The Productivity And Flexibility Of The Labor Market

Successful firms capitalize on economies of scale & scope, create management structures and invest in research & development

Introduction International business comprises a large and increasing portion of the world’s total trade (Johnson et al., 1994; Czinkota et al., 1995). The growth of international business has gained momentum faster than previously recorded, outstripping domestic business (Daniels and Radebaugh, 1995). The impact of such growth on many companies is that they are now “rushing to become

I will begin by highlighting the two existing categories of scholarship that motivate my research. First, is the literature about the politics of labor market dualization. The other area is the study of immigration attitudes. The existing scholarship on immigration attitudes and labor market dualization is robust. However, there is little literature that combines these two issue areas. This gap in the existing literature informs my own research and has driven me to look at this important connection further.

The business environment that influences companies' activity determines them to search for new development strategies intended to help them increase their business. In most cases, companies expand their business on international level. This is because the numerous growth opportunities provided by markets they have not addressed before can help them reduce their costs by outsourcing some of their processes and activities to cheaper destinations, or to increase their incomes by addressing new markets and new customer segments. The number of companies that outsource their production process to countries in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe that are able to provide skilled workforce at lower costs is increasing. The scope of this international operation can be observed in the significant price reductions in product categories like electronics, clothing, and numerous types of services.

When individuals are free to pursue their interests, innovation occurs because individuals desire better lives. Furthermore, the ability to exchange these innovations (products and services) through free trade and competition ensures that resources are used efficiently. In the process, successful companies grow and hire more employees (who will work as long as they benefit), and ineffective companies disappear. Government’s role in the

Globalization may be defined as the integration of the world 's people, firms and government. In the modern context, globalization is usually the result of closer ties in international trade, known as bilateral trade agreements. The WTO and NAFTA are two examples of such bilateral trade agreements. With such agreements, cross-country investment increases. This increase in investment is aided by the increase in information technology and communications, which has undergone a significant advancement over the last two decades with the rise of the Internet and mobile telephony (Green, 2013). It is important to the business to expand; global expansion and globalization would a positive business decision to complete in this process due to the strategic goals and objectives the company possesses. Healthy growth can be accomplished by globalization of specific areas selected and determined through research of market and development of these areas outlined within.

The development of the business environment has determined companies to develop innovative strategies in order to create competitive advantage. Some of them have identified the potential of developing markets in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and have expanded their business to such areas. These countries provide a large pool of cheap skilled workforce that can help these companies reduce their production costs, which leads to reduced prices intended to increase the number of customers. The economic development of these countries provides customers with increased incomes that can purchase companies' products and services.

The United States labor force history is bound with many changes especially because of the rippling effects of massive demographic alterations that happened within the United States populace. The United States was a major agricultural country until late in the 19th Century where significant industrial growth led to many Americans going to the city to work in factories. The environment was characterized by mass production, low wages, and a lack of skills, which led to the intervention of the government to protect the rights of workers using labor standards. They included the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act that allocates the national maximum hours and minimum salaries people are required to work and receive respectively. It also prohibits child labor abuses and outlines rules for overtime. The 1964 Civil Right Act asserts that employers cannot utilize discrimination practices in hiring based on national origin, religion, sex, and race[footnoteRef:1]. [1: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ?Employment Projections ?2014-24: table 4 http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecopro.pdf]

The labor market is a marketplace where labor and money are exchanged. In a labor market, labor is provided in the form of employment. When labor is traded in the marketplace, demand and supply are created. The firms demand labor which the worker's supply. Supply is the quantity of a product available and demand is the quantity of product desired by buyers.

The process of globalization has numerous significant effects on countries, organizations, and individuals. These effects can be observed in the quality of products, in their prices, but also in their availability. Because of globalization, numerous companies prefer to expand their business on international level. Some of them outsource some of their processes and activities to cheaper destinations that allow them to reduce their investments.

The labour market is defined as the place where employment and employee interaction take place, otherwise known as ‘Job Sector’. In the labour market, employers and companies whether big or small always compete to hire the best skilled, highly motivated and hard-working of individuals to compete for the best job available. (Economic, 2015). A labour market in complex terms is defined as an economic function which supplies different level of demand and supply of labour (Webster, 2015). E.g. labour demand is essentially the firm’s demand for labour whether high or low depending on certain factors influencing the demand whereas supply is often explained via the individual employee’s supply of labour via how much input and output they apply to the job.

In the face of intensified global competition and liberalised trade, productivity has emerged as a key indicator of successful restructuring and upgrading by firms and industries. Traditionally, productivity growth has been regarded as one of the main sources of income growth, along with the factors such as capital accumulation and the deepening of human capital development. Over the past two decades, liberalisation has become an important part of many countries' development strategies. The present study analyses the review of earlier studies on productivity

The international business of a country is greatly influenced by the technological development. The technology environment ensures better productivity. Technological environment influences the business and the effects of technology on markets are very much important (Helpman and Krugman, 1985).

Research & critically discuss the implications of labour flexibility on the international management of Human Resources.

These economies will arise as a result of employing skilled, trained, qualified and highly experienced persons by offering higher wages and salaries. As a firm expands, it can employ a large number of highly talented persons and get the benefits of specialization and division of labor. It can also impart training to existing labor force in order to raise skills, efficiency and productivity of workers. New schemes may be chalked out to speed up the work, conserve the scarce resources, economize the expenditure and save labor time. It can provide better working conditions, promotional opportunities, rest rooms, sports rooms etc, and create facilities like subsidized canteen, crèches for infants, recreations. All these measures will definitely raise the average productivity of a worker and reduce the cost per unit of output.