UNIVERSITATEA BABEŞ-BOLYAI FACULTATEA DE SOCIOLOGIE ŞI ASISTENŢĂ SOCIALĂ SPECIALIZAREA SOCIOLOGIE LUCRARE DE LICENŢĂ MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES IN ROMANIA: Towards the Making of a Post-Socialist Neoliberal Subject? Advisors: Conf. univ. dr. Rudolf Poledna, Asis. univ. drd. Norbert Petrovici drd. Simionca Anca Candidate: Irina Zincă Cluj-Napoca 2009
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UNIVERSITATEA BABEŞ-BOLYAI
FACULTATEA DE SOCIOLOGIE ŞI ASISTENŢĂ SOCIALĂ
SPECIALIZAREA SOCIOLOGIE
LUCRARE DE LICENŢĂ
MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES IN ROMANIA:
Towards the Making of a Post-Socialist Neoliberal Subject?
Advisors:
Conf. univ. dr. Rudolf Poledna,
Asis. univ. drd. Norbert Petrovici
drd. Simionca Anca
Candidate:
Irina Zincă
Cluj-Napoca
2009
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Abstract
This thesis focuses on the experiences of the middle management employees
of multinational companies in the context of post-socialist Romania. It is based on a
qualitative research that provides empirical support of the way in which managers
become neoliberal subjects, taking into consideration local-dependent factors.
Considering the rapid transformations of a changing economy and society, the
analysis traces the manner in which the subjects relate to the requirements of the
market and to those of the companies they work for. The necessary adapting
mechanisms translate into values, conduct, discourse, and ways self-perception of the
new subject. This inquiry gives attention to the manifestations of these elements, and
integrates them in a comprehensive image of the post-socialist neoliberal subject. I
argue that there are different degrees of subjectification according to the type of
multinational company they work in, in terms of organizational culture. More
specifically, I argue that the local companies which now represent a part of larger
transnational corporations create a specific type of neoliberal subject, as opposed to
those which start a business from the very beginning. The study shows that this is
explainable due to the clash of organizational cultures which takes place when the
larger company tries to impose its vision on an already existing organizational culture.
The effects on the individual in terms of self-hood, values and discourse are
highlighted as representative transformations of the human being in an increasingly
Garrick and Usher assert that knowledge management and learning receive
new meanings, constantly closer to the organizational interests. While learning is a
component of the intellectual capital, management politics of today’s corporations
include capability as an essential request. This notion “focuses on the ways that
employees need to think and how they need to be in the world”. (Garrick & Usher,
2000:5) Therefore, capability means more than acknowledging tasks and
responsibilities; it involves a reconfiguration of the self in terms of identity and
subjectivity (Garrick & Usher, 2000). Garrick and Usher’s concept of work based
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learning is essential in understanding the way contemporary workplaces affect the self
and the role of this type of rhetoric in the process:
One way in which to understand work based learning is as a technology
through which selves become enterprising, seeking betterment and fulfillment
in the work context in ways that can be both personally and organizationally
effective. Work-based learning therefore becomes an indicator both of
successful self-management and a culturally sanctioned way in which
employees in restructured workplaces can make a ‘project of themselves’
and at the same time add value to the organization. (John Garrick & Robin
Usher, 2000: 7)
Work based learning and life long learning can be read as technologies of the
self. The two notions represent the latest imperatives of both economic life as a
general principle, and a personal desideratum for individual improvement and
welfare. These types of learning represent the means of remaining competitive and
self-sustainable, for both the company and the individual. Learning represents a
technology of success and an extremely efficient way of empowerment and
regulation, especially in the conditions of a culture which opposes discipline through
coercion or force (Garrick & Usher, 2000).
Management of subjectivity is the main task for companies with actively
implicated employees whose personal and professional objectives correspond with
those of the company. This perspective imagines and creates the “good employee”:
active learner and self-regulating subject, constantly adapting to his own changing
needs (Garrick & Usher, 2000). Managing subjectivities is a useful concept as it
encompasses the techniques used, the task of administrating selves as well as the idea
of congruence between personal and professional objectives.
A critique
The two authors make an important remark referring to the work place
rhetoric: flexible learning, work-based learning, and intellectual capital are not actual
new requirements. This brings into discussion the relative novelty of some elements
that characterize neoliberalism. Andrew Kipnis developed a series of
counterarguments to Rose’s theory of “advanced liberalism”, based on his research on
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performance audits in China. He states that what the anthropologists call neoliberal
governmentality, is actually understood by the Chinese workers as a socialist practice,
using this commonality to build his counterarguments.
“The three foci that Rose and his anthropological interlocutors consider
central to the definition of neoliberalism—governing from a distance,
calculability, and the promotion of self-activating, disciplined, individuated
subjects—can be found in a variety of governing cultures that are
historically quite distant from anything associated with Western neoliberal
or even liberal governing philosophies” (Kipnis, 2008: 9)
Therefore, Kipnis argues that certain principles that are suppositionally the
creation of neoliberalism exist in fundamentally different socio-political contexts. For
example, he mentions self-reliance, discipline and self-cultivation being easily read
out of Confucius, Mao Zedong, and Mahatma Gandhi, as well as “neoliberal
thinkers”. (Kipnis, 2008) The Confucian values promoted by the communist regime in
China refer to cultivation of the individual which makes their families regulated and
consequently their states rightly governed and the empire tranquil and happy. This is
indeed a good example of common traits of two very different political ideologies
which seems to rightfully found Kipnis’s critique. But we should also have in mind
the more general goal and the techniques used to implement these principles. This
state of bliss promoted by Confucius though self-reliance and used by the communist
regime aims for attaining a general content of the population, avoiding the
responsibilization of the state, making the control of the people easy. This type of
control of the population is not applied as in foucauldian terms (governing from the
distance), but in the terms of manipulation, which draws significant distinctions
between the Chinese regime and what has been termed as neoliberalism. Another
problematic element of Kipnis’s interpretation of Rose’s theory regards the question
of calculability:
“this centrality correlates with industrialization, the increasing universality of
numeracy in addition to literacy, and the ongoing growth in the volume and
distance of trade and, thus, of the gulf between producers and end users. Any
form of large-scale society with a division of labor requires means of calculating
how the fruits of labor should be divided” (Kipnis, 2008: 9).
