About Globalization

Simply put, globalization is the expansion of companies, organizations, or relationships onto a global scale or platform. In order to provide inherent wealth to all nations, it aims to remove obstacles to communication, trade, and culture. A more interconnected globe with greater freedom in the flow of capital, products, and services among participating nations is brought about by globalization. Depending on how well ethical standards are kept and if all stakeholders are treated equally, this process has a number of implications, both positive and negative. The essay's opening paragraph outlines the benefits and drawbacks of globalization. Globalization is a concept meant to open up the economy of nations that may be facing economic crisis and the intensification of production, inviting of private investors, setting up of more industries and cooperating with other nations in trade and finances. The advantages of globalization presents themselves primarily in three major categories. These are political, economic and cultural benefits (Waters, 2009).

Pros of Political Globalization

This part brings out the multidimensional and hasted interconnectivity of organizations through space and time across international borders. The globalization of businesses brings many political advantages to individual countries. The globalization process opens up a county’s borders to the international scene. This on its own creates awareness and understanding about the many cultures, races and various problem solving approaches that countries have used to tackle social-political or other common problems that governments have faced throughout the course of time. This allows the adoption of new techniques in management of domestic and foreign matters facing states. Countries, especially those in the developing world stand a great chance of gaining their development goals by the adoption of new up-to-date technology to exploit their resources and through the investment of foreign capital within its borders. The developing countries, with less global influence, could also merge their resources and gain more global influence (Held, 1999).

In addition to this, globalization has enabled global assistance in terms of aid during times of calamities, for example drought or famine, from allied countries globally. It’s through these allies that world peace is maintained. Countries with relatively weak armies or no army develop good relations with countries with stronger militaries through political globalization, treaties or security agreements agreed upon. Developed countries could further provide sophisticated military equipment to less developed countries to improve their military capabilities. These treaties help fend off military invasions thus maintain peace on global scales.

Organizations through the political globalization, are also able to carry out activism for cases of human rights violations and enable the realization of freedom for the oppressed regardless of the geographic location of a country or the oppressed. Examples include the human rights watch. This group will allow for global intervention in cases where human rights are not being upheld, and the prosecution of the perpetrators of acts such as genocide through international courts like the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Pros of Economic Globalization

The aspects of economic globalization stresses on the concepts of privatizing the market economies of a country from the public to the private sector, which is also known as neoliberalism. The world is compressed into a single global market composed of consumers, who are more interested in their own economic gain rather than the social and civil identities. Another key factor in economic globalization is the establishment of global brands and companies in an effort to expand global interconnections and promoting uniformity of consumptions across all societies. The togetherness of these societies is established through complex chains of supplies, economic manpower and capital flow.

With economic globalization comes the ease of access to capital for businesses. This means that industrialization will experience a sharp rise with the incorporation of globalization. Businesses, both in the private and state owned sector are expected to be on the rise. Urbanization and development of infrastructure, which is a key injection or stimulus to marketing is also expected to be on the rise due to the expanded trade. All these factors will duly result in the economic growth of economies, firms and individual productivity. Moreover, with these forms of development, the price of production is expected to reduce due to the ease in development and access to technology, which will enable efficient acquisition of raw materials, processing of goods and delivery of affordable goods and services to the market.

Furthermore, economic globalization opens up the market of a country’s products to the international scene. This in turn disqualifies the issue of monopsony, and the enhancement of competition encourages sellers of goods or services to develop creativity and innovation in selling their products. This is likely to increase the economic growth of a country.

Pros of Cultural-globalization

This refers to a process of transfer or sharing of values, ideas, cultural aspects and artistic representations. In the world of internet connectivity and fast global communications especially through the various social media platforms, people can interact and share information more easily across international borders, irrespective of geographic locality. Multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism are also to some extent demonstrations of cultural globalization. Through the internet communities can learn about other cultures and get to actually communicate to members of other cultures virtually. This has greatly impacted on the views of people towards foreign cultures, and has led to members of a culture to change their views in regard to certain aspects based on what they believe in.

Anti-Globalization

The cons of globalization are also classed in the categories of political, economic and cultural. Though globalization comes with advantages, when applied wrongly, it can lead to devastating results for some nations. Some economies have been known to deteriorate instead of improving through globalization because they could not keep up with the competition with other participant nations (Kwadwo, 2004).

