Multinational Corporations And Organization Theory

This volume covers a range of on-going and newly emerging debates in the study of multinational companies (MNCs). A key aim is to consolidate and make available in one place new conceptual, methodological and critical MNC research.

Despite a shared interest in the analysis of complex organizations operating in complex environments, macro-organization theory and research on the multinational corporation have developed quite independently of each other. This book, the product of a collaborative endeavour by scholars from both fields, represents the first systematic effort to build a broad bridge between these two areas of research.

Despite a shared interest in the analysis of complex organizations operating in complex environments, macro-organization theory and research on the multinational corporation have developed quite independently of each other. This book, the product of a collaborative endeavour by scholars from both fields, represents the first systematic effort to build a broad bridge between these two areas of research. 'An excellent collection of essays which provides both the general and specialist reader with a fascinating insight into the latest advances in organisational theory.' John H. Dunning, Universities at Reading and Rutgers.

This book was first published in 2011. The current financial and economic crisis has negatively underlined the vital role of multinational companies (MNCs) in our daily lives. The breakdown and crisis of flagship MNCs, such as Enron, WorldCom, Lehman Brothers, Toyota and General Motors, does not merely reveal the problems of corporate malfeasance and market dysfunction. It also raises important questions, both for the public and the academic community, about the use and misuse of power by MNCs in the wider society, as well as the exercise of power by key actors within internationally operating firms. This book examines how issues of power and politics affect MNCs at three different levels; the macro-level, the meso-level and the micro-level. This wide-ranging analysis shows not only that power matters but also how and why it matters, pointing to the political interactions of key power holders and actors within the MNC, both managers and employees.

This volume covers a range of on-going and newly emerging debates in the study of multinational companies (MNCs). A key aim is to consolidate and make available in one place new conceptual, methodological and critical MNC research.

Organization Theory: Tension and Changeprovides the most current and concise analysis of the development and evolution of organizational theories, forms, and practices, from the rise of the factory system to the emergence of the virtual global organization. Using a wide variety of examples and applications from private- and public-sector organizations, the text emphasizes the tensions, contradictions, and paradoxes inherent in all organizational arrangements. In addition to the classic themes such as scientific management, human relations, rational bureaucratic models, and environmental models, the book explores emerging organizational forms based on lean and flexible production, post-bureaucracy, alliancess, and networks, virtual organization and information technologies, corporate cultures, learning organizations, transnational commodity chains, and post-modernism.