Introduction
As Thatcher et al. (2018) highlight, the world is growing at an extraordinary pace, especially in the twenty-first century. Transformations are being experienced in many areas of the globe. However, as the transformations are being experienced due to the dynamic advances, there are issues that companies in the contemporary setup are experiencing. Thatcher et al. (2018) define global issues as matters that affect the whole world and are of public concern. Such issues affect not only the citizens of various nations but also organizations. Mostly, the global issues are closely related and cannot be separated from each other. These issues negatively affect organizations in areas such as the accessibility of raw materials, supply chain dependability, labor supply, employees’ anticipations, administrative regulations, and customer demands (Tomislav, 2018). It is crucial to identify these issues and how they are related to helping the relevant authorities and management respond effectively. Additionally, it means that they will always be ready for changes to counteract the issues that are evolving day after day due to the dynamism of the world. Therefore, this report discusses the extent to which the Major global issues of the current time are related to one another in the context of an organization. The issues in consideration are globalization, national culture, foreign policy, gender inequality in the workplace, climate change, corporate power and corporate social responsibility, business ethics, leadership and digitalization or technology.
Globalization
Globalization is the interconnectedness between nations through certain relationships, thus making the world a “small village” (Lund et al., 2019). Globalization is highly connected with other issues such as foreign policies, technology and climatic change. The theory of liberalism will be used to explain globalization and its relationship with other issues. It views globalization as a market-led extension of modernization (Tanvir, 2022). Simply, it results from people’s desires to have economic welfare and liberty in politics. Foreign policies are connected with globalization in that favorable foreign policies encourage organizations to venture into other international companies, thus promoting globalization. The reverse is also true; globalization helps companies understand the best policies to apply to their nations for increased productivity. Liberalism explains that connectivity in the world is brought about by people’s desire to maximize well-being (Tanvir, 2022). One of the ways they use is using suitable legal and institutional arrangements to help markets grow. This means that the suitability of the legal and institutional arrangements increases world connectivity as people aim to have political liberty and economic welfare. On the other hand, some nations borrow suitable policies from other developed countries, and this is made easy due to the interconnectedness of the world through globalization. This makes the laws to keep on changing from nation to nation as they try to incorporate suitable laws in their nation that would help them gain economic welfare and political liberty.
Globalization has also contributed significantly to climatic change as the nations try to gain economic welfare and political liberty. In a pursuit to accomplish those goals, globalization has increased industrialization, technology, and internationalization, which has brought about worldwide climate change. AsSwain et al. (2020) highlight, worldwide climate change has developed observable effects and impacts on the ecosystem and is amongst the greatest challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. These activities greatly contribute to global warming, one of the major causes of climatic change. King & Harrington (2018) defines global warming as the gradual increase of temperature due to excessive levels of carbon dioxide, Chlorofluorocarbons and other pollutants. Due to industrialization, the industries greatly release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as they manufacture the raw materials to finished goods. The sale of such materials makes companies economically stable. The advancement of technology has increased transport and communication, especially information processing. Transport facilities release harmful gases into the atmosphere due to gasoline and diesel combustion, thus polluting the environment. Communication, especially the use of Information Technology, requires energy. However, most companies use nonrenewable energy sources such as electricity (Haseeb et al., 2019). Using nonrenewable energy sources requires fossil fuels to be burned, increasing the release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
In internationalization, the different companies need raw materials to reach the company and the finished goods to the end-users. In such cases, more fuel is used to transport the inventories, especially in cases of long distances from one country to another, thus increasing greenhouse emissions (Swain et al., 2020). Therefore, industrialization, technology, and internationalization greatly contribute to climatic change leading to rising temperatures in the atmosphere. The rising temperatures have negative impacts on the ecosystem, such as rising sea levels, droughts and floods (Swain et al., 2020). Even though some nations, such as developing countries, have little contribution to the worldwide climatic changes due to the world’s interconnectedness through globalization, they are also being affected by the negative consequences. Through technology, organizations are enlightened on effective ways of carrying out operations that will reduce the release of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Such procedures include installing renewable energy sources and planting trees that act as carbon banks.
National culture
Groysberg et al. (2018) define culture as the ideas, customs, and ways of conduct of specific individuals or communities. National culture is greatly related to gender inequality in the workplace and leadership. The theory to be applied in national culture is Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory. It was developed by Geert Hofstede and is used to understand the variances in culture across nations and determine effective methods that commercial activities are done in those cultures. The six categories he identified that define culture are power distance index, collectivism vs. Individualism, uncertainty avoidance index, femininity vs. masculinity, short-term vs. long-term orientation and restraint vs. indulgence (Gerlach & Eriksson, 2021). As Groysberg et al. (2018) highlight, the effect of culture on contemporary businesses cannot be ignored. It has a considerable impact on international businesses. Culture is related to leadership through the power distance index. Basically, the power distance index assesses how a culture views power relationships amongst individuals. There are two categories of power distance index; high power index and low power index. A high power index reveals that culture has unevenly distributed power based on a hierarchy of authority. On the other hand, a low power index shows that organizations have flat organizational structures with even power distribution.
