Answer to Question #206449 in Management for jessie

Question

1)     Assume that you are a global manager in a food-based industry. Discuss the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the organization’s globalization plan from the following perspectives – politics, economy, technology, and social-culture. Support your answer with relevant examples.

2)     With countries’ borders closed for fear of the Covid-19 virus spreading further, the idea of international assignments for expatriates seems highly unlikely. Today, fewer employees (expatriates) will be sent abroad to live and work.

As a manager in a Multinational Company (MNC), discuss what alternative measures are available to the company with regard to ANY TWO of the following:

(a)   Control mechanism for subsidiaries

(b)   Development of future global leaders

(c)    Addressing skill shortages in host countries

 

Answer 1

Question One

Globalization can be defined as the process through which companies worldwide communicate. The Covid 19 pandemic has affected the organizations in all aspects as discussed below: -

Politics

Most leaders as well as politicians and lawmakers the world over are making decisions leading to lock down and travel restrictions. Nearly all the governments in the world have enforced restrictions in one way or another in order to cumb the spread of the virus. Laws have also been passed in this nations as well as presidential ascents regarding restrictions. This affects the food industry negatively in their quest to go global in that they cannot trade where they cannot venture.

Economy

The Covid 19 pandemic has grounded cross border trading due to restrictions on traveling between countries. This has limited the business activities across borders and therefore will affect the food industry’s globalization plan in that it will be a setback in that plan.

Technology

Due to the restrictions imposed on traveling between countries to help limit the spread of the virus, various technological shifts have witnessed an upward growth. The technological shifts that have been fueled by the pandemic includes; adoption of e-commerce among businesses, video conferencing and zoom meetings. E-commerce expands export opportunities for all businesses and thereby increasing trade. The food industry therefore should take advantage of e-commerce to boost their sales abroad (Ludovic et al, 2020).

 

Social Culture

One of the recommendations of fighting the Covid 19 pandemic is maintaining social distancing and this will impact the food industry social culture in that they will not be able to have meetings together nor have that personal connection with their customers in that they will trading online and also meetings will be done via zoom and teleconferencing and therefore the Covid 19 pandemic will affect the food industry social culture negatively.

 

Question Two (b)

The future global leaders should learn from the current situation of Covid 19 pandemic and always put measures to protect the people as well as the citizenry of their countries from the effects of such pandemics. One such way is creating a pool of funds to inject into the economy and the small businesses as well as the health sector in order to fully develop vaccines in record time.  

Question Two (c)

The skills shortages in the host country can be addressed by the host country offering expatriates short term engagements between 6 months but not more than two years. This will have the advantage in that it is only the expatriate who will move and does not have to move with the family and therefore reduce the cost of upkeep to the company (Bonga-Bonga et al, 2017).

The skills shortage can also be addressed through sponsoring workers for training abroad so that they can acquire the necessary skills to tackle the same assignments as the expatriates.

References

Bonga-Bonga, L. and Phume, M., 2017. Assessing the relationship between total factor productivity and foreign direct investment in an economy with a skills shortage: the case of South Africa.

 

Ludovic, J., Bourdin, S., Nadou, F. and Noiret, G., 2020. Economic globalization and the COVID-19 pandemic: global spread and inequalities. Bull. World Health Organ.