As our website was down earlier this week, meaning that people couldn’t access the competition details or post to it, and at the request of several people who have asked for a little more time, we have extended the deadline on our Global Working video competition to the end of January.

This also allows us some time to share the competition in some spaces that we haven’t so far.

Rhys, the young man who wants to be a formula one racing driver, who already entered the competition, is absolutely fine with this arrangement, and deserves your vote just for that!

All of the rules for the competition are on the video competition pages, and the prize – for any video on global working – is $15 thousand (£10k, 12k Euros).

Good luck!

Dec 14 2011

Yes, we know it’s not a Monday, but we’ve had a small issue this week with our server.  We had to weigh up making these articles findable by using a consistent title, publishing with a different name, or leaving it until next week to post. This close to the end of the year, we decided to go with publishing a little out of order. We hope that won’t spoil your enjoyment of this week’s summary of available literature on matrix organizations: Challenges and Strategies of Matrix organisations, by Dr Thomas Sy and Laura Sue D’Annunzio (Human Resource Planning 28.1, 2005)

This paper defines five key challenges of the contemporary matrix organisational form, and, following discussion of those, makes best practice suggestions for managers to help improve their matrix organisations. After gathering data based on surveys, workshops and interviews with 294 top-level and mid-level managers in multinational corporations in six industries, the authors identified the five challenges most likely to be present in a matrix structure as being: misaligned goals, unclear roles and responsibilities, ambiguous authority, a lack of a matrix guardian, and silo-focused employees. (You will find many of these topics discussed on the Global Integration blog.)

The article starts with a general overview of what comprises the matrix organisation, outlining the strengths and weaknesses of a matrix structure, before going on to look more closely at each of the identified challenges. The authors then go on to confirm that the challenges faced by mid-level and top-level managers differ, for example, top-level managers more often report a higher frequency of misaligned goals, whereas mid-level managers tend to report that ambiguous roles and responsibilities is a challenge they more frequently encounter.

To conclude, while the research does admit its own strengths and weaknesses, it states that a problem for organisations is they are often fighting ‘complexity with complexity’. In order to win this battle, they must overcome the five identified challenges.

Further summaries of worthwhile literature on matrix organizations and matrix working can be found by following the Matrix Monday category on our blog. We welcome posts with summaries of other, relevant literature.

Dec 14 2011

Please accept our apologies if you were wondering where to catch up with our training consultants this week. Our website suffered a problem, apparently due to an issue with the server on which it’s hosted.

As it’s already late on Wednesday, suffice to say that we have people across mainland Europe, the United Kingdom and the USA over the next few days.

If you’d like to meet up with one of our consultants in what’s left of this week, or next week when things are naturally a little quieter for us, do contact your nearest Global Integration regional office to arrange something, or reach out to one of our senior team of training consultants directly.

Dec 14 2011

Five ways to use the Global Integration video competition for learning and development:

1.    Set an exercise related to global working – maybe it’s cross cultural issues, maybe it’s the use of the technology. Whatever it is you’ve been training, it’s a good way to see how much has sunk in – with the added incentive for participants that they might win a cash prize and will gain extra awareness for what they do just by having the video online

2.    Encourage your teams to share tips on dealing with a specific culture – for example English people, despite a shared language and shared history, have a different lexicon to Americans, and holidays are celebrated differently (think Christmas and Thanksgiving). The differences are bigger in other cultures, and having that ‘kiss, bow or shake hands’ insight is all part of global working.

3.    Has your senior management team considered some of the challenges faced by those who deliver internationally? Could some of the departments use the video to send a message to the management about their challenges in a fun format, or the management articulate some of the things that they are doing/planning to make it easier?

Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 07 2011

Today’s blog post is from our CEO, Kevan Hall, on, of all things, friendliness.

Christmas market, Cologne

I visited Cologne Christmas Market at the weekend. There were visitors from all around the world crammed close together in busy Market squares.

It was noticeable that people from countries where we drive on the left, like the UK and Japan tend to veer left in a crowd and others, from countries where they drive on the right will move to the right to get past others. When these two meet in a crowd it often causes mild confusion when one turns left, the other right and the system they are used to does not work.

I thought this was an interesting metaphor for working across cultures. It is the little assumptions that sometimes get in the way.