Cons of Political Globalization

When globalization occurs, the sovereignty of a state is reduced whereby a country’s power to make rules that govern it is difficult since the rules are made in the supranational organizations to govern all the states uniformly. As a result, the ethical theory is not upheld where decision making is expected to involve justice and respect for individual autonomy, and thus decisions made are not in favor for all memebers. Consequently, the uniformly tailored rules may not go hand in hand with the country’s policies leading to misunderstandings. For example, Iran cannot achieve nuclear power generation because powerful countries like the US and Israel have come up with restrictions that govern nuclear power generation. In addition, the functioning of these supranational bodies is not democratic since the composing countries are governed by different policies (Starr, 2005).

In cases where unanimous decisions have to be made, the powerful nations are more likely to govern and influence decision making processes. The less powerful nations are likely to be disadvantaged in this sense. For example in decisions concerning global prices of products, the United States controls the prices for products from other smaller nations regardless of economic situations in these less powerful nations. Furthermore, when decisions have to be made in these unions, a nation may decide to slow down the process or vote against an otherwise good policy. Generally, coordination within these international bodies is expensive and difficult because many heterogeneous societies come together.

Cons of Economic globalization

Due to the differences in the amount of resources available within a country, some nations find it difficult to compete against their powerful counterparts. This is partly due to the amount of resources available and the power to exploit them. For example Nigeria and the United States cannot compete in the same context in terms of production of goods due to wide gaps between the economic wealth and technological advancement. Some foreign companies established in countries rich in resources may monopolize the resource thus making it difficult for other types of investments to be established, and consequently limiting the diversification of the economy. For example in Saudi Arabia, the exploitation of oil has been monopolized at the expense of establishing any other activities that may diversify the economy (Naím, 2009).

The economic bargaining power of individual governments is reduced against the power of the international bodies. As a result, it is rather difficult for the individual nations to come up with effective policies that favor their products in the global market, compared to the union policies. Furthermore, the contingent effect is more likely to affect countries tied together rather than individual countries. This is a situation whereby the effects of a certain negative impact in the market are more likely to spread uniformly across the globe. For example in the 2007-2009 period of global recession, the US faced an economic crisis that affected all the nations worldwide. The problem of social dumping is more likely to be experienced where investors move their production to low wage countries to avoid large expenditure on labor cost.

Cons of Cultural-globalization

A major area of concern that has been brought out by cultural globalization is cultural homogenization. This is the loss of cultural diversity in given areas due to abandonment of a community’s own cultural ideas values and symbols and adopts a new and more popular culture. This is particularly witnessed in areas where communities that were once remote, and lived by the limitations of their cultures adopt a new language, modes of dressing, religion among others after coming into contact with the outside world. This is evident especially in the effect of colonization and the spread of Christianity and Islam in the formerly colonized nations (Lechner, 2015).

In addition to this, the westernization or spread of western culture has replaced traditional cultures, where the western power and influence has been used to spread the culture. For example in countries like the US, the homosexual marriages are legalized by the federal government and are considered a human right. However in most cultures, engaging in homosexual acts is a highly discouraged and regarded as a taboo. International organizations have pressured countries like Uganda to provide this form of right, despite the fact that the Ugandan culture is highly against it. The law in Uganda states that homosexuality was punishable by death penalty until an amendment changed the sentence to life imprisonment. Various Western powers have tried to push for the legalization of this “crime” without success. However, homosexuality has been legalized in other African nations like South Africa.

In addition to cultural erosion, cultural globalization has also led to the spread of violent, harmful and inhumane cultures. This includes the spread rituals or behaviors that cause harm to other people. Examples include the spread of radicalization and terrorism ideologies, human cannibalism, child abuse like pedophilia and child marriages just to mention a few. The interconnectedness of the world allows for this gruesome acts to spread and replace the good cultural values individuals or communities previously held. (Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2008).

Based on the pros and cons of globalization, it would be safe, in my opinion to believe that globalization is a good phenomenon that will unite and develop economies globally, as the saying goes, ‘no man is an island.’ To avoid the cons of globalization, governments simply have to balance competition and social protection, a policy by which the governments and communities will overcome the negative effects of globalization to the culture, economy and political orientations of the countries. This is because countries need one another’s support and material aid for development and progress, to meet the various goals set by the states, firms or individuals. Besides, the concept of globalization has promoted advancement in technology, skills, ideas and scientific knowledge through connectivity, which has led to the invention of solutions to various problems faced by humanity. Examples include agricultural inventions, money transfer, medical innovations, scientific discoveries and architectural designs.

