Managing across Borders: Global Integration and Knowledge Exchange in MNCs

Abstract

In this article we explore expatriate managers as international boundary spanners and problem solvers in promulgating knowledge exchange in multinational companies (MNCs). Theoretical perspectives on agency, expatriation and MNCs connect notions of individual volition with expatriation interactions and organizational outcomes. This conceptualization questions the exaltation of individual excellence in the earlier heroic perspective on the expatriate. Rather, interculturally competent, strategically localized expatriate managers address recurring global–local tensions in everyday interactions with the host country subsidiary staff. The expatriates' boundary spanning, problem solving and knowledge exchange enhance the global integration, national responsiveness, and worldwide innovation and learning concomitant with the transnational form of the MNC.