The co-ordination of strategic initiatives within global organizations: the role of global teams

Given the growth in the globalization of organizations, the ability to coordinate initiatives of the headquarters and subsidiaries is rapidly becoming a major concern of management. The use of global task teams is explored in this paper to address co-ordination in global networks. A theoretical framework is developed to derive a model for the use of global teams as co-ordinating mechanisms of strategic initiatives in a global organization. The use of teams as a means to intervene between headquarters and subsidiaries is explored, illustrating the unique social capital of global teams. In addition, the potential issues in managing task teams in global organizations are discussed.