Impact of Technological Change Upon Globalisation Process

Introduction

Many people when they think of globalisation they quickly linked it to the rapid expansion of trade, finance markets and corporate activity. In late twentieth century, technology was added to the lists as a new driving force of globalisation, since it kept on revolutionising. From telephone to the World Wide Web, countries are increasingly connected to each other politically, economically, culturally and environmentally. In other words it is like moving towards living in a borderless world. Are these changes beneficial to organisations in today’s world or the impact it is bringing can be seen as a competitive advance in the challenging market? Without further ado we will explore more in this assignment in the first part in addition to how technological changes have impacted on ... in the second part.

Technology as a Driver of Globalisation Process

In most corner of the globe technology is playing an integral aspect in how people are living their daily lives. From business to personal use, it can be seen that each person are involve in the technological advancements. While some people conclude that this driver of globalisation is advantageous, others reckon it has impacted them. This is a massive debate that cannot be generalised as we can see in the business world from these 2 articles: the financial review (2017) states that: “It is dawning on economists that globalisation and technology may be two major culprits subduing the pay of middle class workers.” (Financial Review 2017) At the same time, the AFP states that: “Globalisation has transformed the international economy by reducing to near zero cost of transferring information around the world.” (AFP)

In business operations, there are many forces driving the trends that affect managers and working life however the growing speed of technological innovations, particularly information and communications technology and nanotechnology leading to new products and new work methods are making some skills obsolete and creating the need for new skill sets. It could be argued that as the global economy are enlarging, the global business connections are increasing in their numbers and value as the nature of international business is also becoming more inclusive, multidirectional, and interlinked. These new ventures by the international trade are a concern to some businesses as high-tech demands are acting as a dominant role thus causing threats to fulfilling the technological demand.

Transports technology has proven a dramatic growth entailing a revolution from steam engine to faster and safer transportation whether it is by road, air, rail or sea travel. To date there has been discussion evolving transport technologies that could be changing the future. The idea of an autonomous vehicle could help in many facilities where a massive amount of money will be save in the development of the infrastructure and labour however many people can lose their jobs as drivers. At the same time, it can cause risks when technological systems fail to give proper signal to these vehicles for example more accidents can occur.

Furthermore taking into consideration communication technology, how this modern technology is impacting on social and cultural globalisation. In the last decade there have been major changes in telecommunication technology compare to years ago where to pass a message people will send a mail by post that can take days to reach but now it can be received within seconds through e-mail. The internet is continuing to be major important tools in one’s life where they are being connected to others however while it can help to lessen the problems of isolation, it cannot guarantee close connections as for some, they still need to be surrounding by real community and have face to face communication.

Questions has been raised about the safety of the financial sector, as this sector has seen a huge bang due to technological globalisation where individuals around the world can nowadays operate 24/7 and some big organizations such as Ali express or Ebay can be accessible anywhere in the world. This method of shopping are being considered as being efficient and faster for those connected to the internet. Can this also be seen as safe? This can be an issue for some others has no problems with the safety and security of online purchasing. Even though we just explore technology impact on globalization, it is also beneficial especially for many business operations. We will explore more of these in the next question below.