Globalization and Information Management Strategies

Abstract
Recent globalization initiatives have encouraged firms to consider new organizational strategies and to change their coordination and control systems, management processes, and organization structures, leveraging new technologies. To compete effectively, at home or globally, firms often coordinate their activities in the world markets. Coordination has become a key to competitive advantage. Market and product innovation often involves coordination and partnership across a diverse set of organizational and geographically dispersed entities. What is often lacking for many global firms is a clear strategy for alignment in the evolution of infonnation technology (IT) architecture and the evolving global business strategy. An understanding of administrative options that are available to the general manager in a global envrronment is important in the derivation of a strategy for the information technology infrastructure. This paper discusses issues that confront the senior executive regarding the evolution of control and organizational structures and the associated information technology management strategy.