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

Abstract

The increased research focus on the networked perspective of the multinational enterprise (MNE) reflects a greater delegation of responsibility from corporate headquarters (CHQ) to subsidiary and intermediary units such as regional headquarters (RHQ). This shift has increased the intensity of political interactions between key actors within the MNE. Despite the recent rise in studies on the micro‐political perspective of the MNE to date, little empirical work has explored this issue in the context of the CHQ–RHQ relationship. Drawing insights from agency theory and micro‐politics, the authors focus on the context in which RHQs develop micro‐political strategies in order to manage the flow and exchange of knowledge with CHQ. They show how RHQ may exhibit a ‘dual agency’ role when dealing with CHQ, in that it is characterized as a principal and agent, each requiring different micro‐political knowledge strategies. As a principal, RHQ will develop micro‐political knowledge strategies to increase alignment with CHQ. As an agent, RHQ develops micro‐political knowledge strategies to pursue its self‐interests. Having identified different RHQ agency roles, the authors develop a conceptual model that outlines how alignment and self‐interest‐seeking behaviours from RHQ are manifest through different micro‐political knowledge strategies in its agency relationship with CHQ.

Sowing the seeds of subsidiary influence: Social navigating and political maneuvering of subsidiary actors

“…From a micro-political perspective, the MNE can be viewed as a political arena (Clegg et al, 2018;Morgan & Kristensen, 2006) in which micro-political interactions between key actors have the ability to create, shape, and change organizational structures (Conroy, Collings, & Clancy, 2017). Micropolitics are defined as the portfolio of daily tactics in which influence is built up and applied in order to extend room for further maneuvering (Pfeffer, 1978;Winkler, 2010).…”

Corporate headquarters in the twenty-first century: an organization design perspective

“…While scholars have repeatedly noted that the CHQ is a highly political entity, our knowledge in this area is rather limited. Conroy et al ( 2017 , 2018 ) provide insights into the roles of micro-politics in CHQ–RHQ relationships and the specific skills that subsidiary actors deploy in attempting to influence corporate headquarters in strategically repositioning the subsidiary’s mandate. The authors, “provide a more nuanced, fine-grained understanding of subsidiary influence by illuminating how influence is augmented and enriched through the concomitant effects of subsidiary actors’ social and political skills, whereas political skill involves the ability to leverage social spaces by developing specific influence tactics such as targeting, showcasing and framing.” Another example is the narrative perspective applied by Koveshnikov et al ( 2017 ), which conceptualizes headquarter–subsidiary relations in the MNC as a multi-level discursive struggle between key managers.…”

Dynamic attention-based view of corporate headquarters in MNCs

“…Hence, building on the micro-political view of the networked MNC (e.g., Conroy et al 2017), I call for more research on the effects of different types of power coalitions in the MNC and how the different coalitions of organizational units engage in different types of rhetorical tactics in influencing the attention focus and attention engagement of the MNC.…”