A Microlevel Experience of Local-Global Tension in Virtual Communities of Practice: The Case of a Multinational Company in the Tire Industry

This research advances the literature on tension by investigating how actors experience local-global tension and how this tension cascades from the macrolevel to the microlevel. Using a social constructivist approach and an individual discursive perspective, we examine a multinational corporation (MNC) in the tire manufacturing industry. We explore seven virtual communities of practice (VCPs) whose aim is to generate process innovation; and based on 34 interviews, we propose a model that highlights how macrolevel tension cascades into several tensions experienced by VCP participants at the microlevel. Moreover, we reveal how underlying ends–means tension is experienced at the mesolevel and how actors cope with it. We thereby show an interconnection among tensions that crosses organizational levels.