Globalisation

Globalization: global and local culture expression

The impact of globalization to culture

We are living in the world of changes. Since the end of the world war countries attitude had changed. They are more concerned with the challenges faced to there country’s economically. War destroys the economy and the world. Leaders of these countries tried to pursued people to develop there Nation. Industrial revolution came since the citizens who were in the battle fields were eventually brought home. There lot of hands to make more money and increase the GDP.
On the other side during the colonization period the super powers in the world had made business ties with these colonized countries. This had lead to form strong multinationals. Europeans had to learn about how to control the global market and how to manage them. They had to concern with producing the products to the standard expected by the host countries. But they faced the problem of managing the employees, since there were the colonize power the there reputation of them had gone. Europeans had to find ways to manage people.

A) Western culture meet eastern culture

Cultural differences can fairly simple and observable in our communication patterns,
Language and gestures, and they can be very different, even with the same language or among neighbors. An affirmative answer, ``yes'', could have different meanings in
different countries. In most Latin American countries, for example, a ``yes'' does not necessarily mean a person will do something. Ask an English person if they know anything about a particular subject: if the answer is ``not a lot'', you can assume they know next to nothing. If, however, the answer is ``a little bit'' it may mean they are one of the world’s leading experts! [1]. According to my experience I knew that showing two fingers means ‘peace’ according to Middle East people but in Australia it means an insult to other person and it is considered as a street sign language.
Western believes that number 13 and Friday 13 are bad numbers and it has bad luck. When they number the apartments or streets they don’t use the number thirteen. But is Asia Pacific the view is totally different. Sometimes a gesture could be unapproprite that the person you meet could reluctant to talk to you. It is so important to learn the culture of the host when you do the business in overseas. ‘Marlboro’ faced it difficult to penetrate into the Chinese market due the poster they used to attract people. They use there normal cowboy advertisement with the black horse. But later they realize their sales was dropping due to this, since Chinese believes the black horse it a sign of bad luck. They took this issue into consideration and came back the advertisement with a white house and managed to hold it in the market. This is how cultural differences could affect the global players.

Rapidly developing countries like Malaysia and Singapore has learned how to respect the other culture that lives their next door. They have multi-culture and multi-religions. Sometimes it could be so embarrassing and there could be hostility among races. They are really sensitive to racial issues. But in recent days it is normal to see Indian and Chinese making friends. The attitude of the young generation is really positive since they have learned to live in a multi racial society. It is a good sign of globalization. The days of war between races or religion are over and people today are more open-minded.



B) homogenous culture

It is common to see that nowadays the cultural mix is so common that there is homogeneousness among the different parties. Good example is the franchise food chain found all over world offering almost the same verities of meals. The perfect examples are McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Pizza Hut. You could find them almost every corner of the world. So this reflects the fact that people are becoming homogenous in there taste of food. This is one of the famous areas where globalization is really in practice.
Today, this “cultural homogeneity version” of global theory has often been dubbed “McDonaldisation”: a term that implies that the popular consumer culture of the economically dominant West is relentlessly and inevitably transforming other, regions, cultures, nations, and societies (be they part of the developed or developing worlds). Such perspectives imply that technological change, the mass media, and consumer-oriented marketing campaigns work in tandem to remake whatever they touch in their own image. Besides consumption patterns, some ob- servers suggest that even attitudes and ideas about society, religion, and technology are transformed by cultural diffusion brought by globalization [2].
Western culture impacting the rest of the earth in ways that leads to greater worldwide cultural homogeneity. In reality, of course, the East has the rich history, which influences the West, just as the West transforms the East; thus, it is common place to buy cheap Chinese food, served up in a Styrofoam container, instead of eating a Big Mac. It is a fact believe it or not that American food giants are moving into rest of the world (West moving to East) and also famous small Chinese restaurants are established all over Western countries and there major customers are the white. Same applied to the Indian restaurants all over world.



• CHALENGES FACED BY MULTI-NATIONAL COMPANIES

Controlling globally with managerial accounting often is inefficient due to lack of understanding. Language, external variables, and headquarters decisions create distortions, which prevent comparison with domestic data and require subsidiary accounting adjustments. Furthermore, background and national cultural value systems let individuals perceive and react non-uniformly to similar issues.
There are many difficulties in global controlling. Nothing is that easy. In olden days communication is really pure so the trade is done by ships which sail on the ocean. Passing of massages are even difficult back them. But know the time we are in it is really easy for everyone to communicate by using email, instant messaging, via video conferencing etc.
At first raw materials are supplied from overseas countries mostly developing countries like chine, India, Indonesia. The system is completed with supply chain management system where supplier and customers are connected using internet or intranet.
But there are difficulties too. Language barrier could be a problem since different part of the world speaks different accent and languages. Companies like Coca Cola, McDonald need to consider local taste when establishing their business overseas. So it will be completely new dishes for different parts of the world. Another difficulty is that it really difficult to transfer raw material and finished goods between courtiers since shipping may be slow as well as there are high unreliability. Geographically separated organization need to have managers who are ready to accept cross culture deference.
Most of the managers who are opening minded and ready to invest and develop their business overseas will face the political and economical environment of the host country. They need to be really sensitive to inflation, exchange rate and movement policies since their company future depends really heavily on those factors.
If the business expand globally, centralized management system might not be really helpful to them because lack of communication between those departments. Sometimes there could be situation where company has to stop the production due to failure to deliver raw materials on time.
Globalization, technological innovation, and the spread of free-market governance has created new and interesting opportunities for managers who decide to use direct marketing to sell their products overseas. For managers, considering international direct marketing, a careful assessment of market prospects and a thoughtful evaluation of the PEST environment should maximize potential opportunities while minimizing the risks associated with foreign market [3].
[1]- Culture and globalization: a Latin American challenge Elena Granell Industrial and Commercial Training Volume 32.Number 3. 2000 89±93
[2] The Cultural Impact of Globalization: Economic Activity and Social Change
Nader Asgary and Alf H. Walle

[3]http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/3250010102.html