ICTs and Organizational Control Across Cultures: The Case of a UK Multinational Operating in China

This chapter examines issues on ICT-related coordination and control between the head offices of a UK manufacturing multinational in England and Hong Kong, and one of its joint ventures in Mainland China. Giddens’ theory of modernity and an anthropological view of culture are used to analyze and interpret the case. As an expert system, in Giddens’ terms, partly leading to globalization (Giddens, 1990; 1991), ICTs facilitate the disembedding of information and communication transfer in different time-space domains without the limitation of place and therefore enable the head office to control its worldwide operations at a distance. However, this is not simply the ‘death of distance’ (Cairncross, 2001). ICT-enabled coordination is only effective when linked with other mechanisms such as expatriates and face-to-face contacts. Furthermore, the chapter shows that national culture characteristics appear to be more dynamic and less homogenous than the existing literature suggests. ICTs act as an arena where organizational culture change is often expressed.