ABSTRACT
The development of organization studies can thus be described as an increasing awareness of national cultural influences on organizational features. The empirical relation between organizational cultures and the political culture takes center stage. As outlined with reference to the liberalism communitarianism debate in the introduction, this relation is twofold: From a liberal perspective, the public sphere must be protected from the economic sphere. The construct of openness thus represents the connection between the features and characteristics of karl Popperian liberalism, such as individualism, equality in the sense of non-hierarchical social relations, autonomy and an experimental approach to knowledge. Popper's enemy construct of 'closedness' thus represents the mental connection between the opposites of liberalism, namely collectivism, inequality, lack of autonomy, and an authoritarian approach to knowledge. The Popperian framework provides a very useful anchorpoint for the question of whether for-profit firms may provide community and authority to individuals and thus stabilize or destabilize a liberal polity.
