Organizational Theory and Cultural Intrusions into Organizations

The conclusions that J. R. Lincoln, J. Olson, & M. Hanada reach concerning the influence of Japanese culture on Japanese firms located in the United States (see SA 27:4/K1374) seem inconclusive & unclear. The point made concerning the inadequacies of rationalistic theories of organization can be clarified considerably; models need to be developed concerning the interrelations between the surrounding culture & a wider range of organizational structural features. Organizations are open systems of a special kind which have ways to control the intrusions of a surrounding culture. In Reply to Katz, J. R. Lincoln, J. Olson, & M. Hanada (Indiana University, Bloomington, University of Southern Calif, Los Angeles & institutions of Business Administration & Management, Tokyo Japan) agree that employees are able to 'import' & 'export' cultural values across organizational boundaries but do not find this notion very illuminating. It does not seem that further consideration of the autonomy question would have changed the results. M. Migalski.