THE Impact OF Globalization in Australia PDF

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The Impact of Globalization 1

THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON WORK ENVIRONMENT IN AUSTRALIA

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The Impact of Globalization on Work Environment in Australia Globalization can be loosely defined as the continuous economic interdependence across the world and growing actual movement of trade, finance, technology, investment and labor across nations (Staeheli 2016, p. 67). This trend is not new in Australia, since there has been migration of labor, financial flows, international trade and investment since when Australia was a colony. There has only been change in the volume and extent of these transfers (Nica, Manole, and Potcovaru 2016, p. 74). The effect of globalization on working environment is a hot button debate and cannot be ignored. Globalization has had both positive and negative impacts on the work place. The paper provides an argument on the positive and negative effects of the trend. Positive Impact of Globalization on the work environment Globalization has led to increased cultural diversity in the workforce. The cultural diversity takes the form of international teams working together, or incorporating workers from diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds in a single team (Crane, and Matten 2016). This has far reaching benefits as these workers bring new ideas and insights which are critical to management and marketing in any organization due to increased understanding of demographics and market conditions. The employees of an organization are the face of the organization, and the more diverse and dynamic the workforce is, the easier it is for the organization to market products and services. Diversity also breeds tolerance among employees as they interact and learn to embrace each other. The human resource department should therefore train their workforce to avoid discrimination and handle all cases that are related to intolerance. This promotes equity and thus promotes the spirit of togetherness in the organization. [Type text]

The Impact of Globalization 3 Moreover, globalization enables organizations to outsource different services with ease from other countries that have comparative advantage in production and service delivery, for instance a country with lower labor costs. Australian firms are able to outsource resources and services such as customer care from developing or third world companies since they offer these services at a cost cheaper than Australian companies (Curtin, and Vanderhoef 2015, p 219-239). This is a major boost to organizations because they are able to access skilled resources at a low cost and without having to own and manage them. Hence, this reduces the overall expenditure of the company, which translates to higher earnings. This however affects employees negatively because there is retrenchment in the affected departments. Additionally, globalization has brought about modernization and improvement of workplace conditions in companies that were previously providing unsafe, unsanitary or poor working environments. This is because they are able to access information on the Western standard and are thus able to adopt the proper mechanisms. Equally, workers who previously worked under poor conditions in different countries can freely move to developed countries such as Australia and are able to work under standard conditions. Through globalization, the full effects of technology can be felt. The country can exchange different forms of improved technology with other countries which exposes workers to more information, resources, customers, ideas and partners. Furthermore, technology has come in as a substitute to manual operations (Blustein 2016). By providing faster, error free and effective results, technology has been able to reduce the extent of manual labor in Australian organization. This has led to increased profits and increased production. In departments where there is still need for manual work, most operations are done using machines and only need

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The Impact of Globalization 4 someone to run them. This has led to improved creativity, invention and innovation and at the same time made work easier for the employees. Globalization has led to improved job specialization. This is largely attributed to the improvement in technology coupled with increased total productivity. Employees are able to gain better understanding on the use and functionality of different machines thus making them more innovative in their fields of specialization (Blanpain 2015). Companies are looking to hire experts in specific fields which includes hiring those from different countries in order to increase global competitiveness. Furthermore, through globalization, firms are able to retrain their employees especially the new ones from other countries to make them blend in with the other employees. Cross cultural training is therefore important as this improves relations at work, thus providing a peaceful environment and coexistence among employees. Likewise, firms retrain their staff on new technology to ensure compatibility and ease of work. This increases the skills of the workers, which adds on to the total productivity of the firm. Further advantages of globalization in Australia include the ability of employees to work online and from the comfort of their homes. This is because technology has changed the nature of work from physical to mental and intellective operations. Employees can now create their own offices at home and communicate only through gadgets and send work and information. The trend has led to improved worker treatment in the work place due to the observance of employees’ rights. Employees are thus treated with utmost respect and in some places, they receive special treatment such as paid vacation, education advancement and training fully catered for by the company and sometimes fully furnished company houses at low cost (Beneria 2015). [Type text]

