The book “Managing Across Borders, The Transnational Solution” by Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal is about the challenges of international business particularly in 1980s. The authors divided the book in three main parts.
The first part, called ”The Transnational Challenge”, deals mainly with conceptual issues like the definition of multinational, global and international companies as well as structural fit and administrative heritage. Accordingly this chapter of the book tries to answer the question ”why” nowadays transnational organisations are needed.
The second part, called “Characteristics Of The Transnational”, describes mainly the three key attributes of the transnational organisation. Which are the integrated network configuration of assets and activities, flexibility due to specialised roles and responsibilities and last but not least the facilitation of learning due to multiple innovation processes. Therefore this part of the book considers the question “what” is the transnational organisation. The third part of the book, called ”Building And Managing The Transnational” prescribes mainly what managers have to do in order to build and manage an organisation that corresponds to the model of the transnational organisation. This means that, this chapter tries to answer the question “how” can a transnational organisation be build.
Not to mention there is a fourth part in the studied book, called “Appendix: Research Methology” in with the authors describe their method of research and data collection more detailed than within the first three parts of the book. Succeeding I am going to summarise the content of each part more detailed.
Table of Contents
1. Summary of the book
1.1. The Transnational Challenge
1.2. Characteristics Of The Transnational
1.3. Building And Managing The Transnational
2. Opinion about the book
3. Personal example of the books idea
Research Objectives and Themes
The essay explores the challenges faced by international corporations in a rapidly changing, competitive business environment during the 1980s and beyond. The primary objective is to evaluate the "transnational" model proposed by Bartlett and Ghoshal as a framework for reconciling the conflicting demands of global efficiency, local responsiveness, and worldwide learning.
- Evolution of international business strategies.
- Core attributes of the transnational organizational model.
- Implementation of management processes to build transnational capabilities.
- The role of administrative heritage and organizational culture in shaping strategic responses.
- Application of transnational concepts to individual and student-level professional development.
Excerpt from the Book
1.1. The Transnational Challenge
The authors argue that because of new pressures, which have transformed the global competitive environment, even the largest companies worldwide have to rethink their traditional strategies of doing international business. This means that especially these companies, but not only these companies, have to consider the adequacy of their organisational structures and processes.
During their studies Bartlett and Ghoshal investigated nine leading American, European and Japanese companies of the following three worldwide businesses: consumer electronic business (Matsushita, Philips, General Electrics [GE]), branded packaged products business (Unilever, Procter & Gamble [P&G], Kao) and telecommunications switching business (Ericsson, NEC, ITT). They argue that three of the studied companies were losers or laggards regarding the new challenges (GE, Kao, ITT) and six companies survived but were battling to maintain viable competitive positions in the new environment (Matsushita, Philips, Unilever, P&G, Ericsson, NEC).
As reasons for that the authors mention the very different strategic and organisational responses of different companies in different industries as well as rather organisational deficiencies than inappropriate strategic analysis. Thus for example GE lost competitiveness because of a lack of global efficiency; Kaos internationalisation failed because of its lack of national responsiveness and ITT struggled through because of its lack of worldwide learning and innovation. This means that the problem for managers of worldwide companies was not to recognise what they had to do to enhance their global competitiveness, the challenge was rather how to do this respective how to develop the organisational capabilities to do it. In short: The answer was obvious but the way of answering was obscure.
Summary of Chapters
1. Summary of the book: This chapter provides an overview of the book's structure, introducing the three primary pillars of the transnational model: the challenge of global competitiveness, the specific characteristics of the transnational organization, and the management tasks required to build it.
1.1. The Transnational Challenge: The author analyzes how shifting environmental forces necessitated a move away from traditional multinational or global strategies toward a more complex, multidimensional transnational approach.
1.2. Characteristics Of The Transnational: This section details the core attributes of the transnational model, specifically focusing on integrated network configurations, dispersed assets, and the facilitation of worldwide learning through multiple innovation processes.
1.3. Building And Managing The Transnational: The focus here is on the implementation tasks for managers, including legitimizing diversity, managing organizational complexity through flexible coordination, and fostering commitment across the organization.
2. Opinion about the book: The author evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the book, praising its practical insights into administrative heritage while critiquing the introduction of new terminology for concepts that could have been refined within existing frameworks.
3. Personal example of the books idea: This section translates the organizational concepts of the book into the context of individual professional development, specifically addressing how students navigate complex and dynamic educational requirements.
Keywords
Transnational corporation, global efficiency, local responsiveness, worldwide learning, administrative heritage, integrated network, organizational capabilities, strategic management, innovation processes, competitive advantage, organizational change, management complexity, multinational strategy, international business, corporate culture.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this essay?
The essay serves as a critical summary and analysis of Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal's seminal work, "Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution," exploring how large firms adapt to global competitive pressures.
What are the primary themes discussed in the work?
The central themes include the transition from traditional organizational structures to the transnational model, the importance of reconciling global efficiency with local responsiveness, and the development of multidimensional strategic capabilities.
What is the primary objective of the transnational model?
The goal is to enable an organization to achieve global efficiency, responsiveness to local market needs, and worldwide learning simultaneously, rather than choosing only one of these as a primary objective.
Which methodology is applied by the authors?
The authors conducted an ex-post analysis of nine leading multinational corporations across three industries (consumer electronics, branded packaging, and telecommunications) to observe their strategic responses to environmental changes.
What topics are covered in the main body of the text?
The main body covers the conceptual definitions of transnational organizations, the structural and administrative requirements for their success, and the specific management tasks of balancing diversity, complexity, and commitment.
Which keywords define this work?
Key terms include Transnational corporation, global efficiency, local responsiveness, worldwide learning, administrative heritage, and organizational flexibility.
How does the author relate the book's ideas to personal experience?
The author applies the concepts of navigating complexity and managing diverse requirements to the challenges students face, such as balancing generalization and specialization within a dynamic education system.
Why does the author argue that the "transnational" model relies on a specific "idea of man"?
The author argues that the model implicitly assumes human beings in organizations will cooperate altruistically and share knowledge, a premise the author views with skepticism, comparing it to historical social orders.
- Quote paper
- André Berndt (Author), 2003, Essay about Christopher A. Bartlett, Sumantra Ghoshal: "Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/20527
