Alternative perspectives to global innovation
Introduction
Convergence vs divergence
There is an emphasis on the rise of a an international workforce partnerships and customer markets
Globalisation has given rise to new incentives and pressures for organisations and innovators to converge around international ‘best practices’ and diverge in response to local conditions.
This expands the possibilities for innovation while also confronting organisations with new issues linked to operating in an expanding multicultural and multilateral organisational environment
'Glocalisation'
Looks at ways global power relations enhance and hinder the ability of diverse organisations to effectively ‘glocalise’ knowledge.
Organisations must simultaneously adapt to global trends while differentiating themselves in a competitive global marketplace
Important that businesses combine ‘global knowledge with local needs'
An alternative perspective: crossvergence
There is an assumption that both convergence and divergence is the linking of innovation with adaptation
It is a static choice between adopting the global culture or parent culture
Crossvergence
Another means of innovating related to globalisation
Where we can shape contexts and a big idea doesn't have to just respond to the market but can potentially transform existing ones and even create new ones
Describes the ability of an organisation to respond and influence their particular context
Depicts a more dynamic process of change than either convergence or divergence
Describes how an organisation is uniquely constituted by, and can help to uniquely constitute, the contexts within which it exists
Shifts the emphasis of organisational learning and innovation from adoption to adaptation
It is how an organisation can adapt to context
Human resource management (HRM)
Forms an important part of this adaptive strategy
It is fundamental in crafting the ‘unique values’ that organisations must embrace and work to influence within a specific culture
Introducing crossvergence
Convergence research
Indicates that as countries liberalise their markets, develop institutions, adopt modern technology and achieve industrialisation, their strategic behaviour becomes similar because people tend to embrace common values with regard to economic activity and work related behaviour
Divergence research
Suggests that national culture, not economic ideology or technological growth, is (and will continue to be) the dominant force of shaping values, beliefs and attitudes of managers within a country
Each nation supports a distinct strategic perspective that allows firms form different nations to compete on variables other than price
The limitation of the divergence view from a managerial standpoint lies in it negotiation of the ability of firms to learn from other cultures
A hybrid view has gained ground which expects transnational strategic perspectives to combine the best features of several global alternatives
Def - a value set 'in between' the values supported by the East and the West
Innovation is constantly occurring
Organisations must constantly respond to contextual factors facing them
Including identifying and possibly changing a local culture
Allows for a more fluid vision of innovation
Organisations have multiple cultures rather than a single culture
They must, therefore, be multifaceted and integrative in their strategies
It is now imperative to evaluate and determine when to apply convergence and divergence through interrelated organisational contexts
It understands and highlights how organisations 'learn' from the different cultures to which they are exposed and within which they operate
Crossvergence offers an alternative vantage point to view the relation between innovation, globalisation and power.
Convergence and divergence often revolve around being 'colonised' by a global/parent culture
Crossvergence gestures toward empowerment: the ability of organisations to influence and not be influenced by a context
It understands culture as not static but instead constantly being created and re-created not least by the organisations that populate it
The expanding organisational environment
The world is 'shrinking'
While the world is getting smaller the organisational environment is rapidly expanding
Firms are rarely confined to a single culture
Even if firms remain in one national context, they are still impacted by global events and trends
They must be aware of and respond to international pressures and factors
More organisations are finding themselves in multiple contexts
EG - they may be manufacturing and buying their products in one country and selling them in another
They are also recruiting their members from diverse backgrounds and cultures
For this reason organisations must own cultural perspective if they are to cope successfully and navigate this expanded organisational culture
Opportunties for organisations
Increased exposure to different cultures provides multiple possibilities for ongoing institutional learning.
This can occur across its various business functions
Operations must adapt to the diverse cultures in which they work just as the marketing department must uniquely tailor what their firm offers to their different consumer bases
HRM helps to coordinate these evolving and constant functional innovations
It recognises that organisations must propose 'multicultural' strategies
. They should not stifle such change or the diversity of this change
Instead, organisations should rely on HRM to manage these different approaches, allowing for convergence in certain areas, and divergence' in others
It exposes organisations to an expanded set of cultures that they can learn from and seek to shape
Expanded organisational context creates new organisational challenges
How can you manage this ‘multiculturalism’?
Can an organisation really be so ‘multiple’ in its approaches, perspectives and strategies?
HRM is crucial as a function for dealing with this issue
It can connect these disparate elements into a more unified institutional whole
The problems associated with such multiculturalism cannot be so easily overcome
It can lead to feelings of organisational instability and a lack of institutional cohesiveness in terms of norms and practices
Global knowledge, local needs
The debate of universalism versus relativism
Universalism
Relativism
Thinks there is a set of values that should apply to all people and institutions everywhere and for all time
What is moral and appropriate is moral and appropriate depends on the context in which it is occurring
Organisations face a similar query: is there one ‘best practice’ or, instead, multiple ‘best practices’ that are culturally specific?
The concept of glocalisations bridges the two opposing concepts
It recognises that there is a local culture that cannot be ignored
International standards, norms, practices and values should not be rejected nor can they so easily be
They still have to be adapted to local conditions
Its ensuring that the global knowledge they have is implemented within a given national and regional culture
Glocalisation expands on globalisation
Globalisation seeks to spread a single set of norms and practises to all corners of the world
Glocalisation shows the sheer diversity that these global standards can take in practise. Represents an interesting and exciting
Power imbalances that affect global organisational learning
Its common that the 'global south' must accommodate the culture of the 'global north'
EG - a Latin American company can best and most flexibly adapt their own operations and practices to American or European ideals and needs
Smaller firms and those within less powerful countries have less capacity to ‘glocalise’
They are commonly forced to embrace global cultural norms wholesale with little room for compromise or agency for difference
Innovation
Globalisation opens the space for organisations to innovate both in terms of creating global standards and transforming prevailing ones to meet their local needs
It is simultaneously global and local
Reveals the affinities between convergence and divergence
The most successful organisations adapt a global culture to its parent culture, and vice versa
The future of innovation lies in coming up with a global idea while at the same time showing just how diverse the application of this idea may be within different cultural contexts