It was also illustrative to see how individuals deal with this, most smile and move around, a few look annoyed that someone is being ‘difficult’.

I travel a lot so, recognising the difference, I tend to adapt to the culture I am in and move to the right. Others who do not recognise it just do what feels natural and probably wonder why the crowds are so dense as they fight past the flow of people heading in the same direction.

But what do I do if I encounter a Japanese person coming towards me? Do I go right because we are in Germany, or assume that they will go right, because they too understand that the  rules are different here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 06 2011

This has to be the most unusual week in the history of Global Integration. In a week when we don’t have a team meeting, most of the team will be in the same place – the UK.

With the exception of Tim, who’s in Santa Clara (USA) this week, and T.H. who’s taking a short, well deserved break, the place to be to catch our senior training team this week is the UK.

So if you’re in England, or thereabouts, this is a great week to catch up with one of our Global Integration consultants. You can reach out to them directly (contact details on profiles) or contact your closest Global Integration office to arrange a call or meeting.

Dec 05 2011

John Bland, Global Integration

As part of our ‘Matrix Monday’ series, where we report back on some of the limited literature available on matrix management, John Bland, a senior Global Integration consultant, reviews Designing Matrix Organisations that Actually Work by Jay Galbraith.

This book aims to show you how to create a matrix structure and how to make that structure work.

It is worth reading for anyone with an interest in matrix structures, particularly from the point of designing them.  I’d recommend it for anyone in Organisational Development (OD) plus anyone else who has the task of designing a structure for their organisation and would like to know what a matrix is, and why do it.

The book is basically in three parts.  Following a brief introduction, which covers where the matrix came from, section one covers simple matrix structures, and section two covers more complex matrices.  Then, in section three, Galbraith deals with some tips and ideas on how to make these structures work.

The best parts of this book are the first two sections where Galbraith shares his evident wide-ranging experience of various companies (many of whom are Globally renowned multinationals), which have matrix structures. He goes through each situation, case by case, covering in some detail exactly what structure a particular company chose and why they chose that structure.  In process of doing this, he also covers some aspects of how each structure worked.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 04 2011

The first entry to our Global Working video competition wasn’t what we were expecting. Watch out for the flying flags, as eleven year old Rhys outlines what he thinks will be the global working environment he’ll be in if he gets to be formula one racing mechanic – you can view the video and vote for the entry here:

http://www.global-integration.com/video-competition/entries/global-working-racing-mechanics.html

(Note: page amended December 4, 2011, for easier access and viewing)

Dec 02 2011

This week has an Eastern European flavour with two of Global Integration senior consultants in the region training teams:  both Tony Poots and T.H. Ong will be found at different times this week in Moscow, where temperatures are just above freezing;. T.H. will also be delivering consultancy in Prague.

For those in the US, Kevan Hall will be in Delaware.

And in the UK, you’ll find team members at various points of the week in London, Newbury and Oxford.

If you’d like to catch up with any of them while they’re in your region, you can reach out directly using the contact details on their profiles, or contact your closest Global Integration regional office and we’ll see what we can arrange.

Nov 28 2011

Continuing with our ‘Matrix Monday’ series, we report back on some of the limited literature available on matrix management. Today we look at an older, but still relevant, paper on the economics of a matrix structure.

An Economic Analysis of Matrix Structure, Using Multinational Corporations as an Illustration by Tailan Chi and Paul Nystrom School (MANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Manage. Decis. Econ. 1998)

This paper provides an economic analysis of matrix structures (the ‘MX-form’) compared to the more commonly found multi-divisional structures (the M-form), using multinational corporations to examine both cost-effectiveness and organisational advantages/disadvantages.

The reasons a multinational corporation would have a multi-divisional structure in place are discussed, and issues such as the significance of divisional autonomy and multidimensional interdependence are addressed. The paper examines when it becomes difficult to coordinate multi national corporations along the lines of a more conventional structure, and where the matrix may be a solution.

The paper finally goes on to look at merits and demerits of the matrix form, which it describes as a structure which ‘essentially combines two or more layers of M-form structures’, and examines the conditions which affect how efficient the matrix structure can be in a multi-national corporation.

With the limited academic resources on matrix management available online, many older (but still relevant), if you’ve found a great resource and would like to summarise it as a guest post, please contact Global Integration.

Nov 28 2011