What is global management?

International and Global Management is concerned with the techniques and practices that are involved in directing and controlling international organisations. Thus, it covers all the issues that arise as a consequence of international and global strategies. In practice, strategy and management at the senior level of a company are inter-related. That is why we have a section here on the topic.

For example, the US car company Ford Motors  has a joint venture in the People’s Republic of China with the Chinese company Chang’An. This requires careful management at a senior level both for the US company and the Chinese company to ensure that the local joint venture continues to run effectively.

International and Global Management can usefully be considered from the perspective of the different functions of the organisation: marketing, operations (often called production), human resources, finance and other support activities like research and development and legal issues. From an international perspective, each of these functional areas will have more complex issues than arise in any one country. The purpose of this section is to identify at least some of these additional issues.

In addition to the functional perspectives, international and global management has an additional dimension. Senior managers will need to have discussions at various times with the country within which they are operating and, perhaps on occasions, with other international bodies like the World Bank or the United Nations. Other world institutions act primarily at country level, like the International Monetary Fund which is located in Washington DC, USA. The IMF, as it is usually known, governs international currency and other intergovernmental financial arrangements.

In any event, it is important that global managers understand these and many other world institutions because they will have an impact on their decision making – perhaps directly through negotation and certainly indirectly through decisions taken by world bodies.

For some managers, the impact of either world institutions or individual country governments may be more direct. There may be a need to negotiate directly with an individual governmental organisation – perhaps over a tax issue, perhaps over a proposed acquisition. Bargaining between companies and countries then becomes a major issue.

For these reasons, this section of the website has a number of themes:

• How do we manage international and global companies? Why do companies go outside their home countries?
• How does world trade impact on multinationals and smaller companies? Waht is the political and economic background to world trade?
• What are the institutions that govern world trade? What are the underpinning economic theories?
• Global management: the operations perspective
• Cross functional issues and resource issues in international companies: human resources, financial issues and some legal matters
• The internal organisation structure and external relationships of large and small international companies
• Global management: knowledge, technology and innovation issues
• International companies and the nation state: the balance of power
• International companies and the nation state: the risks involved and the methods of handling them

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How do we manage international and global companies?

How does world trade impact on multinationals and smaller companies?

What are the institutions that govern world trade? What are the underpinning economic theories?

Global Management: the operations (production) perspective

Cross functional issues and resources issues in international companies

The internal organisation structure and the external relationships of large and small international companies

Global Management: knowledge, technology and innovation issues

International companies and the nation state: the balance of power

International companies and the nation state: the risks involved and the methods of handling them