Tutorial 3b - A Finnish-Italian Collaborationmar PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Tutorial 3b - A Finnish-Italian Collaborationmar PDF

Description

A Finnish - Italian Collaboration I was working for a clothing company in Finland which did business with an Italian company and imported clothes from Italy. There were several problems in communication and intercultural understanding. The Intercultural management problem: The Finnish Company ordered clothes from Italy with specific deadlines for delivery, strict packaging instructions, and a firm agreement that clothes would be delivered on time. Our Finnish manager told to two of our employees to make sure that the orders are done and delivered. The employees contacted the company in Italy and made an order and agreed on the deadlines, due dates of the payments and delivery dates. Everything was carefully organized. However, when the delivery date came, no goods arrived. We called the company in Italy and they casually told us they had not even sent the clothes yet! They just said they were still waiting for their supplier to deliver some clothes to them. The Italians seemed calm and just told us not to worry; the clothes will be delivered soon. We were very frustrated by the Italians' response. We panicked because we had promised the clothes to our customers. We asked the Italians exactly when we would get our order. They said "soon, don't worry it will be soon." but they would not give an exact date. Our manager in Finland blamed the two employees for not doing their task well, he then contacted the CEO in Italy. When the manager talked to the CEO in Italy he said “Yes the goods are being delivered, we had a vacation week last week and nothing is happening in Italy that week” “No stress the goods will be delivered” Our Finnish manager was full of anger for the people in Italy thinking that they have no idea of how to do Business and stick to the deadlines. They don't respect us and don't honor their agreements. This kind of thing kept happening with the Italians: phone meetings were frustrating because the Italians always ran 20 or 30 minutes late. Our Finnish managers would sit by the phone getting more and more angry waiting for the Italians to place the call. When we did connect our managers wanted to go straight to business and talk about the orders when the Italians wanted to chat about their lives or family or a great wine they just discovered! When our managers went to Italy to meet with the Italian managers, the Italians always wanted to have a long dinner (with a lot of wine) first before talking business. Our Finnish managers thought this was just 'wasting time' and 'not necessary'. The Italians asked us about our wives, children, holidays, favorite food etc. Our managers felt uncomfortable and thought this was too personal to discuss with almost strangers. My manager once said "Finnish people think before they speak; Italians just say whatever comes into their head." I remember once my manager explained to us employees how rude the Italians were because they came physically very close in the meetings and didn’t stick to the point, and the Italians laughed very loudly and waved their arms around while talking. In Finland everybody was looking at them in the restaurant. My manager told me he was very embarrassed. This kind of situation kept on going because the Finnish managers didn’t want to change how they do business or mention the topic to the Italians. Meanwhile, the Italians didn’t even know that something was wrong. Q1. Which country is "High" context; which country is "Low" context…and what is the evidence? Q2. How could the Finnish people compromise…..how could the Italians compromise to improve the relationship? Q3. What might the Italians be thinking about their Finnish colleagues?

Q4. In what ways is Finland or Italy similar to how business is done in Kazakhstan?...