Micropolitical Dynamics of Interlingual Translation Processes in an MNC Subsidiary
| Author | Sylwia Ciuk,Martyna Śliwa,Philip James |
| Published date | 01 October 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12323 |
| Date | 01 October 2019 |
British Journal of Management, Vol. 30, 926–942 (2019)
DOI: 10.1111/1467-8551.12323
Micropolitical Dynamics of Interlingual
Translation Processes in an MNC
Subsidiary
Sylwia Ciuk, Philip James1and Martyna ´
Sliwa 2
Department of Business and Management, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK, 1Business
School, Middlesex University, The Burroughs, London, NW4 4BT, UK, and 2Essex Business School, University
of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK
Corresponding author email: martyna.sliwa@essex.ac.uk
Drawing on a deep single case study of a Polishsubsidiary of a US-headquartered phar-
maceutical multinational company (MNC), the paper contributes to the study of power
and politics in international business (IB) by advancing understanding of the interactional
and processual dynamics of micropolitics in MNCs, whichsupplements the current dom-
inant actor-centred approach. The paper advances understanding of translation in IB by
demonstrating how interlingual translationcan be deliberately used as a management tool
to pre-empt resistance and promote managerially desired attitudes and behavioursat the
subsidiary level. It highlights how hitherto largely ignored processesof interlingual trans-
lation provide an important internal forum for the exercise of power and micropolitics.
The paper puts forward an emergent model of the micropolitical dynamicsof interlingual
translation and demonstrates how subsidiary managers can use interlingual translation
to support and oppose the views of both corporate and local managerial colleagues, and
thereby influence how HQ-level decisions will be receivedby subsidiary-level employees.
Introduction
Multinational companies (MNCs) have increas-
ingly been recognized as a dynamic ‘contested ter-
rain’ (e.g. Blazejewski, 2006; D¨
orrenb¨
acher and
Geppert, 2006, 2011; Edwardsand Belanger, 2009)
marked by power games and shaped by microp-
olitical processes (Becker-Ritterspach et al., 2016;
Becker-Ritterspach and D¨
orrenb¨
acher,2011; Gep-
pert, Becker-Ritterspach and Mudambi, 2016).
These processes involve interactions between a
myriad actors (Geppert and D¨
orrenb¨
acher, 2014)
operating in multicultural and multilingual en-
vironments. Understanding their role is crucial
The authors would liketo thank the anonymous reviewers
fortheir helpful comments on the dierent versions of this
manuscript. The first author would also like to express
her gratitude to Mike Geppert and Marie-Laure Djelic
for their encouragement and support at the earlier stages
of this project.
to theory and practice within international busi-
ness (IB) and international management. More-
over, the increasing dominance of the MNC as
an organizational form in contemporary global
economy adds further urgency to understanding
what happens inside MNCs, and how to man-
age this ‘multi-dimensional organizational form
with rich and complex politics’ (Geppert, Becker-
Ritterspach and Mudambi, 2016, p. 1210) eec-
tively. Yet, despite the timeliness and importance of
these questions,the micropolitical processes within
MNCs, and especially the interactional dynamics
in HQ–subsidiary relations and within individual
subsidiaries, remain under-theorized and empiri-
cally under-explored (D¨
orrenb¨
acher and Geppert,
2017).
Scholars have noted that, although HQ–
subsidiary relations are considered to be ‘con-
structed in action through negotiations between
key managers’ (Geppert, Becker-Ritterspach
C2018 British Academy of Management. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4
2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, 02148, USA.
Translation Processes in an MNC Subsidiary 927
and Mudambi, 2016, p. 1214), existing research
tends simplistically to equate the interests and
behaviours of managers, such as those based
within subsidiaries, ‘with the organizational units
that host them’ (Geppert, Becker-Ritterspach and
Mudambi, 2016, p. 1214) and consequently to
downplay the role of intra-unit conflicts (Bjerre-
gaard and Klitmøller, 2016). This is problematic,
because what happens inside subsidiaries aects
the HQ–subsidiary relationship and, as such, the
whole MNC. If deeper insights into the shaping
of HQ–subsidiary relations are to be gained, it
is therefore important to move towards a more
complex understanding of the way in which
micropolitical processes ‘unfold and happen in
action in a bottom up rather than top down fash-
ion’ (Koveshnikov, Ehrnrooth and Vaara, 2017,
p. 238), and to develop approaches for examining
‘a micro-level detail of situated (inter)action’
(Whittle et al., 2016, p. 1328) within subsidiaries.