Leadership and culture are closely related. Zander (2020) defines leadership as the ability of people to influence their followers to accomplish organizational goals. Basically, people in different geographical regions apply different forms of executive leadership. An organization may have power distributed in hierarchies while others may have flat structures that encourage decentralized decision making. Organizations with well-structured organizational structures are cultures with high power index and value bureaucracy, respect ranks and authority, and have a centralized way of making decisions. On the other hand, those with flat organizational structures have a culture of low power index. They mainly use a participative management style and emphasize greatly on power distribution. Therefore, every local and international organization has a leadership culture they have employed to help them influence, motivate and inspire their followers.
Culture is related to gender inequality in the workplace through the category of masculinity and femininity. According to Gerlach & Eriksson (2021), masculinity is a culture that emphasizes on ambition, wealth acquisition and distinguished gender roles. They mainly value the importance of power. On the other hand, femininity emphasizes on caring and nurturing behaviors and more fluid gender roles. The main cause of gender inequality in the workplace is the masculinity culture applied by many organizations. It is clear that gender inequality in local and international corporations has risen. As Dashper (2019) highlights, the group of people highly discriminated against in the workplace in terms of gender are women. This has been an issue in the world for so long. Despite research revealing that organizations with more women are more profitable, the gender gap is still large in most companies globally. Research reveals that more men are hired in entry-level jobs than women, and the representation in the subsequent levels reduces gradually. This is brought about by the adoption of masculinity cultures in organizations.
In terms of leadership, most companies value men’s leadership as opposed to female leadership. This is based on the cultural notion that women are supposed to take care of their husbands, kids and families and thus are not supposed to engage in activities that will disrupt their ability to carry out family duties (Essig & Soparnot, 2019). This becomes a great hindrance to them getting into more serious operations such as those involving Science, Technology, Science and Mathematics. Additionally, there is a cultural belief that they are supposed to work in service industries and do jobs such as hospitality, catering and teaching. This acts as a hindrance even in leadership positions because organizations value masculinity to the point of having fewer women in the top and executive positions (Essig & Soparnot, 2019). However, companies should embrace cultures with gender diversity for increased productivity and performance. In most cases, most women are demotivated to work in settings that value men more than women and thus do not give their all in the operations allocated to them.
Corporate power and corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is a matter that every business should be concerned with in the 21st century. According to Abad-Segura et al. (2019), exercising corporate power responsibly is one of the most critical aspects in organizations by influencing the direction, nature, and level of success for any organization both now and in the years to come. As a company chooses to do what is right for its own sake and that of the society, it shapes individual lives as well as the whole society and ends up benefiting and building trust with customers. According to Tamvada (2020), the operational performance of an organization is influenced by its ability to make things happen and whose interests are considered in the decisions that are made. Corporate power and responsibility are closely linked to leadership, business ethics, and the environment due to their contributions to minimizing adverse effects that cause climatic changes. Thus, responsible exercise of power should be considered a critical element that influences profitability, employee retention, customer loyalty, and the long-term competitive advantage of an organization in today’s business world.
The business ethics theory of CSR creates a strong relationship between CSR and business ethics where CSR philosophies are drawn from ethics. Corporate power and social responsibility relate to other global issues to a greater extent due to the corporate reputation and valuation that stems from it. According to Tamvada (2020), the global media highlights the sensitive relationship between society and businesses which make organizations experience adverse criticisms that require rapid and challenging agendas. Through stakeholder theory of CSR, organizations are able to reconcile all the stakeholders’ interests in decision-making processes. The ability to make this reconciliation yields long-term benefits for the shareholders and various stakeholder groups. Failure to use corporate power responsibly creates a complex link between attitudes, actions, sense of values, and ethics that would negatively impact the motivation of all those involved in decision-making in an organization (Boeger et al., 2008). It is no longer considered sufficient for a business to use its resources and focus on activities that increase its profits. Organizations need to make constructive contributions to the entire society to introduce positive energy to the problems and issues affecting performance for success to maintain. Thus there is a high connection between social responsibility, financial returns, leadership and good governance, climatic changes, working conditions and gender balance, and business ethics which includes anti-corruption measures.
Business Ethics
Ethics are essential in the global economy to enable organizations to meet the needs of the people in different parts of the world and also contribute to development and improving quality of life. As highlighted by (Islam & Greenwood, 2021), ethics are the values, beliefs, and principles that help in defining right or wrong actions encompassing social outreach, destiny and values, and business code and compliance. Though there are laws and statutes in different countries to hold workers accountable and deter them from unethical behaviors, organizations worldwide still have challenges navigating around ethical issues. According to Crane et al. (2019), an organization’s ethical standards entail basic and complex issues from integrity and trust-based conduct to compliance and governance, empathetic decisions, and diversity inclusive culture that can align with the core values of the organization. To fully understand the compliance and ethical risks that could affect a business, managers, and leaders need to have a better understanding of what these issues are, and so they have to research other global issues affecting businesses. This creates a strong connection between business ethics and other global issues showing that they cannot be separated when dealing with problems affecting business growth and expansion.
