Globalization
Nowadays almost no company can avoid resisting the globalization trend, if it wants to be successful in the long run. There are so many advantages in connection with globalization that actually every company tries to act global. They can penetrate foreign markets if the domestic market is saturated. They can shift production to countries where it is significantly cheaper or they can set up various R&D centers worldwide in order to gain expertise from al over the world. The first step to globalization, involving the less risk is to export goods or services. The highest diversity with the highest complexity and thus high risk would be a wholly owned subsidiary overseas. Globalization nowadays has become more feasible due to reduced costs and improved quality of international transportation and communication. Furthermore, the appeal by emerging markets with enormous potential pushes globalization even more.
Diversity
The workforce in the 21st century becomes more and more diversified; i.e. a woman on a construction site or a man as steward on a plane, are nothing unusual nowadays. Sexual, racial and cultural issues do not exist anymore in a 21st century enterprise. This trend can be the source of innovation on the one hand, but it can also be the origin of conflict and communication problems. Challenges that go along with this trend are the need to cope with different styles of interaction, dress, presentation, physical appearance, and so forth. The trend of diversity occurs due to changing demographics and the globalization of the labor markets.
Flexibility
Through flexibility in an organization, organizational systems and processes can respond differently to different situations. In a flexible company, relatively fewer detailed rules and procedures dominate the atmosphere, in contrary to a mechanistic company. Employees are empowered; they receive a greater autonomy and more encouragement for initiative actions. Some companies have flexible working hours for their employees and offer them the opportunity to work from home. One negative aspect of flexibility might be uncertainty for some employees who never learned to work based on their own decisions. Management could help out by giving those employees mental rewards, and thus improving their self-confidence. The necessity for flexibility is due to a rapidly changing business environment. A company needs to be flexible at least to a certain degree so that it is able to adapt to economic changes, changing customer needs, etc.
Flat
A flat organization is an organization that has few levels in its hierarchy relative to its size. There are fewer levels of management and workers are empowered to make decisions in scope of their tasks. Furthermore, the differences in responsibility across the various levels of management are less significant than in a hierarchical structure. The advantage is that fewer managers are needed, so bureaucratic costs can be saved. Furthermore, due to less control and more freedom in decision making the speed and flexibility of the employees are improved. In addition, the changes in communication technology make middle managers more and more obsolete, because a better and more direct information channel from bottom up and top down can be established. The costs saving s of a flat structure are very important and necessary for a company that needs to be globally competitive.
Networked
The invention of the 20th century is definitely the internet. Its interconnection throughout the entire world made physical boundaries disappear. Direct communication across the world is nowadays such less effort possible and the costs are going nearly zero. Direct communication within companies (intranet) improved the communication across various levels and departments of a company. New kinds of team structures are now possible because the individual team members do not need to be within certain physical vicinity anymore; they can be from a different department or from the same department at a subsidiary overseas and work together. Also the customers benefit from this trend, since many companies offer any kind of information on their websites. Customers can review products at any time from any place. The networked global business became possible because of the advance of new information technology, especially groupware, client-server, and distributed computing. This new technology helps to handle fast changing customer needs and competitor offerings. Furthermore, the production of more complicated products is now feasible, because this technology enables a better integration of manufacturing, design and marketing functions.
Examples:
BMW for example has its suppliers in China, its engineers in Germany its Design Development Center in Palo Alto, CA. Some cars are assembled in the US, some in Germany at various locations, and some in South Africa or China, in order to meet those customers’ demands. And they are sold all over the world. I think this is a good example of how companies nowadays became global actors in any aspect of their business.
Google is another good example for a young company that enforces throughout the entire organization a flat structure and flexibility. Every employee is connected to the company’s network (intranet), and there is a high diversity among the employees because they come from all over the world and work at the same place. Furthermore, Google has subsidiaries overseas. I think Google is a very good example for a company that embodies all five of Borgatti’s organizational trends for the 21st century.
Experiences:
When I was working for a relatively young company (est. 1996), I could see some of those trends being embodied. The most important trends for this company were a flat structure and flexibility, because they wanted to improve their employees’ creativity. Furthermore many of were also consulting customers over the phone, and it was told to us that even if the customer can just hear us, she is able to “see” or feel if we are in a bad mood. Therefore, by implementing a flat structure and flexibility, this company tried to keep its employees as happy as possible, and let the customers feel this happiness.
At another very serious and conservative organization, where I did my internship, though trends like flexibility and a flat structure were barely realized, this company made any effort to implement newest network technology for its employees and for its customers as well. The purpose was to increase productivity on the one hand and to make communication and thus some tasks easier for employees. Of course, this company was also acting globally. Here we can see that even a very conservative organization can not refuse to adopt some the the 21st century trends described by Borgatti.
References:
Hill, Charles W.L. (2008). Global Business Today. New York, NY: McGraw Hill/Irwin.
Jones, G. R. (2007). Organizational Theory, Design, and Change (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
Pearce & Robinson (2007). Strategic Management (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill/Irwin.