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Even if Kipnis (2008) is right to point the similarities between Confucianism and
Neoliberalism, however he misses the central critical aspect brought forward by the
concept of neoliberalism. Namely, neoliberalism does not mean the simple
mathematic calculability, nor it is just about its centrality achieved over the past
century, it is about a way to think, a tendency and a necessity to make them
“calculable”, to make the individual time management an imperative for personal
success and economic thriving or to make market-like structures out of government
working places (Rose, 1999).
The question of selfhood
An analysis on selfhood under the circumstances of a developing “new
economy” is undertaken by Giddens and Sennett. Although contrasting, both
perspectives assign the causes to the organizational changes of the advanced capitalist
countries. Jannette Webb summarizes both theories in one of her articles, comparing
and contrasting them (Webb, 2004). Using Giddens and Sennett’s visions on self-
identity, I intend to explore the relation between selfhood and the neoliberal script,
concentrating on working conditions in multinational companies.
In his analysis of self-identity and modernity, Giddens “acknowledges the
threat of personal meaninglessness associated with rapidly changing consumer
capitalist societies, but suggests that organizations provide the resources which enable
people to manage better the existential dilemmas and uncertainties generated”
(Giddens in Webb, 2004: 2). The counterpart of this vision is associated by Webb
(2004) to Sennett’s (1998) concept of “corroded self” which suggests that “emerging
organization forms are instrumental in producing renewed private troubles, and the
further breakdown of a secure, or authentic, sense of self” (Webb, 2004: 2). Whether
it is a reflexive self or a corroded character, both authors start from the premise that
the source of change is the new organizational forms. Trying to correlate certain
dimensions of one’s self (like awareness, fear, strategies of solving problems, trust in
his own future, and so on) with the organization he works in, I intend to see if there is
indeed a connection between the two and which of the theories (Giddens’ or
Sennett’s) finds more empirical evidence.
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In order to follow organizational changes, it is important to observe and
understand the logics behind these transformations. Webb (2004) mentions the
appearance of a new ideal-typical form of organization, where flexibility and
networks tend to become more and more important prescriptions. While flexibility
covers a wide range of dimensions – learning (Garrick & Usher, 2000), business
strategies, organization structures, management – networks are seen as a “means of
enhancing flexibility because they are seen as fluid, permeable, infinitely expandable
and dynamic” (Webb, 2004). Moreover, there is a tendency of delayer and simplifying
the chain of command, shifting from a “vertical division of labor to horizontal
coordination through continually changing project teams, and an emphasis on risk-
taking and problem-solving” (Du Gay, 1996; Sennett, 1998 in Webb, 2004).
Changes are made to optimize, flexibility is needed for adaptation, and
individuals become subjects in a complex interaction of factors. Neoliberalism and
market-driven changes in self-hood should be explored and understood as more than a
simple chain of events, where a causal determinist explanation of the process is not
possible. It is necessary to understand how and why the individual actively
participates to organizational change or resists it, to see how the logics of
neoliberalism create new demands for companies and then the companies to the
employees.
One of the major technologies of government was theorized by Foucault and
defined as biopolitics. It “refers to a series of regulatory controls exerted on
population and on individuals in order to harness and extract life forces” (Ong, 2006:
13). As Ong stated, neoliberalism is a technology of governing that can be traced to
the notion of biopolitics, seen as a “modern mode of governing that brought “life and
its mechanisms into the realm of explicit calculations and made knowledge/power an
agent of the transformation of human life”. The interpretations of the foucauldian
concepts in the context of neoliberalism are essential in understanding the economical
and social macro-structures and how their logics interconnect with the human being in
terms of selfhood, character and ethics.
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The subject of neoliberalism
The area where these elements meet is subsumed under the notion of
subjectivity, as it is usually understood in somehow general terms. Defining
subjectivity is a question of study in itself, especially if we take into consideration the
multiple contexts and scientific domains in which it is used (psychology, sociology
and numerous enclosed fields). Moreover, subjectivity brings along a series of
discussions when it is understood in terms of opposition with identity. Therefore, for
further clarifications of the theoretical framework of this paper, the delineation of this
notion is necessary.
A relevant illustration of this debate around the identity/subjectivity issue is
Margaret Wetherell’s paper, “Subjectivity or Psycho-Discursive Practices?
Investigating Complex Intersectional Identities” (Wetherell, 2008). The author takes
up Couze Venn’s delineation of subjectivity who defines it as being opposed to
identity. According to Wetherell, the relatively novel character of the former produces
what the author calls the “dulling down” of the latter and the dichotomy proposed by
Venn is considered to take us back to some “intellectual worn out ways of working”.
To be more specific, he understands identity as referring to “the relational aspects that
qualify subjects in terms of categories such as race, gender, class, nation, sexuality,
work and occupation, and thus in terms of acknowledged social relations and
affiliations to groups – teachers, miners, parents, and so on” (Venn in Wetherell,
2008). On the other hand, subjectivity is “the product of an interiorization of attitudes,
values, expectations, memories, dispositions, instantiated in inter-subjective relations
and activities that, through historically specific self-reflective practices of recognition,
constitute a particular named person, a singularity” (Venn in Wetherell, 2008).
Needless to say, the disadvantages that come along with the use of such of a
dichotomy can indeed be counterproductive, but the definitions that Venn offers shed
a light upon at least a part of the issue. Wetherell is transferring this opposition in
further essentializing dichotomies, claiming that identity “becomes constructed as the
public face: about groups and the external. It is about social categories [...] and modes
of conduct derived from those social categories”, whereas “subjectivity or singular
character, sums up the actual complex person and lived life” (Wetherell, 2008).
Therefore, identity and subjectivity is finally understood in terms of external and
internal, of real and “ideology” (Wetherell, 2008). The delimitation made by Venn
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between the two concepts is useful, but it would be more useful to understand them
not as opposed, but as being partially coterminous. While it is generally accepted that
belonging to a certain group (according to various criteria) offers the individual an
identity, the same belonging contributes to the process of subjectivity creation. These
are neither the same process, nor they are completely distinct; they intersect at the
point where identity becomes an important element in the creation of subjectivity, as a
source of experiences and new meanings for the individual. Therefore, subjectivity
represents only a partial outcome of lived and felt identity, having its sources to
events and phenomena unrelated to the individual’s identity.
