Literature Review Of Globalization Theories: World-System, World Culture, And World Society

The World-System theory

International operations refers to the wide range of activities that are undertaken all across the national boundaries. Globalisation has been on the rise since the year 1970 and it has received a very popular boost right after the end of Cold War (Steger, 2017). Most of the economist believe to the point that globalisation has impacted some of the important trends of the world economy and they are- the flood of the migrants to the cities of poor countries, the lower wages for the workers, the low inflation, low rate of interest and higher profits in the Western countries. Apparently, it has been accelerated in the past 30 years. However, this paper is going to elaborate on presenting a brief literature review on some of globalisation theories such as the world-system theory, the world culture theory and the world society theory. It shall assess these theories on the basis on how long they have been used, their development over time, their utilisation in the research and how they could be applied to the different organisations of today. With the same, it shall also shed light on the application of these theories and practices to business situations today.

The world-system theory started out not as one of the theories of globalisation but of the development during the beginning of 1970s. Immanuel Wallerstein is considered to be the father of the world-system theory (Hall, 2018). It is an approach to the world social and historical changes and it suggests that there is a world economic system where some of the nation are benefitted but the others are exploited. As per Grosfoguel (2015), his is the theory that shed focus on the social structure of the global inequality. During the late 1950s, the field of development was dominated by the modernisation schools that came under the attack of the dependency theories along with other radical Third World approach to the global inequalities. However, by the end of 1970s, the world-system theory established as the alternative perspective from which to analyse and examine the issue of world inequalities and development (Arango, 2017). In research, the World-system theory asks many key questions and they are- a) what cause the world system to get changed b) how is the system of the world impacted by the changes in its components like the social classes, the nations, ethics groups etc. c) To what extent, does the key need the theory to be underdeveloped. In organisational context, system theory refers to the types of interaction as “productive process”. This theory treats the businesses of the organisations around the globe as the open systems and this means that they prevails in the environment of some kind and should make constant adjustments in order to survive in the business environment like how the living organisms do. For instance, the process of market research provides with the feedback regarding the affectivity of the efforts of the company. Also, the trade shows and other related forms of professional interaction with the peers outside the company also provide feedback if there is any company that could not compete effectively. Here, the closed systems could not survive. With the same, it is also used as the tool for understanding the various aspects of how businesses function. For example, the different parts of a business do not operate in the isolation from each other. Instead of this, anything that takes place in one department influence in each of other different. Like, if the manufacturing makes too many chairs, the marketing department would have a problem, and likewise, if the marketing sells too many chairs, the manufacturing would have a problem. Hence, according to world-system theory, all the parts of the system should work together as a whole. However, it is also to note that the critics of this theory like Wallerstein (2015) have argued that this theory encourages the owners of the businesses to seek constant growth and development and makes use of the resources and at the same time, become self-destructive.

The World culture theory

The World Culture theory is often considered to be a label for a specific interpretation of globalisation which focuses on the manner in which the participants in the process become very conscious about and gives a meaning to the concept of living in the world as a single place. As per Takayama (2015), it covers the acceleration in concrete international interdependence. It is also to note that the World culture theory is a response to the world polity theory. As per this theory, the world culture is very new and is important as well but it is not homogenous as the World Polity Theory claims. However, it was developed by R. Robertson in the year 1975. Since then it is been in use. He sees the main components of globalisation as the compression of the individuals and the human communities into the space, all together. The existence of the world as a whole forms a sense of “global culture” before individual and collective subjects. As per Robertson, there are four main actors of globalisation and they are humanity, social systems, national society and the individuals (Sobe, 2015). This theory influences the management all around the business world. It encompasses the behaviours and the values that aids to the unique psychological and social environment of the organisations. World culture theory seeks to explain an apparent convergence of education through a neo-institutionalism lens, seeing global rationalization in education as driven by the logic of science and the myth of progress. While critics have challenged these assumptions by focusing on local manifestations of world-level tendencies, such critique is comfortably accommodated within world culture theory. 

World society theory is often referred to as the World Polity Theory. According to this theory the states govern on the basis of some cognitive models and these models come from the society and culture, the NGOs, the IGOs and the other states transmit models (Amartya, 2017). It is also to note that the world society theory was developed in partial way in the response to the applications or implications of the world system theory. In the beginning of 1970s, John M. Meyer had made the world polity analysis that was initially revolved around examining the interstate relations (Weinert, 2018). Again, in the year 1970s, the work continued to done on the same. This theory is basically used as a social perspective for the analysis of organisations culture and change. It also identifies the important role played by the international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in the development and the formation of the world culture. With the same, according to Pinheiro, Chwieroth and Hicks (2015),  World Society theory plays a major role in the process of analytical framing for the interpretation of the international business relations, practices and structures.

Conclusion

Hence, from the above discussion it is clear that the process of globalisation change the theories of relation in between the domestic policies and the foreign ones, which were standards for the positivist theories. Along with the rapid increase in globalisation, the international operations have become one of the popular topics and has also drawn the attention of the government officials, business men, the academics and the common man. International operations are way different than the domestic ones. At the international level, globalisation of the economy of the world as well as the differences in between the nations have brought in both challenges and opportunities for the international operations.

References:

Amartya, S. E. N. (2017). What do we want from a theory of justice?. In Theories of Justice (pp. 27-50).

Arango, J. (2017). Theories of international migration. In International migration in the new millennium (pp. 25-45).

Grosfoguel, R. (2015). Transmodernity, border thinking, and global coloniality. Nous, 13(9).

Hall, T. D. (2018). Introduction: Comparing Globalizations—Historical and World-Systems Approaches. In Comparing Globalizations (pp. 1-9).

Pinheiro, D., Chwieroth, J. M., & Hicks, A. (2015). Do international non-governmental organizations inhibit globalization? The case of capital account liberalization in developing countries. European Journal of International Relations, 21(1), 146-170.

Sobe, N. W. (2015). All that is global is not world culture: Accountability systems and educational apparatuses. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 13(1), 135-148.

Steger, M.B., 2017. Globalization: A very short introduction(Vol. 86). Oxford University Press.

Takayama, K. (2015). Provincialising the world culture theory debate: Critical insights from a margin. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 13(1), 34-57.

Wallerstein, I. (2015). Globalism or Apartheid on a Global Scale?. In Modern World-System in the Longue Duree (pp. 11-36).

Weinert, M. S. (2018). Reading world society phenomenologically: an illustration drawing upon the cultural heritage of humankind. International Politics, 55(1), 26-40.