Globalization and Managing Work Organizations in Sri Lanka

Today the world has become a one village under the same roof breaking out cultural geographical & socio economical boundaries & limitations within past few decades. With that occurrence all people around the world has been integrated with each other regardless their races colours & cultural aspects. What’s this revolution? It’s an unprecedented experience that people all around the world enjoy.
It’s the globalization. What does it really mean? The simple definition is integration of economies & societies all over the world.Some might argue in optimistic perspective . Another might do the same in pessimistic way. But as far as single country or nation is concerned there are much more issues & effects of globalization that have to be taken into account. However what need to be concerned is to filter up the positive aspects in this process as there is a negative aspect as well that might coincide at the same time. Globalization is an integration of the countries of the world in order to develop the global economy.
Two types of such integration are obvious.They are negative & positive integration. Under the negative integration it discusses about the loss of trade or protective business. But sometimes it might be beneficial for a country as it allows to import essential & important products to the country. Positive integration means standardizing international economic laws & policies. That means having similar policies between two or more countries in case of business. The globalization has created so many effects & aspects.

The major effect among them is improvement of international trade.There may be dramatically improvement in both import & export as trade barriers & limitation are not strict too much in globalized context. When international trade improves there is a technological progress as well since government try to enhance the level of technology. Greater mobility of human recourses across the countries is another major effect of globalization. Nowadays such labor exporting is much obvious. A country that has a shortage of manpower might export labour from another country to fulfill the vacancies. But there is another bad aspect as well to be concerned.
That’s threat aimed by those immigrated labors towards native ones. The influence of multinational companies is too another effect of globalization. The history of srilankan globalization claims nearly three decades as it became as a new phenomena with the start of the liberalized open economy in early 1970’s. Ever since the commencement the open economic policy the process of globalization has been making the significant influence in each & every sector of the economy in srilanka. With the liberalization economy in 1977, srilanka entered into the arena of globalization & thus, she has 33 years in this process.In the first phase of liberalization that means in 1977 to 1982 the country achieved internal balance in terms of high economic growth & low unemployment. In the second phase 1983 to 1994 internal imbalances such as low growth rate, high unemployment rate, high inflation with a external imbalance of large current account deficit were suffered.
They remain constant but higher than the second phase & aggravated social economic problems during the third phase of 1994 to date. Fiscal profligacy continue unabated, allegation of waste & corruption were galore.Privatization of government services & industries is another clear cut evidence during this period. So far we discuss about the what is the globalization & history of srilankan globalization. How globalization affect managing work organization is the key topic that we are to clarify about . By now srilankan economy is heavily globalised. This has spreaded out to each & every sectors in its economy such as industrial, telecommunication, banking, insurance & education etc.
It shows how srilankan civil society & economy is thoroughly globalised.If we pay our attention on how globalization has affected our srilankan economy, we have many to talk about. It’s obvious fact that we all know that early srilankan industry mostly deals with manual mechanism procedures . Afterwards when srilankan economy got open to the liberalized economy 1977,technological oriented business industries were commenced. At that time other countries such as European used the advanced technologies in their industrial processes. In comparison to their production and services ,the level of quality and standard of our production seemed to be too low.There it realized that in order to compete in international trade and business we ought to deal with this technology so that it was the only way in which we could compete with them.
Today In the context of srilankan business organization it’s hardly to find any that’s not dealing with the modern technologies. Nowadays srilankan banking system is heavily globalised. If anybody has got visa card he can make his transaction at any time at any location even at oversees. No need to have a branch of similar bank in which you have got your account but through any bank that linked together.A Srilankan citizen can fly up America and he can make any inquiry, transferring money or whatever action he desires through online or even through mobile phones. ………Telecommunication is another major sector that’s heavily globalized. In early srilankan economy telecommunication sector was not at a satisfactory level.
But by now it’s been subject to revolution and globalization. It‘s been hardly to find any organization that is away from using email & internet. Internet has become an indispensible service component for every business organization.In order to cater such services there are no of service providers emerged during last two decades. With the dramatical usage of mobile phones the demand for the mobile services such as dialog, mobitel has grown up. Conversion of mobile phone technology analog to digital was as a result of globalization. It got to know that analog would no longer support to cope with international hence changing to digital technology was the ever best solution.
