Perceived senior leadership opportunities in MNCs: The effect of social hierarchy and capital

Levy, Orly; Taylor, Sully; Boyacigiller, Nakiye A.; Bodner, Todd; Peiperl, Maury; Beechler, Schon

doi:10.1057/jibs.2014.53

Cited by 28 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 111 publications

(125 reference statements)

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“…Examining political conflict within the MNC context requires identifying the relevant actor groups that compete for social status (Becker-Ritterspach and Dörrenbächer, 2009) and struggle for recognition of their cultural resources (Levy et al, 2015). Here, we draw on previous conceptualizations to distinguish between actors associated with HQ and with subsidiaries (Clark and Geppert, 2011; Delmestri and Brumana, 2017; Ferner et al, 2012).…”

Section: The Multinational Corporation Architecture and Cultural Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cultural capital and the social hierarchy are therefore mutually constitutive, sorting individuals and groups into more or less advantageous positions in the social structure according to their capital endowments. However, IB research has focused almost exclusively on strategic and economic rationales, giving very little consideration to the underlying cultural logic and social meaning of these social positions and roles (Levy et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, mainstream research has failed to recognize these stakes and mostly ignored the role of culture and power in major organizational transformations, describing them largely in evolutionary terms rather than as sites of political conflicts (Geppert and Dörrenbächer, 2014). Consequently, the political struggle among holders of different forms of capital in the bid to preserve or gain dominance has remained largely unexplored (Levy et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The politics of cultural capital: Social hierarchy and organizational architecture in the multinational corporation

Levy

Reiche

2017

Human Relations

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How is social hierarchy in multinational corporations (MNCs) culturally produced, contested and reproduced? Although the international business literature has acknowledged the importance of culture, it gives little consideration to its role in constructing social hierarchies and symbolic boundaries between individuals and groups within MNCs. We take a Bourdieusian approach to understanding the role of cultural capital in structuring the social hierarchy in the MNC under two contrasting organizational architectures: hierarchical and network architecture. We argue that cultural capital serves as an instrument of power and status within the MNC, influencing access to valuable resources such as jobs, rewards and opportunities. Our framework further suggests that the transition from hierarchical towards network architecture sets in motion a high-stakes political struggle between headquarters and subsidiary actors over the relative value of their cultural capital in a bid to preserve or gain dominance and to determine the ‘rules of the game’ that order the social hierarchy in the MNC. We elaborate on this political struggle by theorizing about the relative dominance of cultural versus social capital, the content and relative value of firm-specific and cosmopolitan cultural capital, and the convertibility of cultural capital into other forms of capital under hierarchical and network architectures.

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Section: The Multinational Corporation Architecture and Cultural Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The politics of cultural capital: Social hierarchy and organizational architecture in the multinational corporation

Levy

Reiche

2017

Human Relations

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“…Given the two primary roles of expatriates (cf., control and coordination, knowledge transfer and learning), a crucial decision call for MNEs is to determine the composition of PCNs and HCNs in foreign subsidiaries (Delios & Bjorkman, 2000;Gong, 2003;Levy, Taylor, Boyacigiller, Bodner, Peiperl, & Beechler, 2015) because PCNs and HCNs represent distinct resources and capabilities for implementing a subsidiary's strategy (Hitt et al, 2001;Lee & Miller, 1999). PCNs have a better understanding of corporate culture and priorities and are able to effectively communicate with HQ, so they are more likely to facilitate transfers of organizational practices and help align and coordinate the parent company's goals with the subsidiary's mandates (O'Donnell, 2000;Reiche, Harzing, & Kraimer, 2009).…”

Section: General and Firm-specific Human Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human capital in multinational enterprises: Does strategic alignment matter?

et al. 2015

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This research proposes a strategic human capital alignment framework to examine whether the alignment between subsidiary strategy (i.e., exportoriented vs local market-oriented strategy) and human capital (i.e., parent firm vs local-specific human capital) is positively related to subsidiary performance in multinational enterprises (MNEs). We further explore two important exogenous (i.e., foreign exchange rate change) and endogenous (i.e., MNE international experience) boundary conditions, since they may adjust the positive effect of strategic human capital alignment on performance. The analysis, based on 5604 subsidiary observations of 423 MNEs from 1990 to 2012, confirms the positive synergic effect of aligning subsidiary strategy and human capital and shows the moderating effects of foreign exchange rate change and MNE international experience. By presenting the importance of subsidiary strategy -global staffing alignment and the roles of external economic environments and internal organizational capabilities as boundary conditions, the strategic human capital alignment framework suggests that what makes human capital valuable for the firm is its alignment with strategic orientation. Thus managers should carefully deploy the appropriate type of human capital to fulfill the requisite organizational strategy and take into account changing external and internal contextual conditions in applying the framework.

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“…Bourdieu capitals used for leadership studies are in education [20], sports [21], and community researches [22]. Evidences of leadership studies using Bourdieu capitals in other fields include business [23], ethnic studies [24] and politics [25]. No leadership studies based on Bourdieu capitals has been carried out upon the creative practitioners in the construction industry.…”

Section: Past Researchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bourdieu Capitals and Leadership: The Case of Design Consultant Firms’ Managers in the Malaysian Construction Industry

et al. 2019

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The creative products of Malaysian design firms are critical for sustained competitiveness in the increasing globalised and local construction market. These products are derived from the collaborative efforts of the design leaders and their subordinates. Owner-managers of design firms are aware of the role of their leadership in increasing the productivity of their creativity workers. Knowledge of effective leadership traits has initially guided leadership development and sustainability. Later theories such as charismatic theories and leader-member exchange theories have a common theoretical paradigm of leader-follower relations. A novel approach to this leadership theoretical paradigm is replacing relevant leaders’ traits with Bourdieu capitals that effectively influence their followers. This paper reports the findings of interviews with subordinates in Malaysian architecture, civil engineering and landscape architecture consultant firms regarding the influence of the superior’s Bourdieu capitals upon their creativity. Qualitative thematic coding analysis of the interview transcripts generated the relevant Bourdieu capital categories and theme. The leader’s human, emotional, leadership, cultural and social capitals were found to influence the subordinate’s creativity motivation. The data indicate a common theme of followers’ creativity motivation through learning from leader’s superior human capital. The learning is aided by the leader’s emotional capital. Thus, Bourdieu capitals offer an innovative perspective in studying and possibly quantifying leaders’ influence upon their followers.

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Perceived senior leadership opportunities in MNCs: The effect of social hierarchy and capital

Cited by 28 publications

References 111 publications

The politics of cultural capital: Social hierarchy and organizational architecture in the multinational corporation

The politics of cultural capital: Social hierarchy and organizational architecture in the multinational corporation

Human capital in multinational enterprises: Does strategic alignment matter?

Bourdieu Capitals and Leadership: The Case of Design Consultant Firms’ Managers in the Malaysian Construction Industry

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