In general terms, globalization is the international integration of intercultural ideas, perspectives, products/services, culture, and technology. This has resulted in large scale interdependence between countries, as specialization (arguably the root cause of globalization) allows for specific regions to leverage their natural resources and abilities to efficiently produce specific products/services with which to trade for another country's specialization. This allows for a higher standard of living across the globe through higher efficiency, lower costs, better quality, and a more innovative and dynamic workforce.
Growth of Globalization
The ease of modern globalization is often attributed to rapid technological developments in transportation and communication. These form the central system of international exchange, allowing businesses to create meaningful business relationships worldwide with minimal time investment and costs. Management is tasked with ensuring these resources are available to employees and properly leveraged to optimize the geographic reach of a business's operations. This has led to the existence of many multinational enterprises (MNEs), who argue that survival in the newly globalized economy requires sourcing of raw materials, services, production, and labor.
From a managerial perspective, the global workplace implies an enormous amount of diversity management. Estimates of the world labor pool in 2005 noted that multinational companies employed a stunning 3 billion workers cumulatively, which is nearly half of the entire world population. As a manager, this means developing a globally