Multiunit enterprises and organizational communication challenges

Multiunit enterprises receive a surprisingly small amount of scholarly attention considering their significant effects on corporations. According to David a. Garvin and Lynne C. Levesque, a multiunit enterprise is "a geographically dispersed organization built from standard units (stores, restaurants, or branches) that are aggregated into larger geographic groupings (districts, regions, and divisions)."

This organizational structure has become increasingly common across many different industries.

The multiunit enterprise has and will continue to have many ramifications on operational efficiency, corporate strategy, and management structure. Garvin and Levesque mention consistency and customization as the two major challenges. Thesis:

Problem

Consistency - Multiunit enterprises can encounter consistency issues because they consist of numerous and distant units. The disparate nature of the units makes implementation difficult because of communication barriers between the units.

2) Customization - Each unit within the organization retain the ability its customize its operations. This is necessary for individual units not only for dealing with unique challenges but for taking advantage of unique opportunities.

3) Communication - the division of responsibilities between units can make communication of the corporate agenda to each unit difficult.

Proposed Solution

Garvin and Levesque propose five principles to guide the re-organization of a multi-unit enterprise in solving problems with Consistency, Customization and Communication:

1) Create a multilayered net of different field units to catch any problems that arise.

2) Have managers at all levels serve as integrators, coordinating diverse activities and optimizing the efforts of the whole organization rather than its parts.

3) Have higher-level managers filter data from headquarters to frontline managers.

4) Have all divisional heads act as translators, defining in concrete terms how the field organization can roll out initiatives.

5) Managers at all levels share responsibility for talent development.

Conclusion

It is beneficial that more attention is being paid to multiunit organizations. Scholars like Garvin and Levesque add much value to the field with their identification of the core problems. However, if organizations want to overcome these problems, they will have to make a deeper examination of the basic organization framework and be prepared to depart from the hub-node framework if necessary.