Headquarters Control and Its Legitimation in a Chinese Multinational Corporation: The Case of Huawei
基于访谈和文档分析，研究了华为总部如何通过关键绩效指标、标准操作程序、轮岗外派、军事化入职、宣誓和批评仪式等机制控制海外子公司的产出、流程和社会行为，并利用五种合法化策略（如组织利益主张、诱导、肯定、道德劝诫和叙事化）为这些控制提供正当性。
ABSTRACT Based on interviews and documentary analysis, we analyzed the mechanisms being adopted by the HQ of Huawei, a Chinese MNC, for controlling the outputs and processes of its foreign subsidiaries and social behaviours within them and how these controls were supported by corresponding strategies of legitimation. The controls comprise key performance indicators, standard operating procedures, divided subsidiary mandates, HQ-centric rotational expatriation, military-style induction, public oath-taking and self-criticism ceremonies, and training in and role-modelling of core values. The HQ provides comprehensive legitimation for each of these control mechanisms, drawing on five strategies of legitimation, which comprise espousals of organizational benefits, inducement, affirmation, moral exhortation, and narrativization. In many cases, the legitimizing statements have been provided by Mr. Ren, Huawei's founder and CEO, whose authority appears to have been important in conferring legitimacy to the HQ. The historical path of Huawei's development as an MNC has also been salient in conferring legitimacy to the HQ. Our findings suggest that interviewees regard the controls as legitimate, that the subsidiaries broadly comply with the controls, and that micro-political contestation is largely absent.