Scholars looking at the emerging global landscape suggest that the driving forces are the current shifts in society, technology, economics, politics, and the environment (Moran & Riesenberger, 1997; Pascale, Millemann, & Gioja, 2000; Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1998). These shifts have seriously affected the U.S. dominance of business, as evidenced by the declining survival rate of many successful companies and the loss of market share in many industries. To illustrate, here are some examples:
• Production of automobiles and trucks decreased 60 percent from 1960 to 1990.
• Computer production decreased 19 percent from 1980 to 1989, while in Asian countries it increased 35 percent and European countries’ com- puter production increased 18 percent.
• Although the United States holds 75 percent of the world’s manufactur- ing of aerospace products, current projections suggest that this dominance will erode as the European Airbus consortium grows even stronger (Gongloff, 2003).
The impact of these trends is significant in both domestic and global scenarios as large corporations and small businesses go international (Rossant et al., 2004). The end result is that many cultures around the world are experi- encing significant change. For example, Europe has experienced economic reform with the introduction of the Euro, and in Japan the promise of lifetime employment with companies has been abandoned and traditional consensus- building techniques to preserve social harmony are being rendered obsolete in an era of rapid change (Baker, 2005, p. G1). Terpstra and Kenneth (1992) observe that “as the macro culture shifts, so does the micro culture of institutions [with] organizational cultures within these societies . . . experiencing profound transformations” (p. 91). These global factors are demanding a restructuring of organizations and a convergence of core competencies for managers and work- ers alike.
Subject: The Emerging Global Landscape 
Thu Apr 24, 2014 9:37 am
