21st Century Communications Trends

Globalization: Globalization is the tendency of businesses, technologies, or philosophies to spread throughout the world, or the process of making this happen. The global economy is sometimes referred to as globality, characterized as a totally interconnected marketplace, unhampered by time zones or national boundaries. The proliferation of Microsoft around the world is an example of globalization; the fact that they change their software to suit local needs is an example of glocalization (also known as internationalization), a combination of globalization and localization.
Whether or not the establishment of the global marketplace will be beneficial is in dispute. Proponents believe that globalization has the potential to create greater opportunities for growth throughout the world, benefiting the developed nations while leveling the playing field everywhere else; opponents of globalization believe that it will merely increase the opportunities for the wealthier nations to take advantage of the poorer ones and, furthermore, could eradicate regional diversity and lead to a homogenized world culture.

Diversity: Globalization, virtual offices and corporate takeovers mean today's employees and managers with different backgrounds, work ethics and communications styles are increasingly expected to come together toward a common purpose. As companies do more and more business around the world, diversity isn't simply a matter of doing what is fair or good public relations. It's a business imperative.
If companies are going to sell products and services globally, they will need a rich mix of employees with varied perspectives and experiences. For example IBM with more women and minorities in its management rank sharply increased the business that accounted for $300 million in revenue in 2001

Flexibility: A number of recent changes affecting the corporate world have increased the need for workplace flexibility and helped move flexibility to the forefront of organizations’ agendas. Globalization and the resulting shift toward operating across geographic and time boundaries have increased work hours and business travel for many employees. In order to increase productivity without increasing headcount, employees have also expanded their work hours and are taking less vacation in order to respond to increasing demands. Additionally, demographic shifts—such as the influx of women into the workplace and the dramatic increase in dual-career couples in the workplace—have changed the profile of the typical employee and his/her work/life needs. In the midst of all of these trends, the new generation of employees comes to work with different expectations about what work means to them, the role it plays in their lives, and how work is defined.

Flat: In a greater competitive marketplace, speed or response time is critical. How organizations response to customers and other stakeholders or be the first to market may make a significant difference as time is at a premium. Organizations that can develop new technologies faster or can adapt to changes in the market faster are the ones that will survive the competition. To maximize response time, organizations have been flattening their hierarchies and structures, in addition to other initiatives such as downsizing and networking. Flat organizations make decisions more quickly because each person is closer to the ultimate decision-makers. There are fewer levels of management, and workers are empowered to make decisions. Decision-making becomes decentralized.

Networks: Organizations that flatten tend to encourage horizontal communication among workers. Rather than working through the organizational hierarchy, it is often faster for workers who need to coordinate with each other simply to communicate directly. Such organizations are highly networked. Networked organizations are particularly important in industries with complex products where technologies and customer needs change rapidly, such as in high technology industries. One advantage of networks is that organizations have greater flexibility and thus they can become more competitive in the global marketplace

All the five trends and the tensions they produce result in greater organizational or system complexity for both leaders and employees in organizations. The tensions produced by these trends cannot be solved. They have to be managed. Effective approaches in organizational change will involve not one strategy but many alternatives and will require leaders and employees to develop greater resilience in confronting these tensions.