Impacts of Globalization on the UK Economy: An Analysis

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IMPACTS OF GLOBALISATION
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
Figure 1: Impacts of Globalisation on Economy of UK..................................................................6
Figure 2: Statistics British Exports..................................................................................................7
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INTRODUCTION
In the current market dynamics, the rate of expansion and development with the notion to attain
new underlying forces and success has been tremendously increased and this can be termed as
Globalisation (Beck, 2018). It can be also said that globalisation is the geographical dispersion of
the service or industrial activities like sourcing, research and development, distribution and
production, interconnection and cross-border networking with different techniques (Tutor2u,
2019). So, with the increasing globalisation in almost every industry, understanding its impacts is
an obligatory task which has to be performed rather on an individual or a complete country.
Hence, this essay will try to demonstrate the most potent effects of the increasing globalisation,
specifically on myself and the businesses in the United Kingdom.
DISCUSSION
According to BBC (2019), globalisation is the interconnection of the culture and trade with the
proper exchange. Seemingly, globalisation is the term that has both positive as well as negative
impacts that affect the whole community and the businesses. Personally, globalisation can be
taken as a positive factor that supports creating of new opportunities, expansion and several other
benefits. In my perspective, globalisation is a platform that enhances the potential of a person in
order to attain new heights or standards over others with the interconnection of the different
cultures, systems etc. Li (2018) illustrated that globalisation affects the businesses as well as the
education system in almost all the countries like the UK where it has introduced a diverse range
of technologies and ways to teach and learn which are beneficial for both the teachers and
students. Even I can also say that with the help of increasing globalisation, the rate of change of
needs has directly affected whereas it has helped in removing several local barriers to the people.
I can also say that the increasing globalisation also helps me in finding new opportunities and
gain a diverse knowledge from it.
At the same time, there is another side of globalisation which creates several challenges in an
individual’s life like increment in the competition level, transfers the employment opportunities
from developed to less developed countries with investments, increases rates in the local
economy and many more that directly affects people. It can be said that these areas of the
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globalisation have also influenced me in the determination of the best possible solutions and
direction to proceed in future. In addition to this, the impacts of globalisation are more diverse in
my education as this has enhanced the competition level to a great extent in my life.
There can be several reasons for the increasing or decreasing globalisation in the UK like:
Trade freedom – there are several organisations and councils that promote the global expansion
of the businesses among the different countries. The government of UK has developed a set of
foreign trade laws that help their local businesses to enhance the market presence and value. In
addition to this, the laws and regulations are also favourable for foreign companies to enhance
their business in UK (Hu and Spence, 2017).
Enhancing communications – involvement of the technologies and effective modes of
communication has made business relations and transactions easier and hence this is one of the
major factors that helping the business operations in the UK. The country has all the necessary
platforms and technologies for communication which enables better intercommunication services
(Pettinger, 2018).
Availability of cheap labour – with the recent scenario of Brexit vote in the UK has created some
complexities regarding labour costs as previously, the companies can employ people from
neighbouring countries at very low rates than local people but now they have to pay the high
minimum wages decided by the government (Gill, 2016)
Involvement of low-cost transportation services – the increasing rate of carbon emission, need of
low-cost transportation services and many other mobility related services have emerged as the
major concerning areas in terms of globalisation in the UK. The availability of large cargo
container ships, aviation system, local transport and private mobility services are helpful in
diminishing this globalisation force in the country.
Technological drifts – the enhanced technological drift in the country has made the businesses
more potent with the well-developed infrastructure, services and additional facilities to create
ease in the operations of the businesses and hence enhanced the rate of globalisation in the UK
(Hu and Spence, 2017).
