Multinational Enterprises and the Influence of Culture

Key Findings

Structural:

‘Packaging’ doesn’t fit into a global area design, PR’s intended design. That’s because of two reasons: 1. Packaging itself serves customers in different markets. 2. Packaging’s business is substantial compared to the other subsidiaries. A geocentric philosophy has to be employed, since two (or more) ethnocentric philosophies can hardly coexist.

Cultural:

Swedish and German society differ most notably with respect to desire for regulations and masculinity. It’s important to create a culture where neither employees feel imitated, nor rules hinder creativity. This is why it is important to find a hybrid culture that emphasizes commonalities and creates a feeling of team spirit. A healthy corporate culture that is based on shared value is the key for a successful MNE.

Leadership:

Leaders should possess high cultural intelligence to manage teams with different cultural backgrounds. Furthermore the leadership approach in the subsidiaries should be tailored to the local preferences.

Human Resource Management:

Low turnover is the superordinate goal in a knowledge intensive industry. Thus, managers should try to keep employee satisfaction high.

Knowledge Management

PR has to implement an infrastructure that enables a routinized and free flow of knowledge, if it wants to profit from Packaging’s knowledge. Additionally, PR should encourage regular (informal) cross-divisional meetings to facilitate creation of new ideas and knowledge. The main challenge that needs to be overcome here is to create incentives for the subsidiaries to share the knowledge.

Plan:

• Set-up boundary-spanners to create commonly accepted plan

• Create differentiated centers of excellence to exploit opportunities and mitigate sub-optimality; bundle teams according to local strengths

• Create an IT-Infrastructure to enable information and knowledge flow

• Encourage cross-division and cross-cultural cooperation

Table of Contents

1. Introduction and problem description:        

2. Analysis part        

2.1. Organizational Structural        

2.1.1 Innov’s organizational structure        

2.1.2. PackageRight        

2.1.3 Synchronization and Issues        

2.2. Organizational and national culture        

2.2.1 National Cultures:        

2.2.2 Organizational Culture        

2.2.6 PackageRight’s Organizational Culture        

2.2.3 Synchronization and Issues        

2.3 Leadership and Decision making        

2.3.1 Leadership in Sweden vs Leadership in Germany        

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