New Geographies of Global Managerial Practice: The Case of Business Services

Abstract

Economic globalization is radically transforming the ways in which firms in all sectors organize themselves and operate in the global economy, not only in terms of the physical locations of offices and employees, but also with respect to organizational form, corporate strategy and the way in which work itself is undertaken. Managerial professionals are thus at the forefront of a major transformation of the way in which key wealth generating activity is now taking place in the global economy. However, this paper will argue that the management literature has been relatively slow to engage with these transformations, tending to remain focused on conventional concepts of the geographic space occupied by firms and their employees. In order to develop this proposition, the paper provides a critical overview of the key transformations of global managerial practice that are developing in the contemporary global economy. It draws on more than a decade of research into transnational business service firms in banking, management consultancy, legal services, accountancy and advertising. It examines how the working practices of international managerial professionals have responded and adapted to increasingly interconnected global markets for their services, which has been accompanied by a radical transformation and internationalisation of their working practices. In particular, it examines how the practices of corporate control and the need for a common global corporate culture are bound into new and dynamic corporate geographies that present significant challenges for existing place-focused concepts of global corporate operation.