Global Citizenship, Entrepreneurship, and Diversity in the Global Village for the Post-COVID-19 Era

Introduction

The COVID19 pandemic has temporarily reduced economic activity worldwide due to social confinement and working stoppage. A robust digitalization process has taken place in companies to alleviate the problems generated by the pandemic, which has caused organizational and labor-related structural changes, which have even changed consumer consumption patterns. As a result, the working organization in firms has altered the labor market drastically, especially in nations endowed with 5G Internet-based networks, causing the elimination of work commuting in many cases.

This digitalization process at work has increased the need to have sound Internet-based communication systems at home, which has generated an optimization in the use of time and has increased work productivity and efficiency. In addition, there has been a positive impact on the family economy by reducing transport costs and promoting work-life balance policies, which have significantly benefited women with dependent children, who now dispose of more time for themselves and their families.

Digitalization, internationalization, open innovation, and creativity are post-COVID19 innovation trends in the marketplace. Organizations can access information from any time format and in any geographical location, thus enabling efficiency, internationalization, creativity, and open innovation (Ratten, 2022). Also, implementing new Internet-based technologies at work has tended to create a global village in which professional, family, and personal interaction has increased. In this way, the need to work with efficiency, productivity, and mutual respect has arisen between individuals in different countries. Care and consideration must be more significant when gender differences emerge, diverse cultures exist, and other religious beliefs (or not) appear. This growing respect for diversity generates new opportunities for collaboration that create positive externalities to benefit the individuals and societies who interact, regardless of their race, culture, religious beliefs, social customs, or gender.

This chapter aims to analyze how the acceptance of working in multicultural contexts has fostered the creation of global citizens able to interact fruitfully to benefit societies and the planet. Global citizens dispose of a holistic vision and are open-minded to accepting new labor and organizational working and rules for them and, if applicable, their families. In these individuals, developing digital and socio-civic skills is essential for educating in digital citizenship (Peart et al., 2022) and language skills. Based on shared humanity, sustainable social development, and human rights, digital citizenship educates active and socially-conscious citizens on global, regional, and local actions, as shown by the liberal-humanist vision, complemented by a technicist-neoliberalist vision under the influence of global markets (Coelho et al., 2022).

To cope with this objective, the author will analyze the keys to how the planet is getting more ‘glocalized’ (think globally, act locally) due to ICTs and especially the Internet. Thanks to technology and the Internet, the world is more interconnected, allowing massive real-time information flows to cross the planet at every moment. The world has never encountered such a volume of data in such a short time. This fact has encouraged the creation of ‘citizens of the world,’ especially among the executives and managers working in international environments. As a result, and having this global feeling in mind, multiculturalism benefits society, given its permissiveness and appreciation for people from other cultures and different languages.