Nike and Vietnam Essay

globalisation is a phenomenon that has become a fact in todays air world. Companies, always looking to cut costs and improve productivity, a lot look all overseas to either expand current business operations or to outsource existing business operations. Companies frequently draw off the finality to go global with the hopes of taking advantage of more favor up to(p) business environments, better technologies, or relationships with suppliers and customers.While these facts are a part of globalization, at that place are also authoritative benefits, which range from lower p sifts to consumers, accessiond teaching method for individuals within the countries where expansion occurs, and a higher standard of life for the individuals in these countries. While arguments can be do that globalization is a peremptory or negative force on a country or on the world economy, the debate is not likely to end any(prenominal) time soon. This paper will take a look at the positive tinges of globalization by examining Nike in Vietnam. Nike has long been assimilateed as the carte du jour infant for problems associated with globalization.Many collect accused Nike of employing workers in sweatshop like conditions in poorer countries like qina, and more recently Vietnam. In addition to the sweatshop claims, people often say that Nike employs child wear down, often even up claiming that the child labor is hale and takes place in sweatshops. Many of these same people also counsel that Nike has interpreted jobs from the United States to these countries where there are fewer laws regarding work conditions and final payment so that they can pay their employees less in an effort to influence a higher profit with no regard to the value of kind-hearted life.These are just a few of the accusations that people often make against multinational corporations such as Nike, and this list is much longer. While it is neat that there hurt been problems at certain factories th at make Nike products, the company has taken aggressive steps to ensure that all of its factories now comply with raw material human rights. It is hard to argue that the conditions experienced by workers at factories in Vietnam are not still vastly different from what we experience in the West, but the culture is much different as well.Therefore, what we may view as harsh conditions may not, in fact, be so to the material employees. What are often unnoticed, or at least is not menti superstard, are the positive effects that Nike has brought to countries like Vietnam. As stated previously, some(prenominal) of the benefits of globalization within a company like Nike must be looked at within the context of the culture existence examined. A primary vitrine of this would be the pay.While some may argue that a periodic pay of $72 per month is essentially the same as employing break ones back labor, the employees at the Nike mill in Ho Chi Minh city power say otherwise. As Johan N orbert (2004) notes, the pay of $72 per month is almost cardinal times the minimum wage for a state-owned enterprise, which typically involves endless geezerhood in intense heat or rain in rice fields surrounded by water and bugs. In addition to being higher paying than previous jobs, working in a Nike factory also provides a stable source of income.These higher wages confuse giveed the employees other benefits as well. When the first factories opening in Ho Chi Minh City, the workers had to walk to the factories, but, within a few years, they saw significant improvements to their transferral options. Norberg (2004) also writes, After three years, they could afford bicycles three years later, they could afford scooters and after eight years, the first workers could afford to buy a car. This is a reality that few people in Ho Chi Minh City experience, with less than 5% of the population owning a car.But perhaps one of the greatest benefits that globalization has brought to Vi etnam is the availability to afford higher education. In the past, many children would have been put to work on farms in order for their families to survive, insofar In ten years, 2. 2 million children have gone from child labour to education (Norberg, 2004). Millions of children attending school as a leave behind of globalization is a far cry from many of the child labor accusations previously mentioned. Globalization is, and probably will always be, a yield that has very passionate people on both(prenominal) sides of the debate.While arguments both for and against globalization have valid points to make, few people really have really taken the time to look at the direct impact of this ever growing trend. From strictly a consumer standpoint, Nikes decision to go global and create factories in a variety of countries has led to an increase from under 200 styles to almost 1200 different styles available for purchase (Locke & Siteman, 2007, p. 6). more importantly, though, are the points mentioned above, that employees in countries like Vietnam make almost 3x the wages made in their previous employment.Rarely will you hear that these employees are able to afford items such as cars while the majority of people even within their own city cannot. You will also almost never hear that, despite past abuses of child labor, millions of children have been able to pose an education. This is a reality that would not have been possible if their parents were still stuck working in rice fields. This education has the abolition to create a positive cycle of growth, wealth, and education for new generations that will continue for years.If you want to examine the direct impact that globalization can have, the case of Nike in Vietnam provides a solid starting point to see the positive effects that have come about as Nike has expanded to have workers in over 50 countries.