The United Nations organization is a perfect example of globalization that unites 193 sovereign states in the world. It is an international body that upholds the ethics of decision making while carrying out various activities. It was established after the World War II to ensure that there would be no other war or blood loss and to ensure that peace prevailed. From its various branches, the UN has managed to promote economic, political, social and cultural growth throughout the globe in all the nations united under the UN umbrella. The UN, in cooperation with other global organization like the World Health Organization has managed to curb the spread of diseases and come up with various cures and vaccines. For example, in the 1990s, child mortality was very high but due to initiatives such as oral rehydration salts, clean water and lessons on nutrition, the UN has managed to reduce child mortality by two thirds since 1990. Moreover, diseases like Polio have been combated in almost all member states except three countries through vaccines invented as a UN initiative. AIDS, which was once a global menace is no longer a fatal threat, thanks to the antiretroviral drugs available in nearly all countries. Through cooperation with the UN, many nations are able to face challenges such as hunger, epidemics, war and financial problems (Focus Treaty event, & United Nations. 2007).

As a result of taking this course, my view of the business world has changed greatly. For instance in my own business, I can apply the stakeholder theory which puts emphasis on the importance of fair treatment of all stakeholders. The theory states that once a company starts up, it should owe loyalty to all stakeholders and the society as a whole. I have also learnt that there is need to apply ethical principles as a manager while making decisions to ensure that the results bear maximum profits. Decision making should involve thoughtfulness on the benefits to be reaped by all the stakeholders. Once a decision has been reached, the results should be of maximum advantage. Besides, when there are two harmful decisions to choose from, the least harmful decision is to be considered as stated in the ethics of business. Other considerations include the fairness of the decision and the freedom it allows the individual stakeholders in their personal lives.

I have also gained invaluable skills that I can apply both in my personal and business life, pertaining customers, finance and policies. I have taken on challenges which have prepared me for a wider context of professional life, both in my country and the world. Some of the transferrable skills I have gained include a clear understanding of how organizations work, strong communication skills to apply both as an individual and a manager, presentation and writing skills, numeracy and how to analyze financial data and how to interpret fluctuations in the market and other variable factors that affect a business. With these skills in hand, I now believe that I can work in any business related field and I can effectively manage a team, while at the same time growing intellectually.

Stakeholder management

My views about stakeholder management have changed greatly throughout the time of taking this course especially in terms of the vital activities that stakeholders have to be involved in for the successful running of a business. Involving stakeholders at the early stage of setting goals and objectives is a great way to increase project success because mistakes can be pointed out early and corrected. Stakeholders need also to be involved while designing the deliverables to ensure that there are no later disappointments or misunderstanding by any of the stakeholders. In order to ensure that a project runs smoothly, clear communication links must be created to ensure that information flows from top management to the operation personnel and that all stakeholders are aware of all aspects of a project and that they have approved. Otherwise, unclear communication leads to misunderstanding, quarrels or even total failure of the project or business (Phillips, 2003).

In a business project, there exists stakeholders who are directly connected to the project and those from the external environment. All must be accounted for and controlled properly, with each of them performing their duties responsibly. Managers ought to maintain a frequent status report of the project to ensure accountability of resources and they also need to be informed of any project risks early enough in order to make the necessary changes. As for the members on the ground or field, they need constant motivation, a listening ear to their concerns and ensuring that they are fully staffed at all times. With this in mind, if all the resources are provided, the project will run without challenges in the schedules, quality of work and costs incurred.

The end users are also stakeholders in the business project and their requirements also need to be taken care of. There is need to analyze market trends in order to know the kind of products in demand by end users. Moreover, it is necessary to understand the customers’ social aspects especially culture, habits and preferences in certain products, transaction language and catchment population. In cases of big transactions, there needs to be clear records and agreements to ensure future accountability and warranties.

It is also important to consider the politics within a project whereby various stakeholders hold conflicting interests in the project. In this case, all the stakeholders should meet before the project begins to discuss their differences, interests and constraints, to hopefully come up with a solution. All stakeholder interests which may derail a project need to be addressed sooner than later. In case of challenges, the managers, who hold the power in the project are capable of using political influence on the members in order to resolve conflicts. However during the resolution, it is critical to get the facts right about what everyone wants, the powers they hold and the stake they may have on the project in order to come up with a workable approach.





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