Corporate Co-Evolution: A Political Perspective

288 Pages·2008·2.68 MB·English

by  Suzana B. Rodrigues, John Child(auth.), John Child, Suzana B. Rodrigues(eds.)

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Corporate
Co-evolution
A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE
Suzana B. Rodrigues and John Child
Corporate Co-Evolution: A Political Perspectiv e Suzana B. Rodrigues and John Child
© 2008 by Suzana B. Rodrigues and John Child. ISBN: 978-1-405-12164-4
ffirs.qxd 2/12/08 11:04 Page i
Further praise for Corporate Co-evolution
“Based on a longitudinal, multi-level field study of the co-evolution of the Brazilian telecom-
munications company Telemig and its environment, Rodrigues and Child lay the ground-
work for a political interest theory of co-evolution. In particular, they elucidate the ideational
and material factors that shape the changing distribution of power, and the associated legal
and psychological contracts, among organizational interest groups that helps shape organiza-
tional evolution over time. Their thoroughly-researched study begins to fill an important lacuna
in the growing literature on evolutionary organization theory.”
Robert A. Burgelman, Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management, Stanford
University Graduate School of Business, and author of Strategy is Destiny: How
Strategy-Making Shapes and Organization’s Future, Free Press, 2002
“This book is a masterpiece case study covering over two decades of an organization, carefully
conducted and showing that cases are still a major source to look deeply into organizational
processes and dynamics.”
Carlos Osmar Bertero, São Paulo School of Management/Getúlio Vargas Founda-
tion and President of the Brazilian Academy of Management
“Rodrigues and Child demonstrate the power of historical thinking in their richly detailed
analysis of how the Brazilian telecommunications company, Telemig. Using archival mater-
ials, interviews, and a wealth of other information, they put the transformation of Telemig
into historical context, drawing on concepts and principles from the resource dependence and
political economy views concerning the relationship between organizations and their environ-
ments. Along the way, they have extremely interesting things to say about corporate identity,
organizational learning, and organizational legitimacy.”
Howard Aldrich, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
“Single theme explanations of the adaptation-selection phenomenon have reached their limit.
Researchers have tended not to address the interrelationships between firm-level adaptation
and population-level selection. This relevant and timely book is an exception. It advances
the theory of co-evolution by incorporating a political dimension of how organizations are
transformed into new forms.”
Professor Henk W. Volberda, RSM Erasmus University
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Corporate Co-evolution
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Organization and Strategy
Series editors
John Child and Suzana B. Rodrigues
Books published:
Silvia Gherardi
Organizational Knowledge: The Texture of Workplace Learning
Stephen Todd Rudman
The Multinational Corporation in China: Controlling Interests
Suzana B. Rodrigues and John Child
Corporate Co-Evolution: A Political Perspective
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Corporate
Co-evolution
A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE
Suzana B. Rodrigues and John Child
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Copyright © 2008 by Suzana B. Rodrigues and John Child
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,
West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rodrigues, Suzana B.
Corporate co-evolution : a political perspective/by Suzana B. Rodrigues and John Child.
p. cm.—(Organization and strategy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-2164-4 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1. Telemig (Firm)—History. 2. Telephone companies—Brazil—Minas Gerais—History.
3. Telecommunication—Brazil—Minas Gerais—History. I. Child, John, 1940– II. Title.
HE9050.T455R63 2008
384.6065′8151—dc22 2007019131
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4051-2164-4 (HB)
Typeset in 11/13pt Bembo by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
This book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestry
in which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production.
ftoc.qxd 2/11/08 14:45 Page vii
Contents
Series Editors’ Foreword ix
Preface xi
Part I Introduction 1
1 Perspectives on Corporate Co-evolution 3
2 The Economic and Political Context of Telecommunications
in Brazil 27
3 Scope and Method 46
Part II Historical Co-evolution of Telemig 55
4 Foundations 1953–1985 57
5 Politicization 1985–1993 92
6 Reconstruction and Demise 1993–2000 115
Part III Multidimensional Co-evolution 145
7 Organizational Culture 147
8 Corporate Identity 171
9 Metaphors and Reflective Imaging 200
10 The Politics of Learning at a Time of Restructuring 226
Part IV Conclusion 245
11 A Political Interest Theory of Corporate Co-evolution 247
Author index 273
Subject index 275
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Series Editors’ Foreword
Blackwell’s Organization and Strategy series publishes works of major scholarship
based on case studies. It recognizes that case studies offer a unique opportunity to
provide an in-depth and holistic understanding of organization and strategy in its
context. They offer this contribution through detailed investigation that is longi-
tudinal and/or closely compares key examples. Longitudinal investigation can uncover
the dynamics of change, the way that change pervades different levels of organ-
ization, and patterns of emergence. Close comparisons between cases can map in
detail the nature of variation within a category of organizations. Both types of
investigation can also derive lessons from how organizational and strategic innova-
tions have been introduced and their effects.
In this way, case studies address the problem that Andrew Pettigrew noted in his
book The Awakening Giant (Blackwell, 1985), namely that the lack of a holistic
approach, sensitive to both context and history, has seriously limited our under-
standing of both organizations and their strategies. It is therefore intended that
books in this series adopt a holistic perspective that examines the interplay
