ARTICLE CRITIQUE

The Local Selves of Global Workers: The Social Construction of National Identity in the Face of Organizational Globalization

The Local Selves of Global Workers: The Social Construction of National Identity in the Face of Organizational Globalization

  Introduction

The construction of national identities creates a certain net of power relations among organizational actors, which inevitably are more beneficial for some than for other actors. The possible power effects may be related to the constructed superior-inferior, ethnocentric-polycentric, global -local, developed -undeveloped and other relationships between different organizational actors (Bakhurst & Sypnowich 1995). Hence, the process of national identity construction cannot be detached from the socio-political setting in which it takes place. The struggle for distinct status national identity is a valuable and distinctive resource. This paper critically examines Ailon & Kunda (2003) article 'The Local Selves of Global Workers: The Social Construction of National Identity in the Face of Organizational Globalization'. In doing so, we first present a brief summary of the article. The summary is followed by a comprehensive critical reflection of the strengths and weaknesses in this article. Finally, the paper draws a conclusion of the managerial and organizational underpinnings presented in this article.

Brief Summary

This article seeks to draw an understanding of nationalism and national identity, which provide an important set of discourses that are used to make sense of, to legitimize and to normalize various important issues in MNCs (Souda & Kunda 2003). The national identity construction process is far from being an objective and rational one and national identity per se cannot be viewed as static, given or taken- for-granted. Rather it is informed by the motivation of organizational actors in different parts of an MNC to define the self identity in a more beneficial manner vis-à-vis the 'other.' This motivation is often interlinked with conflicts of interest in the organization, such as struggles for scarce resources, career advancements, or strategy formulation and agenda-setting participation. 

To summarize, the findings of this study indicate that there were two main discursive struggles that the Israelis were engaged in as they were subjected to the forces of globalization. Both struggles involved the (re)construction of specific kinds of managerial subject positions.. The first one reflected the struggle to position oneself as more “global” with certain connotations of being more superior and knowledgeable than one's counterparts. Being more “global” was associated with some sort of empowerment and self-realization that the notion of “being a global manager brings with it (Souda & Kunda 2003). The data suggests that the involvement of the Israeli managers into this discursive struggle was intentional and conscious and aimed at actively resisting the hegemonic postcolonial discourse depicting westerners (in this case Finnish managers) as carriers and a source of seemingly “universal” knowledge for non-westerners.

For one thing, according to this criticism, the lower prices in fact carry a high price tag—the loss of local jobs. Here is the logic this criticism follows: instead of having a local economic base composed of industry that hires people of the community to produce the goods ...