International Relations – Globalization and Nation-State

 

Introduction

Globalization is something that moves one technology grounded stature to the other and it brings in activities of nations as one ideological boom which places politics and culture to move freely and effectively as nation-states have control over commodities and certain economic assumptions. Globalization implies to a process that allow nation-states to execute further research and development paradigms thus, recognizing innovative centered advances of those key players and authorities working well with nation and state tenets. Globalization involves a cycle wherein great minds meet in such planned tactics and value oriented interactions of individuals and groups, global relations of nation-states have pros and cons mostly affecting government and business affairs for example, globalization and its relations are advantageous to information technology transfers such as applying data systems in network channels to save time, effort and money on raw materials and related costs.

Thus, disadvantage if failures happen due to vested motives and intentions those that presents political power and will without approval and consensus of nation-states as well as parties and affiliations involved therein. Global relations of nation-states can be both beneficial and harmful to the general public, to the society as well as to business economies affecting operations under control process of authoritative avenue and means.

 

Discussion: Globalization and Nation-state: Assumptions, effects and issues therein

Globalization affects every nation-state directly or indirectly to the extent that global based activities, plans and societal programs are being construed to the dimensional aspects of globalization allowing positive and negative effects to rise in a span of time. Thus, in bringing effects on the strife along with the capacity of globalization and its process to undermine nation-states such as HK and UK countries, there is salient matter to determine dimensions of globalization for instance, globalization of nation-states mean that there has been military and political interdependence with augmenting bases, the interdependence is from such set of sovereign grounded nation-states along with expansion and strengths of organizations being ruled by the government as it can be that nation-states are the core and essential actors of global activities put into effective and well built ideals and concepts stature.

Thus, globalizing nation-states mean that there has increase in economic interdependence from within national and local rooted economies mostly those that assume fast moving reality of commodity as well as consumer related goods and services. There are effects toward global public and private companies as nation-states and firms places as one original actors of globalization process and means. Another, globalization of nation-states mean an expanded sequence of individuals and groups within the society effects are on socio-economic migration as well as tourism and travel as well as the government related expulsion as nation-states and individuals place as other main actors of the process. Furthermore, globalization of nation-states like in United Kingdom, there allow expanded interdependence of expressive culture by means of intensified global communication for example, effects are grounded base on several themes from music to ethnic revival spread such as certain fads through UK based society, and that nation building structure can possibly arise to spread global based assumptions and that each type of actors coming from individuals and company organizations to national states are to be involved.

Aside, globalization of nation-states means augmented flow of instrumental culture stats in relation to the world cycle. The overall effects on nation-states cannot be simply put forward as there might be casual models of societal order that becomes authoritative in diverse nation-states conferences and predicable set ups towards a global move. There is focus on the effects of globalization and the possibility of undermining nation-states due to dimensional effects as known for, why there has been rise to situations which assume organized paths and consequences globalization brings to the state affairs. The world society along with globalization process does create and execute several models of national state from within identity and purpose of scenarios considered (McNeely, 1995) have effects on the side of information based on documentation such as denoting to scripted forms if changed would show up national constitutions and laws pertaining to leadership and rule over (Economist, 1995; Featherstone, 1990) as well as such depiction of national purpose within global oriented platforms and tactics (Fiala and Gordon-Lanford, 1987; McNeely, 1995) thus, there are much effect on nation-states databases and information systems (Ventresca, 1995).

Indeed, such HK and UK states have been defining and adopting the fundamental purpose of globalization which has to do with socioeconomic development and societal welfare in support to individual justice as well as equality and human rights. Moreover, ordinary models of socioeconomic development are globally inclined to information and national policies change with changes in world scripts. The undermining of intelligence such as those found in science field as recognize as one central factor to nation-states development upon taking globalization on a pattern with some associated policies and economic investments that has expanded and in spread of rapid global programs (Finnemore, 1996; Schofer, 1999). The same holds for population control in mid-century reversal from pro-natalist to anti-natalist doctrines (Barrett and Frank, 1999); actual demographic patterns follow similar paths (Bongaarts and Watkins, 1996).

Globalization undermine the state as valuable economic policies change in universal waves including modern waves that stress markets and privatization of some states based parties and affiliates, have effects on big wave of policy and practice change due to globalization and innovation has been created by several environment based authorities and advocacy movements (Frank et al., 1999; Meyer et al., 1997). Globalization sometimes undermine the power of the states to bring in effective shifts for example, those that accounts to tourism led activities such as the expansion numbers of national museums and parks and narrow states plan of action for development and spreading of globalization impact on certain assessment policies and rights. In addition, certain models of human rights are also scripted and produce waves of national policy and practice changes in areas such as the status of ethno-racial minorities or women due to globalization and its processes (Bradley and Ramirez, 1996; Berkovitch, 1999; McNeely, 1995). Advocacy movements such as current efforts to extend rights to gays and lesbians are worldwide in character and produce waves of local social organization and national policy (Frank and McEneaney, 1999).

Thus, effects more on the world wave emphasizing states rights and global paradigms had much uncontrolled impact. Globalization through education upon linking ideologies of nation-states rights and of social progress that are highly recognize with enormous impact on educational expansion through global actors (Riddle, 1993; Meyer et al., 1992). From within the individual level, sweeping forms of modernization the reconstruction of the individual as standardized unit with standard rights and capacities (Inkeles and Smith, 1974; see Jepperson, 1992). Globalization is aided by rapid expansion of systems of universal mass education as effect of global states (Meyer et al., 1992), as being known to play dominant role in constructing the standard ‘modern’ individual as part of the society, ever innovating and changing.

There has been in line also the process located at global level as elaborated plans for nation-states can connect to the standing grounds of political assumptions and the model of rights and standing of every citizen moving freely because of global realities as well as ideologies and being built in such kind of law proclaimed and adopted by nation-states linking to the authoritative participant of globalization process and looking up to rapport with other nation-states thus, resolving issues and problems of such freedoms of speech as well as religion and state based culture cues, globalization enters into full version of economic status of the people from within accountable bundle of nation driven rights in support for modern change, the ones enclosed by global denominations. Realizing that effective phenomenon is clear and it imply to global ways of such instrumental structure and the actor hood of nation-states, organizations and individuals having much impact in contemporary information system. The intellectual questions are being answered and the explanation why global structures arise and how it can be organized at the global level in accordance to general operations done by the states which are in place of positive effects toward national societies particular in HK and UK.

There are now faces of rationalized uncertainties and the legitimated requirements of actor hood as one basis of global notions coming from nation-states such as to deal with these uncertainties, modern actors stabilize themselves by creating and using rules of various kinds. There has been driving force for globalization and its actions. The point is that the first ‘interest’ or problem of the modern actor is not to accomplish prior goals of some sort but to be an actor. This requires discovering goals, technologies, resources, sovereignty, control and boundaries. It is much easier to do this if wider stabilizing rules can be created and utilized. So modern actors create and consult collective rules. Nation-states employ common definitions of nation-state goals, socioeconomic development and justice or equality. They consult and respect wider cultural analyses about how to accomplish these goals and use common analyses of state resources (Economist, 1995; Featherstone, 1990). They mobilize standardized ways of organizing sovereignty and control. And while none of these things work very well, they are at least legitimate demonstrations of actor hood which is, after all, the core purpose.

Affective actors then, establish their existence by adopting common forms and by supporting the creation of such common forms. State led organizations, as is well known, follow similar patterns, structuring themselves with the aid of elaborate consulting machineries around common and established models: they devote many resources to the construction of such models. Individuals, too, in the modern system consult a myriad of external rule systems enacted by lawyers, therapists and others propping up their individuality. One achieves strong status as a rational actor by becoming much like everyone else. The drive to the creation of common globalize models of instrumental culture, in other words, is produced by a system that defines actor hood as a core principle. It feeds on itself: each step forward in globalization produces more and more definitions of the requirements and responsibilities of effective actor hood such as modern globally inclined principles of the environment motivating global players in order to support constructive means of the states to alleviate global inspired theories of the states responsibilities.

