Societal Differences in Organizing Manufacturing Units: A Comparison of France, West Germany, and Great Britain

Abstract

The literature has largely tended to consider organizations as distinct from societal processes and institutions, and to emphasize convergent and 'culture-free' elements of organization. By cross-national comparisons of closely matched factories in France, West Germany, and Great Britain, this paper shows that more pervasive differences exist than are usually recognized. Organizational processes of differentiation and inte gration can be seen to consistently interact with processes of educating, training, recruiting, and promoting manpower, so that both develop within an institutional logic that is particular to a society, and bring about nationally different shapes of organiza tion. Organizational differences can thus be considered as linked to different extents and dimensions of professionalty. Comparisons show that a multidimensional concept of professionality is called for, in contrast to the one-sided emphasis on the social status and formal knowledge dimension usually found in the literature.