MGF2351 International Business Assignment Sample

As a Global Community, Are We More Culturally Similar Overall, or More Culturally Disparate?

Introduction to International Business 

Since the last millions of years without proper means of communication, the human had limited travel toward their territories and all that could have been managed with brown body strength. This also became a cause of cultural characteristics to be restricted to one territory and flourished in the same.

The increasing interdependence of cultures, populations, and economies due to the massive advent of technology and flow of information is summarised as globalization. Economic partnerships between counties have helped them to facilitate easy movements for the coming many years. The impressive advance in communication and transportation gave explosive bloom to globalization. This helps in active integration and interactions amongst governments, organizations, and people worldwide. Globalization leads to the formation of a vast global community where each one has access to each other’s cultural traditions and living (Mir & Salam, 2019).

The word culture is derived from the Latin word meaning culture, or cultus as cultivation of our inner self. The meaning has refined into a new format stating it as an activity or a condition to be cultivated close interconnection of people all over the world through modern telecommunication and getting interdependent economically, socially, and politically though still being diverse in cultures and traditions is what a global community Comprises of (Paul & Imre, 2010). A global community for the first time made the world one platform with so much cultural disparity.

Globalization: Uniformity

Global integration took its turn mostly after the cold war in the early 1990s. The European colonization and trade activity started the first “wave” of globalization in the following centuries. The invention of railways, the mechanized road travels, steamer, and ship propelled the global interactions, At this time countries stored financial collaborations and became closer. World War 2 brought a tremendous catastrophic effect on the entire globe.

But after theWorld War II somewhere in the mid-1940s, the United States came forward to make efforts to revive international trade and investments. This was called the second wave of globalization where many countries came forward to share trade interests and formulate a collateral Global community (Sahay & Vijoy, 2013).

Globalization has helped us understand and appreciate how culturally disparate we all are. Becoming a part of the Global community people have access to meet new cultures and Realise how different cultures and traditions flourish globally. A large global community has given wider perspectives on things. In earlier times when communication and transportation were a matter of wide surprise when people lived in a small world where the only existence was their own set of cultural values and ethics. Globalization has given a wider view of the various communities of the world.

It's amazing to know the cultures that exist all across the globe and how distinct and discrete each one is. The global community has developed a feeling of solidarity and cohesion worldwide in accepting diverse cultures and even at times adapting to many new ideologies of some. The advent of the Global committee has made each of the cultures more prominently highlighted and thus celebrating it disparate in a true sense. Globalization has been a catalyst in bringing the diverse variant cultures worldwide under global recognition (Ampuja & Marko, 2012).

Diversity is considered an integral part of any flourishing social setup and the formation of a global community works as a threat to the wellbeing of such a society. The above challenge is tackled by the phenomenon described as the unique capacity of culture As suggested in the book “Wired for Culture’ the trait of humans to follow and replenish their culture makes them unique amongst the entire living species. We can learn, inculcate, and implement to make our traits eternal.

The humans also have an in-built evolutionary history to defend and fight to make their cultures work. The humans challenge their competitions when their identity is questioned or under jeopardy. This keeps the diversity of various tribes alive and dominant.

The theory of post-international politics of globalization explains that the human race has reached a point where national powers have to share the global arena with other international organizations to be able to handle activities that are all global now.

The theory of cultural uniformity expressed as ‘’McDonaldization has to lead to a severe threat to the existence of local cultures. The availability of everything everywhere has reduced the importance of local cultural requisites.

Famous cultural globalization theorists Roland Robertson explains how cultural uniformity in real sense comprehends. He explains that globalization doesn't mean one dimensional or automatically. Globalization needs to grow on the roots, the strength of the local cultural setup. Joining the Global community should aim at spreading their own diverse culture.

Globalization undoubtedly has brought a massive compression in the world. What were local legacies now global favourites? Brands like Facebook, McDonald’s, coca-cola, Starbucks, and Zara have made the entire world community come and stand on a similar platform. Serving the same tastes and culture to each one across continents. There are millions of such brands and products that homogenous blend with any diversity and become a part of that culture (Steger & Manfred, 2017). Coca-cola for that matter is not restricted to one culture or civilization it has become the taste of the Globe. It can be stated looking at such scenarios the global community has to contribute to developing a cultural similarity globe wise. Globalization has converged different thoughts, flavours, customs, and traditions to our doorsteps. It gave us the choice to inculcate the same in our lifestyle and living.

