How are Practices Made to Vary? Managing Practice Adaptation in a Multinational Corporation

Forthcoming in Organization Studies

49 Pages Posted: 21 Jan 2014

See all articles by Shaz Ansari

Shaz Ansari

University of Cambridge - Judge Business School; Erasmus University, Rotterdam (EUR)

Juliane Reinecke

University of Warwick - Warwick Business School

Amy Spaan

Consultant, Ordina N.V.

Date Written: January 20, 2014

Abstract

Research has shown that management practices are adapted and ‘made to fit’ the specific context into which they are adopted. Less attention has been paid to how organizations anticipate and purposefully influence the adaptation process. How do organizations manage the tension between allowing local adaptation of a management practice and retaining control over the practice? By studying the adaptation of a specialized quality management practice – ACE (Achieving Competitive Excellence) – in a multinational corporation in the aerospace industry, we examine how the organization manages the adaptation process at the corporate and subsidiary levels. We identified three strategies through which an organization balances the tension between standardization and variation – preserving the ‘core’ practice while allowing local adaptation at the subsidiary level; 1) creating and certifying progressive achievement levels; 2) setting discretionary and mandatory adaptation parameters; and 3) differentially adapting to context-specific and systemic misfits. While previous studies have shown how and why practices vary as they diffuse, we show how practices may diffuse because they are engineered to vary for allowing a better fit with diverse contextual specificities.

Keywords: aerospace, adaptation, adoption, diffusion, lean, management innovation, multinational corporations, practices, quality management, standards.

Suggested Citation

Ansari, Shahzad (S and Reinecke, Juliane and Spaan, Amy, How are Practices Made to Vary? Managing Practice Adaptation in a Multinational Corporation (January 20, 2014). Forthcoming in Organization Studies, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2382324

Shahzad (S Ansari (Contact Author)

University of Cambridge - Judge Business School ( email )

Trumpington Street
Cambridge, CB2 1AG
United Kingdom

Erasmus University, Rotterdam (EUR) ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
Room T08-21
3000 DR Rotterdam, 3000 DR
Netherlands

Juliane Reinecke

University of Warwick - Warwick Business School ( email )

Gibbet Hill Rd.
Coventry, West Midlands CV4 8UW
United Kingdom

Amy Spaan

Consultant, Ordina N.V. ( email )

Polanenstraat 28C
Rotterdam, 3062KD
Netherlands

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