`The One-Company Approach': Transnationalism in an Israeli—Palestinian Subsidiary of a Multinational Corporation

Abstract

This paper presents an ethnographic study of the Israeli-Palestinian subsidiary of a multinational hi-tech corporation. Critiquing the tendency of globalization theorists to conceptualize multinational corporations (MNCs) solely in terms of their impact on their external environment, this paper looks inward and examines the ideological and practical constituents of the transnational regime of consciousness as expressed through what management titles 'the one-company approach'. We argue that this regime lays foundations for a transnational 'imagined community' which does not rival the national one, but internalizes it, creating an arena of discretionary power for managers: deciding when to activate and when to suppress nationality in the global organizational universe. This study analyzes the relationship between transnationalism and nationalism inside the organization, and its implications for understanding MNCs' role in globalization.

Foreign locals: A cautionary tale on the culture of MNC local employees

“…IB organizations have already been identified as sites of cultural redefinition (e.g., Brannen, 1994Brannen, , 1998, leading to organizational cultures in which the attributes of the original national cultures are sometimes suppressed (see also Ailon & Kunda, 2009). But these organizational cultures cannot be separated from the employees who "carry" them (Van Maanen & Barley, 1985: 35).…”

Micro-political processes in a multinational corporation subsidiary: A postcolonial reading of restructuring in a sales department

“…Indian call centre operatives, for example, blend the global and local in fluid ways to make sense of the self in the different spaces of work and home (Mirchandani et al, 2012) whilst the inadequacy of their mimicry is highlighted in (phone) encounters with the West (Boussebaa et al, 2014). Collectively these insights demonstrate the influence of the global and the macro-political across the multiple contexts of the MNC and show how these influences are combined with local resources in active and creative identity work to influence and resist within the micro-politics of the subsidiary (Ailon and Kunda, 2009). Previous work using a postcolonial approach therefore guides our attention to several questions that allow us to explore the micro-politics of the subsidiary.…”

Implementing and Integrating Policies on Performance-Based Pay: Coordinating the “One-Employer Approach” in a Swedish Municipality

“…The one-employer approach advocated by SALAR is similar to attempts by multinational corporations to establish and transfer company-wide HRM across sub-units and nations-a one-company approach (Ailon & Kunda, 2009). The aim is not only to align HRM to the overall business strategies in order to strengthen organizational performance, but to develop a joint corporate culture and enhance equity and organizational justice (Björkman & Lervik, 2007;Budhwar & Aryee, 2008), or to align HRM policies across company boundaries in multiemployer networks (Marchington, Rubery, & Grimshaw, 2011).…”