Virtualisation of cross border labour mobility? Changing patterns of cross border personnel mobility as coordination mechanism in profit- and non-profit-organisations in Mexico and Germany

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Coordination of activities is of crucial importance for organisations working with locally distributed units in different countries. Besides bureaucratic controlling, general norm setting or defining selective incentives, the mobility of labour/personnel is one important mechanism for this crossborder coordination. Under the conditions of the economic crisis since 2008, organisations could at least partially (re)try to virtualise their cross border personnel mobility by new forms of information and communication technologies - despite the relative failure of such attempts since the 1980s. The proposed research will test the hypothesis that the virtualisation of cross border labour mobility as coordination mechanism is of increasing importance. Based on identifying the (shifting or stable) patterns of cross border personnel mobility as coordination mechanism, the research will evaluate the main explaining factors and develop an explanatory model which could be tested in further, more standardised studies. The design and methodology follows a double approach of hypothesis testing and of generating an explanatory model. With a comparative case study design (main axis of comparison: cross-border profit organisations (CBPOs) and international governmental organisations (IGOs), countries of headquarters and of activities, coniingent situation of organisations, institutional embedding of local centres) influencing factors of patterns of change in cross border personnel mobility will be evaluated. Methods concentrate on ego-centred and organisational network analysis, conlent analysis of documents and structured interviews.