The global integration challenge : global management teams, temporal differences, and constructing the identity of the global 'other'

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, February, 2019

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Grassin-Drake, Laurel Edwards.
Other Authors: Donald Lessard.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121839
_version_ 1826194232784715776
author Grassin-Drake, Laurel Edwards.
author2 Donald Lessard.
author_facet Donald Lessard.
Grassin-Drake, Laurel Edwards.
author_sort Grassin-Drake, Laurel Edwards.
collection MIT
description Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, February, 2019
first_indexed 2024-09-23T09:52:57Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/121839
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language eng
last_indexed 2024-09-23T09:52:57Z
publishDate 2019
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/1218392019-08-03T03:01:31Z The global integration challenge : global management teams, temporal differences, and constructing the identity of the global 'other' Grassin-Drake, Laurel Edwards. Donald Lessard. Sloan School of Management. Sloan School of Management Sloan School of Management. Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, February, 2019 Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-158). In this thesis, I investigate the challenges of 21st century global integration by examining it indepth at a Fortune 200 global supplier (CC) that faces strong pressures of both global integration and local responsiveness. While global integration is typically discussed at a macro level, here I use qualitative methods to study senior managers at a micro level. In this way, I establish critical internal struggles with integration, and reveal external dynamics of integration in a close inter-firm relationship as a strategic supplier. Results highlight the role of Global Management Teams as an essential linking tool. At the same time, I find that conflicting temporalities across locations, accompanied by a globally-shared logic of appropriateness, place restraints on this mechanism of integration: limiting the hours available, and consistently advantaging and disadvantaging specific geographies. I also draw on a unique data set to examine global integration in the context of a close, dependent relationship, with multiple boundary-crossing links. This consists of thirteen months of observations of the weekly virtual meeting of the global account team responsible for CC's largest customer (Alpha). Tracing the collective process by which the team constructs the organizational identity (01) of the "other" from their individual distributed interactions, I find that in constructing Alpha's global 01 the team is also co-creating their own global 01. Further, the process by which the team constructs Alpha's 01 to answer the question "who are they?" parallels well-documented internal processes used by organizational members to answer "who are we?" Importantly, through this co-creation, identity acts both as an alignment mechanism within CC, and across firm boundaries in the relationship. Finally, CC's identity work on Alpha extends beyond construction to shaping and enforcing Alpha's 01 as partner through active voice, engaging the customer's hierarchy from outside to discipline and shape the customer's behavior from within. by Laurel Edwards Grassin-Drake. Ph. D. Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management 2019-07-18T20:35:40Z 2019-07-18T20:35:40Z 2018 2019 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121839 1108636889 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 158 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Sloan School of Management.
Grassin-Drake, Laurel Edwards.
The global integration challenge : global management teams, temporal differences, and constructing the identity of the global 'other'
title The global integration challenge : global management teams, temporal differences, and constructing the identity of the global 'other'
title_full The global integration challenge : global management teams, temporal differences, and constructing the identity of the global 'other'
title_fullStr The global integration challenge : global management teams, temporal differences, and constructing the identity of the global 'other'
title_full_unstemmed The global integration challenge : global management teams, temporal differences, and constructing the identity of the global 'other'
title_short The global integration challenge : global management teams, temporal differences, and constructing the identity of the global 'other'
title_sort global integration challenge global management teams temporal differences and constructing the identity of the global other
topic Sloan School of Management.
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121839
work_keys_str_mv AT grassindrakelaureledwards theglobalintegrationchallengeglobalmanagementteamstemporaldifferencesandconstructingtheidentityoftheglobalother
AT grassindrakelaureledwards globalintegrationchallengeglobalmanagementteamstemporaldifferencesandconstructingtheidentityoftheglobalother