Contemporary Business issues in a Globalised Environment

This report will explain the effects of globalisation on me as an individual and over Romania.

Globalisation  is a process in which barriers (physical, economic, cultural) separating different  regions of the world are reduced or  removed, thereby stimulating exchanges in  goods, services, money, and people’ (Hamilton  and Webster, 2015,p.5)

Globalising is the phenomenon of the transition of industries whose competitive structure changes progressively from multinational to global’ (Lasserre, 2012, p.4)

‘It is a phenomenon, a process, a state or a concept. ..it is a process that refers to the  growth of inter-dependencies between  national markets and industries on a  worldwide scale’ (Brooks et al, 2011, p.308)

Factors of globalisation

PESTLE is known as a ‘trends analysis’. The external environment of an organisation, partnership, community etc. can be assessed by breaking it down into what is happening at Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal.

Initially, the acronym PESTLE was devised, which stands for:

Political factors – both big and small ‘p’ political forces and influences that may affect the performance of, or the options open to the organisation

Economic influences – the nature of the competition faced by the organisation or its services, and financial resources available within the economy

Sociological trends – demographic changes, trends in the way people live, work and think

Technological innovations – new approaches to doing new and old things, and tackling new and old problems; these do not necessarily involve technical equipment – they can be novel ways of thinking or of organising

Legal factors – originally included under ‘political’, relevant legislation now requires a heading of its own

Ecological factors – definition of the wider ecological system of which the organisation is a part and consideration of how the organisation interacts with it.

1. Effects of globalisation on me

Globalisation had and still have a huge effect over me, because everything is constantly changing, and I need to embrace it and go further with it.

Even if we are speaking about political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal or environmental factors, globalisation is important for the future.

Economic factors

Due to the fact that Romania has aligned itself with Europe, the prices have increased greatly but I cannot say the same thing about salaries. A situation which is getting me anxious because there is no more a balance between wages and prices and my power of buying decreased.

Due to inflation taxes also increased and this fact is even worse because is getting harder and harder to pay them if my job is not paid according to Europe wages. In Romania minimum wage per month is around 400£ and sometimes that is enough only for rent, food, bills and probably sometimes clothes.

One of the main issues is that for me is very hard to take a credit from a bank if I want to buy a house or a car, with minimum wage, is impossible and this discourages me.

I can not say that globalisation had only bad effects upon me if I am speaking only about economical issues because this situation pushed me to go forward and made merealize that sometimes I can’t live in my country because I want to, I had to move to different places and countries if I wanted to survive and build a proper house where I can stay in the future.

Socio-cultural factors

In terms of socio-cultural factors, globalization had a very positive impact over me because it helped me to learn a lot of new languages and also give me the chance to take part and experiment new traditions from all over the world.

Even if I am from a country with a majority in orthodox religion, as a result of globalisation more and more religion started to take place in Romania, and I had the chance to learn about them. Some of them proposed me to move from my religion, because like they said their religion is different and I can learn new ways of praying to God.

When gastronomy started to be diversified I couldn’t be happier, because finally, I had the opportunity to taste and discover new recipes from around the world, not even being forced to travel for that.

Traditions in Romania are very beautiful and also for every area of the country are different, but another positive effect of globalisation was that once it spread her wings a lot of new traditions came across the country and I could discover them and even to be surprised by their beauty.

Clothing for me is tabu subject, but I am pleased that now I have more shops from where to buy my clothes knowing that I can find quality stuff everywhere I go, and I started to create a self-style because now I have from where to choose.

Technological factors

For me, globalisation at technological level had an impact that affected me both positively and negatively.

One of the positive factors is that Internet started to appear in everyone houses and also the development of communications network helped me a lot because I managed to find information’s much easier from different sources and do also research about stuff that was concerning me.

Internet for me is like my best friend, it is very helpful when I want to choose a holiday destination because I just need to type the name and millions of pictures and reviews are on the front page.

I am happy that same time with the internet, social networks appeared as well because I could find new friends from all over the world and even take back friendships which had lost in time.

Transport for me is another positive effect due to the significant growth and the changes regarding traveling conditions, with new high-quality routes and buses due to the expansion of cities.

A disadvantage for me is in the health care system because unfortunately, our doctors started to travel and move in different countries and the system is going down because they are leaving for better paid jobs and in different conditions, the hospitals are nearly empty without enough stuff to take care over the patients.

2. Effects of Globalisation over Romania

Technological factors – Romania

In the communism time, the internet was something non-achievable, now with the changes of globalization we can say that this is a positive effect over Romania.

