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James D. Mooney and General Motors' Multinational Operations, 1922–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2013

Daniel A. Wren
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Abstract

This article traces the emergence of the General Motors Corporation as a multinational enterprise under the leadership of James D. Mooney from 1922 to the outbreak of World War II. Mooney's unpublished paper “The Science of Industrial Organization” (1929) portrays GM's multidivisional organization's use of the line-staff concept in organizing overseas assembly plants. Here I compare General Motors with Ford Motor Company, which had first-mover advantages overseas, and examine how each company organized and managed their international operations. “Linking pins,” a social-science concept, illustrates how GM's organizational hierarchy achieved vertical coordination of effort. Economic depression and the prelude to World War II followed the expansionary 1920s, requiring GM and Ford to adjust to a changing environment. The article also covers Mooney's naïve attempts to use business for diplomacy in the years leading up to the war.

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Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , Autumn 2013 , pp. 515 - 543
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2013 

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References

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