The Global and the Local: Understanding the Dialectics of Business Systems

ISBN-13: 9780199278909 / Angielski / Twarda / 2005 / 314 str.

Arndt Sorge

Opis

The rhetoric of internationalization and globalization often suggests an inexorable move away from domestic cultural and institutional differences. Yet the development of internationalization within individual nations has been shaped by those very domestic institutions and cultures, as 'best practice' or other kinds of international learning have been translated into established practice and knowledge.
In this important study, Arndt Sorge presents a sociological theory of the development of human societies to explain how business systems evolve and change, and how internationalization works to specify and change societal identities within nations. Examining changes in work, organization, corporate governance, and human resources, Sorge shows how this interaction is a pattern that has been followed over centuries. Indeed, amongst the cases Sorge presents, he concentrates on the example of Germany, a supposedly highly homogeneous and closed society, as evidence for the universality of shifting borders, expanding horizons, local adoption and adaptation of global practices, and the hybridization of systems and standards, as the normal course of social evolution.
Arndt Sorge's analysis of globalization combines rigorous theoretical reasoning with empirically-grounded analysis, and deliberately adopts a general social science approach, drawing on research from Business and Management Studies, Sociology, Political Science, and History.

Recenzje

This book tries tomake sense of an astonishing amount of empirical findings around the notion of national business systems. Because it is not confined to a single discipline, narrow research question or tightly zoned model, nor does it followa stringent textbook or journal article style, it seems to be a somewhat risky endeavour to read this book... However, those that can sustain ambiguity, appreciate originality, enjoy colourful illustrative anecdotes and feel comfortable with building bridges between different theoretical approaches will get their money's worth.

O autorze

Arndt Sorge is Professor of International Business and Management in the Faculty of Management and Organization, University of Groningen. Author of Organization (Thomson Learning, 2002), co-editor of The International Encylopaedia of Business and Management (Thomson Learning, 2002), and a former editor of the journal Organization Studies, Arndt Sorge has published widely on the subject of business institutions and systems.