between a range of salient aspects and from several theoretical perspectives. The
books should be contextually embedded and, where appropriate, take account of
the relevant historical background. They should make an original contribution to
theory and offer implications for policy and practice.
Further details on the requirements for manuscripts to be considered for pub-
lication in the Organization and Strategy series are available from the Publisher,
Business and Management, at Blackwell Publishing.
John Child and Suzana B. Rodrigues
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Preface
Corporate Co-evolution addresses a theme that is currently attracting a great deal of
interest for the new insights it promises into the way organizations develop in inter-
action with their environments. While this book has a strong contemporary appeal,
it actually emerges from a very extensive period of preparation. It builds on research
undertaken over a time-span of twenty-one years. It also results from a long aca-
demic partnership between its two authors, the fruit of which is the distinctively
political analysis we apply to co-evolution.
We have accumulated many debts of gratitude during these years both to members
of Telemig, the company on which the study focuses, and to colleagues and friends
in many countries who have helped us more than they realize with advice, encour-
agement and the inspiration of their own thinking. In this short Preface, we wish
to explain the book’s genesis and to acknowledge the support we have received.
The origins of Corporate Co-evolution go back to 1986, when Suzana Rodrigues
embarked on a study of strategic decision-making within Telemig, then the state-
owned telecommunications company for the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. This
study was initially an extension of the doctoral research she had undertaken under
David Hickson at the University of Bradford. She conducted the investigation at
a time when, following the return of Brazil from military to democratic rule, state-
owned enterprises were operating under turbulent conditions. It became clear that
in order to understand the process of making strategic decisions within Telemig,
account had to be taken of the company’s socio-political context as well as its his-
torical origins. As a state-owned company in a highly regulated sector, its institu-
tional environment was of particular significance.
The discovery of Christine Oliver’s work enhanced Suzana’s awareness of the
role of institutions in promoting organizational change and also how organizational
leaders can in turn influence institutional policies. She also appreciated from Andrew
Pettigrew’s work on continuity and change in ICI that one could only make sense
of organizational transformation through the adoption of a contextual and his-
torical perspective. A Fulbright Scholarship to the United States in 1985 had offered
Suzana the opportunity to become directly acquainted with emerging American
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xii PREFACE
thinking on organizational evolution especially that of Aldrich, Freeman and Hannan’s
work on population ecology, and the institutional perspectives of DiMaggio,
Granovetter, Powell and Scott.
Within Brazil, certain scholars were by the late 1980s starting to develop an
interest in organization culture, notably M.T. Fleury, M. Mello, C. Bertero and
C. Machado. Stimulated by this trend, Suzana’s access to Telemig’s board allowed
her to extend her research to the development of the company’s identity and cul-
ture. This first period of investigation into Telemig, undertaken between 1986 and
1990, brought together various facets of the company’s change, applying a range
of theoretical perspectives. It was formally submitted to UFMG [the Federal University
of Minas Gerais] in support of a full professorship which was conferred on Suzana
in 1990.
From the beginning of the 1990s, John Child became part of the story behind
this book. Having, with Chris Smith, just completed a longitudinal study of trans-
formation in Cadbury’s, the confectionary company, he was convinced of the spe-
cial value of carefully conducted longitudinal research for understanding corporate
change. He also brought with him the political orientation he had earlier devel-
oped in his analysis of strategic choice. John’s main contribution at this point was
to encourage Suzana to continue engaging with Telemig’s evolution and in this
way to maintain continuity with her previous work. In 1996, Suzana therefore
returned to Telemig together with three of her doctoral students, Augusto Cabral,
Alexandre Carrieri and Talita da Luz. They were able to chart the changes had
taken place since the 1990s and to extend the range of enquiry to include restruc-
turing, changes in formal and informal employment contracts, the role of organ-
izational learning in restructuring, and the changing images of the company being
portrayed by its union through the use of metaphor. This second stage of research
was completed in 2000.
From 2001, when Suzana accepted a position at the University of Birmingham,
she and John began to work intensively in making sense of the data and in col-
lecting further information for this book. Even though the company had by now
lost its own identity, Suzana’s contacts with Telemig’s former directors, managers
and trade union officials facilitated meetings and interviews with them to furnish
further information and insight right up until 2006. Our debt of gratitude to these
many individuals who gave so generously of their time, records and personal insights
is beyond estimation.
Corporate Co-evolution has resulted from the many long discussions we have had
about the interactions of Telemig’s with its institutional environment and how both
company and environment co-evolved. We were particularly seeking to under-
stand the role of managerial intentionality in a highly institutionalized environ-
ment. It was natural to espouse the new co-evolutionary perspective as the means
of framing these dynamics. Its longitudinal approach together with the study of
the recursive loops of interaction between the organizations and its context per-
mits one to see beyond the limits of previous perspectives. Both of us had noted
McKelvey’s early insistence that all organizational evolution was co-evolution, but