Much of the preceding discussion has related to U.S. subsidiaries around the world. However, to highlight the growing interdependence and changing balance of business power globally, we should also consider foreign subsidiaries in the United States. Since much criticism about a lack of responsibility has been directed toward MNCs with headquarters in the United States, we need to think of these criticisms from an outsider's perspective. The number of foreign subsidiaries in the United States has grown and continues to grow dramatically; foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States by other countries is in many cases far more than U.S. investment outward. Americans are thus becoming more sensitive to what they perceive as a lack of control over their own country's business.
Things look very different from the perspective of Americans employed at a subsidiary of some overseas MNC. Interdependence takes on a new meaning when people over there are calling the shots regarding strategy, expectations, products, and personnel. Often, resentment by Americans over different ways of doing business by foreign companies in the United States inhibits cooperation, which gave rise to the companies' presence in the first place.
Today, managers from all countries must learn new ways, and most MNCs are trying to adapt. Sadahei Kusumoto, president and CEO of the Minolta Corporation, says that Japanese managers in the United States need to recognize that they are not in Honshu [Japan's largest island] anymore and that one very different aspect of management in the United States is the idea of corporate social responsibility.
In Japan, corporate social responsibility has traditionally meant that companies take care of their employees, whereas in the United States the public and private sectors are expected to share the responsibility for the community. Part of the explanation for this difference is that American corporations get tax deductions for corporate philanthropy, whereas Japanese firms do not. Furthermore, Japanese managers are not familiar with community needs. For these and other reasons, Japanese subsidiaries in the United States have not been active in U.S. philanthropy. However, Kusumoto pinpoints why they should become more involved in the future:
In the long run, failure to play an active role in the community will brand these companies as irresponsible outsiders and dim their prospects for the future.
Whether Kusomoto's motives for change are humanitarian or just good business sense does not really matter. The point is that he recognizes interdependence in globalization and acts accordingly.
Foreign Subsidiaries in the United States : Managing Interdependence article from Global Management Catagory Foreign Subsidiaries in the United States
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