The diorama: the impact of gender and ethnic 'native categories' on cross-cultural management in a post-acquisition automobile manufacturer.
| Verfasser | Moore, Fiona |
| Posten | RESEARCH ARTICLE |
Abstract:
* This paper uses an incident in which a diorama was set up at the entrance to the Final Assembly section of the BMW MINI plant near Oxford to anlayse the impact of gender and ethnic identities on cross-cultural management, through the anthropological concept of the 'native category'. Its aims are to explore the ways in which the diorama symbolically exposed tensions in the workplace relating to ethnicity and gender; to consider the role of a German dominance effect on the workforce; and to examine the implications of these for cross-cultural management.
* The data was gathered through participant-observation on the assembly line and managers' offices, and through both unstructured and semi-structured interviews with managers and workers, during two fieldwork periods, the first in 2003 and the second involving intermittent visits from 2003-2006.
* The paper explores the ways in which the diorama reflected and contributed to unspoken tensions within the workplace relating to ethnicity and gender, and assesses the role of the German dominance effect on the workforce. It investigates the impact of tacit discourses on organisations, and considers ways in which cross-cultural management activities can be successfully carried out in MNCs.
* The management of gender and ethnicity within BMW were affected by the 'native categories' of British and German managers and workers; furthermore, taking a native categories approach to cross-cultural management reveals areas of friction, and sheds light on normally-overlooked problems in merged organisations.
Keywords: Ethnicity * Gender * Dominance effect. Native categories. Micropolitics * Manager-worker relations
Introduction
This paper uses an incident during my ethnographic fieldwork at BMW MINI, in which a diorama was set up at the entrance to the Final Assembly section of the plant, as a lens for analysing the impact of gender and ethnic identities on cross-cultural management in the organisation, through the anthropological concept of the 'native category'. I will consider the immediate implications and meanings of the diorama itself, and, using the single-incident case study technique and the literature on native categories in business, explore how the incident exposes hidden tensions within the organisation regarding ethnic and gender relations.
The aims of the paper are, first, to explore the ways in which the diorama symbolically exposed tensions in the workplace relating to ethnicity and gender. Second, to consider the role of the German dominance effect on the workforce, via the expatriate managers, through analysis of British and German native categories of ethnicity and gender. Finally, it will examine the implications of these for researchers' and practitioners' understanding of how cross-cultural management activities can be successfully carried out in acquired organisations. The contribution of the paper is to increase our understanding of the impact of tacit discourses such as native categories and social identity on transnational organisations, and cross-cultural management activities. Through an analysis of dominance effect and native categories as they relate to gender and ethnicity, I will help researchers and managers perceive and understand the complex impact of native categories on multinational corporations.
Initially, I will lay out the methodological, infrastructural and theoretical background to the case study. I will then consider the diorama as a site from which to explore the complex Anglo-German relations within the organisation which were the most crucial discourse for the managers. I will then explore another prominent discourse in the organisation, that of the incorporation of multiculturalism into British working-class identity, which was the most crucial discourse for the plant's workers. Finally, I shall analyse the findings in detail with regard to how they met the aims of this paper and contributed to both theoretical and practical debates in international business.
Methodological and Infrastructural Background
In this section, I will briefly describe the site where the study took place, the methodology used, the people involved in it and the mode of analysis employed to examine the data.
Background to the Case Study
This study took place at Cowley Works, the BMW MINI factory in East Oxford, between 2003 and 2006. While it is not possible to fully explore the history of the plant in the relatively limited space of a journal paper (recommended works include Newbigging et al. 1998; Scarbrough and Terry 1996; Whisler 1999), I will provide a brief outline here. Cowley Works started out as a plant belonging to a British car manufacturer, initially called Morris Motors, in the early 1910s (Newbigging et al. 1998, p. 12). In the mid 1990s, after years of financial difficulties, the factory, which by then formed part of the Rover Group, was sold to BMW (Scarbrough and Terry 1996, p. 5), after a period of ownership by BAe (with Honda later acquiring a 20% stake; a useful timeline compiled by Rover enthusiasts can be found at http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?histindexf.htm). BMW had itself started out in the early 1910s as a domestically-focused aircraft and, later, automobile manufacturing company, but branched out after WWII, coming to global prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as a manufacturer of luxury and sports vehicles. This background underpinned my interactions with people around the factory, in that all participants were at least vaguely aware of the plant's history of success, decline and multiple acquisition, and the acquirer's more successful history. Although the differences in managerial style were often couched in ethnic terms in interviews, as 'British' versus 'German' cultures, the reality was a rather more complex situation influenced by acquirer acquired power relations as much as ethnicity (as for Globokar 1997). This consequently affected, for instance, the relative status of expatriate versus local managers, the workers' attitude to their employer, and other aspects to be discussed in more detail below.
An approximation of the ethnic and gender composition of the workforce in the Final Assembly Area can be seen in Table 1, which is derived from a demographic survey of workers with a permanent contract, conducted by BMW's Human Resources (HR) department, based on a Head Office survey using German native categories of worker ethnicity (the significance of which will be further discussed below).
It should be noted that the contract workers formed only one-third of the workforce, although the statistics do appear to be generally indicative of the workforce's composition. It should also be noted that workers were asked to choose a single ethnic identity, thus, 'white European' is not a subcategory of 'white' but an identity in itself; the survey had been initially developed for internal purposes and as such reflects the idiosyncratic (indeed, "native") categories with which the compilers were familiar.
While similar statistics were not available for managers, my own, admittedly anecdotal, evidence would indicate them to be overwhelmingly white and about two-thirds male. The main social division was between a small cadre of white male German expatriates (about 10% of the managerial population) and a considerably larger (and more mixed) contingent of British managers. The workers were further subdivided between employees with a permanent contract with the organisation and those hired through a temporary labour agency, and the managers were divided between office managers and shopfloor managers, designated by where they spend most of their working time. The shopfloor managers, finally, could be distinguished into trainers, specialists and PAMs ('Process Area Managers', who had charge over a particular area of the assembly line); many of these were former workers who had been promoted.
Methodology
This paper is largely based on data gathered during a three-month period in mid-2003 which I spent working on the line in the Final Assembly Area (usually referred to as 'Assembly') of the plant, as a temporary employee of the firm (known as an 'associate'), with additional material from a follow-up project conducted between 2004 and 2006. In 2003, I was approached by the plant's management as part of a wider outreach programme to local academic institutions; they proposed a study aimed at identifying, through ethnographic fieldwork, reasons why the firm was having difficulty recruiting and retaining female employees. As statistical instruments were generating inconclusive results, they decided that, much as van Maanen argues, an ethnographic approach using a female ethnographer would assist the identification of the tacit, intangible, aspects of working as a woman in the factory which were causing the problems (van Maanen 1979; Hodson 1998). I also gained permission to gather data on ethnic identity to further my own research. Managerial interests constrained the project to some extent in that I felt obliged to prioritise gender-related data-gathering; however, given the complexity of social identity, 1 was able to gather sufficient data on ethnic identity to satisfy my own research needs as well, and my knowledge of managerial interests also helped the project in adding to my understanding of the company. As ethnicity, for the British, was also strongly associated with social class, and as part of the ethnographic experience involves following the interests and priorities of informants, 1 gathered a certain amount of information on class identity in the process of gathering data on ethnicity. The result is an in-depth set of data on the expression and reception of gender and ethnic identity among the workforce.
I joined the workforce as a temporary labourer on a three-month contract, with the full knowledge and permission of management. The workers on the team were also informed once I had sufficient grasp...
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