Coordination and how it unfolds in a global corporation: Practical evidence for the case of a German long-haul distance mobility provider

Abstract

The topic of coordination within global organizations has gained substantial research attention over the past two decades. In this context, this paper specifically studies the coordination of the headquarter (HQ) with geographically distant subsidiaries based on a practical case study of a quickly growing multinational corporation within the long-haul distance mobility industry. It becomes evident that the company applies an emergent approach to coordination, using both formal and informal structures, to integrate a collective set of interdependent tasks into the organizational structure. This paper finds that effective coordination is achieved by combining three different mechanisms such as “accountability”, “predictability” together with developing a “common understanding”. However, the coordination approach is not standardized for all regional offices but is customized to the needs of the subsidiaries. This paper specifically looks into factors like task performance, flow of information and social interactions and comes to the conclusion that the degree and the processes of coordination vary. Additionally, the environmental context that the subsidiaries are operating in has significant influence on the coordination with and the (in-)dependency of the HQ.