International Multi-Unit Leadership

In International Multi-Unit Leadership Chris Edger builds on his earlier Effective Multi-Unit Leadership. First - showcasing up-to-date contemporaneous case studies of market-leading international organisations - the book takes a cross-border perspective on leading from the middle in international subsidiaries that are committing significant capital to land-based multi-unit infrastructures. Secondly it captures the zeitgeist of internationalizing hospitality retail service and leisure organizations facing challenges in relation to multi-channel/smart technology spread divergent national cultures and emergent imitative local competition. Thirdly it addresses the conundrum that most subsidiary multi-unit leaders (regional area and district managers) face generating commitment amongst their unit managers and team members whilst coping with their firm's country of origin-based control and change agendas. Continuing the themes that emerged in his earlier book particularly around how multi-unit leaders (MULs) and directors are expected to expedite a number of competing and contradictory functions the author finds that in subsidiary-based international situations complexity and ambiguity escalates due to 'distance decay' and the level of internal and external contextual turbulence. Based on exemplary case studies the author examines how high-performance MULs manage paradox and ambiguity within an international context and how organizations can deliver local effectiveness within a strategic framework determined by a policy-making centre hundreds or thousands of miles away. The research and case studies in this book will appeal to managers within international multi-unit enterprises service directors wishing to train and coach others students on any of the increasing number of multi-unit management programmes being run in business schools and academics with an interest in internationalizing service-based enterprises.