ISTR Full Paper/ Poster Presentation:Research Poster Presentation for Emerging Areas of Theorizing and Practice

Title: A Re-examination of the Philippines’ Strategy for Global Competitiveness: Evidence from Community-driven Development Programs in Selected Locales.

Author: Maria Gwenetha Ybanez Pusta, Ph.D. University of Santo Tomas Manila, Philippines

Against the backdrop of the political and economic configurations of globalization, recent scholarship calls attention to a seeming disjuncture between theories, methodologies or applications of nation states’ efforts to attain global competitiveness. Often defined in terms of time-space continuum and interpenetration of local global processes (Appadurai, 2000, Harvey, 2001; 2005), globalization within the framework of contemporary debate is tied to political and economic systems of organizing structures and processes that have led to the flow of goods, services, labour and materials across national borders (Pal & Dutta, 2008a; 2008b). This politics of globalization has given rise to multiple perspectives creating a great deal of conceptual ambiguity.

Ghoshal, S. (1987) asserts that the latest catch phrase in international business - ‘manage globally’ appear in a number of papers on the issue of globalization of industries. These were apparently used in recent meetings of the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business and the Strategic Management Society (Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 8, pp. 425-440).

At the country level, Porter’s (1990a) thesis posits that countries like companies compete in international markets for their fair share of the world markets. Here, two schools of thought on country competitiveness prevail: The trade theory of the economic school, which rejects Porter’s notion of competitiveness and the Porter’s Diamond Framework from the management school of thought.

This renewed interest has re-opened the debate on the international competitiveness of countries as an ever growing concern of governments, firms, as well as academic scholars (Ketels, 2006). It is also one of the often misused and misunderstood terms in the popular press and academic literature today. Daniel's (1991:56) calls it ‘the elusive concept of national

competitiveness’ claiming that no consensus on how to measure, explain and predict is perhaps warranted.

In dealing with limited but rich literature on global strategies, researchers and practitioners alike encounter difficulties because there is no organizing framework within which multiple perspectives can be assimilated. This paper purports to suggest an organizing framework that could be useful to policy analysts, researchers and academics. It argues that with the increasing evidence on globalization, traditional state-directed policies, is largely irrelevant today. There is a need to re-examine global strategy at country level in order to adapt a framework consistent with the 21st century skills and knowledge.

Drawing from empirical evidence in select localities and anchored upon a historical review of the Philippine strategy for global competitiveness, inductive analysis reveals that domestic outward looking trade policies do not allow meaningful global strategizing. Said limitations therefore challenges policy makers, financial planners and analysts to integrate the three global forces of: (1) global business (2) regional/country pressures and (3) worldwide functions, into a globally-oriented and integrated framework.

In much of the current literature, this paper narrowed the concept of global strategy

linking it almost exclusively with how the Philippine government structured the flow of tasks within the worldwide ‘value-adding system’.

A global market and a holistic global strategy should create conditions to hold the country level as a worldwide organization characterized by specialization, interdependency and coordination. Therefore, a global outlook is a process of moving an organization’s structure, process, people and culture from a set of highly autonomous business units to one that is integrated and effective as a global network. (Pusta, G. ‘Emergent Vertical Theory of Social Change Dynamics.’ (2010: 143).

Keywords: global strategy, country competitiveness and The Emergent Vertical Theory of Social Change Dynamics.

Entry Points for Change

Culture-centered change builds on the participatory strand of change and development efforts, emphasizing the agency of individuals and collectives in determining their choices (Bassu & Dutta, 2009, Dutta, 2008b; 2011). The grassroots capacities of local communities as they participate in the processes of development provide the basis for change. Paulo Freire (1973) summarizes the critical role of dialogue in participatory development as...

“Born of a critical matrix, dialogue creates a critical attitude. It is nourished by love, hope and mutual trust, they can join in a critical search for something. Only dialogue truly communicates” (p.44).

The departure between participatory development and culture-centered social change lies in the relationship of these two approaches to structures (Dutta, 2008a;2008b). Whereas, traditional forms of development efforts are embedded within dominant structures dictated by the goals of the status quo, culture-centered social change efforts are directed towards interrogating the taken-for-granted assumptions that constitute the rules, roles and organizing principles of the status quo. For instance, the 1970s liberalization and market freedom of the Marcos regime specified macro-economic models to increase per capita income, generate employment with more equitable income distribution, adopt regional industrialization and development. Drawn in part from the growth rate experiences of Taiwan and South Korea, it increased the degree of economic freedom and resilience in the market mechanisms.

In order to facilitate the implementation of its Five-Year Development Plan (1972-1975), a state-centric approach was employed by setting up programs for industry, agriculture, transportation, power and electrification, telecommunications, water supply and sewage, and tourism. These were made possible by focusing on human resource development, education and manpower development, family planning, housing, health and nutrition, cooperatives and community development. For its strategy, the development plan vigorously argued for a re-examination of the economic policy framework - away from protection towards liberalization. It dismantled the import-substitution policy of the past and took the pathway of a liberalized economy, both internally and externally.