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In studies, the globalisation makes processes more dynamic rather than an end state system since
it is a not inevitable indeed the growth rate in past few years in businesses has decreased
significantly (Axford, 2013). Globalization has impacts on several aspects of individuals like
religion, food, transport, music, clothing, language etc. and hence also me. With the increasing
globalization in the world the political systems, education and economies have transformed.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development UK (2018) has depicted that the
increasing globalisation in countries like the UK has drastically changed the complete horizon
for the businesses, people, government etc. Whereas, the results of the globalisation say that it
unites the world but it is often criticised that it enhances the gaps among the rich and poor people
(Reader, 2017). It can also be said that the globalisation is in favour of wealthy and educated
people basically for those who belong to developed and advanced countries like the UK, USA
etc. at the same time it can be said that the people from the developing nations are at more
vulnerable position that developed countries because of the low labour exploitation rates and
many more (Stearns, 2016). While for the people who have a sophisticated access to the diverse
areas of globalisation like internet, resources, skills are more prone to get a better result in this
dynamic scenarios.
The impact of the globalisation on the local community and demographics of UK can be
illustrated with the changing nature of the businesses. The smaller companies are pushed by the
governments and local authorities to enhance the functioning at cheaper rates at the same time
accountable to provide a good share in the economies (OECD, 2018). In addition to this, the
local markets are also promoted to produce a great number of products and services and export
the same. There are companies like H&M, M&S, Tesco, Shell, HSBC, Aviva, Vodafone,
GlaxoSmithKline and many more multinational UK based companies that are enhancing the
value of UK globally through their business operations. In addition to this, the local cultures,
customs and rituals are majorly affected by the globalisation in the UK and hence is a positive
factor to the local aspects in the UK.
In terms of national influences, the globalisation is often dominated in the areas of economic,
finance, technology, politics and culture at any place. In terms of UK, the globalisation has
posted a great impact on the education system, operations of the companies, skill development,
culture, society and especially finance and economics. Globalisation has enriched the quality of
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living in the country with the introduction of the latest facilities and services at very low rates,
increased inward investment, new jobs and skills etc. In addition to this, it can be stated that
being a financially strong country, UK has got several opportunities which are passed among its
population that helped it to enhance their value globally.
At last, the impact of globalisation on the UK in global terms can be easily illustrated with the
increased import and export operations in the country from the different nations of the world.
The fact that the people share the global environment in personal as well as professional lives
and hence the emerged benefits from global exploration enhances the value of the businesses in
the UK.
Some major positive and negative effects of the globalization on different aspects of the UK are
illustrated here:
Economics – globalization enhances the integration of the global economies and it means there
should be a rise in the trade with the capital and labour (Broner and Ventura, 2016). This can
rather introduce some pros as well as cons to the economy of a country locally or nationally.
With the pace in the progress, competition, lower prices the economy shifts and hence the UK.
The results of the past few years depict that the economy of the country has changed the face of
UK in global stages and made the country more developed and advanced than most of the other
nations.
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Figure 1: Impacts of Globalisation on Economy of UK
Source: [Pettinger, 2018]
The increased globalization majorly affected the economy of UK positively and hence has
enhanced the trade. The firms of UK get benefits from the specializing in the goods and service
with the increase in the competition level for examples country has advantages from financial
services, nuclear power components, video games etc. At the same time, this also enhances the
choice for the people with the increased imports and hence creates a new job or employment
opportunities for the local people (Intriligator, 2017). Globalisation has also increased the
competition level in the markets of the UK with the newly emerging business units with low-cost
services and products because of the large availability of the resources to the firms that
eventually reduced the costs to them (Pettinger, 2018).
The global economic cycle also gets a major influence from the increasing globalization with the
high rate of migration as it shifts the rate of change of economy from one country to another
(OECD, 2019). In addition to this, it can also be said that the increasing globalization has shifted
the sectors, modified the structural employment, makes the country a growing economy while at
the same time includes some major concerns like degradation of environment and safety etc. in
the UK.
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Figure 2: Statistics British Exports
Source: [EU Commission, 2019]
Political – With the increasing globalisation, the rate of change of political scenario can be seen
prior to any other aspect in the countries like the UK. With the recent scenario of Brexit, the
political scenario within UK and EU has been dramatically changed. In the UK, after the
decision of Prime minister for a separate state from European Union has made a clear statement
that they want their separate benefits globally with the increasing globalisation to support the
country’s infrastructure, technology, society, government and environment (McCann, 2016).
