»dialogue«

After all: what is the spirit of Panopa?

Mr. Vieth and Dr. Hucht characterize Panopa's corporate culture as quite open in terms of communication. Critique is usually addressed openly and directly at the person concerned. While in other companies it appears to be quite usual to talk bad behind other people's back, Mr. Vieth and Dr. Hucht claim that they never really experienced any sneaky games at Panopa. They say that their company is simply too small and that positions do not change that fast that it would make sense to play power games. At the same time they believe this open atmosphere to originate from the cultural background of the staff of which most grew up in the Ruhrgebiet. Here communication can often be rather rude but that does not imply that anybody should take it personal. Once things are said and discussed, they are over and done with - no hard feelings. And on the other hand things that are left unspoken, are not to be worried about. And while Mr. Vieth and Dr. Hucht claim this atmosphere to be culturally influenced, they believe it to have been transferred to their Polish stations as well.

("Die Kommunikation hier ist sehr offen. Also, es gibt schon so etwas wie eine Unternehmenskultur, was hebt das Unternehmen von anderen ab. Wobei ich jetzt nicht behaupten möchte, andere machen das nicht so, aber hier wird ein sehr direkter Ton gepflegt. Hier wird auch offen Kritik geübt. Es werden Themen angesprochen, die werden auch zu Ende besprochen, und man guckt sich hinterher auch wieder in die Augen. So Dinge, so hinterum, mit Ellenbogen, Linke rein, Mobbing, das ist hier überhaupt nicht angezeigt. Ich sag's mal ganz platt: hier sagt man sich auch mal auf Augenhöhe mal 'Arschloch', aber hinterher gibt man sich wieder die Hand und sagt: 'Komm. War jetzt auch mal gut, dass wir jetzt mal darüber gesprochen haben, das ist vielleicht auch mal ein bißchen gewittert hat, aber jetzt geht's auch vernünftig wieder weiter.' Und das ist auch so die Mentalität, die da vor Ort aufgebaut wurde. Also, ne offene Kommunikation, die Türen hier sind immer auf, man äußert Kritik, man spricht darüber, vielleicht eher mal ein direktes Wort, aber hinterher arbeitet man auch vernünftig wieder zusammen. Das ist schon auch so ne Besonderheit. Wir sagen auch mal hier und da, das ist so Ruhrgebietsmentalität: sehr direkt und sehr gradlinieg." Dr. Hucht, 2nd 15.53 min.)

("Wir sind hier sehr dezentral organisiert. Die einzelnen Standorte sind weitestgehend autark. [...] Wir sind hier eine Zentralverwaltung für das gesamte Unternehmen, wir haben hier vielleicht 50, 60 Mitarbeiter. [...] Wir sind noch in dem Sinne kein Konzern, wo vielleicht auch eher so Spielchen aufkommen, Machtspielchen und Leutet gegeneinander auszuspielen. Dafür ist die Gruppe hier zu klein. Dafür wird hier dann auch im Kollegenkreis zu viel geredet als dass das einer nicht mitbekommen würde, wenn ein anderer versucht, gegen ihn zu intrigieren." Dr. Hucht, 2nd 17.53 min.)

("Das heißt ja nicht, dass es kein Konkurrenzdenken gibt, aber ich sag mal: es wird wenn dann offen ausgetragen und nicht durch Spielchen und versteckte Nickelichkeiten." Dr. Hucht, 2nd 20:22 min.)
("Wenn man jetzt aus einer anderen Region in Deutschland kommt, ... nicht jeder kommt damit klar ... man muss auch kritikfähig sein. Auch als Vorgesetzter sich der Kritik der Mitarbeiter zu stellen, ist ja nicht einfach. Kann man sicherlich auch nicht jeden Tag gleich gut. Sich überhaupt Kritik zu stellen, ich meine, jeder hört lieber Lob als das ein anderer erzählt, was nicht geklappt hat. Das ist auch nicht einfach. Man muss das vorher wissen, worauf man sich einlässt. Also nicht jeder kommt damit klar." Dr. Hucht, 2nd 20.53 min.)

In Poznań Panopa employs about 700 people which are responsible to store materials and parts as well as assemble some of them ready for delivery and distribute them just-in-time and just-in-sequence at Volkswagen. The smooth functioning is guaranteed by regular communication between and within the companies. ("Weil einfach die Verzahnung der ganzen Kette so eng ist, dass die Information ein wesentlicher Bestandteil ist; ansonsten können Sie den Job nicht machen." Vieth, 04.00min) Every morning at 8a.m. Panopa and Volkswagen sit together to review the last 24 hours: where did something go wrong? Were there distributional bottle necks? How can we avoid them next time? In this Volkswagen, Panopa and in this case Mr. Vieth follow the claim that nothing is worse than a mistake happening twice. Thus all operational departments, and Panopa as service provider is taken as just another operational department, sit together and make sure everything is set for the next day. Quite naturally the cooperation between Volkswagen and Panopa offered more possible sources of friction in the beginning than it does nowadays were the daily meetings can be performed within half an hour.

