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.

About the Author

Jacques Belanger is Professor of Industrial Relations at Universite Laval in Quebec. Christian Berggren is Professor of Industrial Management at Linkoeping University in Sweden. Torsten Bjoerkman is Professor of Sociology at the National Defence College in Sweden. Christoph Kahler is Professor of Sociology at Friedrich-Schiller-Universitet in Jena, Germany.

Reviews

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 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 *

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 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780801436505
Author Jacques Belanger
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint ILR Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 24mm