Constructing the 'neocolonial' manager : orientalizing Latin America in the textbooks

Global businesses have an influential position in defining the conditions of contemporary society. Beside the acknowledged impact on culture through consumption, marketing and media, global business practices have also a seemingly invisible but pervasive influence on social interactions between different cultures. Considering the domination achieved by Transnational Corporations in global capitalism (Birch, 2007), their managerial discourses and business practices play an important role in shaping forms of relationships between different players, local and global businesses agents in the global market (Clegg, 2007). In this context the impact of business organizations on cultures in everyday life and social relationships needs to be analyzed in order to understand how business interests, and the ideologies which legitimize their actions, are affecting the economic, political, social and cultural practices at both local and global levels (see Morgan, 2007). Latin American societies, the focus of this chapter, have been increasingly influenced by the ways that multinationals enter into those countries. They define work practices and forms of negotiation between local business and global business partners, local managers and corporate managers, and between employers and workers.