Responsive Structures in Multinational Organizations: Engaging Employee Knowledge Across Diverse Contexts

Multinational organizations are faced with ongoing shifts in socio-economic conditions and cultural demands in diverse market contexts. Adapting to these changing conditions will require a balance between hierarchical and networked structures that enable integration of autonomous and inclusive modes of local business activities. From this vantage point, we explore central aspects of empathy and mindfulness as the means to accommodate different assumptions between headquarter managers and employees dispersed across host countries with diverse cultural norms and values. Chapters are presented here from around the world exploring operational management, the global-local nexus, tacit knowledge in MNCs, corporate culture, employee mindfulness and setting out a future pathway for developing effective MNC structures. Emerald Studies in Global Strategic Responsiveness aspires to disseminate new inspiring research insights as a potential catalyst for the development of effective approaches to deal with the exposures imposed by dynamic complexities in the global business environment. The implied organizational and societal challenges require effective responses from both public and private organizations induced by supportive policy initiatives. The associated challenges are beyond the control of executive powers and exceed the capacity of single institutions thus underpinning a call for collaborative approaches and collective actions to foster viable solutions for a sustainable future.

Torben Juul Andersen is Professor of Strategy and International Management and Director of the Global Strategic Responsiveness Initiative, Department of International Economics, Government and Business at the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.

Michael Jakobsen Emeritus Associate Professor, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Master of Science (MSc) Anthropology from University of Copenhagen 1984. Studied societal dynamics based on fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Received his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Social Anthropology from the University of Copenhagen in 1992. Guest researcher at the University of Papua New Guinea and the Department of Political Science, Australian National University. Has been Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, and a Research Fellow at the Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong. Director for Strategy and Planning at the Asia Research Centre while being employed as an Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, Department of International Economics, Government and Business (2005-2025). Primary research interests: interfaces between phenomenology and international business studies, societal dynamics and human agency in cross-cultural contexts, and ethnic Chinese business network in Southeast Asia.