Blog 4: The 'World' in www.

It was interesting to watch Office Tigers and how globalization has come so far and is still advancing. Technology plays a major role in this, if not the biggest. Technology opened the door for many opportunities and ways to communicate and do business over seas. Office Tigers is set in India yet the work that they do is based off of an American culture. The business provides high end outsourcing services to major American and European companies. To get a job at Office Tiger is very desirable among many of the people that live there. When asked most of the employees said it was "All about the money".

Office Tiger CEO Joseph Sigelman

The Americans who started the company and those that work there, want to guide the Indians to become professional hard working employees like such in the American business world. In many cases in the documentary the CEO asked some employees why they weren't wearing there ties and to make sure that they are wearing them. In this business working hard is must or, as they said they will "weed out the under performers". I was surprised to see how much they emphasized on working hard. Working Saturdays and longer hours, working at home, and to live by the Office Tigers slogan, "We never sleep". Call center such as these like Office Tigers in India, are products of globalization. The employees are trained to work professionally like and with Western advanced countries. Like Drori explains, "We rely on technology to expedite human communication, thus exchanging more information, more intently and faster. Through e-technology we also extend our human networks into new spaces, thus establishing more contacts with more people and institutions" (Global E-Litisim, Drori). Office Tigers is a great example in which the company's value is based around using technology to outsource information across the globe, as quickly and efficiently as possible. In doing so, they have extensive training for each of the employees such as "having good English" and hope to turn English into the first language. They want the employees to develop the Indian professions into a Western business. As more advanced countries gain more power the developing countries are trying to copy those ideas so they to can gain power and develop. As Nakamura said, "The internet can be seen as part of the context of multimedia globalization, a fostering of a Western (as yet) cultural practice upon 'third world', minorities, and marginalized populations"(Cybertyping and the Work of Race in the Age of Digital Reproduction, Nakamura). The fact that we have technology and are able to globally communicate at anytime is useful, but also creates a digital divide. It separates those that are of higher class and with more money to those that have less money and do not have the resources to use technology to their advantage. Cultural imperialism is seen by the many developing countries who are influenced to be like the Western and most powerful countries. In the end the developing countries are always trying to catch up, as technology increasingly improves and changes. At first when we began Office Tigers I kept asking myself if this was suppose to be a good thing or a bad thing. The fact that these Indians are able to learn the Western culture and advance their lives is great, but I can't help but dislike the overall outcome of the exploitation of cheap labor in other countries. Advanced countries are able to take business globally (outsourcing) with the use of technology, around the world and get cheap labor to increase their global power and capital.