Abstract
The thesis is a study of the effect of socio-cultural factors upon business organisations. The study attempts to test a wide range of hypotheses about the differences between British and American manufacturing organisations by comparing a sample of British businesses with some comparable American firms operating in the United Kingdom, The study begins by examining the validity of the dominating analytical framework of industrialism that has frequently been used to investigate the effects of cultural variables upon business behaviour. The analysis points to the logical and empirical weaknesses in the industrialism thesis, and attempts to show how industrialism has almost always been confused with capitalism. The advantages of viewing both societies and both groups of firms from the perspective of the capitalist mode of production is emphasised. The use of culture as an explanatory variable in economic analysis is analysed along with a range of conceptual problems in such analyses. The third chapter attempts to trace the growth of the capitalist economic order in the context of the pre-existing socio-cultural structure in both societies. It is from this section that the majority of the study's hypotheses are drawn, although further hypotheses are taken from a study of American executives working in Britain which is also reported. The major findings are reported in three chapters: The first of these concentrates upon the organisational structures and processes of the firms studied; the second examines some aspects of the characteristics and behaviour of the managers employed; the last presents some data on the organisational climates of the two groups of firms. In the final chapter the findings of the whole study are discussed in terms of their effect upon economic performance, both at the level of the society and the individual firm.