Critique and International Management: an Uneasy Relationship?

Jack, Gavin; Calás, Marta Β.; Nkomo, Stella M.; Peltonen, Tuomo

doi:10.5465/amr.2008.34421991

Cited by 122 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…We use merging multinational corporations (MNCs) as a case in point. MNCs are particularly interesting organizations because of their inherent cultural complexity (Geppert 2003, Brannen 2004, Jack et al 2008 and complicated institutional environment Zaheer 1999, Kostova et al 2008). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Narrative Construction of Multinational Corporations: An Antenarrative Analysis of Legitimation and Resistance in a Cross-Border Merger

Vaara

Tienari

2011

Organization Science

271

240

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Although extant research has highlighted the role of discourse in the cultural construction of organizations, there is a need to elucidate the use of narratives as central discursive resources in unfolding organizational change. Hence, the objective of this article is to develop a new kind of antenarrative approach for the cultural analysis of organizational change. We use merging multinational corporations (MNCs) as a case in point. Our empirical analysis focuses on a revelatory case: the financial services group Nordea, which was built by combining Swedish, Finnish, Danish, and Norwegian corporations. We distinguish three types of antenarrative that provided alternatives for making sense of the merger: globalist, nationalist, and regionalist (Nordic) antenarratives. We focus on how these antenarratives were mobilized in intentional organizational storytelling to legitimate or resist change: globalist storytelling as a means to legitimate the merger and to create MNC identity, nationalist storytelling to relegitimate national identities and interests, Nordic storytelling to create regional identity, and the critical use of the globalist storytelling to challenge the Nordic identity. We conclude that organizational storytelling is characterized by polyphonic, stylistic, chronotopic, and architectonic dialogisms and by a dynamic between centering and decentering forces. This paper contributes to discourse-cultural studies of organizations by explaining how narrative constructions of identities and interests are used to legitimate or resist change. Furthermore, this analysis elucidates the dialogical dynamics of organizational storytelling and thereby opens up new avenues for the cultural analysis of organizations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Narrative Construction of Multinational Corporations: An Antenarrative Analysis of Legitimation and Resistance in a Cross-Border Merger

Vaara

Tienari

2011

Organization Science

271

240

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“…Drawing mainly on preconceptions and negative characterizations of MOK practices in the Global South, the studies in MOK portraying the South partly depicted domestic practices as dysfunctional relative to some ideal form of effective and modern management practices from the North. These epistemic limitations of dominant perspectives were recently put to critical scrutiny by Jack et al (2008), although there are earlier examples of similar criticism (Oszlak, 1977;Suárez, 1975).…”

Section: Hegemonic Mokmentioning

confidence: 99%

Southern voices in management and organization knowledge

Alcadipani¹,

et al. 2012

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“…Such accusations are embedded in longstanding critiques (for instance, Boyacigiller and Adler, 1991;Redding, 1994;Roberts and Boyacigiller, 1984) as well as more recent ones, some within orthodox domains, (for instance, Rousseau and Fried, 2001;Tsui, 2004) and others more critically located (e.g. Jack et al, 2008;Özbilgin, 2004;Wong-MingJi and Mir, 1997). Boyacigiller and Adler, for instance, describe how organization science suffers from three types of parochialism: contextual, qualitative, and quantitative.…”

Section: Receiving Postcolonialism In Mosmentioning

confidence: 99%