Due to the variety and the intertwinement of the dimensions I am tracking, a
particular definition is in question. I understand subjectivity as an ongoing process
formed of internalized experiences which are translated into personal values and
aspirations, life views and a certain self-perception, subsequently externalized as
conduct and discourse. But what appears as a manifestation of a certain kind of
subjectivity can also represent at the same time a technology of subjection. For
example, when Bergstrom and Knights (2006) conclude that subjectification is the
result of the interaction between human agency and organizational discourses, it
means that the managerial subjectivity externalized as a certain type of discourse
contributes to (but does not determine) the creation of the employee’s own
subjectivity. Therefore, the expression of one’s subjectivity can represent a tool or
technology for influencing one’s subjectivity, without omitting, of course, the
individual’s intake in terms of human agency. In my understanding of the concept,
subjectivity can only take form in influential and constant context(s) of the
individual’s life, because its appearance depends on the amount of time and resources
invested while being in that context.
In Hamman’s article on “Neoliberalism, Governmentality and Ethics”
(Hamman, 2009), when he states that the goal of the neoliberal governmentality is the
creation of the Homo Economicus, he also makes a succinct description of the
neoliberal subject: briefly, “he is morally responsible for navigating the social realm
using rational choice and cost-benefit calculations grounded on market-based
principles to the exclusion of all other ethical values and social interests” (Hamman,
2009: 1). According to Binkley, neoliberal governmentality encompasses the macro-
technologies by which states govern populations as well as the micro-technologies by
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which individuals govern themselves, “allowing power to govern individuals “at a
distance,” as individuals translate and incorporate the rationalities of political rule into
their own methods for conducting themselves” (Binkley, 2009: 3).
Therefore, power does not simply produce neoliberal subjects, but what is
involved in this complex process “is the production of self-producing subjects—
subjects whose own self-production is prone to reversals and appropriations, to
“misproductions” through which the subject produces himself differently than is
intended by power itself” (Binkley, 2009: 4). Binkley understands the subjectification
as a process which leaves room for some human agency input, seeing an “implicit
indeterminacy within neoliberal governmentality between techniques of coercion and
the processes by which subjects construct themselves”, an indeterminacy which offers
the possibility to make things differently. The object of the change in the
subjectification process is the ethical substance (Foucault in Binkley, 2009).
The ethical substance, or the specific material upon which ethical
practices work—that part of the self that is made the object of the
transformative work of neoliberal governmentality. This substance is defined
by time and the changing practices of temporal calculation and practical
orientation by which everyday conduct is undertaken. (Binkley, 2009: 4).
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2. THE RESEARCH DESIGN
Transnational Companies. The focus of this study has been the organizational
level and in particular, the organizational culture and its representations. The best
suited research site for an analysis of the neoliberal management and subjects is
represented by the local subsidiaries of transnational companies. Those involved in
this research varied in size cover different profiles, among which software,
outsourcing, production and distribution of dairy products, telecommunication
systems, printing equipment providers, banking and mobile phone services. The
complex managerial system and the specific logics of the multinational companies
offer rich and challenging issues for a study of the new economical demands and their
effects on the individual. The choice to deal mainly with this type of corporations also
justifies itself through the concentration of neoliberal principles, making their
identification on the individual’s level relatively easy. Therefore, this inquiry follows
an analysis of the corporate principles in terms of values, conducts, and discourse, as a
means to describe the possible effects they have on the self.
Middle Management. An exploratory endeavor as the present research finds an
appropriate approach in the qualitative methodology. The fieldwork consisted of semi
structured interviews with people working in middle or middle-top management
positions in transnational companies. These hierarchical positions have the advantages
to comprise complex responsibilities as they theoretically represent the connection
between top management and the worker; suppositionally, some of these
responsibilities are the transmission of the organizational values and principles and to
implement its politics.
Interviews. They were conducted with ten people working in positions of
middle management – six women and four men, aged between 22 and 33. They were
chosen along a main set of three variables which includes position, type of company
(both local-based and international and profile diversity), and type of department (as
varied as possible). Age was taken in consideration to include experienced managers
(to have an image about their professional evolution), as well as those less
experienced. The gender variable was taken into account in order to ensure a balanced
number of respondents.
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What I followed during the interviews was to pinpoint the conceptual
dimensions, trying to accomplish two main goals: first, the identification of the
personal track/career and their personal experience and secondly, their description of
the organizational culture they work in. More specifically, the latter comprises
questions related to their departmental structure, the recruitment process,
specialization techniques (trainings, workshops), job description as well the more
informal expected responsibilities from them, as managers. The personal experience
was depicted following themes like relations with coworkers, advantages and
disadvantages of the job (what they find satisfying and unsatisfying), types of rewards
and their efficiency, perception of the company’s set of values, career versus personal
life, observed changes in their personal values or perceptions, durability versus
flexibility of jobs, personal motivations concerning their career. Those questions
related to the organizational culture were not meant to result into an objective
description, but to understand the way the individuals perceive, understand and relate
to it.
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3. NEOLIBERALIZING SUBJECTS IN MULTINATIONAL
COMPANIES IN ROMANIA
Optimization: collective cooperation and individual improvement
This chapter brings together descriptions of the visions the managers have on
the working environment. Focusing on the relations at work and on the specialization
techniques applied in the multinational companies, this section plans to ascertain the
empirical components of the neoliberal subject script and its ethical effects. The
discussions on the relationships at work revolved around mainly the same
characteristics of the professional relations: collaboration and interconnection. It is
frequently mentioned that the interdependence between different departments and
positions makes collaboration an imperative, and that the promptness one depends on
is vital for making the resolving of tasks possible. Generally promoted by the
company’s politics, collaboration between coworkers is acknowledged as a necessary
condition for their own well being. Reciprocity, respect and professionalism are the
recurrent words to describe the relations at work. The differences that appeared were
based on the variant profiles of the companies and sometimes to their positions; those
working in technical oriented domains (engineering, for example) are generally a part
of a transnational department so that the direct contact with most of the subordinates
or the direct superior rarely take place.