UK’s political situation is unbalanced now, and they need a well-planned support system to
operate the country. With the effects of globalisation, the country is significantly not able to get
the compete for benefits and attain new heights rather they get negative effects from increasing
technology, business environments and laws and regulations (Giddens, 2018). The country is
experiencing dynamic changes and hence the influences of the global economies, trades and
neighbour countries have negatively affected the people in the UK (Hirst, et al., 2015).
Technology – the rate of change of technology and its disruption has been increased drastically
in the globe and when the latest technology introduced in a new country, the task and operations
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get easier and simpler. There are more chances of getting a high rate of change of the benefits
with the introduction of the latest technology and services which has been possible with the
globalisation. The UK is a well-developed country in terms of technology with the high-tech
manufacturing, production, finance management, accounting, marketing, infrastructural and
many more technologies that make the country more valuable and developing faster than others.
So, it can be said that the above mentioned three factors in the UK has been positively affected
by the globalisation and hence the globalisation has helped the country to make a better place for
living, conducting business and create a significant share to the economy (Crane and Matten,
2016). According to the different theories of globalisation like culture, history, governance,
capitalism says that the rate of globalisation has been a positive factor for the factors like
economy, financial services, technological advancement and other development only if the
actions are planned and managed with the satisfactory emphasis on the carbon emissions and
other environmental safety aspects (Axford, 2013).
CONCLUSION
The current situations of the markets are changing very fast because of the introduction of the
latest technology, international trade systems, increased imports and exports and other factors
involved in globalisation. The countries like the UK are facing several challenges but most
importantly the globalization has established new opportunities and services to the people of the
country and businesses so that they can enhance their growth rate and benefits in the global
markets. The report has illustrated impacts globalization on the UK locally, nationally and
internationally on its employment, trade, economy, finance, technology etc. and it has been
found that the globalization has more dominantly affected positively to the UK and helped it in
enhancing their value in future.
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REFERENCES
Axford, B., 2013. Theories of globalization. Polity.
BBC, 2019. Globalisation, online available at
https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zxpn2p3/revision/4 last accessed on 15th January 2019.
Beck, U., 2018. What is globalization? John Wiley & Sons.
Broner, F. and Ventura, J., 2016. Rethinking the effects of financial globalization. The Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 131(3), pp.1497-1542.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
EU Commission, 2019. Economic, environmental and social effects of globalisation, online
available at https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/research-topic/economic-environmental-and-social-
effects-of-globalisation last accessed on 15th January 2019.
Giddens, A., 2018. Globalization. In Sociology of Globalization (pp. 19-26). Routledge.
Gill, S. ed., 2016. Globalization, democratization and multilateralism. Springer.
Hirst, P., Thompson, G. and Bromley, S., 2015. Globalization in question. John Wiley & Sons.
Hu, F. and Spence, M., 2017. Why Globalization Stalled: An How to Restart It. Foreign Aff., 96,
p.54.
Intriligator, M., 2017. The globalisation of the World Economy: Potential Benefits and Costs and
a Net Assessment. In Economics of Globalisation (pp. 85-94). Routledge.
Li, J., 2018. Globalization of Higher Education in the United Kingdom. In Conceptualizing Soft
Power of Higher Education (pp. 183-188). Springer, Singapore.
McCann, P., 2016. The UK regional–national economic problem: Geography, globalisation and
governance. Routledge.
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OECD, 2018. The United Kingdom, online available at http://www.oecd.org/unitedkingdom/ last
accessed on 15th January 2019.
OECD, 2019. Economic Globalisation - What is the impact of globalisation on the environment?
online available at https://www.oecd.org/insights/economic-globalisation-what-is-the-impact-of-
globalisation-on-the-environment.htm last accessed on 15th January 2019.
Pettinger, T., 2018. Effects of Globalisation on the UK Economy, online available at
https://www.economicshelp.org/trade2/globalisation_uk_economy/ last accessed on 15th January
2019.
Reader, J., 2017. Reconstructing practical theology: The impact of globalization. Routledge.
Stearns, P.N., 2016. Globalization in world history. Routledge.
Tutor2u, 2019. What is Globalisation? online available at
https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/what-is-globalisation last accessed on 15th January
2019.
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