THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS The impact of globalization extends from human and social or ethical perspective to the strategic or technological perspective. Thus it has a wide scope and the present work attempts to highlight this impact as consequences of globalization and liberalization. Due to liberalization of economy, several organizations have taken a number of steps to improve operational efficiency. This includes the introduction of quality management system, identification of NPAs and finding ways wa ys and means to transform organizations into strategic business units or profit centers. Another step that was taken in the wake of globalization or in the post- New New economic policy 1991 era was the government’s decision to disinvest their stake in the equities of leading public sector undertakings. Eventually many business houses have begun consolidating their businesses and large number of acquisitions and mergers have started taking place. With large mergers and the development of new free markets around the world, major corporations now wield economic and political power then the governments under which they operate. In response, public pressure has increased for businesses to take on more social responsibility and operate according to higher levels of ethics. Firms in developed nations now promote-and are often required by law to observe-nondiscriminatory policies for the hiring, treatment, and pay of all employees. Some companies are also now more aware of the economic and social benefits of being active in local communities by sponsoring events and encouraging employees to serve on civic committees. Businesses will continue to adjust their operations according the competing goals of earning profits and responding to public pressures for them to behave in ways that benefit society. Among the employment benefits that are prevalent are VRS, ESOP and other fringe benefits. However, on the recruitment front, as globalization evolves from being a mere corporate co rporate buzzword to basic economic reality, more and more organizations are realizing that they need managers and workers with skills that conform to the international standards. The CEOs and senior recruitment consultants have to talk about why selecting and developing global managers. Hence organizations are keen to take care of expatriation and repatriation issues or meeting relocation costs to keep their employees motivated and to retain the best performers and keep building a global talent pool. In this era of globalization, it is also necessary to study corporate governance, a concept that is multi dimensional. It includes the very fundamental issues like how organizations function in day-to-day dealing with customers, trade unions, suppliers, shareholders, government and the public. Owing to so many forces, corporate governance requires more internal discipline over external accountability. The internal discipline implies that the quality of corporate governance must be of high order and that workers- management relations are conceived to achieve industrial harmony. Another astonishing fact in this era e ra of globalization is the interaction between technological changes, primarily micro electronic technology, technolog y, and industrial relations, while looking at the consequences it is felt that technological changes provide unprecedented opportunities for employers to gain control over the workforce and workers. The present day high-tech information society has resulted in a shift in emphasis away form brawn to brain or from muscle to mind in the use of human energy. Instead of conventional principles based on direction and control. Modern organizations have resorted to consent and consensus. The decisions are least unilateral and such progressive ideas like workers empowerment and workers
participation in management have been adopted. As a result these organizations, their workers as knowledge Workers, their products as Knowledge based products (owing to value additions) and last but not least, of having contributed to the knowledge Economy which the nation is gradually heading towards. Globalization has also given competitive advantage to most organizations. Accelerated growth, productivity improvement, and accent on total quality have been great milestones. Truly speaking, in a global economy, organizations that have entered into strategic alliances and initialed innovative practices have made huge differences to their enterprises. However, world Bank and IMF have also advised such organizations to focus their attention on social and labor issues and align themselves to the effort being made by institutions like UNESCO and ILO. In India, the confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has a ddressed itself to social and ethical issues and a few organizations have shown concern to these issues including those under study in this project. Globalization has necessitated certain structural adjustments (restructuring and diversifications), which as led to cutting off the jobs and recession in the employment scenario. Social security systems in most industrialized countries have become vulnerable. Such large scale redundancies like stopping indexation of wages, workforce reduction and like are a major cause of concern but at the same time the rise of informal sector employment and part time employment has offered some relief. Privatization proved a major thrust to promote global trends. Eventually the trade unions become concerned about their job loss and potential adverse effects on their group dynamics and their rights. Hence some unions initially came forward to impede the growth of privatization in general and restructuring and diversification in particular. But gradually they understood that in fact privatization is beneficial for the trade unions as they gain more rights like right to organize, right to collective bargaining. The right to strike which has been restricted or denied in public services is now made available to private enterprises. It is yet to determine the negative effects of privatization on collective bargaining and trade dynamics and thus it becomes one of the objectives of this study.
