»organizational culture«

After thousand of sketches and numerous files (which were mostly white and thus were deleted).... here the state of the art.

First the image I had gotten stuck with the whole d*** day.



I didn't like the colors and it's just too crappily handmade and whatever. Didn't like it at all.
Now I tried to fix it a bit. It's far from being finished, the colors are by no means fixed (even though I see myself to go for neutral), I'm not patient enough to draw filigran lines in the moment, the typo (what's my problem with type?), don't need to have a line-block-bla-background andandand.... If you don't see much of a difference between the sketches... don't tell me. It was a huge step :-) It's a sketch to finish the day, drink a beer with Rosa and get back to it tomorrow and fill it with life.


(click to enlarge)

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.)

I had two nice interviews this week.
I'll throw you right into the second one. The text is quite long but I think it's worth reading ;-) And it was a long interview: 1.5 hours. (I add some German quotes I scribbled along since I was not allowed to record the interview. Hope they don't bother the English readers too much but I might want to use them.)

For my second interview I met a guy from the human resource management of a German constructing company. Thus he is one of the big important guys - scary. Lucky me that I did not know that before. Among other things he is responsible for the 380 expatriates his company is sending on mission abroad. He did not tell me so much about Poland in specific but drew a very interesting picture on the expatriate business.

His company first went to Poland in 1990, thus veryvery early. Mostly when they move onto new markets they follow their clients. Let's say they have done constructing for e.g. Volkswagen in Germany. Then Volkswagen decides to put up a factory in Poland - my interview partner's constructing company will for sure accompany them. In Poland they were first cooperating with a Polish company to master a huge construction project. But their expansion plans based on former clients. He said the Eastern European market to be especially interesting because the population is keen on consuming, on investing their money.

While the Polish part of his company is an independently running association, expatriates are send for several reasons:

• they are experts in their field of the construction process.
• for means of human resource development. The mission abroad is often taken as a step up in the business's hierarchy. ("Wenn der demnächst ne ganze Truppe leiten soll, soll der vorher auch mal sehen, wie der Laden im Ausland läuft.")
• they act as guarding dogs in all areas (which my interview partner described as organs, the vital parts of an organization: "Organe der Gesellschaft") but especially when it comes to financing; in this function the expat is responsible to do or see through the processes of planning, calculating, thus watch that everything is running smoothly and that the right numbers are reported, since everything will flow into the overall big balance.
• Every now and then expatriates are also installed in the Board of Executives, sometimes as guarding dogs and sometimes to profit from their experience when it comes to installing a whole new division for example.

They try to run a regular cycle with their expatriates ranging from two till four years. Every now and then they might send somebody on a half-year mission but that only happens in special cases where experts are needed. They normally do not stay longer to prevent fraternization.

Their biggest problem is actually to find enough people who are willing to go on an expatriate mission. ("Es ist nicht viel Auswahl. Wir freuen uns, wenn wir für eine Position drei Kandidaten haben, meistens sind es nur zwei.") They try to meet this problem already in their hiring practice where they especially look for people with international experience or for people with a multi-ethnic background. ("Wir suchen nach Menschen mit zwei Seelen in der Brust; Menschen mit zwei, drei Mentalitäten.") Thus they normal advertise their jobs already in English since on 80% of the construction sites English is the main language. They look for people who are mobile, adroit, open-minded and who already studied or worked in foreign countries. They have to show a certain ambitiousness and joy at other people and other cultures; they have to show a gipsy-mentality.

At the same time they try to work on the Polish side by means of ongoing training. This has several advantages. In the long-term they hope to reduce the need for expatriates. For the moment further training is simply necessary to work with qualified staff and then to draw employees close to the company. My interview partner described Poland as one of the hot markets where it is relatively easy to make a career if you are keen on that. ("Osteuropa - das sind heiße Märkte, da bewegt sich unheimlich viel.") Nobody has the patience to run through a solid three-year apprenticeship while you can make the big bucks so much faster.
In general companies are faced with a much higher fluctuation than in Germany. Qualified staff is rare and competitors are willing to pay higher salaries if they do not have to invest into education. But there is a natural limit to paying employees for staying. My interview partner's company tries to bind people by offering them a future, by cultivating personal relations, and by giving them the outlook to work for a successful, well-positioned company, thus employ their reputation. A profound job marketing and close connections to the universities leads to 30.000-40.000 job applications annually. ("Jung finden und selbst backen." - Find young and bake yourself.) Nevertheless, this procedure implies that only in 10-15 years you will have the staff that you are looking for.

Thus: back to expatriates.
(I split the summary so you'll have to check out the next article linked aboved.)

Geert Hofstede: Cultural Constraints in Management Theories

[p.18]
"Verité en-deça des Pyrenées, erreur au-delà" - There are truths on this side of the Pyrenées which are falsehoods on the other [quoting Blaise Pascal].

