Elsevier

Safety Science

Volume 47, Issue 6, July 2009, Pages 727-732
Safety Science

Impact of globalization on human work

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2008.01.014Get rights and content

Abstract

This contribution addresses the phenomenon of globalization in its impact on the nature of work. Starting from an analysis and characterization of the general understanding of globalization, the contribution will attempt to identify those factors of globalization processes which appear to affect most strongly the work of different employment categories (e.g. management, production workers, intellectual workers). In a next step, the work and organizational psychological consequences of globalization in a two-pronged perspective will be analyzed: (1) The significant changes on work places (e.g. growth of mental work, expansion of service sector employment and corresponding shrinking of production work, work hour changes, unemployment, industrial relations). (2) The changing psychological demands on individuals in the work force (e.g. flexibility, coping with diversity, changing competence demands, changing the meaning of working). The concluding section considers the requisite political reorientation towards work in a globalizing world.

Introduction

Two dates can be identified that give the term “globalization” a generally accepted currency: 9/11/01 and 12/26/04. These dates especially have gained an evident world-wide significance. The first evokes the horror and inhumanity of the terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Towers in 2001. The second vividly incites scenes of hundreds of thousands of persons perishing within seconds in the deadly Tsunami in South-East Asia. The reason why these events awaken within us the feeling of a truly global phenomenon is probably the fact that people throughout the world can perceive the possibility of becoming a victim of such catastrophes.

The term “Globalization” entered public use only during the early 1990s. Meanwhile it has become yet another “catch-all” term – everyone uses it, everyone associates something with it, everyone probably something different. The attempt to define the term is as futile as nailing a pudding to the wall (Beck, 2002). And yet, there cannot be any doubt that the ubiquitous use of the term hides various most intriguing problems. Their precise nature co-varies with the particular notion various authors and disciplines denote with the term and phenomenon which is considered a crucial and extremely influential characteristic of our time. Not withstanding this consensus, psychology has hardly given it any attention. An exception is Arnett (2002) who focuses globalization’s effects on adolescence and assumes that “globalization is likely to be one of the dominant forces in the psychological development of the people of the 21st century” (781). This paper addresses the effects of globalization on work and workers.

First, a short review of some major disciplinary treatments of globalization in the relevant literature of various social science disciplines (Section 2) is presented. While each of these topics warrant separate treatments in volumes of books, this contribution confines itself to a sketch of two more specific and yet very broad issues: The significant changing demands in work places (Section 3) and the psychological and behavioral response adjusting/mal-adjusting to the changes by employees/workers (Section 4).

Section snippets

Economy

For Altvater and Mahnkopf (1996) globalization means the disappearance of economic and financial borders. The “process of globalization (in the perspective of the world system) appears as increasing integration of regions and Nations into the world market” (21). Its actors are mainly three kinds of enterprises: global players (internationally active companies and banks) which can withdraw themselves from competition, enterprises which cannot withdraw themselves but still are internationally

The impact of new information technologies

Technological innovation has always been an important factor of change in work. But changes due to the world-wide and wholesale introduction of new information technologies (NIT) in work have particularly important impacts, in part in promoting and speeding up globalization, in part of recurrently influencing work settings.

One consequence of NIT has often been noted: the switch from physical work demands to mental, information handling, “intellective” operations with their concomitant stressors

Groping for identity

For Arnett (2002:777) globalization influences fundamental psychological functioning: “The central psychological consequence of globalization is that it results in transformations in identity”. This, he assumes, is due to “the degree and intensity of the connections among different cultures and different world regions have accelerated dramatically because of the advances in telecommunication and a rapid increase in economic and financial interdependence world-wide.” (774). This new

Outlook

As has been shown, globalization dramatically upsets traditional and received structures and order on all societal levels: the individual, the family, the social community, the institutional and inter-institutional level. Formerly functional recipes and responses are increasingly becoming obsolete. Therefore, revolutionary rethinking is needed. It is unlikely that central political planning and action will achieve drastic changes in these complex and sensitive societal fabrics, because they

Acknowledgement

I gratefully acknowledge the support by Lisa Otte in the literature search.

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