Managerial competence is not measured by the quality of the strategies chosen and implemented. Rather, the yardstick of managerial performance is the end result-the degree of stakeholder satisfaction achieved. Thus MNC managers find themselves in a bind: they must plan under conditions of uncertainty and incomplete information about future events, yet they are judged by their performance as it is reflected in historical data. Management would like to guarantee that the outcomes reached in the future will be more or less what they planned for. This is the function of control: to guarantee that the difference between actual outcomes and desired outcomes is at its theoretical minimum. The task of MNC managers is to design the appropriate control system to keep certain variables within certain predetermined limits.
Since its inception in the early forties, the science of cybernetics has made many contributions to the field of international management, including a methodology for designing sophisticated systems that allow a manager to deal with uncertainty. Cybernetics is the study of control and communication in animals and machines. What is communicated is feedback information-that is, information about the difference between the system's desired outcome and its actual performance. Information technology (IT) is the application of cybernetics to the management of complex multinational and multipurpose global enterprises.
This chapter begins with a general description of a control system. Next the subject of information systems is explored, and the possibility of extending the use of management information systems (MIS), which are designed to provide the information needed to control domestic operations, to the global arena is investigated. Finally, the design and management of a global information system is briefly outlined.
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