Ioana Micu, BA (Hons) HTM 4

How globalisation could affect the future work and leisure patterns of societies across the world

Ioana Micu, BA (Hons) HTM 4

If we put together the current changes in people, planet, technology, education and global wealth, everybody on the globe will have a profound impact on how we do business (Smith, 2007). This essay will critically discuss the effects of globalisation; the future work and leisure patterns of societies across the world affected by globalisation, such as global economic, work-leisure balance, inequality and world poverty, as well as the technology innovation in human life. The paper will justify the findings with academic research and relevant worldwide examples.

People go to work to generate income and have an interest in meaningful and fulfilling work, nevertheless, in recent years, global changes have reflected the importance of how people work and also how consumers spend their time outside paid work, both leisure and unpaid free time (Wilpert, 2009). Leisure time is defined by Martin and Mason (1998, p.20) as the free time that people have at the end of the working day, at the weekends, in paid holiday periods, and in the years of retirement. Taylor (2011) claims that our quality of home and leisure life is influenced by paid work. Martin and Mason (1998) predict that consumer spending in free time will double in volume by 2021, due to changes in consumer priorities in terms of the type of leisure activities and its location.

Since the wave of globalisation which started at the beginning of 1980s, early 1990s has promoted economic equality and reduced poverty (Wade, 2003). Globalisation came about due to the increase of world wide investments, production and marketing (Alden et al., 2006). For example, China in the recent years has become one of the largest urbanisation countries in human history, with an estimation of 150 million people moved from the
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countryside to work in factories in bigger cities which have highly decreased poverty in the Chinese nation (Hessler, 2008). Global Consumption Orientation (GCO) has a major influence on consumers; another similar example is South Korea which was 28% urban in 1960, whereas now 82% of the population live in urban areas (Alden et al, 2006). Globalisation opened the barriers and encouraged new flows, linkage and disruption of people; ideas; culture and politics; and affected the patterns of migration, labour and relations of inequality (Finn et al., 1999).

The population growth has major implications in the influence of the current global society. Smith (2007) states that the overall world population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050 with growth in the work force by 2030 in the USA, UK and Australia. This resulted in new interorganisational relations, as well as the opportunity for new individualisation of job demands, which will impact on social work relations (Wilpert, 2009). With the population growing, the world economy is growing as well. Smith (2007) states that the global economy will grow at a pace of 3% a year for the next decade, states such as China, India, Brazil, Mexico and other small countries will massively contribute to share in world of GDP (appendix 1). Smith (2007) claims, that the shift of economic growth will also influence the global consumer spending pattern (appendix 1). The consequences of the economic growth is that will alter the consuming economies, as a result the consumer product producers design and attention to details will play an important role in the workforce. Jeremy (2010) claims that consumerism had occurred as a result of economic growth and technological innovation, which increased the industrial efficiency. Jeremy (2010, p.5) claims that consumerism is social inefficiency. It is the inefficiency with which we use goods produced.
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Stiglitz (2002, p.9 cited by Wilpert, 2009, p.727) gives a different perspective of globalisation as ...closer integration of countries and people of the world with the emergence of new institutions and the importance of internationally active corporations moving capital, goods, and technology across borders. International trade can upgrade the income in low income countries while increasing unemployment in other parts of the world (Wilpert, 2009). Featherstone et al. (1995) claim that borders are easily accessed, the global-local flow of products and services are distributed across the globe faster than ever, for instance, America and Europe depend upon oil from Saudi Arabia, credit cards controlled from banks in Hong Kong, automobiles built in Mexico by Japanese firms.

