Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management

The way when the local and national ways things become global all around the world is called globalization. It’s all to do about the culture, trade, politics and economics. Some people are always in favor of globalization whereas others think that it’s not good. Anything that changes in the economy because of technology or trade is what people consider as globalization. Lower tariffs or any taxes on the international goods were agreed by the people in the late 20th century. It was easy for people to buy and sell the products to the people all around the world due to the internet and other communication technologies.

Despite of all this there are many cultural differences that challenge the global theories and are against it. With many differences the managers are the ones who deal with many ethnic groups. We are now likely to work with many of the ethnic groups such as with the French, German, Japanese, Chinese and all other thanks to globalization. People from different cultures have different ways of doing the things for example, different dressing ways, different ways of looking at the things and the different ways of looking at the goodness and the personalities. Different dimensions with cultures vary (Quappe, 2007).

A culture in which the things are spelled out fully is the low context culture. Where the communicators assume a great deal of commonality in the views and the knowledge is said to be a high context culture, more implicitly and less explicit spelled out in ways that are indirect. The high context cultures contain the Arabs, the French and the Japanese. The low context cultures whereas include the Germanics, Anglos and the Scandinavians. The interactions between the low context people and the high context people may be problematic. The Westerners may seem to be extremely blunt to the Japanese.

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The Westerners on the other hand may find the Japanese secretive, bafflingly unforthcoming with the information and devious. Moreover the Germans may feel that the French people can provide with no direction and the Germans may seem to insult the intelligence of French to the French people by explaining the obvious. When there is less percentage of shared understanding when their really is the low context cultures are highly affected as they are vulnerable to the breakdowns of communication. In the age of diversity this is true. The low context culture tends to be more inward-looking and is not known for their tolerating ability.

Self-determination and individual uniqueness is very much valued in individualist cultures. If a person works individually and independently, makes up their own mind, show any kind of initiative or are self made then those are much more admired. On the other hand the collectivist cultures expect the people to work well in the groups which then protect them for compliance and loyalty. Edward Hall’s low and high context distinction is the single most useful concept for the understanding of the cultural differences where the things are spelled out fully and concisely in the low context culture for example, Australia, U.

S, Canada and most of the Europe. There is great dependence on what is been said. Where a great deal of commonality in knowledge and views are seen is the high context culture in the rest of the world, this is where the information without a great deal of information cannot be understood. A distinction of the low context cultures is where everywhere there are large written instructions and large amount of signs. There are signs and instructions everywhere if I step off at Barcelona, Denver, Colorado or Spain to direct towards the taxi, lavatories, tourist information and public transportation.

The bus schedules and detailed maps of the street are mounted on the wall. In the high context cultures the information and guidance is quite limited. Nonetheless most people already know where to go and where to stay. In these world parts we are generally greeted by someone at the airport or station, a different way of providing with information. On a European airport we are less likely to be greeted not because they are not hospitable but because they have different ways of transmitting the information. Rather than a cultural trait the low context communication may seem to be an outgrowth of international travel and urbanization.

In Switzerland and Canada the streets are numbered consecutively, even though the people who live there are familiar with the streets and the houses. In Tokyo whereas there are very few of the streets are labeled and the buildings are arranged in random orders. The most extreme cases of the low and high context cultures are United States and Japan respectively. People in the Western World are mostly lost without the instructions and rules, but many people live in the social context too. In the international and Western airports there are signs everywhere to direct the people to the departure gates, check in counter etc.

Whereas, in the non-western airports there are no signs or any kind of displays which may help in guiding towards the gate and to show which gate belongs to what destination, or even if they are they are incorrect. The service people on the airport may be there to announce the flight times but they are usually in-audible. But people there somehow know where to go. From the people around them they pick up the cues like for example they may tend to notice the people who had been in the queue with them when they had been checking in and then drift with the same people at the time when they reach their departure lounge.

Globalization has been believed to imply cultural homogenization even today and along with English language the Western style is increasingly becoming popular worldwide. Despite the commerce of globalization, in business the intercultural communication is still highly important and may become more and more important in today’s multi polar world economy. The globalization supporting group says that it is something very favorable as many people are made richer through globalization without even getting free of their local cultures. War is bad for the businesses and the supporters say that globalization makes wars less likely to occur.

They believe that if two nations have McDonalds in their countries then they can never go on a war with each other. Many of the supporters also believe that globalization helps the poorer countries. According to a report from the World Bank globalization had cut down half of the poverty of Indonesia and India. The report had also said that people in the poorer countries are living better and longer lives due to globalization. Despite of all the good things said by the supporters there are also people who are against globalization.

