I can't change who I am, but I can control what I do. Three essays exploring cultural identity as a resource for navigating multinational work contexts in emerging economies

• Autores: Nana Yaa Pokuaa Antwi Gyamfi
• Directores de la Tesis: Yih-teen Lee (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad de Navarra ( España ) en 2022
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Sebastian Bjoern Reiche (presid.), Anneloes Raes (secret.), Stacey R. Fitzsimmons (voc.), Lena Zander (voc.), Markus Pudelko (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias de la Dirección por la Universidad de Navarra
• Materias:
  • Ciencias económicas
    • Organización y dirección de empresas
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• Resumen

  • Although cultural identity is acknowledged to constitute a resource by which individuals navigate the world, scholars have largely overlooked the exploration of this dynamic, to the effect that its potential to enhance understanding of individuals relations within and with their work contexts, is little understood. This dissertation comprises two empirical and one theoretical essay; each exploring various facets of the overarching research question: How do managers in emerging economies leverage identity resources to mitigate cultural differences with their collaborators? Essay 1 proposes key assets and liabilities for being a local or foreign global leader, derived from 20 semi-structured interviews of managers of MNEs operating in Ghana. Furthermore, the paper presents a framework of contextualized assets and liabilities, comprising four styles (identity leveraging, power leveraging, juxtapositional leveraging, and temporal leveraging) by which Ghanaian MNEs leveraged leadership structure in order to maximize assets and minimize liabilities of global leaders localness or foreignness. Essay 2 integrates two approaches to identity work to produce the Cultural Identity Enactment Matrix (CIEM), a conceptual framework proposing that managers perceptions of cultural congruence (low or high) and relative power (low or high) underlie four types of cultural identity enactment: distinctive owning, assimilative borrowing, integrative owning, and integrative borrowing. Furthermore, the paper theorizes potential responses to these enactments, given audience perceptions. Essay 3 found, from semi-structured interviews of 40 Ghanaian professionals who had pursued postgraduate programs in advanced countries, that post-immersion, professionals seek work environments which provide supplies to match the needs stemming from their identity duality (identity resonance). Furthermore, these professionals gravitate toward MNEs as identity workspaces which enable them to avoid identity dissonance. The dissertations contributions to literature and practice, as well as future research directions are discussed.