Wade (2003) claims that over the past 20 years the number of people living on less than $1 a day has decreased dramatically by 200 million. National Geographic Magazine (2011) states that by 2030 more than one billion people in the world will reach the global middle class (see appendix 5), resulting in people consuming more meat and buying cars impacting on world production and consumption of food and energy. Global population is constantly growing, as a result the consumptions are increasing; the argument raised is how people consume resources matters. Globalization (`global` media) influenced many parts of the world by encouraging consumers to become materialistic (Alden et al., 2006). Alden et al. (2006, p.231) define materialism as worldly possessions and beliefs that he/she derives pleasure and happiness from their ownership. Furthermore, global culture advertises the dreams of material comfort, personal success and self-satisfaction, which are traits relating with materialism. In other words consumers are motivated to work harder in order to reach a high standard of living (Taylor, 2011). Arnett (2002 cited by Wilpert, 2009) states that the
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central psychological consequence of globalisation is that it results in transformations in identity. The new interconnectedness results in globalism as a one place with four identities: bicultural identity, identity confusions, self-selected cultures and emerging adulthood (Wilpert, p.730).

Global human security will challenge today's society in finding ways of satisfying the basic societal needs such as food, clothing, housing, education, health care, employment, respect and human rights (Golding and Harris, 1997). What the future brings is change and uncertainty, affecting everybody, especially people in the work place: people threatened by insecure jobs and people already without jobs, the underpaid and the unemployed, all these trends leading to depression and insecurity. Outsourcing in places such as China and India, where the labour force is low-priced, affects developed countries such as the UK, which by 2012 will need extra 19,000 skilled foreign IT immigrants in order for the gap to be filled (Smith, 2007).

Smith (2007) claims that the labour resources are changing faster than ever before; populations are aging rapidly and also with the culture amalgam and nationalities influencing the workforce, social change is fast. For example, Europe in ten years` time will have ninety million people over sixty, many of whom would like to work (unofficial jobs), rather than retire, as a result, opportunities will open for them, such as voluntary organisations and social and cultural services (Jouen, 2011). Furthermore, Martin et al. (1998) agree that the voluntary sector will become very important, as consumers will spend more and more of their free time on community involvement as active citizens. It is
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estimated that between 2010 and 2025, 95 million baby boomers will leave the US workforce, however only 40 million people of Generation X and Y will be available to replace them (Smith, 2007). On the other hand, low developed countries where the rate birth was high will fill the gaps; Smith (2007) claims that Europe, the USA and Australasia have experienced one of the fastest demographic changes, resulting in a different mixture of citizens, customers and employees being available.

Wilpert (2009) claims that international tourism has become one of the largest and fastest growing industries in many countries. The fast growing industry is due to the low cost carriers and inviting tourist infrastructures, opening the opportunity for the middle and low income population to travel on long haul holidays (Wilpert, 2009). With easy travel, labour migrates across borders became a dominant characteristic of many countries, in particular North America and Europe, which introduced the diversity of cultural backgrounds, mental sets and corresponding behaviour patterns, as well as, corresponding behaviour patterns in communities and in the work place (Wilpert, 2009).

With workforce migration boosting up in the last years, people from Eastern Europe have migrated into the well developed countries, leaving the low income population with a severe workforce issue (Smith, 2007). The migration of labour occurred and will increase as a result of better educated labour across the globe, which is welcome in many countries (Smith 2007). However, achieving a degree is not enough in the work force, as Smith (2007) states that 98% of businesses compete for talent when recruiting new candidates. Global organisations are very competitive; as a result, they are able to recruit appropriately trained
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graduates from all over the world, for instance, employees from developed countries are competing with candidates from low income countries such as Dubai, India, China and Kazakhstan (Smith, 2011).

Glancing back at the human history, it can be seen that the same factor (cost of communication) has been the concern time after time, in how entire societies were structured (Malone, 2004). A few hundred years ago, new technology, such as the printing press, dramatically reduced the cost of communication and this new approach of technology was able to reach a larger number of people leading them toward greater centralisation (Malone, 2004). Today, new technology advances have started to change dramatically the way businesses are managed, for example, new communication is made by email, instant messaging, the Internet and teleconferencing (Malone, 2004). This part of globalisation will influence the working pattern, for example, by 2015 more than 100 million people will telecommute to work, the offices will have embedded sensors in chairs which sense stress and will provide massages or will set the light in preferred way and staff will also verbally talk with the computer (hr management, 2011). Technology enabled global communication and what the future brings is moving images, televisions and videos on every device due to the IP (Internet Protocol) which revolutionised how the information is communicated (Smith, 2007).

