Research Note: Run Silent, Run Deep — Cultural Influences on Organizations in the Far East

Abstract

There is a continuing debate regarding the extent to which organizations are culture-free or culture bound. A recent article suggests that while cultural factors are important in the growth of organizations, they are less important in terms of structural characteristics. This same article also suggests that Japanese and Chinese organizations share the same basic Confucian culture. We argue here that the Chinese and Japanese cultural traditions have major differences and that these play out in terms of important differences in organizational structure and operations.