Organization Theory and Societal Culture

The issue of culture brings us to one of the hot topics in organization studies: do the cultural dynamics adequately explain organization theories (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013)? This study discusses three organization theories in three societal cultures based on the assumption that some organization theories work better in certain cultural contexts than others. The chosen theories are environmental contingency theory, institutional theory and stakeholder theory; along with those are the three culture clusters of Confucian Asia, Anglo and Nordic Europe. Issues of each theory are identified and studied in the respective culture contexts through the lens of the culture dimensions reported by the GLOBE culture study (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorman, & Gupta, 2004). It is understood that though each individual issue of the theories can find its best place among the three culture clusters, in general, environmental contingency theory and institutional theory are able to find their inroads in Confucian Asia, while the stakeholder theory works best in Anglo and Nordic Europe cultures.