The infamous ‘rule of law’ by the dictator drew attention to the inequalities in the neo-liberal economics of the time. In solidarity with the grassroots politics of change, such development plan created an entry point to corporate-owned policy-making of the elites and cohorts of the Marcos family, heavily influenced by the corporate-sponsored lobbying industry. Therefore, this classic scenario calls to mind the set limitations of the ‘state exercised’ social control as it succumbed to the dictates of international funding agencies.

! While the state’s actions achieved a particular objective of economic restructuring, often it impedes other equally important objectives of ‘development from below’. The underlying premise is that simple categorization schemes of multi-domestic strategies are not very useful in understanding what the key strategic objectives of the MNCs are, as well as the tools and processes for achieving them. The need for an integrative analysis of the various means employed by statist and the different ends can help managers and researchers in formulating, describing, classifying and analyzing the content of the global strategies.

In contrast, culture-centered change is constituted in the backdrop of the inequalities of distribution of material and even communicative resources, perpetuated by neoliberal policies. That there are fundamental differences in the populations in the distribution of wealth creates entry points for structural transformations. Resultantly, attention is given to dominant knowledge structures within the status quo tied to the agendas of neoliberalism, both within and across nation-states.

Research Aim: To develop an organizing framework within which select communities may tackle the various issues arising from global strategic management.

Research Design: Exploratory

An exploratory research design was employed best suited to address the investigation on the neo-liberal globalization phenomenon in the Philippines. This new unexplored local development response sought on how the phenomenon is manifested in the environment, and how local members of the community got along in that situation.

Mode of Analysis: Phenomenological Hermeneutics

! Phenomenological hermeneutics provided the means to identifying the meanings attached to the features of neo liberal globalization. The object of analysis was focused on the occurrence of analytical objects in a matrix below as variables and measures.

Variables and MeasuresVariables Measures Indicators

Responses to the impact on economic life

Utilization of resources Felt presence of institutionalized social policies

Macroeconomic stability Sound Fiscal Policies

Price Stability and economic growth Adequate employment opportunities

Enough competition Adequate Earnings

Enough Income Adequate savings

Responses to the impact on Political Life

Enhance or undermine popular participation/ consultation

Improved governance through a professional bureaucracy

Enhance or undermine democratic capacities for national development

Democratic participation with sound electoral reforms

Political change Restructure Institutional and political mechanisms

Structural adjustments Leadership, Enforcement and Political Will

Responses to the impact on Social Life

High investments in human capital Raising living standards

Production networks, human capital and technological development

Pro-competitive government intervention

Strategic Partnerships & Strategic Alliances

Presence/absence of organizations and partnerships

Preservation of norms and relations Strengthening the social system

Method:

Findings of the Study:

Globalization fundamentally altered the structure of relationship and the capacity for autonomous social action employed by third sector communities and intensified social tensions categorized into the following: 1) social inequality; 2) market volatility; and 3) inadequate check and balance mechanisms of state-society engagement.

Findings in phenomenological hermeneutics gave rise to an emergent Theory of Social Change Dynamics, which grounded abstract ideas of structure and agency as espoused by Sewell, Giddens and Bourdieu by embedding them in key action areas of Networks, Markets and Institutions. These variables were intimately linked to meanings in culture such as that of state-society engagements, strategies, and new structures of representation. In the trajectories of agriculture, industry and services, evident was a “cooperative” economy that forged alliances with the state in order to balance market forces. It was through these ‘associative networks’ characterized by regular and repeated rules of social action/interaction called Institutions, where the local development rested ultimately in the distribution of peoples and places.

The Community Organizing Model of Social Change revealed that select Third Sector municipalities in the Philippines responded to challenges of globalization by redesigning culture and technology, where culture became but a technique and technology it’s by-product. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews clearly delineated investments in social relations

through mobilized efforts and norms rooted in cooperation, competition, conflict and reciprocity. These enabled members of the communities to gain access to embedded resources resultantly enhancing returns of instrumental or expressive actions through individual change and emergent structures of representation.

Social Change Process at Community Level

The indicators used in all examined communities were: 1) recognition of the problem; 2) identification and involvement of leaders; 3) expression of individual and shared interests; 4) vision of the future; 5) clarification of purpose; 6) setting objectives 7) discussion of options for action and consensus planning; 8) action planning; 9) assignment of responsibilities 10) mobilization of resources; 11) implementation; 12) outcome; and 13) participatory evaluation.

Based on the study’s findings, community organizing was characterized by these indicators, which advanced collective efforts in undertaking solutions to the pressing concerns confronting these municipalities.

The Emergent Theory of Social Change Dynamics

Conclusion:

A global market and a holistic global strategy should create conditions to hold the country level as a worldwide organization characterized by specialization, interdependency and coordination. Therefore, a global outlook is a process of moving an organization’s structure, process, people and culture from a set of highly autonomous business units to one that is integrated and effective as a global network. (Pusta, G. ‘Emergent Vertical Theory of Social Change Dynamics.’ (2010: 143).

References: