International Manufacturing Strategy: The Impact of Misalignment Between National Culture and Organizational Structure

While globalization has reduced bureaucratic barriers to do business abroad and increased foreign investment, national culture can potentially create a hurdle for the successful transfer of approaches developed elsewhere (Hope in The impact of national culture on the transfer of “best practice operations management” in hotels in St. Lucia. Tour Manag 25:45–59, 2004). The international manufacturing strategy is considered as a mechanical process in which managers with extensive rationality seek to make appropriate linkages between strategy, structure, and performance (Boyer et al. in Operations strategy research in the POMS journal. Prod Oper Manag 14(4):442–449, 2005). If there are some conflicts at the organizational structure, the success of international operation strategy could be put under questioned. In this paper we attempt to highlight some empirical evidence that support the contention that national culture does potentially create a barrier to the transfer of best practices from parent company to the foreign subsidiaries. The paper, also, aims at understanding how these might may create conflicts at the organizational level and influence effectiveness of the international operation strategy