THE SUBSTITUTABILITY OF STRATEGIC CONTROL CHOICES - AN EMPIRICAL-STUDY

In one stream of literature, organizational control has been observed to have two types ‐ bureaucratic and cultural ‐ and to be related to strategic adaptation. In another stream of literature, societal culture has been discussed as influencing the choice of organizational control types. This empirical study combines these two streams of literature. Drawing on Child (1981) we argue that the choice of organizational control types is a cultural choice. Within this context, the substitutability of one organizational control type for the other is examined using data from two culturally distinct sets of organizations ‐ Japanese and American. The results of canonical correlation analysis suggest that the substitutability hypothesis is supported in only a very limited sense and that the relationship between the two control types may be better viewed as balanced. Implications of these results for strategic managers are discussed. Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved