The functional relationship between globalisation, internationalisation, human resources and industrial democracy

Abstract

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1998 and the fall of the famous Berlin Wall, the final victory or triumph of capitalism over its alternatives, heralded a neoliberal economic system known as globalisation, which was postulated to address the problem. of humankind, including workers, on a global scale. This postulation· led many nations to rush to infuse themselves into the capitalist global system, which is reflected by the opening up of borders to the transnational juggernauts of globalisation. However, a few years into the euphoric global capitalist triumphalism, globalisation and internationalisation seems to have produced some negative consequences for human resources and industrial democracy, both in the North and South. As capital proceeds with its accumulation, expansion and profitability, unemployment has burgeoned, as the government's power to create lasting employment has been supIne owing to the privatisation of the public sector, retrenchment in the private sector, as a direct result of automation, re-engineering, outsourcing and the disastrous effect of global competition, which has eroded labour unionism. In the present state of affairs, labour has been requested to bear the burden of global capitalist hegemony, and the pro-globalist argument, that in the long-run the benefit of globalisation would yield a trickle-down effect to the worst affected workers, has turned a mirage, while the discontentment of the average working class and the majority who have lost out In the global economy, is the cause of renewed widespread global tensions. The current state of affairs has had a polarising effect on people's view, and has resulted in the development of two schools, namelythe pro-globalist and the anti-globalist camps. With the former persistently asserting that globalisation and internationalisation have positive repercussions for workers and industrial democracy, the latter strongly opposes the above assertion. The author of this study aligns more with the latter's view. Therefore, the aim of this research is to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that there is actually a negative functional relationship between globalisation, internationalisation, human resources and industrial democracy, and to postulate some ameliorating mechanisms, which could enhance· the putative negative relationship, so that a higher human, social and economic order is realised