Organizational Archetypes of a Multi-National Company

Decision premises, within which plans are made, should be formulated with an eye to the organization that will implement the results. This assertion seems especially relevant for multi-national companies which consist of a headquarters with subsidiaries around the globe. Four archetypes of the relationship between a headquarters and its subsidiaries are presented. These are based on theory developed by Leavitt (executive-workers), and Churchman and Schainblatt (analyst-manager). Each archetype is developed by using existing literature to explore patterns of bounded rationality that would emerge in different organizational structures. After an example of a corporation illustrative of the archetype, appropriate planning guidelines are presented for investment discount rates, pricing policy, product design, planned managerial rotation, and liquid asset management.