O global e o contextual no aprendizado gerencial de multinacionais: uma perspectiva brasileira

The major purpose of this thesis is to verify, from a Brazilian perspective, how global and contextual issues influence the management learning in Multinationals. The management learning derived from the interaction of holding and sidiaries/colligates of Multinational corporation is supposed to be subject to convergent and divergent forces, the former related to global and standardized organizational practices, and the latter, is seen as a social practice subject to cultural and organizational singularities. A model was constructed to relate the dichotomy between the universality of the management practices and technologies and the particularity of the contexts where they operate, to the dichotomy between the singularities in organization and national level. This model is composed of the international, global, managerial and inter-organizational dimensions related, respectively, to the cultural and political diversity; to the universal forces of practices and values; to the managerial capabilities and resources in the organization, consolidated as best practices and to the interaction between holding and subsidiaries and the resulted learning. The combined result of these dimensions influences the knowledge flow and the learning derived from it. The field research was constituted of five cases of internationalized Brazilian firms, with a solid experience in their management systems. The main subjects of this study were executives and ofessionals/managers who respond to the management development. The data were first collected in the headquarters and complemented with visits to subsidiaries/joint ventures in other countries, in loco or with expatriated people who return to Brazil. The central supposition was validated. So, the management learning ¿ is driven by the global capitalism practices and by the global culture where they are immersed, reproducing a hegemonic vision and a common language (global dimension); ¿ incorporates the more propagated and dominant managerial values, although there are some variations when they are applied in the subsidiaries/joint ventures; is the product of the assimilation of international recognized and planned managerial practices, with the acculturation power, although not completely; is the result mainly of the managerial practice in work; is impacted not only by cross-cultural and managerial factors, but also by the business environment of the firm; is given according to the capabilities and resources in the organization, guiding the form of assimilation of practices and technologies, with global application or not (managerial dimension); ¿ is affected by the cross-cultural diversity involving the countries of the holding and the subsidiaries/joint ventures where the firm is and is given as a reproduction of the political context of the holding and subsidiaries countries (international dimension); ¿ faces aligned concurrent institutional pressures between corporate or global systems, practices of other subsidiaries/joint ventures and local practices; is more difficult to reach when there is not permeability between organizational cultures and identities of a Multinational firm; is affected by how much the relationship process across these unities is self-referenced; is facilitated by the construction and improvement of the knowledge network (interorganizational dimension). Finally some contributions of this study are exposed, including extensions of the proposed model and suggestions, recommendations for future research.

Leader-organization fit: comparing the effectiveness of paternalistic and transformational leadership in different organizational cultures

Research on paternalistic leadership (PL) has been based exclusively on national cultures´ differences. However there are cues that other contextual variables can add to the explanation of this construct. Due to its capacity to influence expectations of individuals in organizations, organizational culture can contribute to fill this gap. To test if organizational culture influences the effectiveness of leadership style, we conducted two experimental studies using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, comparing effects of paternalistic and transformational leadership on followers’ outcomes. Using video clips and vignettes, we found that PL is better related to followers´ outcomes in cultures oriented to people than outcome, and that TL has a better relationship in cultures oriented to innovation than stability. The results suggest that organizational culture helps in explaining PL endorsement, and that further analysis of the influence of this variable to PL can provide a better understanding of the expression of this leadership style in organizations.