Some people are completely against globalization as they believe that globalization makes the people who are rich even richer and the poorer becomes poorer. Hiring people from cheaper countries is called offshore outsourcing and is part of globalization. This goes as per some people loosing their jobs. Some international groups such as the IMF and World Bank have made it even difficult for the people who are poor to become rich. Some of the smaller businesses and shops too are taken over by the international brands like McDonalds and Coca-Cola. Globalisation has been seen as the reason for terrorism as it hurts many local cultures.

Globalisation in today’s world has removed many of the differences in different nations and countries. The cultural exchange is now dynamic and wide open due to globalization (Kraidy, 2002). We can now communicate easily anywhere at anytime due to the rapid improvements in communication technology because of globalization. Globalization had also improved the business nature and its bounds and leaps. Communication is made a lot easier by globalization for example by the invention of television and telephone. Through television the cultural and the ethnic experiences one can share with their friends.

How other peoples are living can be viewed easily via television. We can now meet people in full colors without even taking a step outside our homes. Telephone is another medium which has improved communication greatly. Regardless of the location or the distance anyone can contact anyone at any time. A new connectivity age has been generated by globalization in the social life, politics, economy, culture, society and technology (Cathy, 2004). Its best understood by the spread of ideas about a wide range of issues like human rights, democracy etc.

Many parts of the world have been brought together by the service of the internet, like on the same daily life pattern we all have been woven. The world is becoming smaller and people from the different cultures are communicating with each other freely in today’s world of globalization. Through many of the different media forms like newspaper, internet and television people are expressing their ideas nowadays which are passes on from cultures to cultures across the globe. Due to the advancements in the technology the cultural differences are often disregarded by many people of globalization for which then people have to pay a great price.

With the passage of time the boundaries are becoming transparent and with the trade of the goods the world keeps on shrinking. Without even understanding the differences truly we come in contact with the different multiple ethnic groups. In the social and corporate world settings these differences in culture do cause problems in interpreting what the other person means or what do they really mean by their actions (Vural, 2010). An example of this would be that a firm short handshake in U. S indicates seriousness and self-confidence.

The lack of insincerity is what a limp handshake would be interpreted as. Whereas in Africa a limp handshake is considered correct. If a firm handshake is done in Africa then it may offend the other person and that person may tend to then remove their hand soon. A long handshake in Africa is seen normal but if people start shaking hand for too long in the U. S then the other person may start feeling quite awkward (Bhugra, 2004). The patterns of the human activity and the symbols that give these activities some importance is known as culture.

It all about how people eat, dress up, sleep, the king of beliefs they hold and all the activities that they practice. Different cultures have been joined together and made it into something different by globalization. Globalization states that when the different cultures receive the influences from outside they just avoid some of them and adopt the other and then suddenly starts to transform themselves (Linstead, 2001). The cultural food aspect says that some people in America would be eating for lunch the Japanese noodles whereas someone in Australia or Sydney must be eating the classic Italian meatballs.

For the curry and the spices India is well known. Cheeses are what France is known for. Burger and fries of North America are popular. The North American company McDonalds has about 31000 locations being on a completely wide global scale. McDonalds on the global scale is just one example of a food which is causing cultural influence. By easy and near-instantaneous communication the internet and other various media form breaks down the cultural boundaries between the people all around the world.

Being associated with the cultural globalization the internet allows for the communication and interaction between all the people around the world having different cultures and different lifestyles. Where language is a barrier the photo sharing website allows the interaction to take place. One of the most debated topics in the international economics is globalization. International opposition has been received by globalization over the concerns of environmental degradation and increased inequality. Globalization’s effect on culture is seen as a rising concern by many people.

Besides economies and trade globalization culture is also being exported and imported. The other negative effects of culture also exist. The cross-cultural growth contact to enjoy foreign ideas or products, the adapting of new practices and technology and to participate in the cultural world is what cultural globalization is about, the better access of individual to the cultural diversity and the spreading of the multiculturalism. The imported culture is considered as dangerous by some of the people. Also read supply chain management test bank

References

Cathy (2004) Globalization and Communication Growth.

Article Gold. Available from www. articlegold.com Vural B. (2010) International business Challenge-Cultural De-Globalization inside the Globalisation of Commerce. Available from www. serenic. com Bhugra D. (2004) Globalization and mental disorders. Available from www. bjp. rcpsych. org Kraidy M. (2002) Hybridity in Cultural Organization. Available from www. interscience. wiley. com Linstead S. (2001) Globalisation, multiculturalism and other fictions: colonialism for the new milluenium? Available from www. sagepub. com Quappe S. (2007) Cultural Differences: Not just HR’s business it’s everybody’s business. Available from www. culturosity. com

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