Page 372 - Cultures and Organizations

Pyramids, Machines, Markets, and Families: Organizing Across Nations 337

in ritualized behavior: the receiver of feedback felt that he must have
insulted the sender in some way. Japanese participants in such programs
concentrated on tasks rather than interpersonal process issues. Most Ger-
mans too did not appreciate talking about process issues, because this was
seen as a wasteful deviation from the task. 62
A parallel trend was organization development, in which managers and
others tried to learn and resolve actual common problems at the same time.
It sometimes also included intensive interpersonal process analysis.
In Latin countries, trainers—themselves Latin—gave a wide
range of reasons for the organization development program’s cultural
incompatibility:

■ We Latins (high PDI) lack the equality ethos needed for such
programs.
■ We Latins don’t believe in self-development.
■ We Latins tend to interpret interpersonal feedback competitively,
unless it comes from a person seen as superior.
■ The organization development process creates insecurity, which we
Latins cannot tolerate.
■ Our Latin languages and discussion styles are more suitable for
abstract discussions than for actual problem solving.
■ Our Latin organizations are not changed by development but by crisis
and revolution. 63

Conclusion: Nationality Defi nes
Organizational Rationality

In 1980 Geert published an article in the U.S. journal Organizational
Dynamics entitled “Motivation, Leadership, and Organization: Do Ameri-

can Theories Apply Abroad?” It had a stormy history; after the untimely
demise of the editor who had invited and accepted it, it was at fi rst refused
and then published hesitatingly by his successor. He asked a U.S. and an
Australian colleague to write assuaging comments, which were published
64
in a later volume, along with Geert’s reply. The article raised an upheaval
far beyond what he had expected. Many reprints were ordered, especially
from Canada.
The idea that the validity of a theory is constrained by nationality was
more obvious in Europe, with all its borders, than in a huge borderless