Micro-politics and conflicts in multinational corporations: Current debates, re-framing, and contributions of this special issue

A micro-political perspective on subsidiary initiative-taking: Evidence from German-owned subsidiaries in France

“…Thereby the paper aims to contribute to the further understanding of multinational corporations as micro-political systems as postulated by Forsgren (1990) and more recently strongly emphasized e.g. by Bélanger and Edwards (2006), Dörrenbächer and Geppert (2006), Edwards and Kuruvilla (2005), Ferner et al (2006), Forsgren et al (2005) and Morgan and Kristensen (2006).…”

Competition for control over the labour process as a driver of relocation of activities to a shared services centre

“…Institutionalism, politics, and labour Some scholars speak about the growing importance of of intra-firm competition in MNCs (see Becker-Ritterspach and Dörrenbächer, 2011;Bouquet and Birkinshaw 2008;Dörrenbächer and Geppert 2006). Other scholars call attention to the shift from 'coordination' towards 'normalization'.…”

“…This framework provides us with four types of behaviour: opportunistic, unpredictable, erroneous, and dutiful (Kostova et al, 2016: 15). As this typology makes clear, power and politics within MNCs are seen as a problem, as 'signs of "bad" (dysfunctional) management or simply as a misfit between the organizational design and certain aspects of external environmental features' (Dörrenbächer and Geppert, 2006: 252).…”

Decoupling management and technological innovations: Resolving the individualism–collectivism controversy

“…The literature that examines managerial techniques that are beneficial for fostering various forms of innovations identified-for example, the role of innovative organizational structures within the MNCs for stimulating innovation (Johnson and Medcof, 2007). Innovative managerial approaches may be particularly important in MNCs in order to overcome the cultural home country-host country clashes (Brock et al, 2000;Dörrenbächer and Geppert, 2006;Sethi and Elango, 2000) and to innovate technologically. Barañano (2003) claims that innovative management techniques (new approaches to planning, leadership, and expressing support for innovation) are the most crucial drivers of technological innovation.…”