Smart phones will not only improve the efficiency of supply chains but, will also change working patterns; statistics show that by 2012, 18% of phones will be smart phones and by 2015 the percentage will rise to 45% (Smith, 2007). Generation Y engage with this capacity of using smart phones and online virtual world, which massively increased the
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globalisation process and also social networks sites grew in the last five years and made the world more connected than ever (Smith, 2007). In addition, Smith (2007) states that companies will recruit and advertise on social networking. Smith (2007) predicts the next revolution as worlds populated by avatars (graphical representations of people) interacting with each other, communications, buying and selling to one another. The effects of the online virtual world is that the cost of labour for employees to engage with customers in person is much higher compare with the artificial intelligence systems which can be achieved at a lower cost (Smith, 2011).

The computer has entered into work and private life since the 1980s and the twentieth century has a history in which machines largely replaced the skills of workers (Wilpert, 2009). The consequences of globalisation might affect many employees (less need for human work), due to the fact that employers will invest in productivity enhancing, labour cost saving technologies in order to become more competitive in the global market (Wilpert, 2009). The automation in work followed the rationale of making the production process more controllable and more independent of human action (Wilpert, 2009). In todays society, many parts of the world are affected by the smart machine, dramatic changes had occurred in the occupational structure and professions, for example, secretaries in universities no longer need to type due to the fact that scientists now write their letter and papers themselves, the role of secretaries now being one of office assistants and office managers (White, 2007). Middle level managers will be replaced by computers, for instance, society will seem idle, as figures show that only 10% of people will be working in the future, and the rest will be paid to be idle (Jeremy, 2010). The World-Wide-Web has revolutionized the way we work, the time and flexibility that these technologies affect the
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whole structure of society which is the new flexibility in completing the work (Wilpert, 2009). Technology has made the world smaller and in the same time increased the global competition (Wilpert, 2009). As a result, the employees are highly motivated to work harder, as they are threatened by unemployment (Wilpert, 2009).

The above statements will provide humans with increased pressure on their leisure time, which will lead to a change in peoples attitude towards work, and demand a more satisfied leisure time, whether or not they had a successful work life (Benington and White, 1990). In other words, working patterns will become more varied (see appendix 3 on how the working time was transformed over the years) (Martin and Mason, 1998). The freedom and flexibility offered by technology is that more and more people have worked from home in the last few years, with virtual office environment that goes anywhere because of the wireless tools that are being used by companies in order to save expenses (hr management, 2011).

Malone (2004) supports the statements mentioned above by saying that due to information technology, for the first time, society can have the best of both worlds. For instance, the economic and scale efficiencies of large organisations and human benefits such as freedom, motivation, creativity and flexibility. In other words, organisations will give employees more freedom to decide what to do and when to do it; organisations where most of the workers are not employees at all, but electronically connected freelancers living wherever they want to. Freedom in business will lead people to get what they really want in life. They will have money, interesting work and be able to spend time with their families (Malone, 2004). Taylor (2010) claims that the flexibility in working hours decreases work9

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family pressures. Looking closely at some of the global organisations it can be seen that all the above trends are already happening today, and will increase in the future. The increase in human freedom in business in the long run will be as important for businesses as the change to democracies was for governments (Malone, 2004). Some companies have started to have loose hierarchies in which top bosses still exist, but the decision-making is made at a very low organisational level. For example, AES Corp, the worlds largest electricity producer, lets low-level employees make critical multi-million-dollar decisions about things like acquiring new subsidiaries (Malone, 2004). Another example is Linux (a computer operating system) which was written by a loosely coordinated hierarchy of thousands of volunteer programmers from all over the world (Malone, 2004).

