Social business and society in an integrated and globalized era

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? That famous causality dilemma comes to mind when looking at collaboration and globalization. And especially at how they influence each other.

In this millennium, the use of the term globalization has been increasing rapidly. Some see this uptake as a post cold war phenomenon. It probably partially is. However, digital technologies and new ways of collaboration enabled by new technologies and more collaborative information management approaches certainly contributed to it as well.

Especially the shift towards a real-time knowledge economy and the need for digital transformation in the digital business seems to play a role in this regard. The dissemination of knowledge was defined as one of the four basic aspects of globalization by the IMF in 2000. And of course there is the increasing penetration of the Internet, mobile and social technologies, etc.

Internet penetration across the globe - Jeff Ogden for Wikipedia

The roots of globalization go back way further than the post cold war era, let alone the age of telecommunications. And collaboration has played an increasing role in it, certainly after the colonial era. Social business is very much about collaboration and collaboration is a driver of globalization.

Globalization as a driver of collaboration

The other way around, globalization is a strong driver of collaboration as we know it in a so-called digital and social age. 

The world has been more connected since quite some time now. Railroads, cars and airplanes made it a smaller place. Telecommunications and inventions such as the telephone strengthened this evolution. But with the arrival of new digital and social collaboration tools and processes, UC&C, video, cloud computing, etc. interpersonal globalization is getting stronger, faster, easier and scalable than ever.

The cultural and economic dimension of globalization has often led to anti-globalization feelings. Diversity, local culture and identity are important human and societal forces. Furthermore, imperialistic ethnocentrism, structural inequality and cultural hegemony or even assimilation, evoke strong negative emotions. In collaboration there is no room for hegemony.

It's probably one of the reasons why the term 'glocalization' is increasingly being used and the glocalization appoach penetrates marketing and business business practice.

People-centric collaboration  and human globalization

Globalization is a given. And more than ever collaboration - not just as (social) tools or technologies but as real interpersonal collaboration - plays a role in it.

Have you noticed I used the term 'interpersonal globalization' before? Look it up. You won't find it anywhere.

Yet, to me the globalization of knowledge, innovation, co-creation and collaborative processes, is about that interpersonal dimension.

Don't you risk losing your own background and identity when working together and communicating with people from across the globe? Not if that interpersonal dialogue and collaboration happens in a context of mutual respect and valorization.

Globalization and collaboration isn’t about uniformity. It's about using diversity to strive towards common goals. In that sense we can probably learn a lot from some essential human or social business principles.

Power to the people: myth or not?

And that can only be achieved by individuals working together in a context where the focus is on the human dimension of collaboration as I wrote a post on the 9Cs of people-centric collaboration.

If it isn't worth the while, inspiring, convenient, people-centric and connected it won't work. And it doesn't matter if it concerns social collaboration, local collaboration or global collaboration.

Maybe globalization is really on the verge of getting that human touch just as businesses and organizations around the globe are forced to focus more on the values and needs of the customer in the broadest sense because they have no choice as mentioned in a previous post.

The age of integration and collaboration might become the age of true interpersonal globalization. It’s possible. But there is still a very long way to go. The question is whether we will (be able) to go it.

The social - and other - technologies exist. The scale is there. But what about all the rest? What about you and the way you conduct your business, marketing, sales, HR, etc.?