Globalization has effect on nation-states’ capitalism, as the latter becomes global, transnational as well as informational which can lead to the undermining of the nation-state affecting the states macroeconomic planning also, collectivist welfare state, the state citizens’ sense of collective attitude and the caging of social life measures. The presence of innovative global limits, such as environmental and population threats, producing perhaps new ‘risk nation-states as well as society as globalization process then become too broad and menacing to be handled by the nation-state alone. Thus, there are also effects on politics and several social movements, upon usage of technology base, increasing salience of diverse transnational identities at expense of global sound identities and those state class identities which are being handled by the nation-state. For the reason, people and the public are witnessing the stirrings of new transnational civil society, social movements for peace, human rights and environmental and social reform which are becoming truly global and are globally recognized.

Aside, there is about globalization in lieu to post-nuclearism that has undermine nation-state sovereignty and geographic based politics, mass mobilization warfare underpinned much of modern state expansion yet is now irrational as there were perception of the emergence of state as perhaps measured by the degree of global stature. It is a minority view in discipline of international relations, as there remain attached to the investigation of nation-states and its neighbors. Thus, only modest nation-state became dominant somewhere in the North such as the multi-national empire, dynastic empires of the Habsburgs, Romanovs and Ottomans, with weaker states and little national identity, nation-state alternative. Fascism sought stronger, authoritarian state which would supposedly embody the essence of rigid and ethnical nation due to globalization (Economist, 1995; Featherstone, 1990). Though not strictly nationalist, its increasing tendency to equate the proletariat with masses gave it similar principle of legitimating in sense, had these more ambitious ‘nation-states’ both triumphed and the world had then globalize, its global society would have been constituted by segmental series of global networks between which particularistic, and probably warlike, relations would have existed as any subsequent globalization are expected to be universal in characterization of nation-states.

There are formal trappings have dominated the states as for example, emergence of United Nations, modest nation-state might seem to dominate the entire globe. In some limited senses it actually does. Only few states do not base legitimacy on the nation, or lack monopoly of domestic coercion or real territorial boundedness. Almost manage to implement globalization policies oriented towards basic population control, health and education. There is globalization and mortality and rising literacy have multiple causes but some lie in the realm of effective public policy thus, describe states as nation-states. Yet most possess limited control over territories and Boundaries, while their claims to represent the nation are often specious. Globalization of nation-state remains true aspiration for the future reality. The nation-state’s rise has been global, but modest and very uneven. The nation-state came to dominate, been part of its expansion and represents desired future for the bulk of the world’s people (Carnoy, 1993; Castells, 1993). The question has been does global networks pure in the sense of being singularly universal, or do particularistic principles of social organization help constitute them? An economy may be global, but this may be conferred by help from national and inter-national networks of interaction.

Since economic statistics are gathered at the level of the nation-state, it is unknown what is the relative contribution to this of truly national exchanges compared to the contributions made by multiple local interaction networks. The national economy is less integrated than the statistic suggests especially in backward countries and bigger advanced countries like Australia. Yet nation-state clearly does systematically structure many economic networks. The ownership, assets and research development of firms such as banks, remain disproportionately in their ‘home’ state, and they still lean on it for human capital, communication, infrastructures and economic protectionism (Carnoy, 1993; Castells, 1993). Nonetheless, globalization has effects toward strategic alliances with corporations of some nationality proliferating, weakening the national identity of property though many of these arrangements occur to evade protectionism and might decline if it did. Finance is far more transnational, as evidenced by the growing complexity of .financial markets and of the models supposed to be capable of explaining them from random walk to chaos theories.

Yet its institutions continue to exhibit bureaucratic regularity, much of it with pronounced national character. Financial market reveals national duality thus, trading in government bonds, in currencies, in futures and in wholesale dealing between banks often offshore through the boundaries of states subject to very few controls (Wade, 1996). Global interaction networks are indeed strengthening, the force derives from global scale of transnational relations originating principally from technology and social relations of capitalism. But these do not have the power to impose a singular universalism on global networks. Thus, global networks are also modestly segmented by the particularities of nation-states, especially the more powerful ones, some politics, to major international tensions, then segmentation would actually increase. Yet, the expansion of geopolitics due to globalization means is striking, congenial to transnationalism, imperative action is core to global networks along with systemic principle of interaction as well as integration as nation-states and human societies overlaps and intersects networks of interaction.

Globalization is unlikely to change the pattern, human interaction networks are penetrating the globe, but in an uneven fashion. Globalization involves fundamental strategic misconception. If effective forms of movement ever are to reemerge, will have to be less about keeping up with or adapting to capitalist change, but rather more about developing the capacity to mobilize effectively against the logic of competitiveness and profit to get somewhere else, to an egalitarian, cooperative and democratic social order beyond capitalism run as fast, on capitalism's terms will not in fact lead somewhere else at all. These considerations are germane in light of global challenges posed by what has come to be known as globalization. The apparent subjection of even advanced capitalist social formations in recent decades to the competitive logics and exigencies of production, trade and finance undertaken on world scale has entailed, Robert Cox contends, subordination of domestic economies to the perceived exigencies of global economy (Robertson, 1992; Schofer, 1999).

Nation-states will become more effectively accountable to personified as the global economy, they were constrained to mystify this external accountability in the eyes and ears of their own publics through the new vocabulary of globalization, interdependence, for David Gordon, globalization reflects less the establishment of stable new international regime of capital accumulation than an aspect of the decay of the old 'social structure of accumulation Cox puts it, the tendency to globalization is never complete, there is nothing inevitable about its continuation There must not be taken as advanced stage towards the inevitable completion of latent structure, accounts of globalization see the process as irreversible, perspective the predominant strategic response becomes one which invariably tends to see the strategies, practices and institutions perhaps having been appropriate to national stage of capitalism but as having now been rendered outmoded and outdated by globalization.

Reflection

For reflection, globalization based laws could be changed only if global bodies that passed them are being controlled; to take the corporation out of the public sphere and place it in the private one, the industrialists had to enter the public sphere themselves, political battle had to be fought in order to place an important century perhaps the most important institution outside of globalization and politics, one had to have power in nation-state in order to make it effective as to how struggle over parameters cannot be accepted but becomes part of activity of the state itself. For instance, capitalist globalization is process which takes place and under aegis of nation-states; it is encoded by the state and respect are due to the authority and globalization involve shift in power relations within states that often means the centralization and concentration of state powers as the necessary condition of and accompaniment to global market discipline.

There must be said that most contributions to understanding the role of globalization within the state amidst process of global means have lagged behind the process itself, offer contribution to what is meant by territorial capitalism, developing framework which would allow substantial approach to the problem of effects of internationalization of capital on existing political institutions. The importance far from conceiving globalization, process which could be understood in terms of capital escaping the state,  try to ensure that state economic functions might continue to be performed. The structural role of capitalist state in relation to what may aptly be called global economy as these matters private capitals setting forth the value of globalization leaving forward important cues such as standardizing currency, ensuring availability of key inputs of technology and infrastructure, conditions of work, provision of ideological, educational conditions of production and business under global trading pathways. Thus, performance of global functions there stood the function of international management of external relations pertaining to certain affective dimensions. Any global based capital which extended itself beyond the territorial boundaries of state which had heretofore performed these functions had to either take these functions on themselves or have them performed by some other public authority.

