Outcomes of Bridging Roles in MNCs and Moderating Influence of Cultural Identity Integration

Abstract

To explore the under-investigated concept of bridging roles in multinational companies (MNCs), we first conducted a preliminary qualitative study with 60 bridge individuals working in 13 Japanese foreign subsidiaries in Germany and the Netherlands. Integrating the insights from the preliminary study with social network and job demands-resources perspectives, we theorize that the performance of functional and linguistic bridging by the bridge individuals has both positive and negative consequences for the individuals: Whereas functional and linguistic bridging activities nurture the good relationships with their co-workers through the development of social capital, these activities also cause emotional exhaustion through an increase in role conflict. We further theorize that the level of cultural identity integration within the bridge individuals moderates the above relationships such that the positive consequences of bridging activities are stronger and the negative consequences are weaker when cultural identity integration is low. We tested our predictions using a sample of 200 Japanese employees working in Japanese subsidiaries in various countries, and the results were generally supportive. Our findings provide novel insights into the role of bridging in MNCs and make significant theoretical and practical contributions to the management of bridge individuals.