ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role and function of the expatriate in the multinational corporation (MNC) and presents the idea that expatriate managers can theoretically be described as boundary spanners. It argues that processing information and exerting influence across organizational boundaries are socio-cultural processes that require highly demanding subjective and social capabilities like expertise in selecting, interpreting, and translating information and in balancing different interests, rationalities, and cultures. Structural-functional role theory, as part of the normative paradigm in social theory, conceives of role performance as a relatively unproblematic "role-taking". Actors internalize the role senders' expectations and play their roles without major complications. The chapter summarizes that expatriates take crucial roles in the organizational structure, but in terms of stabilizing the MNC, their contribution in successfully performing these roles is contingent on a series of prerequisites that cannot be taken for granted.