In contemporary era, globalization and advanced capitalist states, there primarily been matter of "states already performing or being willing to perform the functions of their own accord", so that foreign capital came to be serviced on the same basis as domestic capital. In the minds of those who opt for change, the solution will most likely be seen as lying not in the enactment of specific policy program as in the building of new means of collective action informed by new understanding of society and polity within states or it will not happen at all, but it will not happen in one state alone while the rest of the world goes on running with the bourgeoisie around the globe. Movements in country have always been informed and inspired by movements abroad and prove to be the case as opposition builds to the evils globalization is visiting on peoples rights around the globe, including capitalist countries. There is no need to conjure up out international civil society to install democracy. Rather people will witness series of movements arising even national specificities will continue to prevail. To utilize international solidarity movements taken for global alternatives to the struggles that must take place on the terrain of the nation-states.

Conclusion

Just like one person before she stepped through the looking glass, it is as though the Left used to be able to get somewhere else by running on the terrain of the nation state, but now that capital had escaped the nation state, will have to learn to run with the bourgeoisie across the terrain of the globe. Globalization imply new international order involving the emergence of global economic system which stretches beyond the control of single state, expansion of networks of transnational linkages and communications over which particular states have little influence; enormous growth in international organization which can limit the scope for action of the most powerful states; the development of a global military order which can reduce the range of policies available to governments and to the citizens.

Globalization is product of stateless world as filled with ‘social actors’ who are legitimated in rationalistic and universalistic terms. Actor hood is high and constructed form beyond capacities of real social units, working to create stabilizing rules at collective level, providing legitimacy to their structures and activities. Therefore, the supply of global models expands with socially constructed actor hood as there transform agency for others beyond states, globalization expand international associations resting on universal pretenses, social movements on global scale and by actors who present forms as universal models, as individuals and organizations press nation-states to assume global responsibilities. To recognize global units, high structure of state units and deal of internal decoupling within empowered production of subjectivity and uniqueness within construed global culture as being consistent with models of globalization rounded means to keep nation-states on a stable ground.

 

 References

 

Barrett, Deborah and Frank, David John (1999) ‘Population Control for National Development: From World Discourse to National Policies’, in J. Boli and G. Thomas (eds) Constructing World Culture, pp. 198–221. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press

 

Bongaarts, John and Watkins, Susan (1996) ‘Social Interactions and Contemporary Fertility Transitions’, Population and Development Review 22(4): 639–82

 

Bradley, Karen and Ramirez, Francisco (1996) ‘World Polity Promotion of Gender Parity: Women’s Share of Higher Education, 1965–85’, Research in Sociology of Education and Socialization 11: 63–91.

 

Carnoy, M. (1993) ‘Whither the nation-state?’, in M. Carnoy (ed.) The New Global Economy in the Information Age, College Park, Penn: Pennsylvania State University Press

 

Castells, M. (1993) ‘The informational economy and the new international division of labor’, in M. Carnoy (ed.) The New Global Economy in the Information Age. College Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press

 

Economist, The (1995) ‘The World Economy: Who’s in the driving seat?’, 7 October

 

Featherstone, M. (1990) ‘Global culture: an introduction’, Theory, Culture and Society 7

 

Fiala, Robert and Gordon-Lanford, Audri (1987) ‘Educational Ideology and the World Educational Revolution, 1950–1970’, Comparative Education Review 31(3): 315–32

 

Finnemore, Martha (1996) National Interests in International Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press

 

Frank, David John, and McEneaney, Elizabeth H. (1999) ‘The Individualization of Society and the Liberalization of State Policies on Same-Sex Sexual Relations, 1984–1995’, Social Forces 77(March): 911–44

 

Frank, David John, Hironaka, Ann, Meyer, John W., Schofer, Evan and Tuma, Nancy Brandon (1999) ‘The Rationalization and Organization of Nature in World Culture’, in J. Boli and G. Thomas (eds) Constructing World Culture, pp. 81–99. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press

 

Inkeles, Alex and Smith, David (1974) Becoming Modern. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

 

Jepperson, Ronald (1992) ‘National Scripts: The Varying Construction of Individualism and Opinion across the Modern Nation-States’, PhD dissertation, Yale University

 

McNeely, Connie (1995) Constructing the Nation-State: International Organization and Prescriptive Action. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

 

Meyer, John W. and Jepperson, Ronald (forthcoming) ‘The “Actors” of Modern Society: The Cultural Construction of Social Agency’, Sociological Theory

 

Meyer, John W., Ramirez, Francisco and Soysal, Yasemin (1992a) ‘World Expansion of Mass Education, 1870–1980’, Sociology of Education 65(2): 128–49.

 

Meyer, John W., Kamens, David and Benavot, Aaron (1992b) School Knowledge for the Masses: World Models and National Primary Curricular Categories. London: Falmer Press.

 

Meyer, John W., Boli, John, Thomas, George and Ramirez, Francisco. (1997a) ‘World Society and the Nation-State’, American Journal of Sociology 103(1): 144–81.

 

Meyer, John W., Frank, David John, Hironaka, Ann, Schofer, Evan and Tuma, Nancy Brandon (1997b) ‘The Structuring of a World Environmental Regime, 1870–1990’, International Organization 51(4): 623–51.

 

Riddle, Phyllis (1993) ‘Political Authority and University Formation in Europe’, Sociological Perspectives 36(1): 45–62.

 

Robertson, Roland (1992) Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. London: Sage.

 

Schofer, Evan (1999) ‘Science Associations in the International Sphere, 1875–1990’, in J. Boli and G. Thomas (eds) Constructing World Culture, pp. 249–66. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

 

Ventresca, Marc (1995) ‘Counting People when People Count’, PhD dissertation, Stanford University.

 

Wade, R. (1996) ‘Globalisation and its limits: reports of the death of the national economy are greatly exaggerated’, New Left Review, forthcoming

 

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ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTION: RESEARCH ESSAY

Research Essay (40%) à Learning Outcomes:  1, 3, 4, 6

Due:  Final Assignment at end of Module 3 Analysing Issues in the Relationship between B, S & G in Contemporary Society

Rationale: The aim of the research essay is to develop skills to investigate different sources of information about one specific issue, critically selecting and analysing primary and secondary data to support your own arguments in response to a research question

Ø      Choose a specific company in relation to issue Eg. Nike (bad reputation in Sweatshops)

 

Ø      The Research Essay is the product of secondary & primary research to answer assigned research question.

 

Ø      The investigation will use one specific case to illustrate the interaction between the 3 sectors, Business, Society and Government, in relation with the issue selected.

 

Ø      Each research question is linked to one of the 2 sub-modules in Module 3

 

Ø      The Research Essay  (2000 words) includes;

 

o        Abstract (Approx. 100 words)

o        Presentation of your views on the issue from literature review (Approx. 700 words)

o        Presentation of Case to illustrate actions taken by business, government and society (Approx. 250)

o        Discussion of the case (a critical view from your own perspective) (Approx. 700 words)

o        Conclusion (Synthesis of main issues and a proposal for how the issues could be better managed) (Approx 250 words)

o        List of references (8-12 references)

 

BSP07 Research Questions

 

Drawing on the concepts and theories studied in Modules II (Ethics&Social Responsibility of business, Stakeholder Theories in the Modern corporation, The role of the State: Idology&Policies) and Module III (Positive&Negative impacts from the operations of Business, Impact of Business on Primary Stakeholders in the Workplace, Impacts from Business on the Wellbeing of Society in General and specific Stakeholders).

 

Write a Research Essay on the impacts of business activities on stakeholders and the actions taken by business, governments and social groups.

Base your Essay on your research into ONE of the following 6 Research Questions. Use one case (a business company) to illustrate the positive and negative outcomes you identify.

 

“Why do companies use sweatshops, and what are the impacts of their use for business, for society, and government?”

