The Internationalization of Organizations

 As a domestic organization conducts more of its business across national borders, the internationalization process will cause it to make explicit and implicit changes in its strategy, structure, design, and performance (Hoecklin, 1995).  Many of these changes involve modifying the tasks of the organization as it conducts international operations, such as changes in operations to lower costs and increase efficiency, adding locations to expand markets, and adopting technology to improve cross-border information flows (Worley, Hitchin, & Ross, 1996).  Other changes require modifications in organizational processes and systems, such as motivating, leading, evaluating, and controlling and may involve a reflection on the organization’s core values and culture (Schneider & Barsoux, 1997).  As a company strives to implement a global strategy, its tasks and processes must be modified to fit that global strategy. 

Adjusting human performance policies and practices to international situations is among the most challenging tasks facing organizations (Laurent, 1986).  As organizations attempt to apply performance improvement systems in their international operations, they would be wise to examine the assumptions of the systems before they do so.  We suggest that the delivery of performance improvement systems and methods might require changes if companies expect them to work across national borders, because national cultural differences may affect the effectiveness of performance improvement interventions.  More importantly, we propose that if managers examine these assumptions through the lens of national culture, and if they modify the interventions accordingly, performance improvement approaches will be as successful in international environments as they are in the North American context.