Just as new transnational strategic imperatives put demands on MNEs’ existing organizational capabilities, so have evolving transnational organization models defined new managerial tasks for those operating within them. In this chapter, we examine the changing roles and responsibilities of three typical management groups that find themselves at the decision-making table in today's transnational organizations: the global business manager, the worldwide functional manager, and the national subsidiary manager. Although different organizations may define the key roles differently (bringing global account managers or regional executives to the table, for example), the main challenge facing all MNEs is to allocate their major strategic tasks and organizational roles among key management groups. Just as important is the subsequent need to give each of those groups the appropriate legitimacy and influence within the organization's ongoing decision-making process. The focus of this chapter is to provide an overview of the new roles and responsibilities of these key executives before concluding with a review of the role of top management in integrating their diverse interests and perspectives, and engaging them around a common direction.
As earlier chapters have made clear, the twenty-first century MNE is markedly different from its twentieth century predecessors. It has been transformed by an environment in which multiple, often conflicting forces accelerate simultaneously. The globalization of markets, the acceleration of product and technology life cycles, the assertion of national governments’ demands, and, above all, the intensification of global competition have created an environment of complexity, diversity, and change for most of today's MNEs.
As we have seen, the ability of a company to compete based on a single dominant competitive advantage has morphed into a need to develop multiple strategic assets: global-scale efficiency and competitiveness, national responsiveness and flexibility, and worldwide innovation and learning capabilities. In turn, these new strategic demands have put pressure on existing organization structures and management processes. Traditional hierarchical structures, with their emphasis on either/or choices, have evolved toward organizational forms that we have described as transnationals. Such organizations are characterized by their abilities to manage integrated networks of assets and resources, multidimensional management perspectives and capabilities, and flexible coordinative processes.
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