Transferring of organizational culture across national borders : Case Elekta and Sandvik in India

Abstract: The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of national culture on organizational culture across borders from a cultural dimension approach. In order to find out how the national culture of a company's host-country impacts the organizational culture throughout the company, we examine Swedish companies that have established business in a culturally distant nation, namely India. A multiple case study is used for this research that includes qualitative data gathering from 7 interviewees from the Swedish companies Sandvik AB and Elekta AB. The main criterion of selecting the interviewees was to find people who have first-hand experience from both the Swedish and the Indian working environment. The study shows that national cultural values seem to be an unchangeable, nontransferable property, but that organizational culture practices can be learned, adopted, and thus transferred. The research indicates that personal interaction could be the key element in adopting foreign culture element; in this case, supervisor-subordinate relationship styles and attitudes towards rules. This study contributes to the literature by shedding light on the process, how elements from a company's home-country national culture can be transferred to overseas facilities through company practices and personal interaction. Future studies are recommended to address the topic in different settings and also by using longitudinal quantitative methods.