No matter where you are recognition is always useful : A qualitative study about cross cultural management between Indian and Swedish female managers and their experiences in a new culture

Abstract: Managers have an important role to companies’ globalization process and success. Leading organizations across national borders is a huge challenge due to different cultures requires different leadership styles. Culture is the most underrated external factor affecting the leadership. A great cultural distance between two countries, such as India and Sweden, can result in greater differences in organizational attributes. The purpose of this paper is to understand from female managers’ perspective how Indian and Swedish cultural aspects affect their leadership style towards their subordinates. To fulfill the purpose the authors have chosen to use and deductive approach in order to do a qualitative study. The authors interviewed eight Swedish female managers in India and two Indian female managers in Sweden. The theoretical framework is structured upon main themes including; leadership, cross-cultural management, culture, cross-cultural between India and Sweden and previous research. The theory chapter is followed with the empirical data and an analysis chapter where the authors analyzed the results based on the theories and previous research. In conclusion, there are common differences and challenges between Indian and Swedish managers. The managers received respect because of their title. Furthermore, the authors can conclude that Indians are more flexible with the time, while Swedes are the opposite, everything has to be planned. All the managers highlighted the importance of giving feedback to subordinates to improve the performance. Finally, preparation and collecting information about the host country's culture can never be too much.