Culture and the crisis: downsizing the Thai subsidiary corporation

The unprecedented severity of the Asian economic recession in Thailand came as a shock to the indigenous corporate sector. Businesses long habituated to record levels of growth were suddenly confronted with spiralling costs and declining sales. In response to this crisis a number of powerful Western corporations began 'downsizing' their Thai operations in order to boost profitability levels via the reduction of staff. Adopting a processual approach, this article seeks to explore the role of 'corporate' and 'national' cultures in the local employee reaction to these externally imposed directives.