Music and literature are two domains where globalization has brought major revolutionary cyclones. With the world exposed to innumerable art and music from all across and easy access to worldwide literature, authors and their thoughts get a bigger broader version of ideas (Frank, Lechner & Boli, 2012). The music can now reflect the tone and moods of various cultures. The literature is inspired by the thoughts and ideologies of different authors belonging to different cultures. The global community has become a format to share, imbibe, review, and accomplish from the openly served big platter. The new age author witnesses a remarkable convergence in literature as a result of intellectual globalization of ideas that took over much sooner than economic or cultural market uniformity.

All said about global community transformation, indeed, the idea of a uniform globe is still very far from reality. Arjun Appadurai updates the dialectical theory on globalization by stating that globalization is more of the flow of technology, information data and ideologies rather that movement of people and cultural diversities.

After the first wave of globalization, European and industrial expansion beyond borders, a cultural uniformization model was planned by the Europeans in the 18 century. The economist predicted a standardized global community concept that word merges all cultures. They also visualized a completely borderless world. Through the extreme predominance of economic and state barriers did not let this happen. Technical innovation though made sharing of information easier and effective, yet the communities used the technology to develop and spread their own prominent cultures. Globalization has even become a common playground for varied cultures and civilizations to stand proud with their set of legacies and thoughts. The vast Global community has brought world literature to a common platform

(Crane, 2011). The uniqueness of each form and style is preserved and propagated. Though easy access to any form of culture provides easy options to imbibe them yet a glimpse of any other culture gives the community to retrospect on their, develop greater faith and pride in their own.

Though the merging of the entire world seems nothing of a surprise now still factors like demography and resources will keep the diversity and uniqueness of any culture alive. As resources become scarce the sharing of the same will be no longer an option limiting things to nations. Demographically people share and cooperate to enhance their standards but when everything is available and suitable then why would the question of sharing cultures and resources arise?

These factors always reduce the culture amalgamations and reckon the people to foster their own set of values and moral setups. A common example can be that of the European Union fighting over national versus EU rights and privileges.

Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory proposes that the local culture remains intact depending upon the emphasis given on the individual goal rather than a collective goal. National culture is that eminent force that drives a nation, not its economic values. Thus focus on enriching culture, reviving, and upgrading it at a global level so that there is no risk of amalgamation of the local culture to the global community.

Conclusion on International Business 

No doubt the world has become a smaller place. People and boundaries are closer and accessible. This interference though has made mankind more strongly attached to its roots and culture. Sharing has given a new dimension and outlook towards our own diverse cultures. The question of cultural identity is thus reformed stating that globalization is a non-ending process and the theory of world citizenship seems hypothetical too. The world can only balance well by developing a common background to share and nurture the local cultures rather than to converge and create a global tradition. Diversity is the essence of living and globalization through inevitable will be a tool to develop and share variant cultures when each of these flourishes as distinctive identities.

References for International Business 

Ampuja & Marko. (2012). “Theorizing Globalization: A Critique of the Mediatization of Social Theory”, Brill.

Crane, D. (2011) Cultural globalization: 2001–10, University of Pennsylvania. Available from: sociopedia.isa [6 November 2016].

Frank J. Lechner and John Boli. (2012). “The Globalization Reader: Fourth Edition”, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2012.

Mir & Salam.(2019) "Colonialism, Postcolonialism, Globalization, and Arab Culture." Arab Studies Quarterly 41.1 : 33–58 Paul J. & Imre S. (2010). Globalization and Culture, Vol. 3: Global-Local Consumption. Sage Publications.

Sahay & Vijoy (2013). "Globalization, Urbanization and Migration:Anthropological Dimensions of Trends and Impacts". Oriental Anthropologists. 13: 305–312

Steger & Manfred B. (2017). “Globalization: A Very Short Introduction” .4th ed. Oxford University Press

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