Cultural effect on the change management

Abstract: AbstractChange is incorporated in our personal and professional lives and there is no argument about that. In today’s era of constant technological and economical evolution, businesses are forced to adapt to the new circumstances by leveraging efficiency, decreasing time of adaptability in order to gain competitive advantage and survive. For this reason, the change management field’s role is considered to be crucial for all organizations in all industries. The change management process obtains multiple components among others, communication, leadership and resistance to be the most significant but at the same time the most challenging and problematic. It is widely recognized that organizational culture does play a substantial role in the overall change management process, however culture is being defined by another attribute too; nationality. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate which cultural factors influence and challenge change management. Furthermore, this research intends to investigate how masculinity versus femininity as a dimension in Hofstede’s cultural framework is reflected in the change management process.In order to address there two research questions, a qualitative multiple case study took place by obtaining data from two international companies operating in Sweden and Greece. The results of this research indicated that national culture has an impact on the change management process throughout multiple dimensions of Hofstede’s cultural framework. Last but not least, masculinity versus femininity appeared throughout all the examined change management processes. Participation and inclusion are concepts substantial for the feminine cultures whereas competition and individual benefits for the masculine ones. All these concepts for each culture should be taken into account in order to reduce change resistance and enhance the leadership efficiency. Overall, companies should take into consideration the national characteristics of the country they operate when forming strategies and applying processes in order to work an efficient and beneficial way for their employees.