle and compete against the most developed countries worldwide. This calls for the need for protection of the developing industries and countries from free trade and markets in order to give them enough time to develop and catch up. A good example that harms the developing nations is the tariffs and policies that many western countries have put on agricultural imports (Li, 2008).
Free market and trade flow have like any other factor negative effects on the globalized countries. Many economists are trying to bring out the misconceptions that appear in case of free trade. These are the inevitable inflation, ability of governments to save their population, lack of regulations, and taxes' effect on the output. However, all these issues still exist even with free trade. It all depends on the system of a country to counter them. Free trade relies on an individual innovation and ability to survive in a competitive environment. Due to this fact, individuals go into the extreme methods including the engagement in illegal trade. All these means aim at making profits and attaining cash inflows. The free market systems clearly bring out the gap between losers and winners in the global market (Lerman & Schmidt, 2012).
Communication
This includes the use of social media, internet, and other technological advancements like mobile phones that promote communication and globalization. The internet is the biggest social and global driver on the basis of technological advancements. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter allow people to share information in terms of development. The internet has managed to eliminate the physical barriers that come with distance and their effects on transmitting the information. The internet allows instant communication between people from everywhere in the world. With the absence of international borders, there is an exchange of any kind of information between nations. The internet has managed to transform business practices in commerce resulting into emerging of new ways for customers and consumers to engage in business transactions.
Communications technology is nowadays easy and affordable for all individuals with an aim to share information. Some of these technologies are mobile phones and other gadgets that allow communication to be cheap and efficient. Moreover, there is the use of telephones, satellite technologies, fiber systems, and e-mailing that ensure high-speed communication. Using all these advancements, people can efficiently and conveniently access the information and other resources resulting in interconnectedness and integration. Furthermore, the advancements in communication allow corporations to engage in business in order to control and coordinate their activities worldwide. Communication has become a driving factor in the globalization process. Apart from the improved access to communication, there has been an economic potential. New technologies such as web 2.0 and social networks are changing communication in the political, cultural, and communication segments (Boehne, 1998). Communication also allows sharing of new ideas across cultures and countries. Apart from management of transactions, businesses have found ways of managing flow of production units as well as their market products. Using the same way, the social media provides a platform for job recruiters and seekers to meet each other resulting in the outsourcing of individuals with competent skills. The websites, blogs, and other social platforms allow individuals with common interests to collaborate and interact. Information technologies open new channels in communication resulting in the creation of an informational society that facilitates access to isolated regions and resources (Wolf, 2014).
Human Migration
This factor embraces the movement of people from one area to another. This movement may be from town to town, country to country, and/or from continent to continent. Migration results from push and pull factors. In push factors, there exists low wages, poor working conditions, political instability, etc. These factors affect people negatively, which results in their migrating to other regions with better conditions (Levin Institute, n.d.). The pull factors are the advantages of other regions that attract people. Such advantages include good living standards, better employment opportunities, better working conditions, and others. Due to this, the current conditions and policies are making it easier for people to migrate from one region to another, thus promoting globalization.
With a decline in migration costs, people now find it easier to travel from one country to another and, therefore, to stimulate globalization. The factors contributing to migration are political instability in a particular country, wars, and looking for better employment opportunities. This mostly happens to individuals in Third World countries that decide to move to developed countries in the search of employment and education. There is the migration of people together with their information, knowledge and ideas, which become important agents of production for their new environments (Boehne, 1998). The most sensitive and complex issues are the effects of cultural, social, and political acceptance as well as the adoption of individual attitudes towards changes. The main characteristic of the human migration is the people's movement from poor countries to the wealthier ones.
With human migration, there is an advantage in labor migration, which provides positive aspects for migrating people as well as the countries they are moving to. Human migration solves the problem of labor shortage for most European states (MHR, n.d.). The fast pace in which globalization is growing results in appearing of migrant workers as compared to the past. High unemployment and poverty rates have forced employees from developing countries to seek for employment in developed countries. This fact has significant effects on both the receiving and sending nations. For the sending nation, the loss of skilled labor results into the increasing of labor demand which, in this context, turns out to be unskilled. Such countries end up in losing their best minds that have driven the economic growth. As a result, such countries suffer poor performance (Wolf, 2014).
