ENACTING DISCRETION IN A LOW DISCRETION ENVIRONMENT: AN INTERVIEW WITH CARLOS GHOSN.

Haj Youssef, M ORCID: 0000-0002-6011-1605, Kleindienst, I, Khalife-Fraiha, D and Salameh-Ayanian, M ENACTING DISCRETION IN A LOW DISCRETION ENVIRONMENT: AN INTERVIEW WITH CARLOS GHOSN. Critical Perspectives on International Business. ISSN 1742-2043 (Accepted)

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Abstract

Carlos Ghosn’s legacy in the global automotive industry is both significant and controversial. His multinational identity – Lebanese, French, and Brazilian – positioned him as a globally minded executive well-suited to an era of intensified globalization, when firms sought leaders capable of navigating complex institutional and cultural terrains (Greimel & Sposato, 2021). This paper uses Ghosn’s extraordinary leadership journey to explore how high-discretion leaders operate in low-discretion environments, where institutional norms, national cultures, and organizational politics constrain executive latitude, and what occurs when transformational leadership collides with entrenched systems of control.
Ghosn exemplified a transformational leadership style, visionary, proactive, and willing to disrupt entrenched routines (Bass & Avolio, 1994; Pendleton & Furnham, 2016). This sharply contrasted with the leadership archetypes prevailing in Japan, where CEOs typically act as transactional coordinators rather than strategic change agents. The resulting tension between Ghosn’s leadership style and the institutional environment lies at the heart of this study. We further highlight how crisis conditions can temporarily expand a leader’s discretion, enabling transformational figures to override institutional constraints that would otherwise limit strategic agency.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1503 Business and Management; 1608 Sociology; Business & Management; 3505 Human resources and industrial relations; 3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5001 Business H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions:	Liverpool Business School
Publisher:	Emerald
Date of acceptance:	16 September 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	17 September 2025
Date Deposited:	17 Sep 2025 16:09
Last Modified:	17 Sep 2025 16:30
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27174

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