Hofstede's point is clear: "there are no such things as universal management theories",all theories are always bound to the cultural environment of the theorist. He proves his thesis by introducing management practices as conducted in different countries and by integrating them into a historical context.

Hofstede starts off by clarifying the etymological background of the words to manage, manager and management. The eldest record is to be found in Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's lost" from 1588: "Adieu, valour! rust, papier! be still, drum! for your manager is in love; yea, he loveth." The stem is based on the latin "manus" for hand and the italian "maneggiare" for training the horses in the manege. Later this idea was transferred to skillful handling in general. Hofstede makes also a connection to the french "menage" as in running the household.
Scott Adam Smith (1776) uses the group of words to describe the process (=management) as well as the people (=manager) involved in operating joint stock companies.
In the American sense - and at this point Hofstede already emphasizes the cultural constraints of definitions - management is understood as a class of people. "This class
(1) does not own a business but sells its skills to act on behalf of the owners and
(2) does not produce personally but is indispensable for making others produce, through motivation."

In contrast to the American idea of management he gives an overview over several countries:

• Germany
• France
• Japan
• The Netherlands
• The United States
• The Overseas Chinese

Hofstede also gives an overview over Russia and China. I will leave this out since he relies his assumptions only on literature.

[p.22]
Hofstede summarizes his findings that "Local management is part of this [= the cultural] infrastructure; it cannot be imported in package form. Assuming that with so-called modern management techniques and theories outsiders can develop a country has proven a deplorable arrogance. At best, one can hope for a dialogue between equals with the locals, in which the Western partner acts as the expert in Western technology and the local partner as the expert in local culture, habits, and feelings."

[p.23]
Establishing a theory of culture in management Hofstede concludes that management has a different meaning in all cultures. To understand the idea of particular management, its processes and problems one needs "considerable historical and cultural insight into local conditions. [...] Management cannot be isolated from other processes taking place in society." Management reflects and integrates the cultural specific ideas of family, politics, religion, science, ... To reveal cultural differences Hofstede conducted several dimensions characterizing cultures:
[p.24]

• power distance: in how far do people feel to be equal
• individualism - collectivism
• masculinity - feminism: the first assembling values such as assertiveness, performance, success, competition, while the latter refers to values such as warm personal relationships, service, and solidarity)
• uncertainty avoidance: are clear rules needed, are new things anticipated openly or rejected
• long-term - short-term orientation

While I had read another paper about these dimension already before starting my thesis, I leave Hofstede's statistics out at this point. I find the dimensions rather abstract and not helpful for understanding a culture. Much prefer anecdotes and stories. But that, of course, does not match with Hofstede who at this point wants to transfer practice into theory.


in: D.C.Thomas: Readings and Cases in International Management; Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2003.

[p.20]
Hofstede relies on Phillipe d'Iribarne (1989) who compared France, the States and the Netherlands to differentiate three principles of management.

Business in France is based on honor. In a quiet stratified (geschichtet) society everybody is aware of his/her position in the hierarchy. Nevertheless each group carries its own pride.
While it is very rare to cross ranks from non-cadre to cadre, it is only by attending the right school that you become a member of the cadre. This automatically assigns you with privileges of a higher social class and puts you in leadership positions.


Learn more about:

• Germany
• Japan
• The Netherlands
• The United States
• The Overseas Chinese

back to overview

(thanks to my mother here a quick update on history....I know you need it ;-)

The medieval guilds in Germany had basically the function to suppress competition and see to it that their members were sufficiently secure. The leaders of the guilds decided on the number of their members and how many people worked in the master's business ( they decided how many apprentices and how many "Gesellen" - journeymen). Moreover, the quality of the products were controlled by the patricians (= the members of the city council), who were entitled to judge the economic worth of the product. Most of the production was due to orders - so consequently the market did not have the function to provoke competition.

So it makes sense to maintain that due to the control of the quality and - to some amount - the quantity of production organizers ( = managers) were not really needed.

As far as I know conditions were not really different in England; but in Germany the guilds were the decisive form of organization and had the control up to the time when Napoleon's troops occupied the land and reforms were established (about 1810, some earlier, some later; cp: Steinsche Reformen in Prussia).

patricians, patriciate - the latter is the name for this social shift. Just as you were born into the nobility you were born into the patriciate. Nevertheless there was competition among them. They were the merchants that traded with far away regions; so one might speak of international business. In the big international market places the successful merchants used to have their own offices and their own money in the currency of the city (like Venice, Bruges, Cologne, Rome to name just a few.). So it was up to them how to value the products they sold or purchased. Naturally the merchant dealing on such a scale was not able to be present in these different market places but had their representatives - often relatives -, who acted on their behalf and were responsible for their actions.

