Partnering Across Borders: Negotiating Organizational Culture in a German-Japanese Joint Venture

Abstract

This study expands theoretical research on negotiated culture by testing basic assumptions in the context of a German-Japanese joint venture. Data collected by semi-structured interviews are analyzed using textual analysis software to uncover key issues that became catalysts for negotiation. Results include a model of cultural negotiation linking organizational events with issue domains as points of departure for negotiations. Results show that aggregate models of cultural difference are useful only to the extent that they serve as latent conceptual anchors guiding individuals' cultural responses to events. The study shows that structural/contextual influences together with individuals' culturally determined sense-making with regard to specific organizational events are more useful determinants of negotiated outcomes. Authors conclude that, while it is unlikely we can predict organizational culture formation in complex cultural organizations, we can understand the process of cultural negotiation and as a result be better prepared to monitor and manage in culturally diverse settings.

The impact of language barriers on trust formation in multinational teams

“…These judgments are in line with previous studies describing code-switching as an undesirable phenomenon (Brannen & Salk, 2000;Harzing & Feely, 2008).…”

The multifaceted role of language in international business: Unpacking the forms, functions and features of a critical challenge to MNC theory and performance

“…The performative potential of languages to unite, disrupt, form and disable flows of knowledge between different parts and units of the networked MNC began to capture scholarly attention, and IB researchers started to theorize about language as an organizational-level concept (Barner-Rasmussen, 2003;Brannen & Doz, 2012;Fredriksson et al, 2006;Marschan-Piekkari et al, 1999a). More specifically, IB researchers sought to capture organizational dynamics in multilingual headquarters -subsidiary and inter-subsidiary relationships as well as interorganizational settings such as international joint ventures (Brannen & Salk, 2000) and mergers and acquisitions (Brannen & Peterson, 2009;Vaara et al, 2005). Importantly, the consequences of language for individual and organizational identities, for constellations of MNC relationships and the exercise of power were important themes that arose from more recent studies .…”

The ‘slippery’ concept of ‘culture’ in projects: towards alternative theoretical possibilities embedded in project practice

“…A critical strand in organisational culture literature suggests 'that organisational culture should be seen as a 'fragmented unity' in which members identify themselves as collective at some times and divided at others' (Parker, 2000). As discussed above, culture -of a project, organisation and nation alike -can be defined as the politics of experiencing reality and changes in identity (Brannen and Salk, 2000). This again explains the primacy and pervasiveness of politics and its connection with experience of reality by the actors involved in their joint practice and hence in the identity-enactment of them as project workers or managers, as an on-going and living phenomenon.…”

“…Classifications used for enforcing cultural differences are not merely neutral devices -they are always tied to forms of action or intention; therefore they may shift depending on who is involved in the conversation, when, where and for what reason. Culture is constructed through meaning making processes, which are, according to Brannen and Salk (2000) historically situated and emergent, shifting and incomplete meanings and practices generated in webs of agency and power. This clearly problematises more managerialist, instrumental understandings of culture (as a variable) and indicates that the concept of 'identity' may provide alternative and practically relevant lines of inquiry in researching organisational and professional culture.…”