It is estimated that full-time employees will decline due to the increase of contract workers, individuals being assembled into work groups based on talent, experience and expertise (hr management, 2011). In addition, Smith (2007) claims that in the 21st Century more than 50% of jobs will be part-time, flexitime, temporary and self-employed (appendix 4). Using technology does not necessarily mean that we work fewer hours; as Jeremy (2010) has found, the average American employee works 12% longer than in the 1970s. Employees have to be more connected to their team, when they are off, work extra hours from home, even on vacation or in their leisure time (hr management, 2011). People will mix work with leisure. For instance, when people go on holiday 10% of their time will be working and 90% on holiday (Winter, 2011). The future will bring big population shifts, people will want to live and work in places where they can maximise their leisure time, for example, people will live and work in Hawaii because Hawaii is good for surfing and people like to spend their leisure time on hobbies they enjoy. Another example is, people who like mountain
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climbing, will want to work and live in a mountaineering district (Winter, 2011). Change will be inevitable as organisations are currently supporting flexible hours due to the fact that flexible hours have 3.5% higher market value compared with organisations that do not support flexible work arraignments. For example, Hewlett Packard has had a 50% reduction in overtime and almost doubled their productivity when it implemented the flexible 4-day workweek (hr management, 2011). Wilpert (2009) describes globalisation from the sociological point of view. It unifies and separates, creates similarities and differences, in other words, the core issue in todays global interaction is the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization. Malone (2004, p.16) claims that, in order to be successful in the contemporary world, individuals need a new set of mental models, to shift their thinking from command-and-control to coordinate-andcultivate. In addition, organisation will have to reconsider their corporate structures completely for the 21st Century generation Y (Smith, 2007).

Revolutionary thinking is needed in regard to a more sensible distribution of work nationally and internationally, the redistribution of surplus value created by work (developing new concepts of work distribution) and the construction of a civilization of free time (Wilpert, 2009). Globalisation has dramatically changed not only the way we work, but also all social levels: the individual, the family, the social community, the institutional and inter-institutional level. The growth of women entering the work force has created and will challenge the future of work and leisure patterns for individuals, families and employers (Lewis and Cooper 2005). Women see things in a holistic way. They are more aware of the need for solutions, to improve quality and management. For instance, Indian women are becoming more educated and there is a high increase of women in the
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work force (Jouen, 2011). Women have the power to change the kinds of products and services which will be produced in the future (Jouen, 2011). Taylor (2011) states that almost 70% of mothers in two parent household with one child in the UK choose to do paid work. There have been changes in the way paid work is harmonised with care responsibilities. In addition, womens access to education will continue to change malefemale relationship (appendix 5), (Lewis and Cooper, 2005).

Globalisation has impacted children, and young adults to a greater extent than the older generation (Alden et al, 2009). Finn et al. (1999), state that children and childhood are at the centre of globalisation, due to the global media, their symbolic evocation of them, representing a controversial range of hopes, fears and risks. Leisure time has also had an impact on childhood. Naisbitt (2011) claims that, children live their lives before screens, watching television and playing games more than ever before. For example, American children have their own television and music in their rooms, leading them to isolation (Naisbitt, 2011). This trend has spread all over the globe including Asia and Latin America (Naisbitt, 2011). Globalisation has influenced peoples diet and activities due to the rapid worldwide shifts in technological innovation which has reduced the expenditure of exercising during leisure, transportation and work (Popkin, 2006). These trends have led many parts of the world in particular Western countries, to become overweight (Popkin, 2006). Obesity has become a global phenomenon. Statistics predict that by 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be officially overweight with 700 million being obese (Smith, 2007). The consequences of the above trends will have a great impact on businesses worldwide by reducing the availability and quality of labour (Smith, 2007).

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The concept of work-life balance has arisen due to the late arrival in the public policy debate on the future of employment (Taylor, 2011). The future of work-personal life will over-lap and interact. As a result, humankind will have to invent new strategies and think collaboratively about optimal harmonization (Lewis and Cooper, 2005). Lewis and Cooper (2005) claims that work-personal life harmonization raised many question and debates across the planet, as a result a scenario pathway framework was developed (see appendix 2).

