Feedback-seeking behavior within multinational corporations

Notwithstanding their concern with intra-MNC control mechanisms, scholars h ave overlooked the complementary phenomenon of self-regulatory behavior by subsidiaries. In this paper, we take the first steps towards addressing thi s gap by advancing and testing hypotheses dealing with the determinants of a major element of self-regulatory behavior at the subsidiary level, i.e., the performance-oriented feedback-seeking behavior of subsidiary presidents . Utilizing data from 374 subsidiaries of 75 MNCs, we test hypotheses regar ding the impact of subsidiary task and organizational context on the feedba ck-seeking behavior of subsidiary presidents. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: (i) subsidiary presidents do engage in proactive performance-oriented feedback-seeking behavior; (ii) they vary in the exte nt to which they engage in such behavior and (iii) these variations in feed back-seeking behavior are at least partially systematic. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.