ABSTRACT
This paper examines the salary and bonus systems of a Japanese company operating in the USA and the interactions of Japanese and American co-workers. The data are based upon my 13 months’ participant observation and interviews from 1988 to 1989 in a suburb of New York City.
In analysing Japanese corporations operating in the Western world, some analysts propose a ‘duality’ in organization: the Japanese and the host cultures exist side by side in conflict within an organization, without either side yielding to the other. I suggest, however, that the cross-cultural interaction significantly influences each group, and thereby modifies the original management model. This modified aspect of management practices can be seen as a ‘third culture’. While the idea of a ‘third culture’ comes from Anthony King, my major theoretical approach is based upon Anthony Giddens's theory of ‘structuration’. Although Giddens assumed a monoculture setting, I have applied his theory to a bicultural society.
