The incompatibility of worlds within a multinational corporation: The experience of a French expat in a Mexican factory

Michel Villette ()
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Michel Villette: ETT-CMH - Enquêtes, Terrains, Théorie (ETT) / Equipe du Centre Maurice Halbwachs - CMH - Centre Maurice Halbwachs - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Département de Sciences sociales ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres

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Abstract: This ethnographic account of a managerial situation is a contribution to the new institutionalist studies of MNC based on the testimony of an expatriated French engineer in a Mexican factory. We try to make an in-depth analysis of the gap between what needed to be done in the Mexican context to make the factory profitable, and the good practices prescribed by the financial, technical, and legal services of corporate headquarters. Our analysis supports the theory of incompatible worlds (Lebenswelt) that multinational corporations often bring together. We highlight the translation-betrayals and deceptions that an expat has to accomplish, including whilst presenting the accounts, in order to avoid any obstacle caused by the incompatibilities that could jeopardize the factory's smooth operations. We emphasize the arrangements the engineer had to negotiate to avoid, for example, the well-intentioned paternalism of a powerful potentate or the "tax" paid to local police in the name of an exogenous conception of law and ethics.

Date: 2017-12
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04758645v1
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Published in Gérer et Comprendre. Annales des Mines, 2017, N° 142, pp.1-12

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