I do not know how many people are in this department (we’re talking about a
world wide department) but there is a manager in China, subordinate to the
CEO, and two other managers in Europe (at the headquarters in Paris) to whom
I directly report. There’s another manager on the same hierarchical level.
(Customer Care Manager, 30, F, multinational)
In their cases, when they are responsible with managing a certain European
area, the interactions at work were described as typical and characteristic to the
nationality of the employee, creating new demands for the managerial position.
Everybody reacts according to the particularities of this office he works in. The
English are efficient and communicative. They make their ideas known and
they are transparent in their activity. Pretty open-minded and imaginative. The
Germans are dull and efficient. Uncommunicative unless it is absolutely
necessary, but kind. Stuck in the specificity of the German market, I wouldn’t
allow them to activate outside their borders. Not very imaginative. The French
are communicative, pretty unorganized but surprisingly efficient in their way of organizing. Fairly imaginative. The Hungarians are disciplined but
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uncommunicative and totally lacking imagination and creativity. If you trace
clear limits, what is between them is nicely resolved. (Distributed Products
Manager, 36, M, printing equipments multinational)
It is interesting to observe how the particularities of the country of origin of
the coworkers create certain expectations and define the professional relationship. In
these cases, the capability to adapt to the variety of nationalities, as well as the
necessity to trust the distributors and other departments (even if they have never met
in person), are perceived as a part of the job description.
This situation comes in contrast with that of the managers working in more
“compact” companies. When managers and their subordinates work in the same place,
spending together an average of eight hours a day, the relationships start from other
premises. The company promotes a close intradepartmental collaboration, offering
occasions for teambuilding and improvement of teams’ efficiency. These types of
companies are rather oriented towards services and they generally have a better
defined focus on teamwork, they encourage a more personal knowing of the
coworker, and try to create the conditions for a satisfied employee.
I consider myself to be in a fortunate situation; I really have a really good
relationship with the team and with my colleagues. […] For me, the secret for a good communication with the team is to understand each of them, what they
want, how they are as individuals, how they interact in the team. […] What
matters in the end is what relationship you have with them, as well as the relationships they have with each other, so that conflicts can be avoided. (Team
In this particular interview, the question of satisfaction appeared several times,
describing well-established mechanisms of maintaining and increasing it. The
monthly individual meetings of the manager with each member of her team are meant
to create a comfortable context for discussions. More specifically, her role is to solve
any personal or professional problems they had during that month, to explain why
certain decisions are taken, or to discuss the member’s career plans, “to offer them
another perspective”. Furthermore, each team member has a monthly meeting with the
team manager’s direct superior, in order to be able to discuss any problem they may
have with her or to raise possible problems that she could not solve. One more
meeting is set every semester with the Human Resources manager, again without their
team leader.
The purpose is to make them feel relaxed, to raise problems. For example, if I
yelled at them, they have the opportunity to say this without me being around. Practically, the idea is to offer them the necessary comfort for them not to hide
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anything… because at some point this can work against them. We had
situations when…in the end, team problems were discovered through these
mechanisms. […] If there wasn’t for these meetings with the team manager and
with the HR department, they would feel lost and like they wouldn’t belong to
Satisfaction of the employees appears frequently in the manager’s discourse. It
is not only about professional satisfaction, but she mentions the personal one as an
important element as well. The company’s politics does not encourage over time and
neither does her, except for the extraordinary occasions when their tasks need to be
resolved sooner or their work accumulates. When that happens, the extra hours are
compensated afterwards with shorter work days. Moreover, their monthly meetings
involve discussions about their personal problems too in an attempt to build a closer
relationship, based on trust and confidence.
This idealistic perspective the manager has is extremely suggestive for her
general attitude towards work and career: the abundance of positive words that
describe the company, the listed advantages of the meetings they have, the type of the
relations that are encouraged and the politics regarding overtime are only a part of the
elements which depicted her overall image on the job. Similar views were met in
other managers’ interviews concerning related topics, suggesting the existence of a
category of their own which will be discussed in a following section. More
specifically, several communalities revealed a few patterns that resulted in a
classification of the types of managers.
The data description presented so far regards a set of characteristics of the
neoliberal management that derived from the larger socio-political and economical
context. They contributed to the appearance of a new type of subject and shaped the
first characteristics of the neoliberal subject script: individual interdependence,
interpersonal collaboration, care for personal life, own comfort and satisfaction, as
well as confidence in working partners. All these represent a “package” of requests
and offers from the company to its employees. The way it is perceived and managed
varies from one type of manager to another: the more implicated ones see this script
as something common and unquestionable, the attitude of the reserved ones depends,
being more analytical of certain situations, and the more doubting managers
appreciate the benefits the most and seem tented not to avoid some of the problematic
tasks.
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The most important dimension that can be discussed has to do with the
emotional or personal aspect that is reminded recurrently in the manager’s discourse.
The care of the company for the well-being of the employees can be understood in
Aihwa Ong’s (2006) terms – the technologies of subjection identified in this research
are suggested by expressions like: “to make them feel relaxed”, “the necessary
comfort for them not to hide anything”, “they would feel lost and like they wouldn’t
belong to anybody”, “to understand each of them, and how they are as individuals”.
In order for these technologies to become a part of the organization culture and to be
applied, there is a need for the middle management representatives to form the bridge
between top management (or those who elaborate the vision of a corporation) and
their own subordinates. Nevertheless, the process of transmission of the ideas and
ways of doing that is specific to a large company is a highly complex one and it is not
the subject of this paper. Still, a part of this process is captured in the middle
managers’ way of relating to the set of values of the company, adopts and internalizes
it, and then acts accordingly managing to transmit it to the others.
The micro level on which the neoliberal governmentality acts is dependent on
the mezzo level, or the organizational culture, which is defined by similar logics: the
necessity to cooperate as well as possible intra and inter departmental comes from the
need to improve and speed up the working process. Besides the call for interpersonal
cooperation and professionalism, further discussions around the relations at the
workplace mentioned the interdependence between departments and between
positions, no matter their hierarchical placement.
