ABSTRACT
In the early years of the post-war development of the modern international corporation, organizational structures evolved slowly in response to geographical and market diversity. It was possible for corporate management to change organization structure incrementally, beginning with an international division to handle the international activities of the company, shifting over time to a product-based or geographic divisional structure. The important determining variables were the importance of international business relative to the company’s total business, on the one hand, and the diversity of products sold abroad, on the other (Stopford and Wells, 1972). However, today it is clear that the adoption of global strategies by many corporations has been accompanied by a significant increase in environmental complexity. In response, organization structures are changing more rapidly and there is a heightened degree of experimentation with innovative structures and processes.
