Micropolitical Dynamics of Interlingual Translation Processes in an MNC Subsidiary

Drawing on a deep single case study of a Polish subsidiary of a US-headquartered pharmaceutical multinational company (MNC), the paper contributes to the study of power and politics in international business (IB) by advancing understanding of the interactional and processual dynamics of micropolitics in MNCs, which supplements the current dominant actor-centred approach. The paper advances understanding of translation in IB by demonstrating how interlingual translation can be deliberately used as a management tool to pre-empt resistance and promote managerially desired attitudes and behaviours at the subsidiary level. It highlights how hitherto largely ignored processes of interlingual translation provide an important internal forum for the exercise of power and micropolitics. The paper puts forward an emergent model of the micropolitical dynamics of interlingual translation and demonstrates how subsidiary managers can use interlingual translation to support and oppose the views of both corporate and local managerial colleagues, and thereby influence how HQ-level decisions will be received by subsidiary-level employees.