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Crisis management (CM) has gained prominence in the last decades, as the complex global business environment has forced executives to pay attention to practices that may safeguard organizations against potential crises. However, despite the fact that various scholars point to the need for autonomy and delegation of authority when responding to crises, it appears that the overarching rationale in the crisis literature is geared toward a centralized approach. This suggests that preventive actions and response to crises lie mainly with the leader of the organization and with designated crises teams. It is also apparent that this literature places too much weight on contingency plans and classification schemes. Although behavioral factors have been discussed by some authors as a fundamental element in dealing with crises, it is not clear how to develop these traits. It is our contention then that these conventional perspectives, although valuable to CM, are insufficient to deal with the uncertainty that characterizes global business today where firms must be prepared for the unexpected. We discuss the limitations of this traditional approach and argue for a combination of central control with decentralized execution when responding to unexpected crises situations. This enables management to better comprehend the complexity embedded in any crisis and allows adaptive practices to emerge throughout the organization. An analysis of two cases paired with empirical field studies support our proposition.

The global business context is turbulent and becoming a dynamic complex system where small events can trigger large outcomes that are difficult to predict. This gives urgency to the search for responsive global organizations that are able to adapt the multinational corporate strategy so it provides a better fit with the changing demands of the environment. An important key to this challenge is to activate the responsive potential of the many individuals in the multinational corporation and use them to inform strategic decisions and gain updated insights from the field and instill an organizational culture with supportive structures that will release the entrepreneurial human potential throughout the global organization. The eight chapters presented in this book provide useful insights to fuel these considerations.