Fortunately, relations at work imply a very good collaboration in the Customer
Care department and with colleagues in the other departments. Actually, all
departments are strongly interconnected. If it wasn’t for the colleagues in
Research and Development, the colleagues in Sales wouldn’t have anything to
sale; if those working in Sales hadn’t sold, us working in Customer Care
wouldn’t have clients to take care of, and the colleagues in Financial wouldn’t have money to cash, and if it wasn’t for us, the quality of the products would
have been problematic, making from selling an impossible mission. I can not
say that there are friendships, but what I can say is that the relationships are based on respect and mutual help. (Customer Care Manager, 30, F,
telecommunication multinational)
The question of interdependence implies subsequent elements that describe a
certain way of working in large companies: complementarity, strict specialization of
the employee in a certain area and close collaboration. Their purpose is the
optimization of working process, fastening it, making it more efficient and therefore
25
profitable. The fact that these elements appeared in most of the discourses makes
them belong to the larger set of basic conditions for the existence of a multinational,
fitting into the neoliberal script. They are perceived as common sense imperatives for
the general well being which can be translated into an internalization of the neoliberal
principles. Close collaboration for the general well being inside the company is even
more highlighted in the context of a wild competitiveness of the market. In other
words, the internal well functioning becomes even more important in the competition
with companies with similar domains of activity.
Optimization of the production activities means specialization of the employees,
improvement of their knowledge and skills. The practice of training sessions and
workshops is widespread in the organizational culture, and they are understood by the
employees as unquestionable requirements of their jobs. The objectives of the
trainings vary according to the company’s profile, the hierarchical level, the
department, or the experience of the employee in that firm.
At the beginning, there are necessary the general trainings, those regarding soft
skills, and then there are necessary the core skills ones, or job-related. (Partner
Account Manager, Sales, 29, M, software multinational)
Some of the companies offer a large variety of courses, making some of them
compulsory and some facultative, displaying a significant amount of chances of
personal and professional improvement, as well as a certain freedom to take those
trainings that the employee finds appropriate. The workshops are generally perceived
as opportunities for which they are grateful as they see them as a win-win situation:
they enrich their knowledge and therefore their value on the market increases, and
they also help the company they work for to thrive. Moreover, one of the interviewees
described a complex system of training sessions which followed a set of criteria
according to which the specialization was made: depending on the time spent in the
company (beginner or more experienced) they have to attend certain trainings in a
given amount of time, gradually reaching a point where the freedom to chose is total.
Nevertheless, there is an unstated and general conception that the more workshops
you attend, the better they are as managers and employees. This way, most of them
tend to take as many classes as they can that regard their job.
There are some profile courses which are not mandatory, like communication
with clients; Excel is not mandatory for example but it is a recommended
course that you take because you know it helps a lot. For me, as a manager, some trainings regarding Human Resources, leadership and reporting are
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mandatory because it is considered that I will increase my performance going
through these courses. Another example would be the foreign languages
classes that you can attend because you want to; or there are courses you attend
because your linguistic level is not good enough for the job you have. And then
it is necessary to improve as fast as possible because otherwise… we ruin our relationship with the clients. (Team Manager, financial department, 25, F,
outsourcing multinational)
As a commonality, all the interviewees described a more or less complex
system of specialization in their companies. The differences appeared in terms of
perceived importance and efficiency of this type of practices, and therefore in terms of
attitude regarding them. Overall, there are three types of employees that can be
pointed out using this attitudinal dimension: the enthusiasts, the pragmatists, and the
skeptics. The enthusiasts mention the win-win situation of training attendance; the
pragmatists admit the utility of workshops but mainly of those concerning technical
skills and only if there are respected certain conditions; and the skeptics doubt their
efficiency, considering them a waste of time and money. This classification
corresponds to the types previously termed as implicated, reserved and doubting
managerial attitudes. One of the pragmatist managers (or reserved) says how the
trainings should be done and in what situations they achieve their purpose:
They are efficient only if applied immediately after finishing the training, and if a follow-up is made to check the implementation of the learnt elements.
(Partner Account Manager, Sales, 29, M, software multinational)
The empirical data of this research shows that most of the interviewed managers
are enthusiasts but further research is necessary to tell whether it is the age, the profile
of the company, or other characteristics that contribute to this type of attitude. As an
observation, the non-enthusiasts are in their thirties and work in more technical
domains (software), as opposed to the enthusiasts, who are younger and generally
have more human-oriented jobs (team management, human resources). Nevertheless,
their discourses reveal the fact that their differentiated attitude may have to do with
variant degrees of internalization of the promoted values. A more in-depth discussion
will be taken up in the last subchapter of this section.
An analysis of the training practices that appeared repeatedly in the
respondents’ a discourse is in question is in order, as well as their implications on the
subject level. As an important component of the neoliberal script, the call for
specialization transcends its general character, becoming a need for oneself, for
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personal improvement and development. The neoliberal governmentality finds its
empirical evidence as these respondents appear as “market agents, encouraged to
cultivate themselves as autonomous, self-interested individuals, and to view their
resources and aptitudes as human capital for investment and return” (Binkley, 2009:
3). This is almost explicit when the interviewees talk about their value on the labor
market, their value as individuals and employees. In this research, the mechanisms
through which the individuals get to perceive and speak about themselves as holders
of resources and intellectual capital can only be related to certain unstated and general
conceptions that concern the most important criteria of individual evaluation (e.g.: the
idea that the more workshops they attend, the better they are as managers and
employees).
However, this research, as an exploratory and ethnographical endeavor, has an
approach which allows the revealing of some explanations, trying to argue against
some of the critiques that are brought to the governmentality theories. The empirical
results show that a few refinements can be made regarding the efficiency of the
neoliberal script in terms of its internalization, contrasting with the impression of one
sidedness that the literature seems to leave (creating of a certain subject by subjection
to external forces). These refinements regard the variant ways in which the individuals
comply, resist or actively take part in the subjectification process, reacting differently
to the requirements of the organizations they work in, internalizing their principles or
only a part of them.