 

 

 

 

 

Preparation for the Research:

The readings in the BSP book are a support for the process of research that students are going to do as the learning process in the rest of the semester. They are guidelines for a more extensive process of research (eg. for an honours thesis) and therefore not all recommendations are relevant for a research assignment, but are important to understand the skill required for completing the research assignment. It is not expected that for the assignment students need to follow all steps included but their reading will provide a good guideline for the preparation of the essay.

In BSP the process of research is the central activity in Module 3, and therefore readings, tutorial activities and videos are provided to guide students through the research process. The research essay is the outcome that tutors will evaluate and marked and it is expected it will reflect an extensive work developed from week 8 to 14 that includes, review of literature for the theoretical perspectives, collection of information and data (texts from secondary and primary sources) on one case, analysis and interpretation of the information and data, reflection on the relationship between different perspectives and the case and communication of results in written form (essay style). For BSP the research is based on library and web resources but it is important to regard the texts collected as important data that should be critically analysed. The research process for writing the assignment is not just to put together fragments of information collected from different sources but the foundation for developing your own argument to be written in an essay form (see the assignment instructions from the unit outline).

The process of Research involves some steps:

1. Identification of the problem (associated with the research question)

2. From the research question you have selected identify key words that might be relevant for the web search (e.g. discrimination, gender, ‘equal opportunity’, ‘glass ceiling’, ethical, trade, consumerism). The readings in the BSP book can be used as a point of departure to select some key words.

3. Use the key words in advance search in the Library catalogue and E-Resources (eg. ABI/Inform Global; Business Source Premier; Proquest ANZ Newsstand, Factiva), and in Goggle Scholar. You can consult the online tutorial provided by the Library (link in web site) to introduce students to the use of the library resources. 

4. To limit the findings and quality control use only peer review journals, restrict the dates (e.g.10 last years) and use combination of words using the  search (eg. sweatshop AND outsourcing; child labour without the word sex).

5. Use Newspaper WebPages (eg. The Sydney Morning Herald or an international News agency such as Reuters or from the E-resources of the Library such as Proquest ANZ Newsstand) to identify cases that have reached the news. News articles might provide relevant data to be analysed comparatively with company data.

6. For the selection of the literature review read the abstracts included in the web (or details in the library catalogue) and select one or two recent relevant books and articles that analyse the problem under investigation with an approach closer to the research you are doing. For example if you are researching discrimination in the workplace you rather focus on the ones that refer to workplace issues from a sociological or ethical perspective. There is not a problem in dealing with more broad approaches but it might be not a good time management strategy for the assignment. 

7. Identify in the selected literature how the problem has been interpreted by different authors (the different views in the academic debate).

8. Based on the information collected identify a case (a business organisation) whose activities are associated with the problem in positive and/or negative ways (ie. as Corporate Social Responsibility or as target from global social movements).

 9. Identify organisations that work for the ‘solution’ of the problem under investigation. (e.g. ILO for labour standards, Human Rights to prevent child labour exploitation, consumer watch organisations)

10. Collect data about the case focusing on the problem under research (data from web pages from the company and from their critics)

The preparation of the Essay involves:

1. Reflective analysis of the literature about the problem (different perspectives and the arguments used to interpret the problem.)

2. Analysis of the data collected from the web page of the company and the critics. It is important to evaluate critically their statements not just take for granted that what they say is the ‘truth’. Look for their contradictions inside a text or comparing different texts from the same source. 

3. Use your sociological imagination and ethical reasoning to question the different arguments.

4. For your essay writing, remember that you are the author and even if you refer to the ideas of other scholars, adequately acknowledged, the most important ideas are the ones that you develop from your interpretation of the literature and the analysis of the data. You can use first person if you like but it is not compulsory.

5. The research essay is the outcome of a complex and extensive research process and because it is only 2000 words it is expected that you synthesise the main ideas, arguments and data for the case.

6. The presentation of the case is not a description of the company, neither the way the company represent itself. It is the presentation of your analysis of the initiatives the company have in relation with the specific research question (the discourse and the actions). To including the history of the company is only adequate if it is relevant for the understanding of the practices developed by the business organisation in relation with the problem under investigation.

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The Live Theatre Industry In Australia And It’s External Issues

Introduction

The practice of theatre, as opposed to drama, is necessarily inscribed in a tradition, because the institution within which it develops is the sum of material constraints and the locus of influences by other theatres past and present. It is during the age in which technical reproducibility is nearing perfection that one becomes aware of the non-reproducible and ephemeral nature of theatre, and the futility of trying to reproduce the score so as to repeat the performance (Morris & Pankratz 2003). Theatre not only inherits scraps of information churned out daily by the media or banal everyday discourse, but also lends itself to borrowing, association, inheritance. It has an implacable but short memory. One could write a chronological history of inventions in the media, showing their connections and technical improvements. It would be possible to situate theatre in relation to these technical stages, before the advent of the media and afterwards, in reaction to technological development. Theatre tends towards simplification, minimalization, fundamental reduction to a direct exchange between actor and spectator. If theatre relationships are to take place, however, the performance cannot tolerate more than a limited number of spectators or even performances because theatre repeated too often deteriorates or at least changes. As a result, theatre is in essence an art of limited range (Morris & Pankratz 2003). Live theatre industry offers artist a way to tell a story. The live theatre industry combines performing arts with the visual arts. This industry makes use of the arts of speech, gesture, music, dance, and spectacle in telling a certain story.  This industry is not that popular due to the advent of other media such as television and radio. This paper intends to discuss the live theatre industry in Australia and its external issues.

Background of the industry

Theatre economics are formidable. A major musical, for example, costs from million to million in production costs. With opening night closings all too common, investors risk a great deal; often they lose their entire investment. Most musicals and plays depend heavily on instant success and immediate critical acclaim. Theatre owners and producers often seek additional backers for shows to supplement their own financing (Moran 2004). Outside investors, however, have changed in character over the years. Largely gone are the individuals who invest large amounts in a show. The overwhelming majority of Broadway shows are presented through the efforts of limited partnerships. A general partner proposes the scheme, raises the money necessary, to float the venture by obtaining limited partners, and makes the business decisions, including when to fold the operation. The limited partners are just that--limited. To retain the protections of a limited partner, mainly liability limited to the amount of one's investment, the business decisions must remain solely with the general partner. In turn, the limited partner is protected somewhat by requirements imposed on theatrical organizers by federal and state laws. One who deals in theatrical ventures and seeks to obtain investments from others must consult these regulations carefully (Moran 2004).

 

 To move from a discussion of the early relationship between theatre and television to an examination of the current situation of live performance is to confront the irony that whereas television initially sought to replicate and, implicitly, to replace live theatre, live performance itself has developed since that time toward the replication of the discourse of mediatization. Live theatre does not benefit from advancing technologies to the same extent as films, television, and music. No technological cost saving devices enhances theatres and other stages. The theatre is still a labor intensive operation, requiring the same hours of devotion as was true 50 years ago. New technologies may produce more dazzling lights and intricate staging, but these improvements add to costs rather than reduce them. Disputes in the legitimate theatre produce few reported cases. Most disagreements are submitted to arbitration, pursuant to individual contract provisions or under union collective bargaining agreements. The written decisions in such cases are not made public. The governance of the traditional arts is the purest form of input intervention (Chapple & Kattenbelt 2006). Consistent with its comparatively long history, it also exhibits a highly coordinated approach, with one major federal body, the Australia Council, interacting with the various state arts bodies to provide subsidies to a wide field of arts activities, which range from elite flagship national companies in the areas of opera, ballet and theatre to community arts in far-flung regions of the nation. Australians loved music and live theatre and any lack of quality in the plays was not due, it appears, to any banality of taste on the part of the audience. Those who wrote for the theatre had problems. Theatrical productions are risky propositions at best. There was a time where the Australian theatre suffered from conservatism. Commercial theatrical management, despite enthusiastic audiences and fine actors, had not been willing to put Australia in touch with modern drama, much of which was radical in intent (Chapple & Kattenbelt 2006). The live theatre industry in Australia is known to be one of the best in the world. The live theatre industry houses plays, concerts, dances and musicals There are many live theatres in Australia this include Capitol Theatre, Princess Theatre, Sydney Opera House and many others

