In the wake of Industrialisation, the worlds of business, industry
and commerce have increasingly become dependent on technology. Technologies
used in design and production have been complemented by
modern information structures that are heavily utilised in planning,
distribution, communication advertising, administration and people
management. Alongside this has been the awareness of Globalisation
as a significant phenomenon with organisations often seeing both
their employees and markets as a worldwide possibility.
This two-sided development, Technology and Globalisation, has created many Multinational Enterprises (e.g. Wal-Mart) whose scale individually is so large they dwarf most countries as financial institutions. Such huge global enterprises have created a need for diverse and complex organisational systems and plans that will attempt to maximise either the efficacy or efficiency of their productive output. Contrapuntally many organisations have identified problems in the mass scale itself and begun to agree with Schumacher that ‘Small is Beautiful’.
This research conference addresses the multifarious issues surrounding modern Global Technology Management issues within Multinational Enterprises, including nation states. The project should appeal to academics involved in these and cross-related subjects, as well as professionals facing and wrestling with these problems on a daily basis.
As part of our philosophy for research projects, it is anticipated
that participants will be the best determinants of what are the contemporary
issues to be examined and developed under the GTM
umbrella.