If individuals aren't rational on their own why would they magically become so when lumped together in a corporation?
Of course the correct answer is that neither are particularly rational, unless the word is being contorted into a fascinating variety of different shapes in order to fit the example to hand. It's not as though we can objectively define the rational anyway, so why even bother?
Personally I think it's a mistake to argue (from a left-wing point of view) that there is something especially rational about large companies; not all employers are asset strippers (for example) and it damages whatever arguments can be made against such behavior if you assert that it is rational, and thus normal and to be expected. Then there's the whole area of mismanagement; you can hardly level that allegation if you have also claimed that companies are inherently rational!
Yup, that's more or less what I'm thinking.
As an economist one would argue that on the micro-level people aren't necessarily rational. But in the long run, due to market forces and learning, the predictions made by theories assuming rationality will tend to be roughly correct.
The obvious example is that companies that are too incompetent will eventually go bankrupt.
