COMMUNICATION and

GLOBALIZATION
GLOBALIZATION
• A process of interaction and integration among the people, companies,
and governments of different nations, a process driven by international
trade and investment and aided by information technology. This
process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political
systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human
physical well-being in societies around the world.
• Heywood (2013) describes globalization as a slippery and elusive
concept. Despite intensifying interest in the phenomenon of
globalization since the 1980s, the term is still used to refer, variously,
to a process, a policy, a marketing strategy, a predicament, or even an
ideology. The problem with globalization is that it is not as much an it
as a them: it is not a singe process but a complex of processes,
sometimes overlapping and interlocking processes but also, at times,
contradictory and oppositional ones. It is difficult therefore to reduce
globalization to single theme. Perhaps the best attempt to do this was
in Kenchi Ohmae’s (1989) idea of a borderless world. This not only
refers to the tendency of traditional political borders, based on national
and state boundaries, to become permeable; it also implies that
divisions between people previously separated by time and space have
become less significant and are sometimes entirely irrelevant.
• Globalization is not new. The globe has been globalized even before
men coined the term globalization. For example, for thousands of
years, people—and later, corporations – have been buying from and
selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the
famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe
during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, people and
corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact,
many of the features of the current wave of globalization are like those
prevailing before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
• Globalization is not new. The globe has been globalized even before
men coined the term globalization. For example, for thousands of
years, people—and later, corporations – have been buying from and
selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the
famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe
during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, people and
corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact,
many of the features of the current wave of globalization are like those
prevailing before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
• But policy and technological developments of the past few decades
have spurred increases in cross-border trade, investment, and
migration so large that many observers believe the world has entered a
qualitatively new phase in its economic development. Since 1950, for
example, the volume of world trade has increased by 20 times, and
from just 1997 to 1999 flows of foreign investment nearly doubled,
from $468 billion to $827 billion. Distinguishing this current wave of
globalization from earlier ones, author Thomas Friedman has said that
today globalization is farther, faster, cheaper, and deeper.
• This current wave of globalization has been driven by policies that
have opened economies domestically and internationally, in the years
since the Second World War, and especially during the past two
decades, many governments have adopted free-market economic
systems, vastly increased their own productive potential and created
myriad new opportunities for international trade and investment.
Governments also have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers to
commerce and have established international agreements to promote
trade in goods, services, and investment. Taking advantage of new
opportunities in foreign markets, corporations have built foreign
factories and established production and marketing arrangements with
foreign partners. A defining feature of globalization, therefore, is an
international industrial and financial business structure.
IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATION ON
COMMUNICATION
• In an article entitled The Impact of Globalization on Communication
Skills Development, David Ingram said that communication skills
development has always been an important factor of success in
business, but the influence of globalization and cross-cultural
interaction in recent decades has impacted the types of communication
skills needed in dramatic ways. No longer can entrepreneurs afford to
simply communicate well within their own homogeneous cultures.
• Thus today, people need to understand the dynamics of long-distance
collaboration, the impact of culture on manners of speaking and body
language, and how to use technology to communicate with people on
the other side of the globe:

1. Virtual Interactions
Globalization has introduced virtual communication and collaboration
as a major part of academic and workplace dynamics. We need to
understand the strengths and limitations of different communications
media, and how to use each medium to maximum effect.
2. Cultural Awareness in Speech
The need for cultural awareness is a major impact of globalization on
the required skillset of effective communicators, resulting in the
evolution of communication skills development programs. In the
workplace and schools, we need the ability to catch subtle nuances of
people’s manner of speech when communicating across cultures. Even
when two people are speaking the same language, cultural differences
can affect vocabulary, colloquial expressions, voice tone and taboo
topics.
3. Cultural Awareness in Body Language
Awareness of cultural differences in body language can be as just as
important as the nuances of speech. This is why in schools, student are
taught to understand acceptable speaking distances, conflict styles, eye
contact and posture in different cultures, accepting that the physical
expressions of their own culture are not universally accepted. Students
are also taught how to address there differences to prepare them for
face-to-face meetings with foreign suppliers, customers or team
members when they become professionals.
4. Time Differences
The advent of global collaboration introduces another new dynamic to
communication skills – the need to communicate and share information
with people across several time zones.
IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATION ON
GLOBAL COMMUNICATION
According to Danev (2017), the process of globalization has widely
increased the availability of information for people across the world. By
the use of internet and advanced mobile services, people are able to
discuss business plans and proposals on an international level as well as
exchange private data securely. Global communication services have
also contributed to the enlightenment and development of the political
process in a number of states.
Danev (2017) also enumerates the three major impacts of globalization
on global communication and identifies the major problem, as follows:

1. Availability of Information
The availability of information is a major effect of the process of
globalization. The World Health Organization, in its works focused on
the cultural dimensions of globalization, has expressed the view that
with the spread of businesses delivering Internet, satellite TV and
mobile services, the costs of such information technologies drop. The
decreased price makes it easier for people across the world to make use
of the World Wide Web and the resources available.
2. Business Conduct
Globalization has influenced global communication by implementing
new techniques for business conduct among workers at international
corporations. Long distance travels are no longer necessary for business
people should they require a meeting with a partner overseas. Internet
technology makes it possible to exchange business information and
conduct video conferences. Additionally, enhanced communication
allows businesses to promote their products more efficiently in the
international market.
3. Social Awareness
The availability of information which is a direct effect of the
development of global communication systems, has led to increased
social awareness of people across the world. Information technology
and networks enable them to share opinions, views, work on projects
and research different areas. These are among the main reasons why the
process of globalization is creating a sense of a global society.
4. The Problem
Despite its quick spread and continuous development, global
communication has not reached the majority of people on all continents.
The WHO indicates that at least 70% of all people in Africa will never
make a single phone call or use internet. This points out the need of a
more extensive application of communication technologies as part of
the process of globalization.
REFERENCE:
Rolando A. Bernales et al., Purposive Communication in Local and
Global Contexts, Mutya Publishing House, Inc., 2018.
The Globalization Phenomenon

GLOBALIZATION

GLOBAL
WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION ANYWAY?
By Alex Gray (World Economic Forum, 2017)

HOW GLOBALIZATION WORKS

(1) In simple terms, globalization is the process by which people and
goods move easily across borders. Principally, it’s an economic
concept – the integration of markets, trade and investments with few
barriers to slow the flow of products and services between nations.
There is also a cultural element, as ideas and traditions are traded
and assimilated.
(2) Globalization has brought many benefits to many people. But not to
everyone.
STORM IN A COFFEE CUP
(3) To help explain the economic side of globalization, let’s take a look
at the well-known coffee chain Starbucks.
(4) The first Starbucks outlet opened its doors in 1971 in the city of
Seattle. Today it has 15,000 stores in 50 countries. These days you can
find a Starbucks anywhere, whether Australia, Cambodia, Chile or
Dubai. It’s what you might call a truly globalized company.
(5) And for many suppliers and jobseekers, not to mention coffee-
drinkers, this was a good thing. The company was purchasing 247
million kilograms of unroasted coffee from 29 countries. Through its
stores and purchases, it provided jobs and income for hundreds of
thousands of people all over the world.
(6) But then disaster struck. In 2012, Starbucks made headlines after a
Reuters investigation showed that the chain hadn’t paid much tax to the
UK government, despite having almost a thousand coffee shops in the
country and earning millions of pounds in profit there.
(7) As a multinational company, Starbucks was able to use complex
accounting rules that enabled it to have profit earned in one country
taxed in another. Because the latter country had a lower tax rate,
Starbucks benefited. Ultimately, the British public missed out, as the
government was raising less tax to spend on improving their well-being.
HOW DID GLOBALIZATION HAPPEN?
(8) We might think of globalization as a relatively new phenomenon,
but it’s been around for centuries.
(9) One example is the Silk Road, when trade spread rapidly between
China and Europe via an overland route. Merchants carried goods for
trade back and forth, trading silk as well as gems and spices and, of
course, coffee. (In fact, the habit of drinking coffee in a social setting
originates from a Turkish custom, an example of how globalization can
spread culture across borders.)
WHAT DRIVES IT?
(10) Globalization has speeded up enormously over the last half-
century, thanks to great leaps in technology.
(11) The internet has revolutionized connectivity and communication,
and helped people share their ideas much more widely, just as the
invention of the printing press did in the 15th century. The advent of
email made communication faster than ever.
(12) The invention of enormous container ships helped too. In fact,
improvements in transport generally – faster ships, trains and airplanes
– have allowed us to move around the globe much more easily.
WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT
(13) Globalization has led to many millions of people being lifted out of
poverty.
(14) For example, when a company like Starbucks buys coffee from
farmers in Rwanda, it is providing a livelihood and a benefit to the
community as a whole. A multinational company’s presence overseas
contributes to those local economies because the company will invest in
local resources, products and services. Socially responsible corporations
may even invest in medical and educational facilities.
(15) Globalization has not only allowed nations to trade with each other,
but also to cooperate with each other as never before. Take the Paris
Agreement on Climate Change, for instance, where 195 countries all
agreed to work towards reducing their carbon emissions for the greater
global good.
WHAT’S BAD ABOUT IT?
(16) While some areas have flourished, others have floundered as jobs
and commerce move elsewhere. Steel companies in the UK, for example
once thrived, providing work for hundreds of thousands of people. But
when China began producing cheaper steel, steel plants in the UK closed
down and thousands of jobs were lost.
(17) Every step forward in technology brings with it new dangers.
Computers have vastly improved our lives, but cyber criminals steal
millions of pounds a year. Global wealth has skyrocketed, but so has
global warming.
(18) While many have been lifted out of poverty, not everybody has
benefited. Many argue that globalization operates mostly in the interests
of the richest countries, with most of the world’s collective profits
flowing back to them and into the pockets of those who already own the
most.
(19) Although globalization is helping to create more wealth in
developing countries, it is not helping to close the gap between the
world’s poorest and richest nations. Leading charity Oxfam says that
when corporations such as Starbucks can legally avoid paying tax, the
global inequality crisis worsens.
(20) Basically, done wisely (in the words of the International Monetary
Fund) globalization could lead to “unparalleled peace and prosperity.”
Done poorly, “to disaster.”
REFERENCE:
Madrunio & Martin, Purposive Communication Using English in
Multilingual Contexts, C & E Publishing, Inc., 2018.