In the course of the current transition to a market economy, Polish state-owned enterprises are expected to change their functioning very quickly in order to 'adapt' to the new rules of the game. Nevertheless, adaptation to market principles is hampered by old cultural mind frames, which the actors adopted to cope with communist governance. The reasons behind this cultural 'lag' are examined in this paper. It aims to develop a model of the culture of organizing enacted in big consolidated state-owned enterprises, to show how the old cultural patterns emerged. Currently, their existence hinders change. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)