International Business
Chapter Fifteen
The Organization of
International Business
Chapter Objectives
• To profile the evolving understanding of
the organization of international business
• To describe traditional and contemporary
organizational structures
• To study the systems used to coordinate
and control operations
• To profile the role of organizational culture
• To examine special situations in the
organization of international business
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Introduction
Organization: the complementary mix of formal
•
•
structure, coordination and control systems, and
cultural values needed to create value and
implement an organization’s strategy
An insightful strategy is a necessary but insufficient condition for long-term organizational
success.
Building an organization to implement an
effective strategy requires the integration of
different people, teams, groups, and units into
a smoothly functioning whole.
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Fig. 15.1: The Organization of
International Business
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The Causes of Organizational
Change
Revolutionary changes in the environment and the
nature of work challenge managers to downsize,
delayer, restructure, reengineer, and reinvent the
organization.
• globalization: changes the opportunity set and efficiency
•
•
frontier for firms
knowledge: an increasingly important engine of sustainable comparative advantage
the Internet: an efficient and effective global organization of knowledge, people, and other resources that
challenge conventional notions of control
[continued]
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• the conduct and context of employees’ jobs: the
•
creation of value that exhibits astonishing variability,
problem solving, and intellectual content
worldwide employee empowerment: decentralized
decision-making and the development of common ideas
and ideals to ensure that all employees act in the best
interests of the firm
• an expanded social contract between employees and
organizations: includes greater employee participation in
problem-solving and decision-making
• increasingly sophisticated corporate strategies: new
combinations of key activities leading to new organizational requirements
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Organizational Structure
Organizational structure: the formal arrangement
of roles, responsibilities, and relationships within
an organization
Organizational differentiation: the way in which
different units and subunits within a firm are
organized and assigned to work on different
levels and kinds of tasks
• A company’s choice of structure depends upon:
– the configuration of its value chain in
terms of the location(s) and type(s) of
its foreign facilities
– the impact of international operations
on total corporate performance
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Vertical Differentiation
Vertical differentiation: the way in which an
organization balances centralized vs. decentralized
decision-making alternatives [the locus of power]
Centralization: the degree to which high-level managers
(usually above the country level) make decisions and
then pass them down to lower levels for implementation
Decentralization: the degree to which lower-level
managers (at or below the country level) make and
implement important decisions
• Usually, centralized decision-making is associated with an
international or global strategy, decentralized decision-making
with a multidomestic strategy, and a combination of the two
with a transnational strategy.
All organizations must determine who will have
what authority to make which decisions.
[continued]
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• The reason for choosing one type of decision-making
authority over another is partly a function of attitude.
[see Chapter Two regarding the cultural environment]
– ethnocentric attitude: encourages an international or
global firm to develop core competencies in its home
country and then closely supervise their transfer and
use abroad i.e., centralized decision-making
– polycentric attitude: encourages a multidomestic firm
to grant decision-making authority to foreign subsidiaries,
i.e., decentralized decision-making
– geocentric attitude: encourages a transnational firm to
creatively balance the competing needs for centralized
and decentralized decision-making in order to respond
to both global and local pressures
Decision-making should occur at the level of the people most directly
affected and who have the most intimate knowledge about the
problem—the current trend is toward more decentralized structures.
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The Principles and Practice of
Centralization and Decentralization
CENTRALIZATION
DECENTRALIZATION
Premises
Premises
Decisions should be made by
senior managers.
The effectiveness of the value
chain depends on headqtrs.’
retaining authority.
Centralized decisions ensure
that operations in different
countries help achieve global
objectives.
Decisions should be made by
lower-level employees.
The effectiveness of the value
chain depends on local
managers’ authority.
Decentralized decisions ensure
that operations in different
countries help achieve global
objectives by first meeting
national goals.
[continued]
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The Principles and Practice of
Centralization and Decentralization
CENTRALIZATION
DECENTRALIZATION
Advantages
Advantages
Coordination of the value chain
is facilitated.
Decisions are consistent with
corporate objectives.
Duplicate activities are pre-.
empted.
The risk of costly, wrong, lowerlevel decisions is reduced.
Consistent dealing with stakeholders is ensured.
Decisions are made by those
who are directly involved.
Lower-level managers are
allowed to exercise initiative.
Lower-level employees are
motivated to perform better.
Flexible responses to rapid
changes are enabled.
Subsidiary managers are held
more accountable.
[continued]
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The Principles and Practice of
Centralization and Decentralization
CENTRALIZATION
DECENTRALIZATION
Disadvantages
Disadvantages
Initiative among lower-level
employees is discouraged.
Demoralized lower-level workers
wait for instructions.
Information flows from the top
down; thus, bottom-up
innovation is pre-empted.
The organization is put at risk
if bad, lower-level decisions
are made.
Cross-unit coordination and
strategic fit are impeded.
Subsidiaries likely favor their
own projects at the expense
of global performance.
[continued]
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The Principles and Practice of
Centralization and Decentralization
CENTRALIZATION
Encouraging Factors
DECENTRALIZATION
Encouraging Factors
Corporate policies call for global Conditions call for local reintegration and uniformity.
sponsiveness and adaptation.
Interdependent subsidiaries
The firm is geographically
share value activities.
dispersed.
Firms need to move resources
Economies of scale can be
from one activity to another.
achieved nationally.
Upper-level managers are more Lower-level managers are more
experienced decision-makers.
capable decision-makers.
Decisions are important and
Decisions are relatively minor
the risk of loss is great.
but must be made quickly.
The need for foreign nationals
to reach headqtrs. is
low.
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Horizontal Differentiation
Horizontal differentiation: the way in which a firm is
divided into discrete units and sub-units that are
assigned responsibility for specialized tasks
• Horizontal differentiation describes the way in which a
firm designs its formal structure in order to:
– specify the total set of organizational tasks
– logically divide those tasks into jobs, departments,
subsidiaries, and/or divisions
– assign authority and reporting relationships in ways
that are designed to support the firm’s strategies
Traditionally MNEs have resolved these issues on the
basis of function, type of business/product, geographic
region, or some combination of the three.
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The Design of the Formal Structure
Functional Structure:
groups specialized jobs according
to traditional business functions
[specifies roles and relationships
according to inputs]
CEO
Production
Marketing
Finance/
Accounting
– maximizes scales economies by arranging work
responsibilities and relationships in the most efficient
format
– is ideal when a company’s products share a common
technology (a narrow product line) and competitive
pressures push for a cost-leadership strategy
The long chain of command that spans many levels of hierarchy does
not build the knowledge-generating and decision-making relationships
necessary to respond to environmental changes requiring coordination
across departments.
[continued]
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The Design of the Formal Structure
Divisional Structures:
establish groups according to units, products, customers, or regions
[specifies roles and relationships according to outputs]
• International Division: creates a critical mass
of international expertise, but may
struggle to get resources
Product Division: creates synergies between foreign and
domestic operations, is well-suited for diverse
product lines, but lacks the means for
one division to learn from another
Geographic Division: creates economies of scale on a regional
basis, works well when foreign operations
are large but not dominated by a
single region or country, but leads to
the costly duplication of similar value-added activities [continued]
Diesel
Division
•
CEO
Electronics
Division
International
Division
CEO
Diesel Group
•
Power
Systems
Group
Hydroelectric
Group
CEO
Europe
North and
South America
Asia
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The Design of the Formal Structure
Matrix Structure:
– simultaneously attains the benefits of the functional and
divisional forms [theoretically equips an MNE to capture
the benefits of both integration and responsiveness]
– gives functional, product, and geographic groups a
common focus
– has dual reporting relationships rather than a single chain
of command, thus ensuring the exchange of information
and resources
Blurred lines of responsibility and relationships confuse the clarity of
the chain of command, even though groups are required to compete
for resources and control.
Mixed Structure: each is idiosyncratic, reflecting legacies,
executive preferences, and/or circumstances [a combination of functional, regional, and product dimensions]
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Fig. 15.2: Placement of International
Activities within the Organizational
Structures for International Businesses
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Contemporary Structures
Contemporary Structures: learning organizations that
champion limitless spans of control, ad hoc teams, and
self-organizing groups by eliminating vertical, horizontal,
and external boundaries that hinder information flows
• Network Structure: a small, core organization that outsources
certain value activities to key partners in order to focus on
those activities in which it creates maximum value
Japanese keiretsus rely heavily upon long-term personal
relationships among high-level managers in different companies.
• Virtual Organization: a temporary arrangement among
•
partners that can be easily reassembled to adapt to market
changes [permits organizations to acquire resources and/or
strategic capabilities by creating a temporary cluster of
partners]
Project Structure: all work is project based—teams form,
disband, and form again as the flow of work requires
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Fig. 15.3: A Simple Depiction
of the Network Structure
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Coordination Systems
Coordination systems: link the operations of interdependent units and individuals of a firm
• Coordination by standardization:
– sets universal rules and procedures that apply to units
worldwide [a prescriptive, day-to-day infrastructure]
– enforces consistency in the performance of activities
across geographically dispersed units
– helps a firm leverage its core competencies and bring
the advantages of scale to its operations
– is ideally suited for strategies that champion constancy and
predictability in industries that are more stable than
volatile, i.e., an international or geocentric strategy
[continued]
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• Coordination by plan:
– requires interdependent units to meet common deadlines
and objectives
– is ideally suited for firms that create value by adapting
operations to local conditions, i.e., a multidomestic
strategy
• Coordination by mutual adjustment:
– requires managers to interact with counterparts to enable
the flexible exchange of ideas
– requires that firms adopt a formal structure and install
standardization and planning systems
– is ideally suited for firms that find value in creating more
opportunities and incentives for interdependent parties to
communicate with one another, i.e., when firms face new
problems that cannot be defined with customary rules or
procedures
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Control Systems
Control process: directs and monitors the activities of
individuals in order to compel actions that support
the goals of the firm
• Control methods:
– market control: uses external market mechanisms to
establish internal performance benchmarks and standards
[complements a geocentric strategy]
– bureaucratic control: uses centralized authority to install
an extensive set of rule and procedures to govern a broad
range of activities
– clan control: relies upon share values among all
employees to idealize and moderate preferred employee
behaviors [complements a transnational strategy]
[continued]
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• Control mechanisms
– reports: should be timely to allow an effective response
– subsidiary visits: should balance information collection
and sharing with the offering of advise and directives
– management performance evaluation: should separate a
manager’s performance from a subsidiary’s performance
– cost and accounting comparability: should interpret
different costs and accounting practices fairly
– evaluative measurements: should include a reliable
combination of financial and non-financial indicators
– information systems: should periodically reevaluate
information needs in order to minimize costs and ensure
relevancy
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Organization Culture
• Organization culture: the set of fundamental
assumptions about an organization, its goals,
and its practices that employees share
• Key features of a firm’s organization culture include:
–
–
–
–
–
managerial values and principles
the work climate and atmosphere
patterns of “how things are done around here”
traditions
ethical standards
Studies confirm a significant link between organization culture
and the financial performance of a firm.
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Strategy and Organization Culture
• The shared values of an organization influence both
•
employees’ perceptions as well as the ways in which
they respond to the world.
Sustainable benefits and lasting competitive advantage
can only be realized when a firm exhibits a complementary organization culture:
– an international strategy: requires rules, regulations, and
uniformity
– a global strategy: requires standardizing employees’ views
– a multidomestic strategy: requires greater tolerance of the
local interpretation of corporate goals
– a transnational strategy: requires a strategic blending of
standardization and adaptation, i.e., dynamic flexibility
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Fig. 15.4: Organizational Culture
Aspects of Types of Strategies
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Special Situations
• Acquisitions: the culture of an acquired organi•
•
zation may differ because of both company and
national practices
Shared ownership: decision-making is limited
and assumptions and behavior will likely differ
when two or more entities share ownership
Dynamic nature of performance: as a firm’s
international business evolves, both its organizational structure and its coordination and control
systems must also evolve
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The Role of Legal Structures
When operating abroad, firms choose among legal
forms that affect their decision-making power,
their tax exposure, their ability to protect
intellectual property, and their legal liability.
• Foreign branch: a wholly-owned foreign operation that remains legally part of the parent
company
• Subsidiary: a legally separate company, i.e.,
a foreign direct investment, whose liability is
usually limited to the subsidiary’s assets
[continued]
15-29
• Types of subsidiaries and operating form, i.e., distinctions to be heeded in designing a foreign operation:
– the ability of the parent to sell its ownership
– the number of stockholders required to establish a
subsidiary
– the percentage of foreigners who can serve on the board
of directors
– the amount of required public disclosure
– whether equity may be acquired by noncapital contributions such as goodwill
– the types of businesses (products) that are eligible
– the minimum capital required for establishing a subsidiary
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Implications/Conclusions
• Organization is an integrated function of formal
structure, coordination and control systems, and
organizational culture.
• The degree of centralization in an MNE is influenced
by pressures for global integration versus local
responsiveness, the competence of headquarters
versus subsidiary personnel, as well as decision
importance, expediency, and quality expectations.
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• Artfully engineering an organization that configures
globally dispersed resources to meet the mandates
of multinational operations is the frontier of international business.
• While traditional organizational structures rely on
hierarchical formats, contemporary structures
eliminate the horizontal, vertical, and/or external
boundaries that block the development of
knowledge-generating and decision-making
relationships.
• MNEs need to develop coordination and control
mechanisms that prevent the duplication of efforts,
ensure that headquarters does not withhold the best
resources from international operations, and include
insights from across the entire firm.
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