International Multi-Unit Leadership

Replete with international case studies, International Multi-Unit Leadership looks at ’leading from the middle’ in international service-based subsidiaries. The book captures the zeitgeist of internationalizing hospitality, retail, service and leisure organizations facing challenges in relation to technology spread, divergent national cultures and emergent local competition. It addresses the conundrum that most regional, area and district managers face, generating commitment amongst unit managers and team members, whilst coping with their firm’s country of origin-based agendas. Multi-unit leaders (MULs) and directors are expected to expedite competing and contradictory functions and in subsidiary-based international situations, complexity and ambiguity escalate due to 'distance decay' and the level of internal and external contextual turbulence. The author examines how high-performance MULs manage paradox and ambiguity in 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.