DRAWING ON A LONGITUDINAL comparative analysis of three Hungarian-Western European partnerships, it is argued that insight into the different assumptions foreigners o~en bring to their cooperative arrangements can be gained by framing such contacts as clashes in systems of legitimacy. Focusing on which partners' actions are viewed as desirable or appropriate in their respective social settings helps to illuminate the role of social support in maintaining behavior, as well as the ways assumptions are sustained and changed. These ideas are illustrated by differences between the Hungarian managers and their Western European partners in their approaches to managing authorities, and by an analysis of how Hungarian managers and government officials have maintained their familiar modes of operating despite the change from communism to capitalism.

Executives from capitalist countries are rushing to form joint ventures with enterprises in the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Yet, what do these executives really know about the management practices and working relationships in these enterprises? While numerous newsletters and professional news weeklies can provide detailed analyses of the political and legal environment for business, they provide only partial, but vivid, anecdotes about what happens inside these enterprises. Into this analytic vacuum have come untested assumptions, such as 'Employees do not work hard because they have no financial incentive'.