Professional identities in 'glocal' organizational contexts

Abstract

One of the most important issues in organizational change is its effect on individual identities, which becomes more complex when different cultures are involved, as has been happening in the privatization of state-owned companies in Brazil. This study analyses the discourse of two employees of a Brazilian company which was privatized and is now managed by a European group, trying to understand how they see the changing situation in terms of the insertion of foreigners in the organization's scene. The results show that, when talking about foreigners, individuals try to strengthen their own identities within a challenging context.

Keywords

• organizational change
• identity
• culture
• privatization