Utilitarianism theory in business ethics reveals a strong relationship between business ethics and corporate social responsibility. It brings the idea that businesses should take into account the results that would benefit the highest number of people through their conduct (Crane et al., 2019). The consequences of their actions should be more beneficial to group of people rather than seeking benefits from transactions alone. Business ethics strongly relates to various global issues affecting businesses, such as workplace diversity and gender differences, the exercise of corporate power, rights, religion, the environment, and equity (Islam & Greenwood, 2021). Most of the global issues affecting businesses are covered in ethical issues which go beyond employees’ ethical conduct to practices related to corporate governance, social responsibility, workplace discrimination, integrity and trust, and fiduciary duties. As revealed by Ferrell and Fraedrich (2021), workplace discrimination in terms of age, sex and gender, disability, religion, race, and equal pay arguably make up the largest part of ethical issues that affect businesses. Business ethics also cover technology and privacy practices under the umbrella of nondisclosure agreements due to the possibility of technological developments posing privacy concerns for employees and clients. This brings out a strong relationship between business ethics and digitization as a global issue impacting businesses. Thus, business ethics is related to other global issues to a greater extent and almost covers all of them when detecting ethical issues in business.
Leadership
Leadership is one of the aspects in organizations that have experienced an extensive shift from autocratic to more collaborative leadership approaches. According to Zander (2020), a lot has changed in leadership in the 21st century, where the aim now is to foster productivity, teamwork, creativity, and innovation in various capacities. This shows that heroic organizational leadership, where leaders use the power of their position to make unilateral decisions, will hinder the organization’s ability to respond to upcoming challenges. Making decisions for the groups the leader manages will not be working hand in hand to promote teamwork and collaboration in organizations as some of the aspects promoting business success in the 21st century (Sobratee & Bodhanya, 2018). Leadership issues that most organizations experience stem from technological revolutions where things and connectivity are no longer as they used to be, people issues, market forces driving changes in organizations, learning and development, and the relationship with employees and the world around the organization.
In behavioral theory, leadership should be about specific behavior and action of leaders rather than focusing on their characteristics and traits related to leadership (Mango, 2018). This shows that leadership relates to other aspects that contribute to learning and gaining skills such as technology, culture, and business ethics that play a role in shaping an individual who can perform as expected. Leadership is related to other global issues to a greater extent, seen in the need to solve problems, IT developments, embrace diversity, and promote globalization through interdependent and shared leadership. The visons of an organization usually suffer when leadership is not considered a part and an influencer of other global issues affecting businesses. Zander (2020) argued that without a good leader, there are inevitable scenarios that will arise in organizations creating conflicts between teams and across departments. This shows that leadership is highly related to several issues that adversely affect business operations and performance. According to Sobratee and Bodhanya (2018), organizations are currently embracing situational theory and shared leadership strategy rather than clinging on to heroism for change-friendly organizations and promoting inclusivity. Without good leadership, the vision of the organization becomes unattainable due to delayed decisions, reduced productivity and morale, and conflicts that make success difficult.
Technology
Technology is one of the aspects affecting business operations and how they are managed. According to Rachinger et al. (2018), digitization plays a significant role in people interactions, marketing, and transforming production processes. Globalization is highly linked to technological developments as organizations gain access to foreign knowledge, which strengthens firms to adopt foreign technologies and use their incentives to innovate (Haseeb et al., 2019). Moreover, the vice versa is also true where technology has become the force driving modern businesses into globalization, showing that it can be a weakness or a strength depending on whether it is in tune with globalization.
Theories of technology such as technology determinism and social constructivism show the relationship between technology and people and the events that humans engage in (Johnson & Wetmore, 2021). How people engage with information and perspectives connects with national culture, business ethics, globalization, and leadership across organizations. Additionally, this shows a strong relationship between technology and leadership by helping in communication, supervision, and building and maintaining relationships in organizations. People issues are affected in the process as leaders get a better way to deal with the employees and are also promoted amongst the workers. Compared to other factors, technology has had the highest effect on globalization by introducing immense transformation in communication, and the way companies organize productions. Changes in technology bring advantages and opportunities hence affecting every other aspect and issue related to globalization.
Conclusion
This report has outlined how various global issues are related to each other and the extent to which they are related. Globalization is related to technology to a greater extent showing that technology could either be strength or a weakness in globalization depending on how tuned an organization is to technology. Additionally, globalization relates to foreign policies and climatic change to a greater extent as some of the aspects that hinder or promote globalization and business internationalization into different countries. Leadership relates to business ethics, technology, and has a greater influence on corporate social responsibility depending on how corporate power is exercised. Business ethics relates to leadership, diversity, exercise of corporate power, and gender issues in the workforce to a greater extent since these are the issues focused upon when handling ethical issues. Corporate power and CSR relates to leadership, business ethics, and climate change to a greater extent since these are the key aspects that influence corporate social responsibility in organizations. National culture highly relates to political factors and language barriers due to their effect on international business considering people in different geographic regions had different ways of doing things.
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