International Human Resource Management-MJ Version

‘In comparison with domestic organizations, complexity is greater in multinational
organizations because of...’ the experts predominantly agreed with the follow-
ing (the figure in parenthesis represents the percentage of experts that agreed
with the statement):

• the need for multinational corporations to be more sensitive to government,
  labour, and public opinion concerns (91.7%) and regulations (62.5%);


• home-country philosophies and practices that are inapplicable in foreign locales
  (83.3%);


• the impossibility of implementing uniform personnel practices (83.3%) and per-
  formance standards (70.8%) (Adler, 1983: 15).

These different factors will be dealt with extensively in this and subsequent
chapters.

Potential benefits of multiculturalism and

geographic dispersion

Multiculturalism and geographic dispersion can be accompanied by both
advantages and disadvantages. Regarding multiculturalism, the panel of
experts made a distinction between current and future benefits. According to
the panel the most important future benefits of multiculturalism would be:

• increasing creativity and innovation (83.3%);


• demonstrating more sensitivity in dealing with foreign customers (75%);


• being able to get the best personnel from everywhere (i.e. not being ‘stuck’ with
  just local talent (66.7%);


• taking a global perspective (e.g. the MNC choosing the best opportunities glob-
  ally) (62.5%);


• creating a ‘superorganizational culture’, using the best of all cultures (based on
  the need for a unifying, transcending culture) (62.4%);


• greater flexibility within the organization both to adapt to a wider range of envi-
  ronments and to change within those environments (62.5%) (Adler, 1983: 21).

When the future benefits were compared with the benefits that were currently
realized, the only major decrease in importance was that financial risks could
be spread over a wider range of economies (−41.6%) and that more successful
product-development and marketing strategies could be created in terms of
both locally tailored and worldwide products (−25%). A general conclusion
might therefore be that current benefits are related more to the functional areas
of marketing and finance, while potential future benefits are related more to

Strategy and Structure of Multinational Companies 35