Different management styles across cultures

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Depending on the country, we find different models of management, highly determined by the cultural features of the nation. These different models determine and affect many issues from the company, as the decisions making, internal communication, or the organization structure, for example.

The difference of culture can be observed by many elements, some less important than others, like humour, the way of dressing, our manners and those most important, as our behaviour or language, which is considered to be the most highlighted frontier when making business, although nowadays English is highly predominant around the world in business worlds as well in normal life. Management styles that we describe below may change over time because as we have described they are affected by different variables.

When talking about communication, the intercultural communication can determine the success or the failing of decisions from inside the company as well as negotiations with external agents. But, what’s culture? A way to define this “culture” maybe is the differences of background, experiences as well as knowledge. The most frequent case of difference of culture is found among people of different countries or regions; although we can also find some similarities among European western countries or Asian countries, for example.

Organization structure also differs depending on the culture. We can find three big different structures which are the most predominant, although it should be noted the existence of intermediate types of organizations situated between these.

Laissez-faire (who comes from French and means “let them do”) is an ideal structure for companies with workers who have the enough skills, ability and are capable to work by their own, rather than together, which is the main difference with democratic style. This autonomy helps workers to feel more confident and satisfied about their work. Anyway, this type of organization is quite risky because the lack of control can lead to situations where deadlines are not accomplished and projects can fail if workers don’t have the guidance of the more ranged workers. An example of this type of organization would be some companies from USA. As the professional career is a very important aspect for workers, many companies try to adapt their organizations in order to maximize their workers’ potential and consequently, company’s potential. An important example of this type would be Google Inc. (a concrete example, not a general one).  Anyway, we can also find democratic structures in many north-American companies.

In a democratic management style, the manager allows workers to take part in the decision making although the final decision is taken by the top managers. This is useful when decisions are about different topics, as financial, technological and economical, which requires the opinion of different skilled people in order to reach the best in the three aspects for the company. In this organization, members feel they are heard which results in having the workers more motivated and creative. In US both managers and employees tried to set a communication relationship and allow them to take part in decision-making. This structure is very common in the north of Europe. German companies try to establish a chain of command and information is passed down from the top, although for some core issues they do try to achieve a consensus. Norway case is very similar to German one, where bosses situate at the centre of the things but opinion of middle staff are welcomed while the final decision is taken by the top staff. Also in Netherlands we find democratic organizations where the decision-making includes a process of consult, debate and discuss to convince the people involved, as their aim is to achieve a consensus in each decision they take. Finish and Swedes are also another example, while the manager has the total control of the company and the last word, but it’s common to see them working with middle staff and taking decisions together.

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