Links:
http://www.bmwgroup.com/d/nav/index.html?../0_0_www_bmwgroup_com/home/home.html
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/econ/index.htm
http://www.articles911.com/Diversity_Issues/
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/
http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/flexibility/
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/03DOMINANCE.html
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Strategic_Thinking/The_future_of_the_networked_company_1091_abstract
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/supermedia-the-networked-journalism-future
Nowadays almost no company can avoid resisting the globalization trend, if it wants to be successful in the long run. There are so many advantages in connection with globalization that actually every company tries to act global. They can penetrate foreign markets if the domestic market is saturated. They can shift production to countries where it is significantly cheaper or they can set up various R&D centers worldwide in order to gain expertise from al over the world. The first step to globalization, involving the less risk is to export goods or services. The highest diversity with the highest complexity and thus high risk would be a wholly owned subsidiary overseas. Globalization nowadays has become more feasible due to reduced costs and improved quality of international transportation and communication. Furthermore, the appeal by emerging markets with enormous potential pushes globalization even more.
Diversity
The workforce in the 21st century becomes more and more diversified; i.e. a woman on a construction site or a man as steward on a plane, are nothing unusual nowadays. Sexual, racial and cultural issues do not exist anymore in a 21st century enterprise. This trend can be the source of innovation on the one hand, but it can also be the origin of conflict and communication problems. Challenges that go along with this trend are the need to cope with different styles of interaction, dress, presentation, physical appearance, and so forth. The trend of diversity occurs due to changing demographics and the globalization of the labor markets.
Flexibility
Through flexibility in an organization, organizational systems and processes can respond differently to different situations. In a flexible company, relatively fewer detailed rules and procedures dominate the atmosphere, in contrary to a mechanistic company. Employees are empowered; they receive a greater autonomy and more encouragement for initiative actions. Some companies have flexible working hours for their employees and offer them the opportunity to work from home. One negative aspect of flexibility might be uncertainty for some employees who never learned to work based on their own decisions. Management could help out by giving those employees mental rewards, and thus improving their self-confidence. The necessity for flexibility is due to a rapidly changing business environment. A company needs to be flexible at least to a certain degree so that it is able to adapt to economic changes, changing customer needs, etc.
Flat
A flat organization is an organization that has few levels in its hierarchy relative to its size. There are fewer levels of management and workers are empowered to make decisions in scope of their tasks. Furthermore, the differences in responsibility across the various levels of management are less significant than in a hierarchical structure. The advantage is that fewer managers are needed, so bureaucratic costs can be saved. Furthermore, due to less control and more freedom in decision making the speed and flexibility of the employees are improved. In addition, the changes in communication technology make middle managers more and more obsolete, because a better and more direct information channel from bottom up and top down can be established. The costs saving s of a flat structure are very important and necessary for a company that needs to be globally competitive.
Networked
The invention of the 20th century is definitely the internet. Its interconnection throughout the entire world made physical boundaries disappear. Direct communication across the world is nowadays such less effort possible and the costs are going nearly zero. Direct communication within companies (intranet) improved the communication across various levels and departments of a company. New kinds of team structures are now possible because the individual team members do not need to be within certain physical vicinity anymore; they can be from a different department or from the same department at a subsidiary overseas and work together. Also the customers benefit from this trend, since many companies offer any kind of information on their websites. Customers can review products at any time from any place. The networked global business became possible because of the advance of new information technology, especially groupware, client-server, and distributed computing. This new technology helps to handle fast changing customer needs and competitor offerings. Furthermore, the production of more complicated products is now feasible, because this technology enables a better integration of manufacturing, design and marketing functions.
Examples:
BMW for example has its suppliers in China, its engineers in Germany its Design Development Center in Palo Alto, CA. Some cars are assembled in the US, some in Germany at various locations, and some in South Africa or China, in order to meet those customers’ demands. And they are sold all over the world. I think this is a good example of how companies nowadays became global actors in any aspect of their business.
Google is another good example for a young company that enforces throughout the entire organization a flat structure and flexibility. Every employee is connected to the company’s network (intranet), and there is a high diversity among the employees because they come from all over the world and work at the same place. Furthermore, Google has subsidiaries overseas. I think Google is a very good example for a company that embodies all five of Borgatti’s organizational trends for the 21st century.
Experiences:
When I was working for a relatively young company (est. 1996), I could see some of those trends being embodied. The most important trends for this company were a flat structure and flexibility, because they wanted to improve their employees’ creativity. Furthermore many of were also consulting customers over the phone, and it was told to us that even if the customer can just hear us, she is able to “see” or feel if we are in a bad mood. Therefore, by implementing a flat structure and flexibility, this company tried to keep its employees as happy as possible, and let the customers feel this happiness.
At another very serious and conservative organization, where I did my internship, though trends like flexibility and a flat structure were barely realized, this company made any effort to implement newest network technology for its employees and for its customers as well. The purpose was to increase productivity on the one hand and to make communication and thus some tasks easier for employees. Of course, this company was also acting globally. Here we can see that even a very conservative organization can not refuse to adopt some the the 21st century trends described by Borgatti.
References:
Hill, Charles W.L. (2008). Global Business Today. New York, NY: McGraw Hill/Irwin.
Jones, G. R. (2007). Organizational Theory, Design, and Change (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
Pearce & Robinson (2007). Strategic Management (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill/Irwin.
Links:
http://www.bmwgroup.com/d/nav/index.html?../0_0_www_bmwgroup_com/home/home.html
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/econ/index.htm
http://www.articles911.com/Diversity_Issues/
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/
http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/flexibility/
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/03DOMINANCE.html
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Strategic_Thinking/The_future_of_the_networked_company_1091_abstract
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/supermedia-the-networked-journalism-future
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