 

Competitive forces

The television industry

Paradoxically, the more naturalistic’ the genre, the more the techniques and tools of the television industry must be kept out of sight, and not interfere with the audience’s perception of the program. Television drama and many documentaries depend on the illusion that the action is taking place without the visible mediation of a television crew. The television industry is changing rapidly. The old, well-tried boundaries in the industry-based training are breaking down. This new fluidity, like so many other changes, is due partly to the increasing cheapness and accessibility of television and video technology, and partly to a fragmentation of the television institutions (Florida & Kenney 2004). A more market-based system means that neither television nor education enjoys the security it did in the past, but at the same time they are both far more open to a wider spectrum of the population. The television industry built upon the pre–World War II radio industry and grew quickly in the postwar period, but by the early 1970s it had become a relatively mature industry. The end-users for the products of this industry are household consumers, and brands are extremely important for its success. Given their long histories and the development of powerful interest groups, the television industry and its competitors are far more subject to government intervention in the form of tariffs, duties, quotas, and various other trade restraints (Florida & Kenney 2004).

 

 The television industry, like many of the other industries has faced brutal price competition and has constant overcapacity. In contrast to PC there has been no dramatic curve of improving functionality: there has been a constant increase in screen size for the same price. In response to these changes, firms continually adjusted and readjusted their divisions of labor, globally and regionally. Put differently, the value chain at any moment appeared fixed, but when seen dynamically, change was the rule. When the television was introduced immediately after World War II, it was a leading edge, high-technology product. However, resembling other electronics products, each new model, even if it incorporated significant new technology, swiftly became a commodity (Holland 2000). As the assembly process was routinized and simplified, the value of a television became increasingly embodied in a few components, particularly the picture tube, which is produced by a capital-intensive manufacturing production process. The television industry was a harbinger of developments in other traditional assembly-intensive manufacturing industries. The global television industry can be divided into six major markets: the United States, Europe, Japan, China, the rest of Asia, and the rest of the world. All the significant firms operate globally. The United States, Japanese, and Western European markets were largely saturated, and purchases were confined to replacement and upgrading. The most important growth markets were in the developing countries of Asia, especially China and India, and they were the locus of new investment (Holland 2000). The television industry is a fierce competitor of the live theatre industry. Compared to the live theatre industry, it is free and can be edited unless a live feed is happening. Both the live theatre industry and television industry tries to depict life and the story of a certain individual. The television industry gives the live theatre industry in Australia the loss of clients especially the younger generation who prefers to watch foreign or local shows than go and view a musical or a play.

The film industry

The past thirty years have seen large-scale transformations in the film industry, film technologies, and government philosophy and policy, not to mention the conceptual terrain within which film policy is research. Films may not have changed, in that their audiences still find the same kind of pleasure in them that they always have; but the industry has change (Turner 1999). Once a small-scale business run by enthusiastic entrepreneurs, it became concentrated into an oligopoly run by film studios. Now they, too, have had to sell out to other interests so film is now simply another result of the large conglomerates’ need to diversify. While the activities on the sound stages and the locations may still be those of the craftsperson, the economic practices of the industry are those of big business. This has alienated a number of film-makers, and fostered rhetoric about the death of the film industry. The film industry now depends on pleasing a certain age group. Going to the cinema should still be a regular and highly valued leisure activity for this group, while the older middle-class audience, are probably key contributors to the expansion of video and cable television. Market segmentation is the new premise; films are either aimed at a particular segment of the market or are designed to contain within them attractions for a number of different market segments. The mass market has broken into smaller units, and the trend towards housing multiple cinemas under the one roof reflects this (Turner 1999).

 

 No longer can one film please the whole family nor can one location expect to meet high overheads from the proceeds of exhibiting one film.   Australia was one of the early participants in the development of a film industry. Australian film-makers responded quickly to various overseas developments and for the first twenty years of this century enjoyed significant local success. However with the arrival of sound, the industry languished. The professional quality of the local films gradually declined, vertical integration of the industry froze out all but British and American imports, and by the end of the Second World War Australia had lost its last feature production company. For the next twenty years almost without exception, Australia was a cheap location for foreign productions (Moran 1996). Attempts to keep feature production alive dwindled into an attempt to keep the local newsreel industry alive, but when television arrived even the newsreel began to disappear. It is worth noting that encapsulated accounts like the one above make historical processes sound inevitable. They are not, and the failure of the various Australian governments to protect their film industry from foreign competition, or from the discriminatory practices of foreign-owned exhibition and distribution. However some interest was expressed at government level in determining if a film industry would be viable in Australia. History can be changed, if those in power can be convinced that the change is in their interests. The arrival of TV in Australia had highlighted the need for the policing of foreign content on Australian screens, as well as revealing the importance of a film industry in supplying the infrastructure and the work force for developments in TV and theatrical drama. Both areas were just beginning to grow at the time (Moran 1996). The film industry is another heavy competition for Australia’s live theatre industry.  The film industry provides various kinds of stories which has specialized genre ranging from comedy to drama to horror. The film industry offers modern storytelling but can still use the traditional storytelling used by the live theatre industry.

Music industry

There is still little recognition that music is possibly a much more important component of youth experience with mass media than television, for instance, which has been the subject of intense and wide-ranging research for decades. This lack of interest in popular music by the academy is strongly contrasted by the enthusiasm shown by non-academics (Burnett 1996). The problem is that most works on popular music and the music industry simply offer a fan’s account of the major performers or the most popular songs, although there are also a number of serious works including biographies of major figures, considerations of aspects of the music business or analyses of various styles. None of these, however, give a coherent picture of both the industry and the commercial factors that lie behind the music. The music industry has also at least partially provided the foundation for many of today’s transnational, diversified communication conglomerates. Thus, despite the continuous introduction of new forms of entertainment and communications technology, the music industry remains an important component of the expanding information and entertainment sector. It is especially important to remember that popular music has developed as a commodity which is produced, distributed and consumed under market conditions that inevitably influence the types of phonograms made, who make them, and how they are distributed to the public (Burnett 1996).

 

 The music industry, like others, constantly tries to develop new ways to control both supply and demand. The system of production attempts to smooth the process of supply. The system of consumption seeks to ensure that demand is of a sort the companies are set up to satisfy. The entertainment industry thrives on producing global stars to expose across a wide range of media: film, music, videos, television, books, magazines and advertising included. The music industry is obviously an important link in this process as nothing crosses borders and cultural boundaries easier than music. In fact, one could argue quite persuasively that music is perhaps the essential component in linking the different sectors of the global entertainment industry. The entertainment industry has undergone tremendous changes in at least three readily defined areas: integration, concentration and internationalization (Talbot 2002). The music business can be defined as the ensemble or complex of practices and institutions that make possible and regulate the production, distribution and consumption of music. Since music is generally situated in the sphere of the communicative, this definition has the merit of being structurally homologous with the tripartite and venerable model of communication that posits a linear relay between sender, message and receiver. All business in capitalist societies is dependent, of course, on the law: on enforceable contracts and on markets whose freedom is a matter of regulation. But the music industry is especially dependent on the law (Talbot 2002). The music industry just like the live theatre industry provides entertainment to its clients. The music industry focuses on the need for a music based showcase of emotion or idea while the live theater industry focuses on using music to narrate a story.  The music industry creates competition to the live theatre industry in terms of the method used to convey their message. Both industries make use of music to convey their message. The music from the music industry is transferred to disks thus it is portable; the music from the live theatre industry cannot be transported from one place to another.

