The Dynamics of Growth within Global Organisations : Issues, Consequences and Implications

Abstract

An ever-accelerating rate of growth is altering the pace of change and making global organisations perform tradeo ®s in terms of organisational capabilities and quality of output. This paper reports on the empirical ¯ndings of a case study conducted at one of the world's largest software organisations and analyses the implications of rapid growth within global organisations. The paper further correlates the ¯ndings with the problems and issues confronting the world's largest automobile manufacturer, and establishes that growth needs to be planned to allow organisational capabilities and systems to support rapid expansion. Overall, the research highlights the important lessons learnt from accelerated growth within global organisations, and identi¯es the areas of future research required to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon.