Description: Over the past decade, politics perspectives in international business have moved into the mainstream repertoire of research, theory development and teaching about the organisational behaviour of multinational corporations (MNCs). Politics perspectives contribute substantially to understanding the behaviour in and of MNCs in their different contexts and environments but so far these burgeoning perspectives have not been systematically and comprehensively reviewed. This book offers the first detailed overview of the theoretical foundations, methodologies and empirical applications of politics perspectives in MNCs. A group of international authors discuss twelve seminal contributions to the study of politics, power and conflict in MNCs, followed by a summary and synthesis of the literature into a comprehensive analytical framework. The book closes with a discussion of future directions in the field. This is a thorough introduction to political behaviour in MNCs written for scholars and graduate students in the fields of organisation studies and international business.
Brief description: Susanne Blazejewski is Professor of Management and Organisation at Alanus University of Arts and Social Science, Bonn. Her research interests focus on micropolitics and conflict in multinational organisations, identity, aesthetics and work design, and sustainable organisational development.
Review Quotes: "While James March analyzed the business firm as a political coalition in his classic 1962 paper, his seminal insights were neglected until relatively recently. Nowhere is this neglect more apparent than in international business, where from the early work of Hymer through a series of influential contributions like those of Kogut and Zander, the multinational enterprise has long been viewed as a cohesive social unit, rather than a factionalized political network. Therefore I welcome the efforts of Becker-Ritterspach, Blazejewski, Dörrenbächer and Geppert to 'bring politics back in'. In their new book, the authors provide valuable new insights into the micropolitics of the business firm. This scholarly volume opens up new avenues for future research."
Ram Mudambi, Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University