Fear-based authority in transnational organising: an organisational analysis of stabilised compliance and endurance work

Abstract

This study aims to examine how authority becomes stabilised in transnational organising when fear is embedded in everyday interaction rather than expressed through overt coercion or explicit command. An interpretive qualitative design draws on 76 semi-structured interviews conducted between 2025 and 2026 with managers and professionals in 18 internationally operating organisations across 16 countries in five regions. Gioia-inspired grounded-theory coding was combined with temporal bracketing to build a phase-based process model. Fear-based authority is reproduced through four mechanisms: interpretive opacity, hierarchical scripts, constrained discretion and relational fragility, which make compliance appear safe and professional. This study differentiates stabilised compliance from commitment, acquiescence and overt obedience, and identifies endurance work as a quieter form of courage that buffers teams and sustains operations. The design supports processual and interpretive rather than causal inference, and the sample is male-skewed. Longitudinal and more gender-balanced designs could test the mechanism sequence. Organisations can widen voice by explaining the rationale behind directives, legitimising disagreement, aligning accountability with decision rights and framing monitoring as support rather than suspicion. Reducing fear-laden coordination supports psychological well-being, healthier workplace cultures and more transparent organisational learning. This paper theorises fear-based authority as an interactional accomplishment at the global–local interface, distinguishes the proposed constructs from bureaucratic control, organisational silence and emotional labour, and states the model’s boundary conditions.