 

Porter’s five forces

 

Potential Entrants

The influence of potential entrants to the live theatre industry is not that strong. The live theatre industry has established itself in Australia amidst the different competitors. It has its own loyal subscribers and has acquired a certain part of the viewing market. The creation of a new entrant would be difficult since competition is already crowded but if a new entrant would be made the live theater industry will survive its onslaught and maintain its clients. Any new entrant should be able to combine the characteristics of the live theatre industry and its competitors to survive in the Australian market.  The live theatre industry should survive any new entrant because it has created its own niche that is unique.

Competitive rivalry

            Competitive rivalry greatly influences the live theatre industry. Competitor rivalry has given challenges to the live theatre industry; it forced the industry to think of new ways to attract the viewers. Competitor rivalry has forced the live theatre industry to make use of newer concepts and ideologies in presenting its views and messages. The competition of the live theatre industry is unique in its own way. Some competitors of the live theatre industry are more advanced than the live theater industry but the live theater industry provides a different kind of experience to clients. The live theater industry makes sure that the viewers would feel that they are part of the story being told. It gives a firsthand foresight to the viewer of the story being told.  The live theatre industry survives amidst competition because it gives a better idea of what a character feels as he/she tells a part of his/her story.

Substitutes

The substitutes to the live theatre industry are also its competitors. It highly influences the industry and the decisions it make. The substitutes control the decisions on what type of performance will be shown, what will be the time and what will be the cost of tickets. The substitutes force the live theatre industry to perform at optimum levels. The film industry forces the live theatre industry to make use of advanced props or technologies to attract viewers. The television industry forces the live theatre industry to make sure that they have interesting plot or story lines. The music industry forces the live theatre industry to create catchy or attractive songs for musicals. The substitutes cannot be ignored by the live theatre industry if it wants to maintain its survival in the Australian market.

Bargaining power of buyers

The buyers in the live theatre industry are those who watch the different performances. They are the ones that pay for the musical, play or any other performance shown. The buyers have a high bargaining power. They should be satisfied at all times. The buyers should be given satisfaction by making sure that all performance would be worth their finances and their time. The buyers can affect the prices of tickets, if there are many viewers who reserved for tickets then the industry can hike its prices otherwise prices remain at an affordable levels. The number of clients and the income they provide is a measuring stick for the success of the industry. With more clients comes more income for the industry. Lesser clients mean that the performance has not been enjoyed by the viewers. 

Bargaining power of sellers

The sellers are those who provide the performances shown by the live theatre industries. The performances are made by production companies or studios. The seller has a high bargaining power. They can dictate the percentage of share in profits and the cost of rent through the ability of a theatre to attract clients. The seller can force a theatre to reduce cost of rent and percentage in profits if there is low attendance or there are negative comments about the facilities by the theatre.

Conclusion

The live theatre industry in Australia is known to be one of the best in the world. The live theatre industry houses plays, concerts, dances and musicals. The television industry is a fierce competitor of the live theatre industry. Compared to the live theatre industry, it is free and can be edited unless a live feed is happening. The film industry is another heavy competition for Australia’s live theatre industry.  The film industry provides various kinds of stories which has specialized genre ranging from comedy to drama to horror. The film industry offers modern storytelling but can still use the traditional storytelling used by the live theatre industry.  The music industry just like the live theatre industry provides entertainment to its clients. The music industry focuses on the need for a music based showcase of emotion or idea while the live theater industry focuses on using music to narrate a story.  The live theatre industry has survived its competitors and made sure that it maintains a considerable client base. The live theatre needs to make sure that it will maintain its survival by devising of better means to show its performance products.

 

References

Burnett, R 1996, The global Jukebox: The international music

industry, Routledge, New York.

 

Chapple, F & Kattenbelt, C (eds.) 2006, Intermediality in

theatre and performance, Rodopi, Amsterdam.

 

Florida, R & Kenney, M (eds.) 2004, Locating global advantage:

Industry dynamics in the international economy, Stanford

University Press, Stanford, CA.

 

Holland, P 2000, The television handbook, Routledge, London.

 

Moran, A 2004, Australia: Nation, belonging, and globalization,

Routledge, New York.

 

Moran, A (ed.) 1996, Film policy: International, national, and

regional perspectives, Routledge, London.

 

Morris, VB & Pankratz, DB (eds.) 2003, The arts in a new

millennium: Research and the arts sector, Praeger, Westport, CT.

 

Talbot, M (ed.) 2002, The business of music, Liverpool

University Press, Liverpool, England.

 

Turner, G 1999, Film as social practice, Routledge, London.

 

 

Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Case Study Analysis

Case Study Analysis

 

Kazakhstani background

Kazakhstan - one of the former Soviet republics it has begun to implement important structural reforms aimed to transform its economy into a more transparent, less regulated and more market-driven business environment. Until now the country was more concentrated on developing major sectors of their economy such as oil exploration and mining industry. Financial system of Kazakhstan is the most progressive industry of the country due to effective fiscal and the monetary policies applied by the Government and the National Bank of Kazakhstan.  

Kazakhstan is one of the sparsely populated countries in the world. The average population density is only 5,2 people per sq. km. In the most densely populated areas it comes up to 18,4 people per sq. km. The biggest city is Almaty with 1,2 mln. population considered as a financial and cultural center of the republic. Western Kazakhstan is considered as an oil and center of the country as the major oil reserves are located in the west of the state.

 

Company background

The company is situated in Aktau a city located in western Kazakhstan. Since 1995 the main operation of the company has been exploration, extraction and sale of crude oil which is executed under Subsurface Use Contract concluded with Government of Kazakhstan. The company employs about 400 employees 52 of which are the office stuff engaged in management, finance and accounting, geology, exploration and drilling, supply chain, human resource and administrative issues. The rest of employees are working in the oil field as managers, operators and workers. Almost all of the office stuff is the local people living in Aktau.

Most of the office employees were of the matured age and were working in the company for 7-8 years; some of them were working since the company’s foundation.

Hiring or involving relatives is common feature of an Asian business environment. And along with the official organizational structure there is another unofficial scheme of organizational relations based on authority of particular people irrespectively of their official position. Sometimes the authority was determined by being a relative of some locally well known governmental official, or one of the top management members. There were several relatives in the this company as well, including Human resource manager, salary accountant drilling manager and one of the managers in chain department. The family was very respectful among the local community. As a result of this, for instance, Chief accountant did not have much power and influence on some members of the accounting team. Production department was not providing the required information to accounting and finance staff on time and such situations were resolved not by interference of chief accountant but by the salary accountant. Finance and Accounting, Human resource and administration departments were mostly comprised by women.    

The normal working day used to start with tea drinking lasting for at least one hour. Another tea party usually started at 16:30 and after 17 most of them were leaving for home. 

Finance and Accounting Department was comprised of two divisions Finance and accounting. Finance division was engaged in Budgeting, planning and control activities while functions of accounting department included proper recording of day to day transactions, preparation of financial statements, filing the primary documents and tax compliance. The company had 2001-2003 tax audits.

It should be noted that afterwards the performance of accounting division was recognized as not satisfactory. Accountants were making mistakes in treatment of some transactions, calculation of state taxes, compliance of tax reports, accruals of expenses and prepayment write offs and etc. The Company was not spending funds on trainings of accountants neither did they requested these trainings.

