Management of a Cross Cultural Workforce : Case Study at Luleå Tekniska Universitet

• Main Authors: Hienz, Nadine, Engelhart, Lukas
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle 2018
• Subjects: Culture; diverse workforce; cultural diversity; Hofstede; Inglehart; McGregor; cultural dimensions; cross cultural management; management; Business Administration; Företagsekonomi; Luleå
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-70577

Nowadays, organizations have to deal more and more with cultural diversity concerning their workforce due to globalization. The challenge for these organizations is to manage the cross cultural workforce in an effective way. Therefore, they have to have skills and the necessary knowledge in order to conduct cross cultural management. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to investigate how a cross cultural workforce could be managed effectively. In order to get insights into what differences exist between employees of different cultures, what kind of problems can arise out of these differences and how these problems can be overcome through cross cultural management, a qualitative research approach in form of a case study was conducted. Hereby, interviews with three managers including two head of departments were conducted. These interviews have used the frame of reference as foundation including well-known theories like Hofstede, Inglehart, the eight value orientations, McGregor and some other theories. The statements of the interviews were evaluated and analyzed in order to find answers to the research questions stated in the thesis. The findings of this study show that the management team at LTU is not necessarily focusing on cross cultural differences as the impact is less negative than expected. However, conflicts that still arise do not really seem to have bad consequences at LTU. Therefore, these conflicts can be fixed relatively easy by applying the most important variables connected to encountering cross cultural challenges in the frame of reference. These are: human skills, good communication, creating unity, respect, empathy, body language as well as harnessing differences. Especially the personal attitude as well as the human skills of managers and employees play an essential role.