Select One of the Worldwide Strategic Orientations and Describe How

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The Answer is Students will need to consider the different approaches to the particular strategic orientation and outline the major challenges to OD practice each orientation provides.
International strategic orientation:
Changing from a domestic to an international organisation represents an incremental shift in scope for most organisations and is typically handled as a simple extension of the existing strategy into new markets.Despite the logic of such thinking, the shift is neither incremental nor simple and OD can play an important role in making the transition smoother and more productive.
Strategic planning, technostructural and human resource interventions can help to implement an international orientation.Managers can use integrated strategic change or an organisation redesign process to design and manage the transition from the old strategic orientation to the new one.Environmental scans, competitor analyses and market studies can be done to calibrate expectations about revenue goals and determine the levels of investment necessary to support the division.Team building and large-group interventions, such as search conferences, can aid the process by allowing senior executives to gather appropriate information about international markets, distinctive competencies and culture and then choose a strategic orientation.Similarly, managers can apply technostructural interventions to design an appropriate organisation structure, to define new tasks and work roles and to clarify reporting relationships between corporate headquarters and foreign-based units.Based on these decisions, OD interventions can help the organisation to implement the change.
Managers and staff can also apply human resources management interventions to train and prepare managers and their families for international assignments and to develop selection methods and reward systems relevant to operating internationally.Since these are the organisation's first experiences with international business, OD practitioners can alert key managers and potential candidates for the international assignments to the need for cultural training.Candidates can be directed to outsourced offerings on cross-cultural skills, local country customs and legal/regulatory conditions.OD practitioners can also assist the human resource organisation to design or modify existing compensation and benefits packages, or set up policies around housing, schooling and other expenses associated with the relocation.
Global strategic orientation:
The global orientation is characterised by a strategy of marketing standardised products in different countries.It is an appropriate orientation when there is little economic reason to offer products or services with special features or locally available options.Manufacturers of office equipment, consumer goods, computers and semiconductors, tyres and containers, for example, can offer the same basic product in almost any country.
OD interventions can be used to refine and support the global strategic orientation as well as assist in the transition from an international orientation.
Multinational strategic orientation:
A multinational strategy is characterised by a product line that is tailored to local conditions and is best suited to markets that vary significantly from region to region or country to country.
The decentralised and locally coordinated multinational orientation suggests the need for a complex set of OD interventions.When applied to a subsidiary operating in a particular country or region, the OD processes described earlier in the chapter for organisations outside the home country are relevant.The key is to tailor OD to fit the specific cultural and economic context where the subsidiary is located.
Transnational strategic orientation:
The transnational strategy combines customised products with both efficient and responsive operations; the key goal is learning.This is the most complex worldwide strategic orientation because transnationals can manufacture products, conduct research, raise capital, buy supplies and perform many other functions wherever in the world the job can be done optimally.They can move skills, resources and knowledge to regions where they are needed.
Transnational companies require OD interventions that can improve their ability to achieve efficient global integration under highly decentralised decision-making conditions.These interventions include extensive management selection and development practices in support of geocentric policies, intergroup relations and development, and communication of a strong corporate vision and culture.Knowledge management interventions help develop a worldwide repository of information that enables members' learning.
In addition to implementing planned changes that support the development of the transnational orientation, OD can help businesses make the complex transition to a transnational strategy.

Select One of the Worldwide Strategic Orientations and Describe How

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