Role transition is increasingly common in multinational enterprises (MNEs) and presents a significant challenge for individual actors. Studies to date have presented a static understanding of key actors’ roles in the MNE, particularly those in subsidiaries that are confined to a local geographical context. Combining insights from role transition with subsidiary management literature, our qualitative study explores the lived transitional experiences of actors who exit their subsidiaries and progress to assume a corporate role. We find that subsidiary actors entering and enacting corporate roles confront a high-magnitude transition with significant contrast and discontinuity. Specifically, our findings show that individuals make the transition by easing psychological, relational, and socio-political tensions within local, global, and corporate exchanges. This involves detaching from a subsidiary role that had clearly defined boundaries, limited scope and discretion, and low complexity, and transitioning to a corporate role that is ambiguous, expansive, and extremely challenging. In contrast with conventional practice, this transition did not involve a physical relocation to corporate headquarters (CHQ), but corporate roles were enacted remotely in the local subsidiary, which intensified transitional tensions. In this context, a seamless transition may not always be the most effective approach, and holding on to some core features of the exited role may serve as a ‘transitional bridge’ to enacting the new role. Our findings expand the reach of studies on role transition by disentangling how a high-magnitude transition compels a subsidiary actor to refashion their identity, network, and behaviour.