In conclusion, the trends mentioned above will increase the importance of self-reliance (continuous openness of individuals towards new learning and self-adaptation) and the increase of more general personal qualifications, such as social competencies and the ability to learn how to learn during the entire life span (Wilpert, 2009). In addition, Jeremy (2010) suggests that what the world needs for the future is balance on how we consume the resources available to human beings. This impact will affect the way people work and spend their leisure time. This paper has looked at how globalization affects the workforce on many parts of the planet, and also their leisure time and work -life balance. Technology had an enormous impact on the work force. This has been discussed in this essay and illustrated by examples and reference to academic research.

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Ioana Micu, BA (Hons) HTM 4

References:
Alden, D., L., Steenkamp, J.,E.,M. & Batra, R. (2006) Consumer attitudes toward marketplace globalization: Structure, antecedents and consequences. Journal of Research in Marketing. Vol. 23, pp.227-239 [i.p. 2 & 4] Benington, J. & White, J. (1990) The future of Leisure Services. Longman Group UK Limited, Essex, England. [i.p. 9] Featherstone, M., Lash, S., and Robertson, R. (1995) Global Modernities. Sage Publications, London, UK. [i.p. 4] Finn, J., L., Hybell, L., M., & Shook, J., J. (2010) The meaning and making of childhood in the era of globalisation: Challenges for social work, Journal of Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 32, pp. 246-254 [i.p. 3 & 12] Golding, P. & Harris, P. (1997) Beyond Cultural Imperialism, Globalization, communication & the new international order. Sage Publications, London. UK [i.p. 5] Hessler, P. (2008) China: Inside the Dragon. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/china/jouney/hessler-text accessed 12/04/2011 [i.p. 3] HR Management website (2011) The future of HR How to Achieve the 2020 workplace Today. http://www.hrmreport.com/article/The-Future-of-HR--How-to-Achieve-the-2020wokplace-today accessed 10/04/2011 [i.p. 7, 9, 10 & 11] Jeremy, P. (2009 & 2010) A Post-Growth Ecomomy FAQ http://makewealthhistory.org/2010/09/20/a-post-growth-economy-faq accessed 12/04/2011 [i.p. 3, 8, 10 & 13] Jouen, M. (2011) Visionaries Week 5: Work, Leisure and Lifestyle. Www.bbc.co.uk accessed 16/04/2011[i.p. 5, 11 & 12] Lewis, S. and Cooper, C. (2005) Work-life Integration. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, West Essex, England. [i.p. 11, 12 & 13] Malone, T., W. (2010) The new World of work http://mitleadership.mit.edu/pdf/NewWorldofWork-researchbrief.pdf - accessed 15/04/2011[i.p. 7, 9, 10 & 11]

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Martin, WH. And Mason, S. (1998) Transforming the Future Rethinking free time and work. Leisure Consultants, Suffolk. [i.p. 2 & 9] Naisbitt, J. (2011) Visionaries Week 5: Work, Leisure and Lifestyle. Www.bbc.co.uk accessed 16/04/2011 [i.p. 12] Popkin, B., M. (2006) Technology, transport, globalization and the nutrition transition food policy. Journal of Food Policy. Vol. 31, pp. 554-569 [i.p. 12] Smith, D. (2007) The Future of Companies. Global Future and Foresight Ltd. http://www.thegff.com/Groups/72275/Global_Futures_and/Reports/The_Future_of/The_Fu ture_of.aspx - accessed 10/04/2011 [i.p. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 & 12] Taylor, R. (2011) The Future of work-life balance. http://www.esrc.ac.uk/_images/future_of_work_life_balance_tcm8-13554.pdf - accessed 15/04/2011 [i.p. 2, 4, 9, & 13] Wade, R., H. (2004) Is Globalisation Reducing Poverty and Inequality?. World Development. Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 567-589 [i.p. 2 & 4] White, P (2007) The new World of work. http://video.cloudfront.pcpro.co.uk/pcpro/bi/NewWorldOfWork.pdf - accessed 15/04/2011 [i.p. 8] Wilpert, B. (2009) Impact of globalization on human work. Safety Science. Vol. 47, pp. 727-732 [i.p. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 & 13] Winter, C. (2011) Visionaries Week 5: Work, Leisure and Lifestyle. Www.bbc.co.uk accessed 16/04/2011[i.p. 10]

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