Politicization and political contests in contemporary multinational corporations

Objective

It is perplexing that mainstream studies, particularly in the domains of international business and economics, have either neglected to discuss issues of power and politics in multinational corporations (MNCs) or have addressed them in a rather one dimensional and rationalistic fashion, narrowly focusing on managerial, functional or transactional ideas.

There is now, however, a growing and welcome recognition of the observations made by more critical scholars that MNCs constitute inherently political institutional entities. Socio-political studies of MNCs draw long-overdue attention to the conceptual primacy of a concern with the interests, ideologies, identities and careers of key actors entangled within the social fabric of the politicized corporation’s power relations, and also outside its formal boundedness (Geppert and Dörrenbächer, 2014). Recent theoretical departures in the field are casting incisive light on the micro-political determinants of the social construction of the MNC (Morgan and Kristensen, 2006; Becker-Ritterspach et al., 2015) and in particular show that the power relations and constitution of interests on the part of the actors concerned have a fundamental impact on the transfer of employment practices within MNCs (Ferner et al., 2012). Other studies point to the crucial role of increased competition and its impact both on organizational politics (Becker-Ritterspach and Dörrenbächer, 2011) and conflicts within the MNC (Blazejewski and Becker-Ritterspach, 2011), demonstrating that the MNC constitutes a fundamentally ‘contested terrain’ (Edwards and Bélanger, 2009).

Accordingly, this special issue intends to deepen the above discussions by capturing new developments within contemporary MNCs, based on macro-level challenges, including issues such as financialization, global production networks (GPNs) and the emergence of new types of MNCs originating from emerging market economies. Moreover, we are interested in contributions that apply new conceptual and methodological approaches that will illuminate everyday processes within contemporary MNCs, researching political contestation and politicization, utilizing approaches such as critical realism, discourse and ethnomethodological analysis, actor network and structuration theory as well as critical institutionalist approaches. In seeking to unravel the dynamics of power relations in the contemporary MNC (Andersson and Holm, 2010), we are particularly interested in extending critical institutionalist theory building (Munir, 2015) focused primarily on actors in order to place power and politics centre-stage. In particular, we suggest that there are fruitful encounters for critical approaches that analyse the social construction and deconstruction of structures and institutions of the MNC as a site of socio-political contestation.

Scope, aims and themed questions

The special issue aims to bring to the fore the ubiquity of power relations in modern MNC organizations. Previous scholarly contributions in the field of international business and related areas have tended to regard power as being ‘stored’ in external institutional, or internal organizational structures. By contrast, the point of departure of the current call regards power in the MNC as being primarily relational, manifested as a product of continuously socially constructed relationships between key actors, flowing through different circuits (Clegg 1989; Clegg et al., 2006). The premise that MNC organization and management are fundamentally politicized is of considerable significance from a scholarly perspective, as it serves to breach the disciplinary shackles that have obscured meaningful insight into MNC praxis.

The study of politicization and political contests in contemporary MNCs raises questions about the role of identities and ideologies of primary stakeholders as well as the dominant external social and economic relations that contribute to the formation of normative and structural orders within international corporations. Accordingly, we look for papers that shed light on the emergence of a transnational capital class which shares a common set of elite interests and is engaged in a regime of global capital accumulation (see e.g. Carroll, 2010; Murray and Scott, 2012). Similarly we wish to attract studies that consider the patterns of domination resulting from post- or neo-colonialism and the pervasive financialization of capitalist societies pertinent to comprehending the shaping of power relationships between HQs and subsidiaries.

Related to the former, our special issue aims to address questions that include the power of MNCs in relation to the host countries in which their subsidiaries are based, relations that are often described as ‘asymmetrical’ (Clark and Geppert, 2006) or ‘hegemonic’ (Levy 2008), notably in the context of emerging economies. Within newly emerging ‘transnational social spaces’ (Morgan, 2001) power relations are being constructed through the relational interplay of various transnational actors, elites, devices and discourses. We wish to explore the role of key actors, their conflicting perceptions and sensemaking, the powerful boundaries that they construct to constrain social and economic relations, manage resistances to change, channel the powers of knowledge flows and innovation and deploy dominant ideologies. In addition, the national and transnational institutions operating to constitute power and political behaviour in MNCs require consideration.

The special issue will place emphasis on various forms of contemporary MNCs in both service and manufacturing sectors. Here we are in particular interested in new empirical studies focusing on the impact of GPNs (Kaplinsky, 2000) through which MNCs project systems of governance to coordinate and control networks of production across socially embedded and regionally dispersed organizational units. In accord with Levy (2008) we believe that GPNs are reflective of an era of transnational development in which not only that which is produced and consumed has become commodified through neo-liberal discourses but also the organizations engaged in these processes and relations. We would therefore encourage submissions that concentrate on new evolutions in the socially constructed international division of labour as well scholarly reflections on how GPNs and contemporary MNC constructions have served to perpetuate hegemonic and neo-colonial tendencies.

Additionally, this special issue should attract contributions that concentrate on newly emerging political ‘contests’ (Edwards and Bélanger, 2009); for instance, those between the groups of actors occupying various social spaces manifesting the politicization of MNCs at local, national and international levels (Ferner et al., 2012). Submissions that study MNCs headquartered in emerging economies are particularly welcome. Papers might concentrate on pressing issues such as how multi-layered dominance effects between headquarters and subsidiaries are played out across unchartered institutional and geographical spaces and whether qualitatively different forms of resistance are encountered when the subsidiaries are embedded in a more robust and mature institutional environment than the ‘parent’.

Finally, another vital line of inquiry for submissions would relate to the question of how contemporary MNCs are divided and politicized on the basis of discursive orientations adopted by constituent groups according to differential linguistic capabilities (Riad, 2005; Vaara et al., 2005). Papers might draw on recent discursive departures in the study of MNCs but also cast some new and more radical theoretical light on MNC organization, placing social actors at the centre of debate, drawing upon a full range of social science disciplines to engender critical insight and empirically informed discussion.

Given these considerations, we seek submissions from a wide range of social science disciplines for potential contributions, e.g. from sociology, political economy, social psychology, economic geography, organization theory, organizational behaviour, international management, human resource management and industrial relations.

We welcome conceptual and empirical contributions that critically explore, but are not limited to, any of the following themed questions:

Contributors should note:

Please direct questions about the submission process, or any administrative matter, to the Editorial Office: humanrelationsjournal@tavinstitute.org.