UC Irvine

Organizational behavior has developed into a particularly non-contextual ap­plied social science. It is clear to any observer that organizational behaviors tend to differ across societies, yet discussions of these differences typically document variations in organizational practices and cultures, which are descriptive without being explanatory. These accounts do not address why organizational practices and behavior differ in different societal contexts and so cannot be used to, among other things, predict change. Here ideas drawn from comparative institutions theories are applied in an effort to better understand organizational behavior in the organizations of relatively more traditional societies, and the circumstances under which organizations are likely to adopt comparatively more modern practices.