Today not only telecommunication but also almost every business work organization are digitalized. Earlier major mean of correspondence was mail.Sometimes it takes two or three days to send a letter to remote corner of the island itself & it’s rather than a week or so to deliver a letter to oversees. But thanks to the e mail we can do it in just one second or so irrespective of time & location. The cost of corresponding charges has become lowest ever. That has resulted to increase productivity, efficiency & profitability of the work organization. Meeting is another way of communication in work organization.
Today no need to gather up to a physical location & have the meeting. Everything is possible through multimedia technology.Just say there are main 4 partners of the business . Andrew from America, Anand from India, Kushito from Japan, Sarath from Srilanka . Thanks to multimedia technology they can have their meeting online without gathering up to physical location. It helps to save time & enhance the productivity of organization. Education sector is rapidly globalised as well.
Organization have been able to recruited skillful talented qualified employees who have got more updated knowledge due to available of many international professional courses even in srilanka.CIMA, ACCA, CIM, CFA are some instances. Anybody who is seeking such international professional qualification can easily learn being in srialnka itself. Therefore work organization in srilanka can easily find out talented skillful qualified employees. When there is such set of talented human resources, productivity & efficiency of work organization would increase up. Hotel & tourism sector is another globalised sector in srilanka. They have to get manage in a way that they can satisfy any visitors regardless his country, culture etc.
It’s obvious today each & every srialankan hotels make available any type of food such as Chinese . Italian, Indian Thai etc. Not only food & beverages but also another utility services such as herbal treatments, massages, spa have been available to satisfy any visitor coming from every nook & crannies of the world. Online hotel booking is available option so that any person from any country get facilitated just in few seconds. Today business organization in srilanka pays their attention much more to make a globalised business culture. The obvious evidence is dress code.Western dress code is most commonly accepted way of dressing in most organization.
Apart from that the employees mostly in private sector are allowed to dress in casual one of the official days most probably it’s last Friday of every month. Not only that today English has become the most commonly accepted business language in srilanka. Another major globalized aspect in srilankan work organization is globalised accounting & financing practices. Nowadays, many business organizations tend to prepare their business financial reports in accordance with SLAS as well as IFRS.Especially in case of dealing with international global market, they are absolutely required to prepare their accounts in terms of foreign currencies in accordance with IFRS. Not only that in case of consolidating with oversees companies, business in srilanka ought to prepare their accounts in accordance with IFRS in addition to the set prepared in accordance with srilankan accounting standards [SLAS]. This is an obvious evidence specially in multinational companies such as Uniliver, Coca cola & other consolidated group of business such as Aitken spence & John keels ltd.
Therefore such business should be aware to recruit right set of HR, well knowledgeable & keen in the field of accounting & finance. Working at the European business hours is another globalised impact obvious in Srilanka. The typical example is WNS SOLUTION. They work during the European business hours since they need to be connected on line with their overseas branches. In such case such organization ought to have reliable & appropriate computer systems & applications & recruit qualified staff with fair computer literacy.Not only that they ought to comply with required rules & procedures such as IFRS in case of book keeping & preparing financial accounts………. Harbors & airports are major globalization oriented work organization.
They are the places where international trade & business often take place. It’s pleasure to say that government is paying their attention in order to enhance the level of quality of such organizations & build up more & more harbors & airports around the island. The consequences of such decisions is enormous.In addition to Colombo harbor, several harbors are being set up around the island so as to enhance the capacity of dealing with international trade & business. Apart from that Colombo harbor is scheduled to be expanded to store up & manage more & more containers. Warehousing facilities are scheduled to widen up as well. Today e-commerce is widely used by many business organizations in srilanka.
Through e commerce people can buy products & services online. But unfortunately e-commerce is used only in very limited business organization such as banks & hotels in Srilanka.Due to higher capital investment required to initiate such commerce system many organization are not prone to launch e commerce system. But however it’s pleasure to say that e-commerce used by above mentioned organizations are at a satisfactory level. Almost each & every bank in srilanka has facilitated their customers to be facilitated through at anytime any location just in few seconds. Money transferring, Cheque book ordering, withdrawing & even payment through visa credit & debit card are among them. Even some private hospitals have provided e- commerce facility.
For instance Nawaloka, Durdorns etc are there.E- Commerce is available even through mobile phone ,that is e-channeling. Through e-channeling a person can channel out any doctor through his mobile phone. This has caused to enhance the efficiency of above organization since it would reduce the traffic intensity of counter points & make easy to manage the workload of the organization. But as mentioned above the major issue dealing with e commerce is higher initial capital requirement. The banks & other organization that deal with e commerce ought to be equipped with modern technology supported by talented system & network maintaining staff.Many organizations nowadays tend to use digitalized security methods other than manual procedures.