Start-up problems were diminished by the fact that both parties were basically run by German expatriates: the top two levels of management were occupied by Germans. Consequently, German was enforced as first language within the organizational structures. The situation was further eased by the fact that Volkswagen is the biggest employer in the area which facilitates the communication with the municipal authorities and communities. In terms of infrastructure for example the authorities renovated a quite decrepit bridge which was connecting Panopa's warehouse with Volkswagen's factory 6km away.
Dr. Hucht resumes that it was quite helpful for them to work for a well-known client who is conducting projects which are of public interest and widely appreciated. Nevertheless there were no networks Panopa could fall back onto. Their first project manager, interestingly enough a French, looked for a contact person on site who was then responsible for getting all the necessary admissions (water, electricity, ...). Without knowing a single word in Polish it would have been impossible to talk to the authorities and to apply for permits. ("Weil wenn Sie kein Polnisch sprechen, haben Sie keine Chance." Vieth, 09.14min) The only thing that was not run by their contact person was the building of the storehouse. That was done by a German architect who was already living in Poland since 14 years which left Panopa with hardly any work on that topic of admissions. ("Das ganze übrige Geschäft [..] haben wir eigentlich eingekauft." Vieth, 09.30min) Meanwhile several societies and groups came into existence which establish and open up networks to foreign entrepreneurs. This certainly facilitates start up and the possibilities to gain information.

When Panopa first came to Poland they also faced problems with the different legislation. Since it used to very be difficult for foreigner to actually buy a piece of land in Panopa built their first storehouse onto a site which did not belong to themselves. While they were putting up the lease contracts they had to find out that by Polish Law the building belongs to the owner of the site. ("Weil man eben doch die deutschen Zusammenhänge und Gepflogenheiten überträgt auf das andere Land und dann eventuell auch in eine Falle rein rennt, wo man gar nicht mit gerechnet hat." Dr. Hucht, 11.02 min.) Problems in that direction piled up because as a company you were not allowed to build a house before you were not operating in Poland since two years - but which company can actually wait two years. Thus you need somebody who talks with the parties concerned and explains that Panopa is interested in being a reliable partner and a future employer. ("Sie müssen da irgendeinen Sachverständigen haben, der für Sie dort hingeht und klar macht, dass Sie da eine Halle bauen dürfen; [...] dass Sie ein guter Partner sind, die nächsten Jahre in Polen auch für Arbeitsplätze sorgen und so weiter und so fort." Vieth, 11.52 min)

... some time ago:

22.Sep 2006
I'm so sloooooooow.
I'm reading texts about Bla and Blubb. Interesting! Not!
Though I have to admit that maybe the texts are not the problem but me reading them for the second time because I didn't take notes the first time (you know, this problem with lying at the beach: reading is challenging but manageable, while writing notes is just impossible. You know... wind and sand and stuff ;-)
Second methodical problem: I seem to just loooooooove yellow. I underlined the whole damn text...

Anyway the texts were published by Alberto González: "Politics, communication, and culture" (Sage Publications London New Delhi, 1997):
The first Bla and Blubb text was about speeches of political leaders. I could have liked it if Mr. Heisey had not just given an overview over all political speeches ever held - at least that is would it looked like to me. I would have much preferred an in-depth analysis of one or two speeches on the same subject. He started off nice taking up speeches on how different leaders legitimated having to go to war but he only gave a very rough overview. I mean for me legitimating war is a little off topic anyway (really don't aim on sending my poor expats to war :-) but it at least gave me the idea to take presentations of CEOs or self-image-brochures to analyse the differences in the different countries.

The second Bla and Blubb text was about methods of research. The authors, K.L.Dace and M.L.McPhail, introduce dialogue as a means of research for scholars. They believe the scholars to become better aware of their own position toward their subject since dialogue openly reveals subjectivity while usual inquiries pretend to be objective.
As I'm not much into methods (see paragraph 1 :-), I just took the idea of dialogue. They compare dialogue and discussion with the later aiming at convincing the other party of your point of view while a dialogue allows several opions to all be equally true (p.39ff.). They quote Tanno (1994) who describes subjectivity as "simultaneity of existence". I like them to put special emphasis on the need to actually accept any point of view, wether one likes it or not (p.still needs to be looked up).
My quote of the day consequently follows that idea. I agree that it is a bit cheesy but having met some people who always do their best in avoiding any kind of confrontation I just had to fall in love with this quote:
[...] although we do not have to accept our racial identies as limiting, we need to address the many ways in which race is a limiting and problematic category that must be transcended if we are to move beyond the barriers we've created. [...] As we begin to think about issues of cultural difference and ethnic difference, it's important that we come in ready to address conflictual issues but also be willing to articulate consensual issues. [...] There needs to be a balance between dialectic and dialogue. (p.36ff.)

07.Sep 2006
This is my fourth and ultimatively last day trying to approach my thesis on bureaucratical ways. The sun is shining like crazy, my pants are more suitable for winterweather and having to walk everywhere I have to discover how big Weimar actually is. Yes! It's huge!
At night I'm happy to fall into my car. I made it. Not really the appropriate way (there are still bits and pieces missing) but that'll all work out. I'm in peace with the world.