Symbols of Organization

Informal Ways of Negotiating the Global and the Local in MNCs

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4263111
AutoresFiona Moore (0000-0002-2870-462X, Kingston University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2004
Volumen4
Número2
Páginas181-198
Fecha de publicación2004-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGlobal Networks (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1470-2266 • E-ISSN: 1471-0374
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1471-0374.2004.00086.x
OpenAlexW2130289114
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas16

In this article I build on the growing number of anthropological studies of businesses and explore the role that symbols play in the development of globalizing business networks. Transnational business people employ symbols not only to define boundaries between groups and develop collective solidarity but also to construct continuously changing networks between different social spaces and even, in the final analysis, between the concepts of global and local. The case study presented here focuses on the use of the symbols defining 'German business style' by the employees of a branch of a German bank in London as they interact with colleagues in the office, staff at their Frankfurt head office, and their clients and competitors. I conclude that, first, the use of symbols in social interaction is key to the negotiation of global and local spaces, and second, that, as the concepts of 'global' and 'local' spaces are themselves symbolic constructs, the drawing of distinctions between the two may be misleading

Business · Competitor analysis · German · Linguistics · Multinational corporation · Negotiation · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Solidarity · Computer Science · Globalization and Cultural Identity · International Student and Expatriate Challenges · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Marketing