Politics and Power in Multinational Companies: Integrating the International Business and Organization Studies Perspectives

Abstract

The study of power and politics in multinational companies (MNCs) has been a niche area of study for both scholars of organization studies (OS) and international business (IB). Further, the awareness of each research community with regard to the efforts of the other has been rather superficial. Hence, bridgebuilding efforts to cross-fertilize ideas developed in IB and OS in order to enhance our understanding of the nature and role of politics and power in the MNC are overdue. In order to develop the basis for integration, we trace the conceptual developments in the two disciplines, that enables us to highlight particularly promising opportunities for integrative advances. Using a typology which differentiates among four 'faces' of power in the study of management and organization, we discuss how focusing on each of these four dimensions may help us to both see and make sense of different aspects of power relations and facets of politics in MNCs. We then use the 'four faces' framework to outline how OS and IB approaches can be integrated to develop a more complete understanding of politics and power in MNCs. Finally we suggest some directions for future research.

Dispositivo de Potterheads: Organização Pautada na Ordem do Cânone

“…Entender que a relação pode-saber de modo interdependente e não dicotômico potencializa o pensamento crítico, pois não sujeita este pensamento a hierarquias e ordens discursivas (Geppert, Becker-Ritterspach, & Mudambi, 2016). Do mesmo modo, a relação poder-resistência é entendida como uma relação coconstitutiva em que o processo é visto como transgressivo e dinamizador da ordem social (Caughlan, 2005;Collinson, 2006;Courpasson, Dany, & Martí, 2016;Hardt & Thomas, 2014;Raffnsøe et al, 2016;Thomas et al, 2011).…”

Regional Headquarter’s Dual Agency Role: Micro‐political Strategies of Alignment and Self‐interest

“…As such, we answer calls for a multiple agency perspective of the MNE (Deutsch, Keil and Laamanen, ; Hoenen and Kostova, ; Kostova, Nell and Hoenen, ; Steinberg and Kunisch, ), illuminating that a variety of micro‐political dynamics emerge as a consequence of the dual agency role that RHQ performs in its relationship with CHQ. Second, and more specifically, we contribute to the literature on micro‐politics within the MNE (Geppert and Dorrenbacher, ; Geppert, Becker‐Ritterspach and Mudambi, ; Morgan and Kristensen, ) by showing how RHQ micro‐political strategies are geared towards influencing the flow and exchange of valuable and relevant knowledge with CHQ. Therefore, we illustrate that the CHQ–RHQ agency relationship represents a fruitful but underappreciated ‘emerging political contest’ (Clegg Geppert and Hollinshead, ), in which to further our understanding of the micro‐political interactions between key actors within the MNE (Geppert and Dorrenbacher, ).…”

“…Understanding how political interactions affect the flow and direction of resources between key actors within the multinational enterprise (MNE) has been a significant question for scholars and practitioners alike (Geppert and Dorrenbacher, 2014;Mudambi and Navarra, 2004). The increased delegation of decisionmaking responsibility from corporate headquarters (CHQ) to subsidiary and intermediary units within the MNE has resulted in an increased focus on the micro-political interactions between these units (Geppert, Becker-Ritterspach and Mudambi, 2016;Morgan and Kristensen, 2006). Extant research that has focused on the CHQ-subsidiary relationship has largely failed to consider political issues in the context of CHQ's relationship with integral intermediaries such as regional headquarters (RHQ).…”

“…The role of agency and micro-politics and their effects on knowledge flows, in particular between CHQ and RHQ, is less well documented (Geppert and Dorrenbacher, 2014). Knowledge flows are a key determinant of bargaining power (Mudambi and Navarra, 2004), and therefore how and why knowledge is shared and exchanged within the MNE is a politically motivated activity (Geppert, Becker-Ritterspach and Mudambi, 2016). This foregrounds the need to explore the micro-political interactions related to knowledge control between CHQ and RHQ.…”

“…However, as an agent, RHQ develops micro-political knowledge strategies to pursue its self-interest. Building on recent literature focused on micro-politics (Morgan and Kristensen, 2006;Geppert and Dorrenbacher, 2014;Geppert et al, 2016) and the agency theory perspective of the MNE (Hoenen and Kostova, 2015;Kostova, Nell and Hoenen, 2016;Steinberg and Kunisch, 2016), we develop a conceptual model which explicates the different agency roles RHQ assumes in its relationship with CHQ and the associated micro-political knowledge strategies. The main contribution of our study lies in illuminating how micro-political strategies in relation to the flow of knowledge are key for balancing alignment and self-interest at RHQ level.…”