Sensemaking and politics in MNCs: A comparative analysis of vocabularies within the global manufacturing discourse in one industrial sector1

This paper compares sensemaking processes in MNCs situated in the same industrial sector. Our comparative analysis of three MNCs and its subsidiaries in Germany and the UK aims to shed light on the contextual dimension (institutions, culture and politics) of the sensemaking process. First we discuss ideologies related to the discourse about global restructuring of manufacturing. Second, we compare similarities and differences in vocabularies of the (multinational) organization. Third, we compare cross-national vocabularies of work in German and British subsidiaries. Finally we suggest a political approach of sensemaking referring to stories used to legitimize or delegitimize dominant 1 First drafts of this paper has been presented at the 18th EGOS Colloquium in the subgroup ‘Language and Politics in Organizations’ in Barcelona in July 2002, at the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference at the Cardiff Business School in September 2002 and at an ERIM Research Workshop at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.