Going global – a trajectory of individual and organizational development

Purpose – This paper aims to show how the internationalization process of a multinational corporation (MNC) is shaped and formed by actors engaging in collaborative inquiry. Faced with a centralized strategy grounded in Scandinavian organizational solutions, leaders of foreign subsidiaries reinterpret their local institutional frameworks in creating new organizational practices. Their ability to create acceptance for these practices both locally and with the central management determines which practices prevail. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a qualitative comparative study of organizational units in Norway, Sweden, Mexico, the USA, South Korea and Poland. Over a four‐year period, 165 interviews were conducted with both employees and management. Findings – Through a perspective on learning, it is possible to show how organizational members make use of their institutional environment as they mutually attempt to build shared ideologies for conducting their business. To view organizational change as a learning process allows for explaining how both actors and structures intertwined represent the dynamic for change. Cultural‐cognitive institutions are seen here as active living phenomena which are created and enacted by individuals in their historical and geographical contexts. Originality/value – Much research on MNCs has focused on explaining the development of such organizations either as a result of experiential learning (i.e. the Uppsala model), systematic planning (economic rationality) or contextual factors (contingency perspectives). This study provides a closer and more detailed look at how these organizations develop through the action and interaction of people in one MNC.