Globalization, Changes and Strategies for Managing Workers*

© Kamla-Raj 2007

J. Hum. Ecol., 22(2): 159-169 (2007)

Globalization, Changes and Strategies for Managing Workers* Resistance in Work Organizations in Nigeria

Emeka Emmanuel Okafor Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

KEYWORDS Globalization. Changes. Reforms. Job losses. Resistance. Workers. Strategies ABSTRACT Globalization has become a dominant issue in work organizations all over the world. It has the potential to enrich not only the nation’s economy but also the workplace as it can increase productivity, profitability and ease the performance of tasks. However certain changes such as privatization, deregulation, liberalization, subsidies removal, casualization, downsizing, rightsizing, rationalization, recapitalization, merger and acquisition among others, have made it very unpopular among workers in the developing countries. Understandably in the recent times the anti-globalization protests have increased all over the world as a form of resistance to the changes. Against this backdrop this paper examines the Nigerian situation by focusing critically on ways and reasons why workers react and resist changes emanating from globalization both within and outside the work organizations. On this note the paper identified some strategies for managing resistance to changes emanating from globalization in work organizations.

INTRODUCTION Globalization has engendered changes in all aspects of human endeavor. Therefore, everywhere, people, institutions, roles, statuses, organizations etc, are changing. Changes are therefore inevitable consequence of globalization in any organization. It has been argued that change is the very essence of the environment in which an organization operates. A change is any deviation from normal situation and its management requires special skills to weather the change. To drive home the essence of change in organization, Drucker (1954: 24) identified three types of formal organizations vis-à-vis their...