Foreign investors came with their business in Romania and started to implement the internet and telecommunications with a service very advance lined up with the quality in Europe.

30 years ago, Romania didn’t even think of traveling outside the country, because being a communism time all citizens had restrictions and it was impossible to travel by plane. Once Romania entered in European Union, she was able to benefit from this service.

The television is another positive effect of globalisation, for the reason that now Romania can benefit from a wide range of TV programs, which was not possible before being limited to just two hours a day.

Due to globalisation, the population of Romania had access at information, transport and a lot of firms started to open, offering jobs for the people, but sometimes the wages didn’t go very up because they came in Romania, opened factories but didn’t pay very high wages.

The sanitary system in Romania is well known as one of the best in Europe, because, even the hospitals are not in the best condition of functioning, the doctors are qualified in their jobs and unfortunately a lot of them are moving across the continent for reason that there are not paid at the European standards.

Socio-cultural factors-  Romania

Romania is a beautiful country with only one official language, but in different areas, it has a specific dialect and some areas have minorities such as Hungarians, Ukrainians, Serbs.

It’s a country predominated by orthodox religion, followed by a small part of Catholics and because globalisation spread her wings some of the other religions like Adventists, Pentecostals, Baptists appeared within the country, many of these new religions tried to gather more people, buy explaining to them that within their cult everything is different.

The Romanian gastronomy is one based on tradition transmitted from ancestors, but even the globalisation brought a lot of new recipes and customs, people are keeping the tradition such as painting eggs on Easter, or sacrificing pigs for Christmas, moments followed by gathering of all family members to celebrate the holidays together.

Thanks to globalisation and access to information through television and internet the country started to borrow new traditions such as Halloween, Valentine’s day.

A good effect of globalisation was as well that it brings more and more diversification in terms of food because before Romanians didn’t have the concept of sea fruits, exotic fruits and a lot of newer products.

Now in Romania, you can find a lot of new restaurants with Italian, Chinese, Arabic, Lebanese, Turkish, African specifics where you can taste and eat recipes from all these countries, some of them even have open kitchens so you can see how they are cooking and what ingredients are using.

Romanian people still maintain strictly tradition of clothing, that’s why in some rural areas they are using the traditional outfit to go at church or receive guests in holidays time.

A good impact was also the changes in clothing, because Romanians didn’t have a very large range of clothing, being limited by uniforms for school, work, and in the rural environment they were using traditional outfit.

Once a lot of new firms and brands started to appear in Romania, they were able to diversify and start new fashions in the country. The happiest part was for the shops because they had record sales for clothing at that time.

Another good effect of globalisation is that a lot of big fashion designers borrowed from our country our traditional outfit and included in their presentations

Economical factors – Romania

Romania was a country ruled by communists, which tried with all her powers to rise at the level of Europe from many points of view.

In past Romania was a country with a very good standard, with reasonable prices for basic aliments and with good wages for that time.

Taxes in Romania wasn’t excessively large and sometimes the population didn’t even notice them for being too much.

The level of inflation was a very good one because all the citizens who finished school were automatically employed and so the unemployment rate was very low.

Even bank credits were very easy to obtain, sometimes they were organizing raffles where you could win cars, houses, checkbooks with certain amounts of money.

Globalisation did a huge negative change in Romania because nothing is like before.

Now prices for food, fuel, services are higher and higher, wages are getting smaller and you can’t even compare them with European standards because they are visibly lower.

Taxes and unemployment rates have increased a lot, as a result of bad government for the country.

If Romania was one of the Europe countries which were exporting a lot, know everything gets to be imported in the country and this affects a lot the economy of the country because nothing is made anymore natural, everything is plastic and for that every citizen from Romania has to pay with health and money which are anyway not to many.

Conclusion

In conclusion, globalisation had good and bad parts once it started to spread, and people have what to learn from it.

The fact that they are able now to share traditions, make changes of experiences, travel, taste a lot of new foods and embrace the future with open arms is definitely a positive effect.

Globalisation has also bad sides because more and more investors started to move their business in countries where labor is cheaper and that’s how they are making people to stay with that minimum wage because some of them believe that is better to earn less than nothing.

Globalisation is a good thing for the ones which are open minded and want to be different than the others because not everyone is embracing the change with good eyes.

References

1. Hamilton, L., Webster. P. (2015) The International Business Environment. Oxford, Oxford University Press, chapter 1
2. https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/organisation-management/5b-understanding-ofs/assessing-impact-external-influences
3. Lassere  P. (2012) Global Strategic Management.3^rd ed. London. Palgrave Macmillan