Globalization and Cross-Cultural Management

INTRODUCTION

For the purpose of this essay, globalization and cross-cultural management will be defined, an aspect of Manuel Castell's theory on the information age will be analysed, and its relevance to cross cultural management and business success will be discussed.

According to Ervin and smith (2008: 1) there has been various definition of globalization, some see it as just a "buzzword" while other see as a useful word that refers to the evolution of human society.

"Globalization describes the ongoing global trend towards the freer flow of trade and investment across borders and the resulting integration of the international economy because it expands economic freedom and spurs competition. Globalization raises the productivity and living standard of the people in countries that open themselves to the global market place" (Cato institute 2006).

Cato in this definition centres on the economic facet of globalization. It sees globalization as an advantageous course that enables free markets to provide for human freedom. Free markets also leads to improved standards of living for those involved in globalization as a whole. Similarly, Ritzer and Atalay (2010:4) sees globalization is a process thrilled by and resulting in an increase in cross-border flow of goods, services, money, people, information and culture.

Cross-cultural management explains the behaviour of people in organizations around the world and shows people how to work in organisations with employees and client population from many different cultures. Cross-cultural management describes organisational behaviour within countries and cultures; compares organisational behaviour across countries and cultures: and, perhaps most important, seeks to understand and improve the interaction of co-workers, managers, executives, clients, suppliers, and alliance partners from countries and cultures around the world. (Alder 2002:11)

Cross-culture attempts to convey collectively such comparatively unconnected areas as cultural anthropology and well-known areas of communication. Its mainstay is to set up and comprehend how people from diverse cultures commune with each other and the culture of a society consisting of the shared values, perceptions, understandings, and objectives that are gotten from previous generations, forced by the members of the present day society and passed on to the next generations. (Zhang 2009).

RELEVANCE OF MANUEL CASTELL'S THEORY

With globalization and the trade liberalization that goes along with it in current years, organisations are experiencing more and more extreme rivalry in a progressively more unsure market. To improve competitiveness, importance on excellence and suppleness in the delivery of goods and services has become the distinctive tactics for businesses functioning in such an ever-changing milieu (Anderson, et al., 1994). An additional effect from the raise in difficulty of business opposition in the recently appearance of global information economy (Castells, 2000), is an imperative need for specialism in skilfulness and specialism between countries (Archibugi and Michie, 1995). This means a duty performed in today's business will progressively more necessitate the involvement of experts of diverse fields and perhaps from diverse nations. The insinuation is that persons of diverse field and diverse culture need to work closely together and interrelate more than before. The new organisation therefore requires supporting better and more recurrent communication between experts of different fields and cultures

In Manuel Castell's trilogy, he draws the consequences of three autonomous procedures emerging between the end of the 1960s and the middle of the 1970s and coming jointly to create a 'new society': the information technology revolution, the economic catastrophe of free enterprise and communalism and the blossoming of new social movements like environmentalism and feminism. In the light of Castell, the IT-revolution is partially accountable for the crumple of the Soviet Union alone side with other communalism, and for the restoration of an additional efficient, supple and toughened free enterprise. The increase of new social movements is a reaction to the catastrophe of the nation, democratic system, the conventional establishment of civil civilization and patriarchy in large divisions of the world. Collectively these three procedures are as a reason of a new social structure ( a network society), a new economy (a global informational economy) and a new culture (a culture of 'real virtuosity').

This essay will be considering the issue of global information economy. The vital function of information and communication technologies in inspiring development can be analysed from two points of view. From a positive side of the coin, it permits countries to leapfrog steps of economic growth and development by being capable of making improvements of their production systems and amplify their competitiveness more rapidly than in past times. The most significant example is that of the Asian Pacific economies, and mostly the cases of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea(Van and Jan, 2003). Even despite the present financial catastrophe this is so, which is unconnected to competitive performance and might be related, to the attractiveness of blossoming Asian economies to global resources flows.

Let us not leave alone the importance of this technological advancement we see in our day-to-day lives. Taken for example years ago in Africa one has to queue up in telephone boots for long hours to make phone calls or wait long hours at friends or relative houses who were rich enough to afford a landline telephone it to receive calls. Information technology has changed all that these days as one can now move around with mobile phones and it is made so cheap that even the least people in society can afford to own mobile phones these days and also to top it up the internet has been made it easy for all. These has great impact for businesses today has communication is very important for smooth running of businesses. According to Vallee (2002, p. 109), 'the whole world has access to your products, in proportion to the access people have individually to the Internet'

Secondly on the other side of the coin, for those economies that are not capable of adjusting to the new technological scheme, their problems becomes greater. In addition, the capability to shift into the Information Age relies on the ability of the whole society to be well informed, and to be capable enough to incorporate and process multifaceted information. This commences with the education