Under subsurface use contract concluded with the Government of Kazakhstan the company operated under tax stability regime meaning that the company calculated, reported and remitted the tax amounts based on 1995 tax legislation. At that time numerous tax matters were not resolved which created significant tax risks.  

 

Investor Company

In 2004 the company was acquired by a foreign investor company which appointed new general and financial directors. The finance director and general directors were members of different interest groups with in this investor company and did not reflect much cooperation to each other.

General Director was a 45-50 aged British person with technical background and rich experience in large international petroleum companies. He did not interfere with the office issues and was more focused of field operations attracting expatriate drilling managers and geologists.

Financial Director was a Kazakh person recruited by the investor company specifically for this project. He is a highly skilled professional with strong financial background including financial institutions and industrial companies. Having a western views on business management and relations within the organizations he was willing to change the existing environment.

Being a professional in the sphere of finance and accounting he highlighted the weaknesses of the accounting function and low professional qualities of the chief accountant and offered her trainings, while another person would execute her duties temporarily. However, the chief accountant resigned shortly.

A new chief accountant, Tax manager and reporting manager were attracted by the financial Director in order to improve the accounting function of the department and reduce taxation risks.

Chief accountant was generally welcomed by the accounting team as she was a local person, and previously worked in the same area. Secondly, a reporting manager was invited to deal with the reporting of financial performance to the head office of the investment company for consolidation. Just after that I was offered a tax managers position at this company I accepted the offer and moved to that city. Before the nomination of Reporting manager and tax manager of the company there were rumors among the accountants about new people coming to control their activities. As to me the tax manager and the reporting manager, we experienced faced a considerable challenge during the first period of working in the Company.

My colleague a Reporting manager was also a 27 years old professional from Price Waterhouse Coopers he left it being senior consultant.

There were certain issues circulating, not only in the finance department, but all throughout the organization. The HR manager, along with the salary accountant, gave away personal information, such as the precise amount of our salary, to the rest of the finance department. Furthermore, many of the junior accountants and office employees were demoralizes at the fact that none of them has yet received a promotion and has not yet been given the due amount of salary, whereas, some newly hired employees were given a higher degree of compensation, even more than those who have held higher office since the conception of the company.  Moreover, some employees do not seem to have any inkling towards superiority in rank and ability. I was given two accountants to assist me with the tax calculation and compliance, but the two were not willing to be my subordinates and did not comply with my chosen flow of the work. However, the Finance Director took immediate action and notified employees that in the future, they should learn to work with me unless they wanted to receive a suspension.

Case Analysis

Organizational behavior perspective

Leadership and Motivation

 

Basically, leaders have a common set of characteristics which includes single-mindedness, excellent communication skills, self belief, very strong sense of purpose and charismatic. The leader’s behavior will demonstrate how that personality applies itself along the chosen purpose to give a behavior pattern in a given situation, with a leadership style. There are number of ways to categories leadership style; in one way lets look at the relationship set against the need to complete the task.

Ø  Authoritarian style where the leader simply tell the people to do the task without regard of their view of it.

Ø  Delegation style. The leader feel the task is not important or not interested in the task, or feels that its beneath his dignity; he delegate it totally on others.

Ø  Participatory leadership, the task is not important but the people are. The people with whom the task is done are important.

Ø  Persuasive leadership, here the people and the task both are important. Therefore, to finish the task incentives and motivation are given. Here the team could be the part of the process of objective setting.

 

The leaders are employed to get the task done through the people they have control over. It is the responsibility of the leader to balance the set of objectives, irrespective of his seniority. All the conflicts, which arise due to this, will be resolved. There should be no breakdown or neglect in one or the other areas, because if it is so, it will affect the efficiency of the work. The prime objectives of the leaders are to:

Ø  Achieve the task – to get the job done by planning, allocating resources, controlling the work done, monitoring against the plan and taking the necessary and appropriate corrective actions;

Ø  Develop individuals – attending to personal problems, praising individuals, giving status, recognizing and using the abilities. And continuously working towards improvement of the individuals. .

Ø  Build the team – setting performance standards, maintaining discipline, building team spirit, encouraging, motivating, giving a sense of purpose and training the people as well as at all time working to improve communication with the group;

Ø  Achieve personal objectives – leaders should not forget they themselves have the responsibility to their own career and personal objectives, and that no team wants to be lead by the leader who does not show a degree of personal enthusiasm and ambition.

 

To achieve these goals, leaders can work wonders through motivation. The relationship between organizations and their workforces is governed by what motivates individuals to work at their best and the satisfaction they derive from their activities. Without willingness and cooperation of motivated staff, an organization cannot be effective or successful.  Motivators includes economic rewards (salary, benefits, pension and security), intrinsic rewards (interest in the job, personal growth and development, appreciation, positive recognition), and social relationships (friendship at work, status and dependency).

In the implementation of a new system in the company, problems are foreseen which are primarily on the employees. The new system would make major changes in the working scheme of the whole organization. Most of the employees are used to the old system and having the new system would change how people work, think or behave. Generally, people dislike changes which would undermine the implementation.

In this case, leadership and motivation would be an important task that the management of the company should take into action. Persuasion is the appropriate leadership style which the management of the company should use. As it is defined, both the task and the people are important in which incentives and motivation is also used to persuade the employees to finish their job.

As the leaders of the organization, it should be considered that people are motivated to do their work when they feel they are important in the organization and when they are given proper pay. Motivators can be extrinsic and tangible. Examples include pay, job security, safety, promotion, pensions, employee friendly policies and favorable working conditions. Or they can be intrinsic and intangible, with examples including opportunity to perform, challenge, sense of achievement, personal growth, positive recognition, and being appreciated, valued and treated with respect, care and consideration.

Managers and leaders should work therefore on these motivators to find creative and effective ways to improve staff performance, productivity and retention. Effective leadership and managerial support can reduce staff frustration and dissatisfaction while increasing productivity and retention.

 

Change management perspective

Treatment of employees is a key ethical element for any employer. This applies to everything within an organization, including change. Ethics should rule in organizational change.

When we speak of changing organizations, it is already understood that a group of people responds to enforced change at work in a corporate way and sometimes presupposes that there will be a consensus that change agents should work for in the larger group. Common sense suggests that in fact change initiatives, though planned for centrally, are implemented at group and individual levels. Therefore, any resistance to change from these individuals can create serious trouble for the change initiatives. Disregarding the need for change in order to retain employees could probably be bad for the company. In today’s competitive environment, more and more companies are viewing organizational change as a tool to help remain on top of the competition. If the company decides to disregard the need for change, in the long run maybe the employees will no longer have work too. It is therefore a must for employees to understand the need for change and support it for the benefit not only of the company but for the employees as well. The employees must understand that any change in the company is for the betterment of the company and for them as employees as well. To ignore the call for change within an organization is to ask for trouble.

In order to understand more clearly the role of the employees in organizational change, further explanation on the dynamics of change is needed. Change is frequently characterized as fast or slow, enthusiastically endorsed or adamantly opposed, or as "on a roll" or "dead in the water." These characterizations highlight three distinct change dynamics currently receiving research attention: resistance to change, readiness for change, and building and maintaining momentum (2000).

Creating these changes has the aim of leading the company to organizational improvements in order to keep up with the changing environment. Change management is supposed to provide a map that will allow organizations to turn those changes to their advantage by redesigning the formal operating system of the company (2002).

There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. The difficulties of managing change have been recognized for over 400 years. Changing a company's culture is indeed a major task. The change is managed with this proven path. It is a tested way to implement your program with very little risk (1991). This difficulty in implementing change is further intensified with employees who continually resist to changes.

Resistance to change has long been recognized as a barrier to organizational change attempts. It encompasses a range of behaviors from passive resistance to active resistance or even aggressive resistance. It is an outcome, a natural by-product of change, a fact of life (2000).

