In his latest work, Stuart Carr, a professor of psychology at New Zealand's Massey University, takes a closer look at how globalization affects us all on a local level.
The author credits others for coining the terms "glocal" and "glocality." Glocal describes work behavior as the product of two cultural influences that often compete: globalization and localization.
Concepts such as power, pay, and achievement all have a local perspective that can disrupt global influences. Consider the concept of equitable pay, says Carr. Workers in a local company may aspire to higher pay, but are satisfied with their earnings. However, in order to compete in the global community, the company decides to employ expatriates to work with the locals. Since strong incentives are required to attract the expatriate to the assignment, salaries disproportionately larger than those given to local workers may be awarded. As a result, this can contribute to feelings of resentment by locals toward expats, and therefore reduce productivity. Through various scenarios such as this, Carr illustrates the way the global environment can impact the local one.
The challenges of glocality are tricky and must be handled sensitively to avoid disruption between different cultures; the author provides ways to do just that.—Cynthia D. Churchwell