Creating Cultural Changein a Swedish HungarianJoint Venture
The joint venture(JV) Larsson Technika between Swedish multinational Larsson and Hungarian company Nagy Technika signed in 1990 was the culmination of a long, historical involvement in Hungary. ... There were 22 Swedish managers and technical staff in 1993 in Hungary but the intention was to transfer technical and managing expertise to Hungarian managers in order the Swedish expatriates would eventually withdraw. ... Swedish managers were trying not to impose anything on their Hungarian partners and for example personnel policies were very flexible and could be modified to match the needs of the Hungarian workforce. ... Another possibility would be to send them for a certain period of time to Sweden to show them how things are run there and how work their Swedish counterparts. ... Generally employees were satisfied with the company and had strong feeling that it cared about them(health examinations, excursions, social, human and cultural care), there was family friendly atmosphere and friendly contact with both senior and mid-level managers. ... There was a lot of positive factors in “Swedish way” such as making people responsible, sharing information going accross organisation chart, but for the personal and human side there is a strong need to adapt it to the local culture, because even the best factors imposed on people in the wrong way against their will won’t bring good results. Some Swedish managers despite their international experience seem not to have enough cultural sensitivity. ... Swedish managers on their part complain that Hungarians are not very international and don’t know how to behave well abroad. ... And probably they put much more work to be the kind of people they are than their Swedish counterparts taking into account much more difficult economic and social situation in their country. I think that Swedish managers should recognise it, especially because of the fact that Larsson has been present on the Hungarian market for a very long time, so the company’s managers Have been able to notice all difficulties, changes and opportunities in Hungarian reality. I think that because Swedish managers lack cultural sensitivity they need to know more about about last 20 or 30 years of Hungarian history and how it might have affected culture and people attitude to work- to be able to understand better their partners behaviour. ... The worst thing the Swedish expatriates could do was to show HCNs that they feel superior. The Hungarians are very proud and have strong sense of dignity so such a behaviour can destroy relations and make communication between Hungarians and Swedish impossible for the long period of time. ... Even at the senior managers levels, managers indicated that they didn’t know about intended strategy or policies for the venture. ... It would enhance colaboration and sharing information within teams but there is a danger of creating competition between different teams which the company would certainly like to avoid. I would start with creating a sport teams and organising meetings in the evenings, and if it didn’t work I would look for solution in company structure (creating teams for example). ... From my point of view they should be evaluated both by Swedish bosses and by their Hungarian partners. While evaluating by Swedish there should be taken into account their some specific criteria apart from achieving individual goals: how do they cope with communication with Hungarian employees, with decision making process, managing intercultural teams but also their cultural sensitivity and understanding, whether they know how to transfer “Swedish way” values to the Hungarian employees, and how to make them accept it. ... Senior expats would receive feedback from their Hungarian subordinates and other senior Hungarian managers in terms of their managerial but also cultural skills. ... Mid-level Swedish managers would be evaluated by their Hungarian boss, other managers and subordinates. It seems to be impossible to evaluate young mid-level Swedish manager who’s working in Hungary from Sweden without even asking his direct Swedish boss in Hungary about his performance. ... To sum up I would involve more people in appraisal of expats to be able to evaluate not only their financial results but also cultural and communication skills. ... ) where they would improve not only technical skills but also they could learn “Swedish/Larsson way” and than after coming back they could implement it at Larsson Technika. ... Classes in Swedish should be also available: altough everybody in a company was able to speak English it could be symbolic gesture towards Swedish culture and making people understand better each other. ... But I think that after all Larsson Technika turned out to be really succesful joint venture and as it was wriiten in the case “had more than met initial expectations”.