The Impact of Globalization 5 This increases the total productivity of the workers thus leading to more profits and widened customer base. Globalization has led to the feminization of employment in Australia. The number of female employees in Australia is substantively higher compared to that of men. This is majorly because of the emerging view that women employees can take lower wages, they do not engage in unrests frequently, and easier to dismiss using natural life cycles such as child birth. The trend has also led to increased competition globally, which led to the improvement on the quality of products and services produced in the country. Employees are taught that the customer is the king, which has improved customer service which helps to retain existing customers as well as attract potential ones. Through globalization, there has been an increase in the number of labor unions in the country since employees are more enlightened on their rights and on the responsibilities of their employers (Dancygier, and Walter 2015). Through the labor and trade unions, all workers are represented and can also air their grievances through a better channel. This reduces uncertainties and job insecurities since the interests of the employees are represented and guarded. Negative Impacts of globalization on work environment However, globalization has a negative impact on the environment. This includes water and air pollution, global warming, deforestation and so on (Martin 2014, p. 89). This is as a result of expansion of companies to other countries, because the space they occupy has an effect on ecology. This has gradually led to a change in the climatic conditions making it difficult to work in the country.

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The Impact of Globalization 6 Additionally, globalization has led to loss of jobs and hence job insecurity. Most Australian companies outsource manufacturing and office jobs to take advantage of lower labor costs and manufacturing costs leaving few jobs for their people. These are mostly outsourced to developing nations such as India and China. The most affected occupations are those of editors, accountants, programmers and scientists. Moreover, the trend has led to labor exploitation. There is production of cheap, substandard goods by multinational companies that have shifted operations to third world countries such as South-East Asia and China (Najam, Runnalls, and Halle 2016 p. 94). Due to lack of employment in these countries, the workers are desperate and therefore take meager salaries without complaint. This goes against the rights of these employees since they do not receive proper compensation for their work. Globalization has increased the rate of unemployment. Due to the advent of new technology, human labor has been consistently replaced by machines. This has led to an increase in the number of unemployed people in the country which directly translates to low living standards and possibilities of engagement in criminal activities. Technological progress, especially the use of computers has replaced skilled and semi-skilled workers. In conclusion, globalization has brought more advantages to the work environment in Australia compared to disadvantages. It has led to improved worker relations, treatment, diversity which widens the market, access to improved technology, an improvement in working conditions, the ability to outsource resources and services, increased training and retraining of staff, changes in the earnings of employees, access to new ideas and information, formation of trade unions and labor unions which advocate for the rights of the employees and so on.

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The Impact of Globalization 7 However, this trend has had a negative impact on the environment, it has led to job insecurity and even loss of jobs. The positive effects outweigh the negative effects by a great extent, which clearly implies that globalization has had a positive impact on overall.

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References list Benería, L., Berik, G. and Floro, M., 2015. Gender, development and globalization: economics as if all people mattered. Routledge. Blanpain, R. and Bisom-Rapp, S., 2014. Global Workplace: International and Comparative Employment Law Cases and Materials. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. Blustein, D.L., Olle, C., Connors-Kellgren, A. and Diamonti, A.J., 2016. Decent work: A psychological perspective. Frontiers in psychology, 7(1), 10-12 Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Curtin, M. and Vanderhoef, J., 2015. A Vanishing Piece of the Pi: The Globalization of Visual Effects Labor. Television & New Media, 16(3), pp.219-239. Dancygier, R.M. and Walter, S., 2015. Globalization, labor market risks, and class cleavages. Routledge. Martin, G.C., 2014. The effects of cultural diversity in the workplace. Journal of Diversity Management (Online), 9(2), p.89. Najam, A., Runnalls, D. and Halle, M., 2016. Environment and Globalization: Five Propositions (2010). The Globalization and Environment Reader,2(1), p.94. Nica, E., Manole, C. and Potcovaru, A.M., 2016. Competition in the worldwide workplace: economic globalization and labor rights. Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, 4(3), pp.73-79. Staeheli, L.A., 2016, February. Globalization and the scales of citizenship. In Geography Research Forum, 19((1), pp. 60-77). [Type text]

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