The present paper addresses these weaknesses
in the existing research through focusing on ‘the
language-based underpinnings of micropolitical
behaviourin the MNE’ (Piekkari and Tietz e,2014,
p. 259), which itself remains poorly understood.
Such a focus is highly appropriate, since MNCs are
multilingual organizations within which interlin-
gual translation processes occur on a regular ba-
sis and constitute ‘a political resource’ (Piekkari
and Westney, 2017, p. 218) that plays a key role
in the organizational functioning of MNCs (e.g.
Piekkari et al., 2013; Tietze, Tansleyand Helienek,
2017). This is because translation not only enables
communication and knowledge flows across lan-
guage barriers, but is a culturally and politically
significant activity, which involves the enactment
of power (Jenssens, Lambert and Steyaert, 2004;
Tietze, 2008) and can be used as a form of resis-
tance (Logemann and Piekkari, 2015) and a chan-
nel of control (Janssens, Lambert and Steyaert,
2004).
Being a highly consequential performative ac-
tivity that aects a range of stakeholders (Holz-
M¨
antt¨
ari, 1984), the political role of translation
in MNCs needs to be better understood as a con-
stituent element of the micropolitical interactions
taking place within MNCs. The presentpaper con-
sequently also adds to existing research on trans-
lation in IB. Conceptually, it draws on the ‘power
turn’ in translation studies, which sees it as a situ-
ated process that entails decision-making and ne-
gotiation (Tymoczko and Gentzler, 2002), both of
which are central to the micropolitical perspec-
tive in MNCs (e.g. Geppert and D¨
orrenb¨
acher,
2014; Geppert, Becker-Ritterspach and Mudambi,
2016). Importantly,the ideas developed within the
‘power turn’ further highlight how translatorsseek
to navigate between the potentially conflicting in-
terests of a range of stakeholders, and to invoke
particular responses in the recipients of translated
texts.
Empirically, the paper is based on a deep single
case study conducted in a Polish subsidiary of an
American pharmaceutical MNC, where a groupof
subsidiary managers collectively carried out an in-
terlingual translation, and sheds light on two in-
evitably interrelated issues: (1) why the managers
pursued the particular interests and agendas that
they did; and (2) how the translation contributed
to the unfolding of subsidiary-level micropolitics.
The paper contributes to the existing body of
work in two interrelatedways. First, we contribute
to the study of power and politics in IB by advanc-
ing understanding of the interactional and proces-
sual dynamics of micropolitics in MNCs. This we
do through: (i) highlighting the processes of inter-
lingual translation within subsidiaries, in particu-
lar, by proposing an emergent model of the mi-
cropolitical dynamics of interlingual translation;
(ii) providing new insights into the complexity of
corporate policy implementation and hence on the
nature of HQ–subsidiary relations. Specifically,we
demonstrate how subsidiary managers can use in-
terlingual translation to pursue their own objec-
tives, to support and oppose the views of both
corporate and local managerial colleagues, and
to influence how HQ-level decisions will be re-
ceived by subsidiary-level employees. In doing
so, we draw attention to the need for research
into micropolitics within MNCs to focus more
attention on the dynamics of (collective, but hi-
erarchically and functionally diverse) managerial
decision-making, and thereby shift the focus away
from the actor-centred approachthat characterizes
much existing research on powerand politics in IB.
Secondly, we advance understanding of trans-
lation in IB. In this regard, our study shows how
hitherto largely ignored processes of interlingual
translation – involving the purposing, reframing
and domesticating of the translated text, and in-
scribing of desired behaviours within it – con-
tribute to the unfolding of politics and power in
MNCs. We demonstrate how interlingual transla-
tion can be deliberately used as a managementtool
C2018 British Academy of Management.
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