- Discussion of changes to the world of work resulting from globalization, specifically the following changes: the structure of employment, participation and composition of the workforce, organization of work and employment, and utilisation of labour.
- Discussion of the challenges these changes pose to countries, firms and workers (three different actors) in relation to employment
Solution
Introduction
Globalization has indeed shaped several issues, including the population growth, human rights, international relations, labor rights, poverty, environmental sustainability, and human development. It has increased the awareness of the global word in ways in which the practices and policies implemented in one region can drastically affect another region. The shifting patterns of demographics, the access to technological change and pools of resources has led to changes in the work of the place as well (Harzing and Pinnington, 2014). These changes have been acting as challenges as well as opportunities for firms, countries, and workers all around the world. This paper will discuss precisely remain within the context of evaluating the challenges faced by workers, firms, and countries regarding labor utilization, participation, composition, the structure of employment, and organization of work and employment.
Participation and Composition of Employment
For instance, the US workforce trend in participation rate shows that it is going to grow considerably in size, however at a slower rate as compared to the past. The annual growth rate of the labor force participation rate is expected to be lower to 0.4 percent in the decade of 2010-20. The workforce composition of the US is expected to get more balanced regarding race, sex, and age. It is evident that the US population is growing older, so is its workforce. The participation rate of the female workers in US workforce has relevantly increased combined with the decreasing male participation rates. The high inflow of the immigrants makes the workforce diversity and racially balanced with the Asians and the Hispanics being the fastest growing one among such groups (Stephen, 2011).
The composition of the jobs that is the mix of the unskilled and skilled jobs in the market is also affected by the globalization. The developed countries are the ones who show this fact. The lower skilled labor is facing lower revenues because of high competition and increased unemployment. On the other hand, the workforce of the developing countries is better qualified and in considering more service-oriented and sophisticated. The developed world’s skilled labors are feeling the competition given by the developing world’s skilled labors (Harzing and Pinnington, 2014).
Organization of Work and Employment
With the more continuous adaptation of technological changes, outsourcing of high skilled jobs like IT and business processing skills has been vast implications for the workers. Employees have to work more in the decentralized and specialized form in which employer-employee relationship is less standardized and is more individualized. Because of the slow labor growth, employers are encouraged to approach the participation of women in the labor force, disable people and elderly as well in the US specifically. With the need for being able to stay competitive and can respond to the technological changes, in the US context, the employers need to retain their employees longer and spent more on lifelong learning (Rubery and Grimshaw, 2003).
With globalization, companies are willing to outsource their non-core activities and focus solely on their main functions. This specialization in the firms enables decentralization form of the internal organization.
The employees, with the rapidly changing environment and international competition, have to adapt to the shifting demands of products, customers, and companies. The changes in the business nature have also led to more importance for knowledge-based work which supports the cognitive skills and non-routine skills like problem-solving, collaboration and abstract reasoning. The employees are now constantly expected to learn and train throughout their life course, including the training and education even before entering the market (Stephen, 2011).
The physical workplace is far from just furniture and building. It is more about the people who work there and how they work, how they are managed, how they are employed, and by the technologies which support them to work. The workplace also depicts, in some way, the economic and social environment as well. Collaborative activities have become more important with the increase in need of major communication arising with the change in the business nature. Organizations are shrinking their staff, and more of the non-core activities are being outsourced. These non-core functions are outsourced to companies in countries with lower labor costs, or with proximity to customers, access to talent and resources unavailable locally. Decision making has been pushed lower and wider in the companies to support the quick response to the market. Indirect costs like buildings and traveling are being cut down by using technological functions for meetings (Rubery and Grimshaw, 2003).
Employment Structure
The employment structure is changing from lifelong permanent jobs to less permanent or self-employment or remote work arrangements. These types of employment structure enable more participation of disabled, older and people trying to balance their work and family responsibilities.
The economic globalization has also been seen to impact the job structure. By the structure of the employment, the distribution across the economic activities is meant. The newly developed pattern of specialization and the ever-changing competitive advantages affect certain economic activities which can make some jobs to disappear and some other new activities to be created. Again, the origin of changes in the structure of the job is very complicated as these changes are originated from globalization and by the technological progress as well.
The difference in the challenges faced by the countries and the workforce in the developing countries is also evident. A paper for the National Bureau of the Economic Research has used the employment statistics of 27 countries in ten sectors for tracing the structural change in the utilization of the labor. The findings of the study show that the global regions have shown different results regarding the structural changes. Africa and Latin America have been witnessing their growth reduction, whereas, Asia has demonstrated more than 60% of growth advantage as compared to Africa and Latin America. This gap in the changes in the regions with an adaptation of globalization is attributed to the change in the structural changes. For instance, in Africa and Latin America, the labor is moving from high to low productivity sectors while the opposite is found in Asia. The nations with extensive natural resources are witnessing growth reduction due to the presence of resource extraction industries which are not as much labor intensive as the manufacturing industries are. Countries with higher flexibility in the labor markets tend to see more productivity (Hunter and Katz, 2012).
Utilization of Labor
The changes in the occupational structure of the workforce of a country depend on the level of development of the country and its initial conditions and degree of openness to the globalization. The developed and developing countries are both facing challenges which vary from each other. The developed countries are facing the challenge of employment opportunities more in favor of high skilled jobs with less utilization of the lower skilled labor. Whereas, the developing countries are facing increased utilization of the labor with basic skills because of the comparative advantage of the export-oriented industries and labor-intensive markets present there (Lee and Vicrelli, 2006).
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that globalization has created challenges regarding composition and participation of labor, the structure of employment, organization of work and employment, and utilization of labor for companies, workers and countries around the world. The challenges in the form of structural changes in the employment and nature of job call for the higher focus to be given by countries and firms on responding and utilizing these changes effectively. The changing composition of the workforce, the highest participation rate of females, disabled persons and elderly calls for changes in employment structure as well. The high utilization of the high skilled labor and less utilization of the low skilled labor in developed countries and vice versa in developing countries is witnessed. It is also noted that not all regions are facing similar challenges, Latin America and Africa is particularly facing lower productivity growth because of its shift from high productive markets to lower ones.
References
Harzing, A.W. and Pinnington, A.H. (2014) International Human Resource, 4th edition, London: Sage.
Hunter, L.W. and Katz, H.C. (2012) ‘The impact of globalization on human resource management and employment relations in the US automobile and banking industriesh’, The International Journal of Human, vol. 23, no. 10, June, pp. 1983–1998.
Lee, E. and Vicrelli, M. (2006) ‘The social impact of globalization in the developing countries’, International Labour Review, vol. 145, no. 3, pp. 167-184.
Rubery, J. and Grimshaw, D. (2003) The Organisation of Employment: An International Perspective, London: Palgrave.
Stephen, M. (2011) ‘Globalisation and resistance: struggles over common’, Review of International Studies, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 209 – 228.
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