The Internationalisation of PTT Telecom: A Cultural Perspective - Free

11within PTT TELECOM. Anthropologists in the scientific tradition have alwaysbeen experts in describing cultural processes from a holistic perspective inremote tribal societies. However, on returning home, most anthropologists areafraid of doing the same in Western society. Even when they do investigatecultural processes in Western society they usually choose to investigate theperipheral instead of the central processes. I fully agree with Bate (1997: 1150)who voices his frustration with ethnographic studies, claiming that they arenever focused on the ‘organisational’ but are just studies about marginal groupssuch as football hooligans, cocktail waitresses, girl scouts or punks. Hence withthis study, I have undertaken the task of presenting a truly ethnographic studybased on lengthy and intensive fieldwork in a large business and technologyorientated Public Telecom Operator.1.5 Structuring the StudyThe study is structured in four parts and consists of ten chapters. Part one, whichconsists of this introduction and the chapters two and three, deals with thetheoretical framework and the methodology of studying the deconstruction ofcultural complexity in the telecom industry.In chapter two a theoretical framework for studying the cultural complexityof the telecom industry is developed. To develop this framework theories onintercultural management and organisational culture are discussed. Each of thedebates is discussed briefly in relationship to the object of study. To place theinternationalisation of the PTOs in a wider theoretical perspective, the debate onglobalisation is also dealt with in this chapter. Results from these debates showthe need for a new approach to cultural complexity based upon Latour’snetwork theory (1994) and the multi-layer model of Chanlat (1994).Chapter three expands upon the methodology of the study. The step by stepresearch strategy of the approach is made operational and the methodology ofdata collection and analysis of data are presented. Attention is brought to thespecific problems of anthropological research within organisations that needspecial attention and the ethical questions on the freedom of the researcher andthe relation of the researcher with the objects of research are thoroughlydiscussed.The second part of the study, the chapters four, five and six, is totallydedicated to the exploration of the context of cross-cultural cooperation in thetelecom sector. The historical, institutional, economical, temporal and personalcontext is unravelled according the multi-layer model.Chapter four explores the world and society levels of the multi-layer modeland discusses the causes and consequences of the turbulence at the internationaltelecom market. The convergence in technology, the World Trade Organisation(WTO) agreement and the telecom requirements of multinationals are shown tobe the primary causes and the consequences for the PTOs and their reactions tothe restructuring of the telecom market are discussed.