Lecture 1

Question 1

Contingency approach

Answer 1

There is not 1 right/best way of managing, but it depends on number of factors on the environment of organizations or other contingency factors.

Question 2

Contingency factor

Answer 2

A circumstance or condition that may or may not apply for some organization

Question 3

Two strategies for dealing with contingency factors in empirical research

Answer 3

1. inclusion of control variables 2. matching of samples

Question 4

Globalization

Answer 4

A qualitative shift towards a global economic system not based on national economies but on a global marketplace.

Question 5

5 Forces PROMOTING globalization

Answer 5

1. Decrease of transportation costs
2. Decrease of communication costs
3. Integration international financial markets
4. Mass media, social media
5. International migration

Question 6

5 Forces IMPEDING globalization

Answer 6

1. Economic factors (Lower company profits outside home market)
2. Social (Unbalanced distribution of benefits)
3. Cultural
4. Political (= the trilemma of globalization, sovereignty and democracy)
5. Technological (e.g. AI)

Question 7

4 possible scenarios for (further) globalization

Answer 7

1. Convergence (countries adapt to a global norm)
2. Specialization (economies will specialize in where they have comparative advantage)
3. Incremental adaption (tendency to evolve in direction of most effective system)
4. Hybridization (Parts of economy/society become part of the global system)

Question 8

“The world is flat”

Answer 8

It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, the means of communication and transportation are such that at any point in the globe you can access the rest of the world.

Question 9

The issue of “cultural approbation”

Answer 9

It is bad to take over other cultures

Question 10

Example of parts that remain unaffected by global systems

Answer 10

• Healthcare
• Education
• Personal services
• Construction

These factors are not mobile and organized on the national scale