THE LIMITS OF CONTROL IN THE MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION

As a business grows, its managerial hierarchy gains new layers, and top management finds it more difficult to control those toward the bottom of the chain of command. Multinational corporations are so large (and still growing) that they tax all organizational control mechanisms, including the traditional hierarchy, matrix structures, loose coupling, corporate culture, and personnel rotation. The applicability and drawbacks of each of these mechanisms are surveyed as they relate to the dilemma of management control in the multinational corporation.