The discussions with the interviewees showed that this differentiated reaction
to the neoliberal subject script follows the attitudinal taxonomy previously described.
The enthusiasts adopt the values of the company and internalize them to the point
where they become active participants in the process of corporate ethics reproduction.
The pragmatists generally comply with the set of values but readapt them according to
their own values and apply them differentially. The skeptical managers tend to resist
to the attempts of value implementations, finding little congruence between their own
principles and the company’s way of working. Nevertheless, this does not mean that
they do not adapt to the formal rules or norms of the firm, but they question and
sometimes tend to evade a part of them.
The methods of specialization frequently brought up in the managers’
discourse can be interpreted as what Ong termed as technologies of subjectivity (Ong,
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2006). Although understood in the literature as technologies of subjection, once they
are perceived by the individuals as highly beneficial for their own well-being, they
can gradually become technologies of subjectivity. In other words, what is meant to
create a match between organizational ethics and those of the individual through
learning is used by the employees as instruments of enriching their market value.
In conclusion, the optimization technologies and the specialization methods
represent subjectification instances to which individuals relate and react according the
category they belong to. Further implications of similar instances will be discussed in
the next two subchapters.
Recruitment and reward: the “making of” the ideal employee
An image of the way the recruitment process works in multinational
companies is necessary to understand and discuss what the literature considers to be
one of the instances of subjectification. While some empirical studies observed that
the job interviewing is a subjectification instance in itself (see Bergstrom & Knights,
2006), this research focused on the larger process of recruitment for similar reasons.
The fact that the companies have well-established politics regarding the selection of
certain individuals means that the company has a predetermined image of its
employees.
This image does not include simply the professional or academic knowledge,
but a set of characteristics a lot more difficult to define. They refer to an implicit
congruence of the individual with the job and the company in terms of values and
principles. It is obviously difficult, if not impossible, to find from the beginning such
a matching, but preliminary tests and discussions with the candidate can tell to the
interviewer whether he/she will make a good employee. The discussion with the
managers who participated in this research did not reveal those characteristics,
because they are implicit, difficult to name or to point. Nevertheless, certain used
phrases in the managers’ discourse (e.g.: “correspondence between the candidate, the
job and the company”, “figure out whether the profile of that person fits with what
he/she would have to work”) reveal this search for congruence as a fact.
If somebody applied for a job in my team or in a team with similar activities, practically I would have an interview with him/she separated from
the one made by the HR department, and I would give my own feedback. In
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this case, what I am looking for is to observe the human aspects, but also trying
to figure out whether the profile of that person fits with what he/she would
have to work. Because most of the time the HR department does not
understand all the implications of the job. (Team Manager, financial
department, 25, F, outsourcing multinational)
A search for a particular potential of the candidates forms the premises for an
ideal employee, making the recruitment process a relevant element to be taken in
consideration in this discussion about subjectification. The methods of choosing
future employees vary from company to company and they generally depend on the
position that needs to be filled. They also vary in terms of “channels” of recruitment
and in forms of testing the candidate. These channels refer to specialized firms in
Human Resources and Head Hunting, their own department of Human Resources,
announcements in local newspapers, recommendations of the already employed or
programs of internship. The forms of testing are also diversified, varying from solving
a given problematic situation, to verification of the technical knowledge.
The discussions with the interviewed managers showed that even though their
companies adopt at least two of the listed recruitment methods, they are perceived as
simple and straight-forward but nevertheless, efficient. One of the interviewed
managers said that the company she works for, the recruitment is made through head
hunting firms for middle and top management positions and through announcements
in local newspapers for lower hierarchical ones. The software company requires four
interviews and a test with if-clause questions (which assess the candidate’s capacity to
solve given problems). The manager working at the telecommunication company
described the process as following:
The recruitment is very simple. The candidate goes through the interview with
those from human resources to decide whether there is a general
correspondence between the candidate, the job and the company. Then there’s
the interview with the direct superior. (Customer Care Manager, 30, F,
telecommunication multinational)
The most complex recruitment appears to be in the case of the outsourcing
company, as they have three major ways of employing new personnel: through
recommendations from the already employed, through a company of human
resources, and through a program of internship. The HR firm has the responsibility to
find the proper candidates following the basic requirements of the job and then they
undergo further interviews with the outsourcing company. The internship is addressed
to college students who participate in this program for six weeks, attending trainings
30
and taking tests. According to their performance and the available positions, some of
them are hired. The interviewed manager considers that the most efficient recruitment
method is the one through recommendation:
If I am an employee of [name of the company] and I recommend someone…
First of all, I am rewarded because this is a smaller bonus than if we had to pay a profile firm to find people for us… therefore, from the point of view of the
company, this means a financial plus, but it is not just that. It is an economic
bonus for me but… the fact that I recommend someone, it means that I like being in the company; otherwise, I would not bring my friends to work here.
[…] Maybe an employee, who is content with his job, will give information
regarding the company in a different way than the manager will. If he is not
satisfied, he will not recommend the job, and if he is, he can give the candidate
all the information about what satisfies him, somehow promoting the company
at the same time. (Team Manager, financial department, 25, F, outsourcing multinational)
It is interesting to observe how this case reveals another context for an
enthusiast manager to perceive this type of recruitment as a win-win situation,
displaying the multiple advantages that this method has on both sides: financial (for
herself and the company), transparency of how things go in the company (“setting the
right expectations” increases the chances for a successful employment), advertisement
for the company (which means that the recommending employee is satisfied with
his/her job) and trust on both sides, the company’s and the employee’s (confidence to
bring friends at the same workplace and certainty for the company that the employee
is comfortable with his/her job).
The most relevant attribute of the recruitment process concerns the pre-
existence of an image of the ideal employee for each company, as well as a search for
three-leveled correspondence: the company, the employee and his job. The suggestive
expressions that appeared in the managers’ discourse ascertain this for a fact and
demonstrate why the recruitment is undoubtedly an instance of subjectification. Thus,
the process of becoming of subject begins before the actual employment starts. Once
hired, the company tries to create the best conditions for his emotional comfort and
professional satisfaction.
One of the methods used for ensuring the psychological comfort refers to trust.
