Cultural differences - Hinder or Opportunities : A study of Swedish subsidiaries in Turkey

Abstract: During 2001 experienced Turkey a deep financial crisis with high inflations, large public dept and a growing currency account deficits that caused a loss of confidence among investors. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Turkish government together established a stand-by-arrangement which gave remarkable results. The recover of Turkey’s economy has been a success story with an average growth of 10 percent that has attracted Foreign Direct Investments facilitated by the investors’ recognition of the country’s valuable opportunities. This has also attracted Swedish companies and today it is over 400 Swedish companies represented in Turkey. Hofstede (1997) study shows that there are significant cultural differences between Swedes and Turks which will imply that the expanding Swedish companies will face problems that hinder their effectiveness due to these differences. The aim of this study is therefore to identify the common cultural differences in order to facilitate the cultural interaction in the workplace. This thesis applies Hofstede (1997) study of nationalities as a foundation to identify the cultural differences. The authors have also used qualitative methods and ethnographic science to be able to interpreted and analyse the findings. The information was gathered from the managers of Volvo Cars, Tetra Pak and IKEA and was also complemented by a questionnaire to the Swedish and Turkish employees. The findings shown important cultural differences that is essential to consider in man-agement in order to increase the effectiveness in the workplace. The analysis show that Turks want to be provided clear directives rather than guidelines, while Swedes want a consultative manager, take more responsibility and solve their task independently. Turks are also very emotional integrated with their tasks and thereby take criticism more per-sonally. Swedes, on the other hand, handle the criticism more professionally due to their emotional distance to their work. The findings also shown that there are differences in risk taking where Swedes are willing to take risk at a greater extent than the Turks. The nationalities moreover belong to different time cultures which require the managers to be tolerant to delays. However, there are also similarities as both Turks and Swedes value team-work as a prior motivator. The conclusion state that it exist common cultural differences but that are not considered as troublesome in the studied companies due to the expatriates cultural experience and intercultural skills. ii