Transnational's adopt Technology, support Management through Metrics

Jeitosa Group International, a global human resources and systems consultancy, collaborating with CedarCrestone, a consulting, hosting, and managed services organization, published their findings today from a joint study on how different types of global organizations leverage HR technology to support their business goals.

As a result of many years working with all types of global organizations, Jeitosa and CedarCrestone wanted to test their assumptions that different organization models leverage technology differently and hence achieve value differently. Using the global organizational design framework of Bartlett and Ghoshal and analyzing 187 global organizations from CedarCrestone’s 2008 HR Systems Survey, their hypotheses were confirmed: highly centralized organizations focus on achieving efficiency and cost savings, while highly decentralized ones promote flexibility and responsiveness to local market situations.

Similarly, highly collaborative and innovative organizations cultivate a learning and sharing environment across their diverse and disparate global operations. Evaluating the impact of HR technology for four different organizational models, the study shows that “Multinationals support local operations, Internationals develop talent, Globals save money, and Transnationals make money.”

Karen Beaman, CEO and Founder of Jeitosa Group International, says, “different organizational histories, cultures, strategies, visions, industries, and economic circumstances warrant different strategies at different times. However, one universal axiom that every organization should strive to follow is to be 'as global as possible, as local as necessary'.”

This collaborative research effort shows that Transnational organizations (more than the other three models) focus the most on building growth and business value. They make the greatest use of Service Delivery and Talent Management technologies and they adopt Business Intelligence technologies to support management through metrics. In fact, Transnationals with a greater than average number of Business Intelligence applications in use have the most positive overall financial performance.