This subject appears as another recurrent element in the managers’ discourse, whether
it is needed for an efficient collaboration, or for comfortable relationships at work.
Confidence seems to represent a requirement of the workplace, almost an imperative
that asks for different methods to ensure it (meetings with the superiors, transparency
31
of decisions, and so on), managing to keep the employee professionally satisfied,
efficient and loyal. Another method that is used to achieve the same purposes is the
system of rewards.
The interviews conducted during this research showed that a classification of
the types of rewards can be made, following two criteria: degree of formalism (formal
and informal) and type of incentive (symbolic and financial). Generally, they are
found in rather complex combinations, but a company usually focuses on one of them
more than the others. The financial rewards I am discussing exclude those related to
the sales jobs where most of the income is based on these bonuses which represent a
percent of sold merchandise or service. In this context, and according to the
interviews, the extra benefits that were mentioned are comprised in all the categories
of the classification: (1) Formal rewards: holiday bonuses (Christmas and Easter);
financial plus in case of family member decease, birth of a child, or marriage;
packages of products; (2) Informal: dinner at a restaurant or a movie night with the
coworkers, funds for teambuilding or workshops; (3) Financial: monetary bonus for
winning a contest, for special implication in a certain task, or take on; (4) Symbolic:
diploma for special performance in a context or in a given period of time offered in
the presence of all the employees
The formal rewards refer to both monetary and non-monetary bonuses and they
are classified by the criteria of formalism taking in consideration their regularity and
universality. All the employees benefit from these regardless of their professional
performance and they know when they will receive them. These types of rewards
were met in a “compact” company, whose interviewed manager appreciated the
formal benefits, but had a rather skeptical attitude towards the trainings and other
similar activities. The informal ones are non-monetary, they are meant to encourage
closer relationships and they usually involve combining the personal and the
professional life. The financial ones represent the individual monetary bonus which is
offered as a prize. The last two were found in companies with rather enthusiastic
managers.
The symbolic rewards contain an element of prestige and the general
recognition of the status and performance. I consider them to be efficient if the
awarded employee takes pride in his accomplishment and sees it as such, and if his
coworkers take him as a model. The symbolic rewards were congruent only with
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enthusiastic managers. In this case, the company has an elaborated system of
requirements regarding contests: (1) Well-established ways of evaluating the
employees’ activity (clear, preset and transparent criteria of activity assessment); (2)
Multiple categories for one contest (e.g.: “the person with the most influential idea”,
“the team with the most ideas”); (3) Combined types of rewarding (there are always at
least two types of recompenses offered as reward); (4) Different ways of making
public the awarded teams or employee of the month
As the manager stated in the interview, it is essential to respect two main
conditions in order for these incentives to be maintained effective: (1) to make the
entire process transparent and (2) to organize the contests no more than once a
trimester. Otherwise, they will lose their purpose, becoming dull and unmotivating.
For example, this year we started a contest – team members have to come up
with ideas of different improvements, and this basically means that in most of
the cases they make their own lives easier. Whether it is a fastening of a
process, or a financial benefit for a client… for example, we cash in the money
for a bill faster than usual, or we make the calculations faster, using another
types of Excel that give us the information more correctly and faster than
before… So practically, any small idea for improvement is materialized in an
idea tracker and there are bonuses for that; prizes actually. (Team Manager
Exception makes the skeptical managers, whose advantages of the job are
represented by benefits like the car and the telephone given to their use by the
company, the formal rewards, and the social status given by the fact they occupy
management position in renowned companies. In terms of plans, they do not imagine
themselves leaving the company as long as nothing goes wrong and the benefits
remain at least the same.
I don’t think I would leave, it’s ok here. Something really bad would have to
happen, something too serious for me to leave, to say: ok, that’s it, I’m leaving. (Area sales manager, 33, F, Production and distribution of dairy products multinational)
As an observed pattern, the pragmatic managers seem to aim for using their
experience in their own interest by starting a business, while the enthusiasts tend to
believe that changing the company or varying the activity and position is essential for
their development and success. The differences are also evident when it comes to
describing other advantages and disadvantages as well.
The pragmatists mention as benefits the following: the fact that human
relations are the most important factor in achieving the goals, a mistake is not
immediately visible so there is a possibility to experiment from time to time, they
learn how to think global and act local, and the fact that they represent a respected
brand opens many doors, sometimes facilitating their work. As disadvantages, they
mentioned the small impact of their activity in the company as a whole, the
inflexibility of the corporation which results in the waste of opportunities – which
they find frustrating, the difficulty to climb the hierarchical ladder, and the necessity
of “ultra justifying the changes” because of the bureaucracy.
When it comes to the enthusiasts, the pros have different characteristics – they
seem to contain a more emotional component and they generally refer to the micro
work environment: the support and encouragement of the colleagues and superiors,
the chance to meet and work with people of different nationalities, and the feeling of
almost unlimited career tracks they can follow.
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You can continue with people management if that’s what you want and that’s
what suits you, you can become an expert in human resources, you can go with
trainings, quality evaluation… at some point you feel like the possibilities are
endless and it’s all up to you and what you want to do in life. No matter what
your decision is, you can find your place in such a large company. (Team Manager, financial department, 25, F, outsourcing multinational)
The disadvantages listed by the enthusiast managers referred to the loss of the
“individual identity” because of the dimensions of the company, the internal
communication is not very efficient due to the same reason, and the decision making
process can sometimes be heavy and slow. According to the interviews with these
managers, these unsatisfying characteristics of their jobs seem to come from a larger
perspective that these managers have on the ideal job. In other words, having the
reverse of the mentioned disadvantages would result into the perfect company/job:
faster decisions and therefore sooner visible results, improvement of informational
collaboration for taking the best informed decisions, and a better visibility of the
employees’ personality and contribution in order for them to feel important as
individuals as well.
Many of the pros and cons mentioned in the interviews have to do with a
certain set of values that the companies or the employees have. In this research,
asking for a description of the principles promoted by the corporation was meant to
observe how well the managers are aware of them, whether they are congruent with
their own values, and if the managers apply them in an attempt to hand them on to
their subordinates. Furthermore, the questions of the interviews related to this topic
were trying to reveal the degree of importance the company gives to this aspect, how
it tries to transmit them to the employees, and what their purpose should be. In order
to discuss them, a brief description of what the interviewees said is in order. Once
again, the attitudinal differences are salient according to the type of managers they
represent.