            With all the changes in the world, industry, and market, there will simply be no more standing still. Employees who continually resist change have to accept the fact that there is no other way forward for the company but this.

At one time or another, all organizations share some common concerns and challenges to do with change, such as rebuilding trust, instilling a sense of ownership, shifting strategic focus, or adapting to new management. The various players in a change situation--sponsors, change agents, advocates, well-wishers, targets, and bystanders--and how they interact with one another as a change plays out, make the difference between a winning initiative and something less desirable (2002).

The secret to effective change management is to reprogram the culture slowly but steadily. The real key to successful change management is to be able to ensure that the business and culture are in synch with each other. The culture must constantly support the business initiatives. Left unattended, the two will get out of synch, and the culture will deteriorate and bring down the business or make it less efficient (2002). By culture, it includes the employees and how they do things in the organization. If organizational culture does not support the change needed by the business, then most likely the whole organization will suffer. There are some recommendations that can help overcome employee resistance to change and get business and culture in synch.

Studies of change management in organizations suggest that employees are more likely to respond to an intervention when they directly contribute to its development or when the content of the intervention accurately reflects their personal concerns. In order for an ethics program to be accepted by employees, it is thus important that their perspective be incorporated into the design by whatever means are most appropriate to the particular cultural context (1994).

As already stated, employee resistance is a common reaction to any organizational change. The employees who will have the difficulty in accepting change will be those in the positions who do follow-through and attend to repetitious and tedious work such as, secretaries and accountants, while employees in self-managing positions such as, salespeople and management will readily welcome change. To be able to implement this effectively and with less resistance, be sure to explain the necessity of the change in details, listen to what the employees will have to say and finally, ask for their support (1997).

            The most sensitive situation that requires the managing of change is one dealing with a subordinate employee or manager who must change to improve effectiveness and meet changed performance requirements. It is successful when the subordinate employee or manager makes the change required and improves performance to a satisfactory level. If this is not the result, the subordinate employee or manager must be replaced and/or reassigned ( 1994).

            People who switch jobs want and expect change. Employees, however, frequently react negatively to being told they must change the way they do their job, especially by their boss or their boss' boss. Some resent having change being handed down "from on high" without being given the opportunity for input (1997).

            In order to bring about change, leaders therefore must address all important domains that go with change effectively. According to a business review article, seventy percent of change programs fail ( 2002). That's depressing news at a time when more and more companies face upheaval. They fail because leaders shy away from making changes broad enough, deep enough, and above all, swift enough to revive the company. Instead, they administer a series of half-cures, which often serve only to prolong the agony which is inevitable to respond to change anyway.

One of this important domain is the understanding the employees. All of these are clearly easier said than done. Some basic principles in organizational change and innovation may help improve the success rate of managing change in organizations and these should be taken into account by managers and leaders (2003).

            In addition to understanding your employees and their specific, personality-related reaction to change, there are four things that management can do to reduce resistance.

First, explain, in detail, why the change is needed. If it is being made for obvious or logical reasons, your people, after the initial shock, will probably understand and support it. Next, be very specific when explaining the change. The more detail you can provide, the better. This helps employees know exactly what part of their work will be affected and what will not. This also helps pull the plug on the company rumor mill. The less concrete information your people have, the more likely they are to worry, speculate or object (1997).

            Third, ask for each employee reaction, both for and against. Don't be afraid of negative comments. The open, responsive atmosphere you will create by asking for input will far outweigh the effects of any negative comments. Then, after you have explained why the change is necessary, how it will affect your people and have asked for and listened to their feedback, ask each employee to support the change, even if they disagree with it (1997).

            Aside form understanding the employees and explaining to them in detail the need for change and how this could benefit them, the manager or change leader needs to think beyond resistance. The change leader must attend to the more specific reasons for resistance, such as loss of control or loss of self-efficacy, to diagnose problems more accurately and to overcome them more efficiently and effectively.

 

Leadership Perspective

A change leader, by definition, should inspire the workforce to embrace change, creates direction for the change effort, helps the organization’s workforce to adapt to change, and ensures that intervention is continuously monitored and guided in ways consistent with stakeholders’ desired results.

The role of change managers is of great importance to managing change. Aside from understanding the employees and explaining to them in detail the need for change and how this could benefit them, the manager or change leader needs to think beyond resistance. The change leader must attend to the more specific reasons for resistance, such as loss of control or loss of self-efficacy, to diagnose problems more accurately and to overcome them more efficiently and effectively ( 1995).

Change leaders must also keep in mind the context of the change and focus on explanations other than individual resistance for why change may not be occurring. Change leaders must also think beyond the wisdom that people resist change by challenging themselves to consider their role as change leaders may play in creating and propagating resistance ( 2000).

Change leaders must also create and foster readiness and momentum. They need to consider just how much (or how little) contribution a change leader makes to influence individual change perceptions. According to(1990), both readiness and momentum research propose that managers can indeed manipulate aspects of the change to increase readiness or build momentum. For starters, this research suggests that change leaders, managers, and HR professionals should take into consideration the message for change, the manner by which messages are communicated, and the timing of events (2000).

Lastly, change leaders need to manage the social energy of change. Beyond the message and timing of events, change leaders should remember that each of the methods for creating or building energy will be interpreted through individual and group lenses (2004). Thus, it is important to keep in mind the social aspects of maintaining energy. It may be that early adopters can be enlisted to help spread the word about the need for change or that individuals central to the change can play a key role in maintaining momentum (2000).

This also suggests that negative information associated with a change should be communicated in situations or at times when social interaction is less likely to minimize its impact (e.g., e-mail or note rather than large gathering of employees). Last, but certainly not least, change leaders must remember that individuals may respond to change either cognitively or affectively. Both responses are important carriers of social information. Cognitively, individuals will arrive at judgments about readiness and momentum by considering their own attitudes as well as those they are exposed to socially. Affectively, it is important to remember that while excitement and enthusiasm can be quite contagious, so too can fear, anger, and resentment. Managing the social energy of change is fast becoming a necessary tool for change leaders ( 2000).

Once an organizational change has been established, the individual and collective behavior of the organization should change and adapt itself in a process that might be very slow and whose results can be unforeseeable. The institution might be strengthened, or change, or lose its force, or it might produce changes in other institutions and norms that, in turn, give way to a new adjustment process as a result of the organizational change (1994).

What needs to be cultivated is the motivation, sensitivity, and imaginative vision needed to change irreconcilable factionalism into a growing pluralistic community (1988). As already seen, such a change requires not an imposition from on high, but a deepening that gets beneath such impositions.

The understanding of a radically diverse way of life or way of making sense of things is not to be found from above by imposing one's own reflective perspective upon such diversity, but rather from beneath, by penetrating through such differences to the sense of the various ways of making sense of the world as these ways emerge from the essential characteristics of beings fundamentally alike confronting a common reality in an ongoing process of change (2000).

 

Conclusion

Individuals resist change; teams and groups resist change; whole organizations do it, too. Furthermore, entire societies, continents, world religions, and even the broad sweep of humanity, reflexively resist change. This is a problem, but it is not without a solution. Finding which solution works best for the organization is the key to overcoming employee resistance to change.

 

Changes always bring things, good and bad, to organizations. When not handled properly, change would likely become a barrier to the growth of the organizations. However, when handled carefully it would be a way to success for many organizations. Changes just needed to be implemented properly in order to support the improvement of the organizations.

            Furthermore, with the above analysis, the company has the exact strategies to properly manage the business. The company possesses a lead in the market. However, as business as it is there are still threats of competition and changing consumer demand. The company should considered sustainable competitive advantage to be able to stay in the business.

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