The Nordic Management Style in a European Context

The increased internationalization and interdependence of international markets, especially for the Nordic countries, suggest that we need a better understanding of management in different countries. We need to know more about the similarities and differences among management behaviors in the development of business-level strategies (Hou and McKinley, 1992). Currently, the general opinion seems to be that dissimilarities in management behaviors among countries will persist although they may diminish to some extent (Calori and de Woot, 1994; Laurent, 1983; Lincoln, Hanada, and Olson, 1981). Hofstede (1983) forecast that management styles will never fully converge and argued that nationality influences management for three reasons: (1) nations arc historically looted political units with their own institutions and legal, educational, and labor market systems; (2) informal organizations are usually culturally based; and (3) psychological factors and our ways of thinking are partly influenced by national cultural factors formed by early family relations and educational systems, which differ from country to country. Countries tend to cluster by culture (Ronen and Shenkar, 1985). Values, beliefs, norms, and ideals are embedded in a country's culture and affect the leadership behavior, goals, and strategies of organizations (Dill, 1958; Haire, Ghiselli, and Porter, 1966; Negandhi and Reimann, 1972; Ronen, 1986). Altogether, a strong case can be made for the importance of national culture in the management of corporations. What assumption, then, may be made regarding the impact of culture in Nordic countries? Earlier studies based on factors such as geography, history, language, religion, and technological development indicated that Denmark, Finland, and Norway belonged to the Nordic group (Calori, 1994; Ronen and Shenkar, 1985), but Sweden has been classified in several groups. There are many explanations of the relative homogeneity of the Nordic countries. Thygesen Poulsen (1988) stressed a Nordic human view of cooperation among individuals. Olsen (1986)