The Power – Or Threat – Of Networks

Last week I posed the question “Is globalilization the next mismanaged risk?” This challenged the wisdom of the 89% of CEOs who, in a recent survey, declared that globalization is ‘inevitable’.

While I am broadly a fan of globalization, I think it is rash of anyone to assume inevitability and therefore fail to consider alternatives when they undertake risk analysis. Many are threatened by ‘the flat world’ and their reactions will continue to be unpredictable, potentially violent. As others experience those reactions – and the broader effects of a more open society – they may also increasingly question the desirability of the globalization process. For example, those in the West have largely seen globalization as a way to export their values, open new markets and obtain cheaper sources of supply. They have rarely considered the extent to which their values might be challenged, or whether long-term success depends on compromise.

An excellent new book raises some of these tough questions. It is called Network Power: The Social Dynamics of Globalization and is written by David Singh Grewal. In it, Grewal makes the point that while we are tempted to think that globalization has fostered diversity (and is therefore non-threatening), the truth is that it has merely revealed diversity that was already there. As one reviewer commented, “It flushes diversity out from the places it was hidden, much as a hunter flushes his quarry out of a thicket, and to similar effect”.

The point behind Grewal’s work is that globalization proceeds through creating new networks. And in order to survive, networks develop and adopt standards. Over time, those standards start to narrow our choices – in fact, they become enshrined through rules and oversight – or ‘complaince’. And with compliance comes a reduction in choice, an imposition of values with which we may not always agree, or which puts us into conflict with our immediate colleagues or neighbours, who may be part of a competing network (or value system).

The power of globalization to break down existing cultures and societies is at this point only vaguely understood. We have welcomed such forces so long as they were affecting others, bringing reform to parts of the world that we consider ‘less advanced’ or less enlightened. But how do we feel when those same disruptive forces are turned on our own society and start to undermine its established values and standards?

Even CEOs might start to react – especially when those networks start questioning the moral validity of their pay packets!