Why invisible boundaries matter: imagined institutions and power

Tim Ray

doi:10.1080/08109028.2018.1522131

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper develops an alternative to Erin Meyer’s influential argument that national culture determines how people in a nation behave, thereby creating invisible boundaries that divide nations according to behavioural stereotypes. Whereas Meyer makes the implicit assumption that we could observe national culture and its effect on behaviour as if from a God’s Eye point of view, we might do better to begin with an Insider’s Eye perspective on whom we could trust to do what. If we take too much for granted, we may miss invisible boundaries that matter; which might have happened when the English executive, Michael Woodford, became president and CEO of Japan’s Olympus Corporation, only to find himself fearing for his life after exposing fraud that his Japanese colleagues thought wise to hide. Woodford’s startling story is used here to consider three conceptual questions. First, how might power mediated by what people imagine influence the evolution of institutional ecologies, together with invisible boundaries that divide insiders from outsiders? Second, why should management theorists move from an objective God’s Eye perspective to Insider’s Eye reflections on power mediated by imagined institutions? And third, if we want to avoid falling foul of invisible boundaries, what should we do?

Highlights

Erin Meyer’s book The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business (Meyer, 2014a; see Meyer, 2014b, 2015) asserts that national culture is the independent variable on which eight aspects of behaviour exhibited by people in a nation depend
The child may speak to the driver, who might respond with a lifesaving decision that is implemented before anyone has conscious experience of what is happening
If other people’s behaviour deviates from what we imagine should be done, we may infer that an invisible boundary divides us from them – as Michael Woodford came to realise when he moved from England to Japan

Summary

Introduction

Erin Meyer’s book The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business (Meyer, 2014a; see Meyer, 2014b, 2015) asserts that national culture is the independent variable on which eight aspects of behaviour exhibited by people in a nation depend. Viewed from an Insider’s Eye perspective, people who uphold our values may regard ‘hitting the brakes’ as an example of power mediated by an imagined institution: the driver did what should be done.

Results

Conclusion