Performativity of Announcing Redundancy announcements and their consequences in the MNC context

Abstract

Announcing the redundancies is a common managerial practice of the Multinational Corporations (MNCs). While too much emphasis is placed on the financial consequences of redundancy announcements in previous research; however, little attention is paid to show diverse consequences of the announcements in the cross-border context. This study mitigates these shortcomings by illustrating how the announcements may have different meanings and performative consequences in the diverse institutional contexts of the MNC. Having presented the institutional settings which shape the redundancy announcements, the study investigates the cross-border announcements across the European Union (EU) gathered from secondary sources of European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) database and illustrates the different ways how MNCs announce the redundancies. By showing the performative aspect of announcements as speech-acts, the study illustrates different meanings and consequences in different institutional contexts of the MNC. The redundancy announcements; thus, are found as one MNC practice which is both shaped by the institutional settings, but also which has the potential to shape institutions. Finally, the results indicate that by announcing the redundancies, MNC impacts the actors located in the different institutional settings by speech-acts, which in return fosters its agency to shape the institutions.