McCluhan's Global Village and the Internet's Affect on the Workplace

Marshall McLuhan coined the term 'global village', a world where all communication barriers have dissolved and the flows of media, technology, and people are like that of a small village where information is harmoniously shared (McLuhan, 1994). McCluhan believed that developments in communication technology not only formed the world into a global village, but moved the world into new eras (Griffin, 2004). In stride with his theory is the inception of the modern digital era and the internet. Communication amongst people around the globe by the common use of the internet has had an enormous impact on everyone, including communication in the workplace.

The internet's unsurpassed impact on society has given us the ability to communicate to anyone, anywhere in the world in a short amount of time. McLuhan declared that 'after more than a century of advanced technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned' (McLuhan, 1994). The internet has allowed us to become a globally interconnected community. We can now communicate with one another and find out what is happening on the other side of the world by turning on our computer and going online.

The 'global village' and the internet therefore have an affect on the workplace because of the ease of communication between people anywhere in the world at anytime. While the internet encourages communication amongst employees and gives them access to job-related information, it also gives employees entry to the world's 'biggest playground' (Anadarajan, 2002). The internet has brought distraction into the workplace. So how does the internet, in reference to McCluhan's theory, affect the workplace?