For the receiving nations, there is an introduction of new and competent minds into their economic environment, which provides a competitive advantage for the organizations. Employee diversity ensures the presence of new ideas and skills that propel economy. Due to the desperation for jobs, this may also result into low wages but of greater significance as compared to the ones from the developed countries. Because of all these factors, there is an increase in the possibilities of economic survival and employment opportunities in developed countries. Generally, employees with high education level are the brainpowers of the economy and have the privilege to dictate their wages while those with low education level provide manual labor at minimal wages. Today, the main reason for migration is the capital globalization, which results from a capital decrease and labor restrictions (Lerman & Schmidt, 2012).
Impact on Current and Future Organizational Communication in the US
The US globalization effects are evident with the trade measures and the foreign investments that the country does to other nations. This comes in the form of financial investments that come through outsourcing of foreign citizens with an aim to improve performance and delivery in the US. For America, human migration tends to affect the communication in specific organizations (Wolf, 2014). The country also experiences tremendous growth when it comes to international capital market. The constant growth of financial flows and trade had greatly contributed to human migration. With the globalization and outsourcing of talents, there is an issue of diversification, which results into the creation of multicultural workforce. In this type of environment, many challenges that result from language barriers and cultural differences occur. Apart from poor communication, there is a lack of understanding in individual culture. There also may be miscommunication of information resulting in transmitting incorrect ideas. Thus, many organizations are doomed to fail without communication.
With globalization, there is a complex interaction between different cultures in the USA. To avoid communication issues in the US, organizations must develop communication styles in order to promote effective communication among population. For many countries, communication moderates the existing relations between innovation and conflicts, which is influenced by complexities that the global environment competition brought about. The communication methods and styles chosen must ensure participation of all employees in an organization towards the achievement of company's objectives. With growing consumer needs and demands, the creativity becomes an important contribution to the communication and innovation process. A solution to issues resulting from globalization would be the development of cross-cultural communication (Wolf, 2014).
Model that Promotes Effective Communication and the Ability to Compete in the Global Economy
The main approach here would be how nations use the technology advancements to promote communication. From the analysis of communication issues and globalization effects, it would become possible for the organizations in the USA to develop communication skills. One of the ways would be the establishment of such virtual interactions and collaborations as video calls and conferences (Levin Institute, n.d.). Not all communication mediums are effective in the organizational processes. Apart from this, there is a need for cultural awareness, which has turned out to be the globalization's major impact. These, in turn, result in the evolution of communication technologies. Most communication issues are identified as language barriers, body language and response, time differences, and working styles (teamwork or individual work) (Lerman & Schmidt, 2012). For the organizations, the ability to share information effectively can result in making or breaking the productivity when it comes to a diverse or multi-cultural workforce. All these problems have become lately the important issues for the US. Apart from economic activity, globalization extends to cultural, political, environmental, and security matters while relating all these aspects to increased collaboration and interconnectivity. Globalization simply embraces interdependence of countries and individuals that results in constant growth. Therefore, there is a reduced importance in the existing national, cultural, and economic boundaries.
Conclusion
To sum up, globalization has resulted in economic, political, technological, social, and cultural changes. Economically, there is the trade liberalization, trade deregulation, and the huge expansion of the international market place. In the political context, there is power redistribution as this goes to the existing interstate activities as well as civil society growth. Technologically, there is improved communication using social media, mobile technologies, and the internet. It is clear that globalization would not be successful without communication and media. Over the years, English has emerged to be the dominant language that enables all forms of globalization activities to take place. In the US, globalization, which works under the Washington Consensus, aims at introducing cultural uniformity worldwide without leaving diversities.
Today, globalization is not only migration, trade, and their effects on interconnectedness but also uneven development that directs to the global markets. Apart from the benefits of improved communication methods such as internet and free trade, there are also some negative effects. It happens in socio-economic and political contexts hence the need for policies and regulations in globalization activities. The future of globalization lies in the hands of the current politicians and the future generations. Stable political systems allow all other forces to be effective. Without the globalization forces like communication and human migration, the globalization itself would be still at its lowest level. No particular force on its own promotes globalization as this research study shows. Instead, they all work together towards the attainment of globalization benefits. Technological advancements, for instance, promote communication, which opens ways for human migration and free trade. This interdependence is important for any nation that aims at achieving globalization.