Politics and power in the multinational corporation: an introduction
Politics and power in the multinational corporation: an introduction
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跨国公司的政治与权力：简介
DOI：
10.1017/cbo9780511973352.002
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发表时间：
2011
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
C. Dörrenbächer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
M. Geppert;C. Dörrenbächer
当前的金融和经济危机负面地突出了跨国公司在我们日常生活中的重要作用。安然(Enron)、世通(WorldCom)、雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)、丰田(Toyota)和通用汽车(General Motors)等旗舰跨国公司的崩溃和危机，不仅揭示了企业渎职和市场失灵的问题，也引发了公众和学术界的重要问题，即跨国公司在更广泛的社会中滥用和滥用权力，以及国际运营公司内部关键行为者的权力行使。考虑到这些和以前的类似发展，令人惊讶的是，关于组织权力和政治的问题没有在跨国公司的研究中发挥更核心的作用。在历史上，对跨国公司的研究主要集中在研究总部(HQ)管理的影响和角色变化(例如，Stopford and Wells 1972；Vernon 1966)，例如，Hmer(1970)实际上预测，跨国公司在地理上更分散，将导致决策权更集中在中心。只要总部管理层坐在驾驶座上，较低级别的管理人员(例如在当地子公司)和其他员工的作用主要是为了适应中央制定的战略或外部环境压力。后来，对跨国公司“演变”的研究强调，跨国公司很难自上而下地管理，特别是在“多元化”和国际化日益增强的情况下，但它们“不敢”更多地揭示权力关系和组织政治。
The current financial and economic crisis has negatively underlined the vital role of multinational corporations (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 but 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. Given these and previous similar developments, it is surprising that questions about organizational power and politics have not had a more central role in the study of the MNC. Historically, research on the MNC was focused on studying the influence and changing role of headquarters (HQ) management (e.g. Stopford and Wells 1972; Vernon 1966), with, for example, Hymer (1970) actually predicting that more geographical dispersion of MNCs would lead to greater concentration of decision-making power at the center. As long as HQ management was seen in the driving seat, the role of lower level managers, e.g. in local subsidiaries, and of other employees was mainly reduced to adaptation either to centrally set strategies or to external environmental pressures. Later, studies on the “evolution” of the MNC stressed that MNCs can hardly be managed top-down, especially if “diversification” and internationalization are increasing, but they did not “dare” shed more light on power relations and organizational politics.