Being Local Worldwide: ABB and the Challenge of Global Management

by Jacques Bélanger (Editor), Christian Berggren (Editor), Torsten Björkman (Editor), Christoph Kähler (Editor)

Overview

Fortune called Asea Brown Boveri, the giant multinational corporation created in 1987, "the most successful cross-border merger since Royal Dutch linked up with Britain's Shell in 1907." The coming together of two longtime national champions in the electrotechnical industry, Sweden's ASEA and Switzerland's Brown Boveri, marked the birth of a company with truly global aspirations, one whose apparent genius for combining strong central planning with local autonomy for its plants has made it a trendsetter.

An international team of researchers assesses the dynamic interplay of the forces of convergence and diversity present in ABB. Together they examine the actual workings of this multinational—in order to learn to what degree the corporate strategies are achieved in its plants. Based on a multilevel organizational study, their book compares seven plants in six countries on three continents.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801436505
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	12/07/1999
Series:	6/30/2008
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.94(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jacques Bélanger is Professor of Industrial Relations at Université Laval in Quebec. Christian Berggren is Professor of Industrial Management at Linköping University in Sweden. Torsten Björkman is Professor of Sociology at the National Defence College in Sweden. Christoph Kähler is Professor of Sociology at Friedrich-Schiller-Universitët in Jena, Germany.

What People are Saying About This

Industrial Relations Journal - Tony Edwards

Overall, this is an admirable book.... The inter-disciplinary nature of the book will make it of interest to a wide audience and it should certainly be read by those with an interest in international management and comparative industrial relations.

Robert Cole

A cleverly designed study generating important new insights on multinationals.

Paul S. Adler

This book is a 'must read' for anyone interested in how the most sophisticated of the world's multinationals work. ABB has been the object of much adulation in the business press for its advanced management structure and process—with this book we finally have a thorough and critical evaluation.

Paul Edwards

This uniquely rich and detailed study goes beyond the rhetoric about ABB to reveal the true character of being local worldwide including the internal politics of change, the tensions of convergence and divergence, and the uncertain dynamics of globalization.

Editorial Reviews

This rich and fascinating study... 'highlights the actual workings of the geocentric and multidomestic principles' enshrined in the slogan of 'being local worldwide'.

Industrial Relations - Anthony Ferner

"This uniquely rich and detailed study goes beyond the rhetoric about ABB to reveal the true character of being local worldwide including the internal politics of change, the tensions of convergence and divergence, and the uncertain dynamics of globalization."

Paul Edwards

"This book is a 'must read' for anyone interested in how the most sophisticated of the world's multinationals work. ABB has been the object of much adulation in the business press for its advanced management structure and process—with this book we finally have a thorough and critical evaluation."

Paul S. Adler

"Overall, this is an admirable book.... The inter-disciplinary nature of the book will make it of interest to a wide audience and it should certainly be read by those with an interest in international management and comparative industrial relations."

Industrial Relations Journal - Tony Edwards

"A cleverly designed study generating important new insights on multinationals."

Robert Cole

"This is an important work for scholars of industrial organisation, sociology and management.... From my reading of the book and experience working with (but not for) ABB in a number of countries, the authors have presented a more realistic image of the contours and contradictions of this company than much of the media would have us believe."

Work, Employment, and Society - Lee Pegler

"Being Local Worldwide is a timely volume, to be applauded for its critical and empirally-grounded analysis of an intriguing and prominent corporation. In the main, the comparative, qualitative nature of the study succeeds admirably, and does much to lay bare the complex and subtle issues of control and autonomy between the subsidiaries and the centre. In short, industrial relations needs more studies like this one."

The Journal of Industrial Relations - Martyn Wright

Being Local Worldwide is a timely volume, to be applauded for its critical and empirally-grounded analysis of an intriguing and prominent corporation. In the main, the comparative, qualitative nature of the study succeeds admirably, and does much to lay bare the complex and subtle issues of control and autonomy between the subsidiaries and the centre. In short, industrial relations needs more studies like this one.

--Martyn Wright, University of Warwick "The Journal of Industrial Relations"

This is an important work for scholars of industrial organisation, sociology and management.... From my reading of the book and experience working with (but not for) ABB in a number of countries, the authors have presented a more realistic image of the contours and contradictions of this company than much of the media would have us believe.

--Lee Pegler, Cardiff University "Work, Employment, and Society"

This rich and fascinating study... 'highlights the actual workings of the geocentric and multidomestic principles' enshrined in the slogan of 'being local worldwide'.

--Anthony Ferner, DeMontfort University, Leicester, UK "Industrial Relations"

From the Publisher