In case of dealing with globalized environment ,there is a risk of getting exposed to vulnerable threats such as virus, hackers in a view of spoiling out their systems altering ,deleting the information of the business that’s the most integral part of any organization. Therefore relevant measures to avoid such vulnerable threats need to be set up. Such organization should take necessary actions & procedures to ensure the security of their system as much as possible.For instance, some organizations use firewall so as to avoid intruders & hackers. Hackers are the people who access others information using advanced software’s & technology. Since the information is the most precious treasury for any organization they must set up maximum security on their system to ensure their systems are free from vulnerable threats. Documenting process is another important part in any work organization.
This has too been subject to globalization in Sri Lanka. Earlier there was a paper based documentary system in almost every organization.But nowadays it’s hardly to see paper based documentary system as it’s now modernized & computerized . Hence that has resulted to reduce paper jam & workload of the organization & therefore there is a dramatical productivity & efficiency improvement in any work organization. Nowadays there are number of computer software to deal with documentary works. MS WORD,MS EXCEL,MS POWER POINT,NOTEPAD etc are few of them. That has made documentary work so easy as ever before.
Storing,retrieval & corresponding of documents has become easy than ever before through e mail ,fax etc.It’s possible to send number of copies of same documents /letters to number of persons in few seconds at once. This has led to improve the productivity & efficiency of business organization. We all know that srilanka has been exposed to globalization ever since the beginning of liberalized economic policy in 1977. Since then there has been a sequence improvement in both import & export trade business. There is a formal procedure which is done under the supervision of government authorities such as custom etc. And it’s common ecret that smuggling is being done in spite of strict supervision.
Smugglers try to smuggle using their own tactics & sometimes using advanced technology. Therefore it needs to establish proper controlling & security procedures in order to avoid such smuggling. Among them drugs smuggling takes a prime place. We all know that these drugs can cause for a wider social disaster. Therefore proper organizational procedures and authorizes have to be established in order to avoid this situation under the supervision of government.Not only that with the advancement of tourist industry in srilanka, tourist arrival rate has significantly improved up. Considerable number of tourists comes to Sri Lanka to enjoy her scenic beauty & bio diversity per annum.
Therefore it’s possible to fly up infectious deceases with them. Therefore airports should be facilitated & equipped with modern technologies [scanners] to identify immigrants with infectious diseases. With the arrival of multinational companies such as Uniliver, Coca cola etc, local business organizations have faced severe competition in the local market itself.Due to liberalized & globalised economic policy the oversees companies like multinational companies easily access our local market & do their business as freely as ever before. To face this global competition local business organization such as Ceylon cold stores, CBL should make their strategies in a way that they can surpass above multinational organization. The best typical example is CBL. CBL has often been innovating & experimenting variety of production & hence by now it has been able catch up more than 90% of the local market surpassing even such multinational companies.
With globalization entertainment has become key element of life style. People in srilanka are prone to spend their leisure time enjoying the entertainment. It’s clear cut evidence that both Hollywood & Bollywood industries are trying to devour the local market of srilankan film industry. Due to their highest attractive technological tactics & advance camera tricks they have been able to provide maximum entertainment. They are supported not only by the highest technology but even their governments facilitate them to enhance the level of quality of their film industry.Therefore relevant authorities in srilanka should focus their attention on this pathetic situation & should do everything possible to overcome this issue. Otherwise sooner or later srilankan film industry will collapse down forever.
However it’s pleasure to say that government has done something to improve the srilankan film industry. ”RANMINITHENNA” Tele cinema village is a typical example. We have to learn much more things in terms of technology usage. The quality of film theater needs to be enhanced so as to give a maximum entertainment . We ought to apply modern technology such as DFT, DOLBY DIGITAL etc.Then only we can overcome globalised entertainment competition & achieve the market. Thus globalization has led to derive more opportunities & strategies to make it easy to manage organization & on the other hand it creates severe threats & competition against the local work organization as well.
Therefore on what we should focus our attention is to manage work organization infusing its opportunities & surpass its invaded threats & competition. Then only Srilanka would have a BETTER TOMORROW IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALISATION…..