Central question of part 4: how to manage the challenges that arise from being a company spread throughout a number of countries and regions❓
In the first three parts of this series “Remote leadership revisited” we dived into the different dimensions of distances that characterise internationally operating companies : how to bridge geographical, cultural and language distances. If you haven’t had the chance to look into them yet take a look at the forum section on our website. You will find them all there.
Today we start part 4 “In the eye of the storm”. In meteorology, the eye is the relatively peaceful area in the centre of the cyclone, despite violent winds surrounding it.
Operations of international companies are at all times affected by domestic as well as regional or global developments, crises or upheavals: financial shock, geopolitical upheavals or a global health crisis like the pandemic. They find themselves in the eye of the storm, the focal point where pressures converge from different directions.
The question we follow in part 4 of this series is: Are external storms the only ones that rattle international companies? And also: how calm is this epicentre?
In this final episode we will be dealing with these inner-organizational distances, their effects, and possible ways for leaders to deal with them.
Be it along functional lines or product lines, whether single dimensional or matrix, centralized or de-centralized, operating with an international unit or integrating international business into all functions …
… structures decide on proximity or distance:
- who gets which sort of information in which form and at what point ❓
- who has access to whom❓
- who decides with whom, who participates at what point❓
- who will work with whom (proximity)❓ or not❓
Structures define directions of communication
- who will communicate with whom directly (proximity) or indirectly (distance), or not at all❓
- in a one way (monologue) or reciprocal manner (dialogue)❓
- who reports to whom (bottom-up or top-down communication)❓
Structures are in fact a whole system of defined interactions and relations of everybody in the company towards everybody else. As we will show, defined paths can be functional or dysfunctional in enabling the effective operation of international business.
These distances or proximities are not identical with geographical distances. Members of the company in the same location or geographically very close locations can in fact from this point of view be very distant from each other. And in the same way geographically very distant members of the company can be very close concerning their availability for each other, their participation in decision-processes and their accessibility for each other.
This all might seem rather “academical” , but we know you are all intimately acquainted with the repercussions. And if you are in an international management role you’ll be confronted at regular intervals with the question of how to deal with these.
Over the next weeks we will be looking into the inner dynamics of internationalized companies.
Watch our for the upcoming articles on “the eye of the storm”❗️