When asked about the set of values their company promotes, the skeptics
generally answered briefly mentioning a training that took place with this purpose – to
present the principles of the corporation to the employees. One manager’s answer is
relevant to this typology:
We even had a meeting on this. Take a look at this booklet so you find out.
You find all the answers here… vision, stuff… on the international level, set
of values. It was made by those in Holland, the corporation itself… it’s the
set of values on the international level. It was a training through which we all
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slept because it was a holly day of Friday. But it was done… a nice training
with filmed images with how many people drink milk… Whatever, so… it
took about 5 hours. It was the middle management that attended it, and at
these trainings they are usually given all sorts of materials to pass the
information to the others; because the heads of departments have the obligation to inform the subordinates and the collaborators. (Area sales
manager, 33, F, Production and distribution of dairy products multinational)
The pragmatists simply listed what they seemed to appreciate more and what
was connected to their experience: morality as an essential attribute (“I was honestly
congratulated for not letting myself bribed even though important opportunities were lost”),
correctness, risk-taking and boldness in decisions, client-oriented business. The
enthusiast managers named different types of values as being encouraged, inclining
toward a rather individualistic approach: stability, determination and the capacity to
decide on your own, performance, leadership spirit, team work and collegiality.
The most important value is teamwork. The individual spark can only give
spark to the entire team and it’s only together that we can achieve higher and
higher levels. (Customer Care Manager, 30, F, telecommunication multinational)
Acknowledging that the enthusiast and the pragmatic managers have different
types of jobs and that their companies have distinct profiles (the former – engineering
specialties, the latter – customer care and human resources), it can be argued that this
typology is more likely to be based on these simple and common sense discrepancies.
Nonetheless, their answers were clearly differentiating the formally promoted values
and those they strongly believed in, sustaining my argument that this managerial
typology has more to do with the internalization of some values in a greater degree
than others. This explains why and how the categories represent an all-encompassing
general attitude of the managers towards the systems of rewards, corporate values,
and methods of specialization. The following excerpts reveal how the managers
distinguish the formal list from the values they respect and believe in.
I can give you a list of vales that we have, but these are the ones I consider
the most important: integrity, orientation towards the people, the special
relationship we develop with the clients – because otherwise, our life would be very difficult; and the fact that we always change, we’re dynamic. (Team
this… I think it’s more important to talk about the values I feel that the
company I’m working for is transmitting. (Customer Care Manager, 30, F,
telecommunication multinational)
In order to further evaluate the effects of the corporate principles, it is
necessary to have a description of the way the company makes them known and tries
37
to implement them. One already given example was through trainings. Other
mentioned approaches are: displaying them as lists or graphics on the walls in the
offices, on the corridors and hallways, exposing them in PowerPoint presentations and
on formal papers, and mentioning them in official contexts. One manager described a
set that all the employees have formed of four small plastic cards: one with their
picture and an identification number (“agent code”), one with the list of values with
the graphic symbol next to each word, one containing an emergency plan and a list of
telephone numbers for such situations, and one card with their cornerstones
(“strengths that differentiate our company”).
This is the standard set for everybody: with the picture, the crisis plan – what
you should do and what you shouldn’t do in care of a fire, for example. […] These things are anyway all over the walls, you don’t even feel the need to
learn them by heart; but by doing everyday what you do… I can talk about
any of this values and what they mean. (Team Manager, financial department, 25, F, outsourcing multinational)
To sum up, it is useful to present the identified outlines following three
dimensions: perceived advantages and disadvantages, ethics (both in the company and
in the individuals), and imagining the future.
The enthusiasts feel comfortable in their working environment and talk about
positive and efficient relations. Their discourses contain a considerably low number of
mentioned disadvantages. They work in companies with abundant techniques of
specialization, various types of rewards, several ways of ensuring trust and comfort,
and multiple channels of transmitting the set of values. These managers internalize a
great deal of the corporate logics, becoming active participants at the organizational
culture. The “endless possibilities” they see in this environment makes them want and
plan to remain in the corporate world, constantly reaching for accomplishments and
improvement. The way they take decision is based on careful comparison between the
pros and cons of another possible job, analyzing and seeking continuous “upgrading”.
A similar care in planning the future is met in the pragmatist managers. They
take advantage of the benefits of a corporate job and use them to exit its system.
Planning to start their own business, they look for more visible impact of their
contribution and less standardized work. Moreover, they internalize less of the
company’s values because they filter those which are compatible with their own,
readapting it.
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The skeptical managers rarely agree with the way the company is working,
seeing techniques of specialization, for example as a failed attempt of the company to
take a foreign model and implement it in their firm. The mentioned advantages
include material perks and the social status given by a management position, which
seem to satisfy them enough not to look for better jobs or personal development. In
addition, they look for ways to resist the firm’s efforts to implement different
optimizing technologies.
The personal experience of the respondents in a transnational working
environment can also be described by trying to delineate between the personal and
professional life. The most interesting discussions with the interviewees suggested a
juxtaposition of personal and professional satisfaction, to the point where the two
become interdependent. Managers, asked about the personal changes they underwent
during their experience as employees of multinational companies, explained how the
professional success determines the personal satisfaction and how the emotional
equilibrium given by the private life is needed to be efficient at work. In their opinion,
a successful career and a rich professional experience contributes to their self-esteem
and to the ability to evaluate themselves more objectively.
Indeed, I can say that this job contributed to my personal development.
First, you can say that you’ve grown professionally speaking… this
thing is visible in the personal development in terms of self-confidence,
in how you’re able to evaluate yourself and to point out your strong
points and your weaknesses… I think this is the most useful part. It
depends though… it depends on how well your job is going at a certain
point… I was myself in a situation when my job was taking all my time
and I felt like the personal life was completely ignored. But once you
reach a balance, you can see how much you’ve grown; and not simply
for what is written in the resume or other things that help you sell
yourself better, but from the point of view of how much you feel you