societal business systems. To integrate culturalist and institutionalist approaches,
a framework called societal analysis is then proposed in the fourth section. In
the last section, we discuss consequences of this framework within the more
recent discussion of trends such as globalization and European integration.
2 AN ORGANIZATION THEORY FOUNDATION
OF CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON
Although it may sound a bit heretical compared to the organization and
management literature, which is usually obsessed with effectiveness, organi-
zational life is very much governed by factors that have very little to do with
organizational goals, or which may distort organizational goals. They affect orga-
nizational and human resource structures and processes either directly, or via the
modification of organizational goals or other contextual properties. Let us focus
on one set of influences here, which is due to the simple but important fact that
organizations are embedded in larger and wider societal collectivities. They may
even be embedded in more than one collectivity, particularly when they are
multinational companies, notably when these follow a transnational strategy
(see Chapter 2). It is easy to imagine what these factors are: work and leisure
rhythms (national or regional holidays), accounting systems, technical standards
and norms, education and training systems, systems of conducting industrial
relations between employers or management and employees and even organiza-
tional practices themselves are to a large extent shaped by laws, collective agree-
ments, other formalized norms, or strongly rooted habits and preferences.
Two major entries into cross-national differencesWhat is the best way of pinpointing, locating and explaining such influences?
We can tackle the problem in two ways: we can either assume that differences
are located in the psyche of people, in the way they think and in the values
and preferences to which they adhere; or, we can focus on normative or
strongly rooted customs as constructs which are situated above the purely indi-
vidual level. The first option leads to a culturalist approach to researching and
explaining differences in organizations and human resources; they are rooted
in strong values and beliefs – a practice is sustained because people find it
repulsive, unethical or unappealing to do otherwise. The second option leads
to an institutionalist approach; people comply with norms because a wider
formal system of laws, agreements, standards and codes exists. Sometimes
people are coerced, directly or subtly, to follow such standards, sometimes they
are not.
118 International Human Resource Management