Globalization

Globalization is defined as the worldwide interdependence of resource flows, product markets and business competition that characterize our new economy. It is hardly unnoticeable how countries, organizations, people, resources, money, services and information are all interrelated globally. Thanks to the improvements in communication and transportation technologies, such interrelation is more and more achieved. There are many positive effects of globalization such as the rise of some developing nations through increased employment and technological advances. However, one can never underestimate the negative effects, such as the declining national sovereignty and shift of domestic jobs overseas where labor is much cheaper.
The process was very hard that, by 2010, only 135 out of the 208 non-Korean MBAs hired into GSG since it was created were still working in Samsung. Although the effect of the foreign recruits has been very slow, the environment has slowly become more friendly to ideas from abroad. Managing the diversity in the workplace is not an easy ride. However, Samsung managed to utilize the diversity as an asset of the company. Breaking the barriers between people from different ethnic groups enriched the contribution in developing new ideas for performance gains.

One of Samsung’s most important globalization efforts is its regional specialist program. Each year for more than two decades, Samsung has sent some 200 talented employees through an intensive 12 week language training course followed by one full year abroad. For the first six months, their only job is to become fluent in the language and culture and to build networks by making friends and exploring the country. In the second six months, they carry out one independent project of their choice. The knowledge gained by those employees helped them to understand the needs of the foreign communities they were sent to. Hence, they were able to communicate such knowledge to the organization in order to develop products that they could sell in foreign communities. This decentralization effort has a great positive impact on Samsung. The organization can act as a local