Watters, Robyn (2004) The Organisational and Global Environments Relationship: An Investigation of the Key Factors. Research Master thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This thesis identifies a number of key factors of importance to business in making the transition to global activity. The findings show that these factors can be categorised in terms of enablers or inhibitors of global activity. These conclusions are drawn from a case study of a large securities company in the process of making the transition from a national to a global organisation. The research included an analysis of the subject matter expert views on issues relating to e-commerce, management, and global business. There was minimum research concerned explicitly with the combined factors e-commerce, management of information technology, the organisational structure and culture. Australian-based research had generally targeted Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs)use of e-commerce, rather than that of large organisations. The focus of this study was to investigate how the case study, being a large organisation, managed its information technology requirements within a multi-market environment. It sought first, to establish the practices and conduct commensurate with global business activity and second, to determine their influence on the organisation and the implementation of a global business solution. These findings will inform other organisations as to the how and why of implementing successful and robust organisational and global business relationships. It will provide an insight into a range of issues some of which might be conducive to their own organisational and global business requirements. This study comprised three stages. The first was an initial appraisal of the subject matter experts' views on issues covering global business solutions.The outcomes from this formed the basis of the interview guide used in the second stage, which was a series of open-ended interviews with the high-end decision makers from the participant company. The third stage was a subsequent review of the subject matter experts' views on issues that emerged from the interview data and documents provided by the participant company. Data derived from each of the investigations was categorised into themes using the recurring issues approach. A comparative analysis of this data (sourced from the literature, documents provided by the participant company and the interviews) provided a degree of triangulation by which the author could validate and justify the emergent issues. These issues form the 'Composite Enablers and Inhibitors Model'. What is revealed are the key enabling and inhibiting factors commensurate with, and impediments of, a global business solution for the securities industry. These findings make known the dynamism of the case study's organisational and global relationship. It demonstrates that the securities industry is devoid of a set of common business processes or a business culture that will allow the implementation of a comprehensive global solution. It brings to light the ramifications of the securities industry regulatory framework and its negative impact on the company's global objective. This suggests that there are notable barriers to global business, which have existed for some time. Companies moving into global markets should expect to undergo change and these changes will more than likely involve complex internal and external business relationships. Organisations should be prepared to restructure their operations in order to accommodate local and global business solutions. The diverse range of enabling and inhibiting factors that have emerged from this study suggests that the depth of global market change is very much dependent on an industry's regulatory framework and the jurisdictions of each country of operation. This raises the question about the obtainability of a truly global business solution.

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