Accounting for Diversity: The Social Construction of Employment Practices

Abstract

As shown in Chapters 4 to 6, various interaction forms apply to various interaction channels between the MNC and local actors. Some interaction channels are of direct relevance for the construction of subsidiary employment practices, whereas others complement the construction process and allow for a broader perspective on MNC embedding. Pulling together the findings of previous chapters, the current chapter investigates complementarities in social interaction forms and channels. These complementarities account for a set of interdependent interaction processes, or in other words, the mechanism through which employment practices are constructed. Complementarities in social interaction are crucial in understanding the comprehensive construction process, but also its stability and change. I argue that stability is not reached via normative institutional constraints on MNC behaviour in the host countries, but by the MNC’s utilization of diverse local conditions and involvement of local actors in the process of constructing employment practices.