Inclusion enhancing decision-making in multinational organizations: A network utilization perspective

You are cordially invited to attend a research seminar by Charmi Patel on Wednesday, 12th January at 13.00pm. Please join us on Microsoft Teams (follow the link in your calendar email invitations) to join.

Abstract

How can MNCs make their geographically dispersed employees include in strategic decision-making? By integrating social network research and social capital theory we explore how structural constraints can cause subsidiary employees to end up in network positions that limit their access to resources (i.e., social capital) and that consequently limit their inclusion in decision-making. We also examine how HQ employees and subsidiary employees differ in terms of network utilization i.e., career and work utilization of network ties- explaining influence on their inclusion in decision-making. We test our predictions on a sample of 463 MNC employees across 25 sites to explicate the process through which employees’ direct and indirect network connections (i.e., alters) contribute to such outcomes through both career supporting utilization and work-supporting utilization with employees.