PRIVATIZATION IN PERIPHERAL COUNTRIES: A BRAZILIAN EXAMPLE IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Abstract

The present paper argues that the privatization of state-owned companies in Brazil represents an adjustment, or compliance, to the founding discourses created in the central countries. The paper is based on research conducted in the telecommunications sector and focuses on the discourses that have been instrumental to the transformation of a state-owned company into a private one. It was found out that those discourses, expounded at the highest level, often turn the privatization into a traumatic event for other members of the organization. Many feel that the process affects not only the organization, but also its members, once they lose part of their story.