Abstract
The management of multinational operations is often required to balance conflicting priorities between responsiveness at the national subsidiary level and central coordination for global competitiveness. Such balancing requires that relevant data be brought to bear on decisions, that consensus be created among key managers, and that relative power among them be carefully balanced. In large complex MNCs the balancing process can be institutionalized through the structuring of relationships between headquarters and subsidiaries.
Beyond formal organization reporting lines, relationships between headquarters and subsidiaries can be structured using a wide array of management tools. Consistent and inconsistent patterns in the use of these tools are identified and assessed, based on detailed analysis of management tools in a selected group of multinational companies. Findings suggest that selected tools must be used to manage data, to manage managers, and to manage conflicts; and that the successful companies blend an array of tools into a consistent management process. Companies with too narrow or too wide a repertory of tools and companies that fail to blend tools consistently face difficulties in trading off needs for responsiveness and needs for coordination.
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*Yves Doz is Associate Professor of Business Policy at INSEAD. He is the author of 2 books and a number of articles on multinational management, based on an extensive research program in a score of multinational companies. His current research interests focus on the management of innovation in large complex multinational firms.
**C. K. Prahalad is Associate Professor of Policy and Control at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on competition in global industries and on strategies for emerging industries and complex innovations. He is the author of several articles on strategic management in multinational companies.
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Doz, Y., Prahalad, C. Patterns of Strategic Control Within Multinational Corporations. J Int Bus Stud 15, 55–72 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490482
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490482