The fact that the patriciate was something like a closed shop is reflected in the story of the Fuggers in Augsburg. When they were the most successful business in Augsburg and even lent money to the Kaiser they applied for being a member of the Augsburg patriciate. The August city council, which consisted only of members of the patriciate, was not pleased at all and only the influence of the Kaiser opened the door for the Fugger family to the council.

So you may say that among the closes circle of the patriciate competition was possible but the patricians saw to it that they had a common basis which they decided on as members of the political body. As you may remember the guilds rebelled against this economic and social structure and in the course of the 15th century the guild masters got their access to the councils which then had two chambers and only when both chambers agreed on a draft this could become a law.

All this applies only to the free towns which were only under the Kaiser and no other authority.

As the reform bills under von Stein and Hardenberg show it was the king who decided on the liberties of the towns and in the early 19th century many Prussian town were entitled to decide on their economic activities.

[p.123] The authors show how diversity at the workplace is increasing: there are more women, more elderly people and more immigrants, just to name the biggest groups that have rushed into the work environment in the past decades.

[p.124] While the diversity in the workplace is a bit off my topic, the authors point out that "professionals from industrialized countries will increasingly interact with the workers of developing countries because of the globalization of world business. E-commerce, the Internet, telecommunications, mass transportation, and interconnected international economies provide a global context for daily human life." Working processes on all levels will include a fragmentation of designing, producing and distributing that might occur in different countries and with a very diverse workforce. For organizations of all sizes that means to not only have subsidiaries but also to establish "strategic alliances through transnational mergers and acquisitions."
[p.127] Facing intercultural encounters organizations have to consider the ethnocentric viewpoint that drives individuals. Having grown up in a specific cultures, we are bound to the belief that it is our very own culture is providing the 'right' answer to any problem. "When people from different cultures work together, their ethnocentrism will result in misunderstandings and low levels of interpersonal attraction." The behaviors of others might often just not make sense to us, which leads to a feeling of discomfort and of losing control. Even when differences overall are perceived to be small people can "be confronted with major communication problems, as they do not expect each other to have different basic assumptions and they may be even less aware of their own and the others' cultural backgrounds."

The authors state that to overcome intercultural problems certain conditions have to be met to promote understanding and the perception of similarity.

• having common superordinate goals
• having frequent contact
• learning the other language
• knowing the other culture

[p.128] Finding similarities, however, does not necessarily mean to overcome all differences. The authors introduce the concepts of the so-called melting-pot aiming at homogeneity and the salad-bowl. The first expects the members of a culture to overcome their differences in favor of a mainstream-culture in terms of language, norms, work ethic, ... Nevertheless "it can be predicted that people are unlikely to totally assimilate." Brewer (1991) uses the term "optimal distinctiveness" to describe the strive to "balance between the forces toward assimilation [...] and differentiation from groups." The model of a salad-bowl assumes that people can preserve their cultural heritage "without interfering with the smooth functioning of the society." The different elements remain unique but add up. It requires from the individuals to understand the causes of different behaviors and to "learn to make attributions concerning the causes of behavior of members of the other culture that are more or less like the attributes that these members make in explaining their own behavior." (based on Triandis, 1975)

[p.129] Introducing different groups which are perceived as minorities, the authors come up with the following conclusions. [p.130] "Major issues facing [...] minorities are discrimination, availability of fewer opportunities for career advancement, lack of role models and mentors. [... S]election processes and tendencies towards homogeneity impede selection, promotion, integration, and advancement."

[p.135] As the authors understand the problems emerging from diversity they state quite nicely the advantages of which I only want to name a few:

• To retain the best talent necessary to remain competitive.
• To improve community and public support for the company's business agenda.
• To present themselves in the best possible way as a socially conscious organization committed to diversity and justice.
• To attract a more diverse clientele.
• To increase the performance of individuals, teams, and organizations.

[p.142] At the end the authors conclude the diversity needs to be handled on three levels: "On an individual level, interactions can be improved by sensitivity-focused tools and valuing differences. On a group level, diverse teams have to be established and supervised, giving them time and opportunities for contact to work out common procedures and goals. On the organizational level, the focus should be on establishing structure [...]."


Corporate Strategies for Managing Diversity in the Global Workplace.
by Dharm P.S. Bhawuk, Astrid Podsiadlowski, Jennifer Graf, and Harry C.Triandis
in: Gerald R. Ferris, M.Ronald Buckley, Donald B. Fedo. Human Resources Management - Perspectives, Context, Functions, and Outcomes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002. 4th edition

The Expatriate Business
The expatriates in a construction company are of course working on their projects long before they get to go on the construction site. Additionally, everybody is working on several projects at the same time since normally it is not clear till the end which company will actually get the order to build. From 10 projects planned only two will get ordered. Thus projects normally are kicked off four to five years in advance. For the expatriate business this as several advantages. First of all every project is run by a small fixed team. Other people will join that group during the course of the project but the leading troop will remain together. Thus by the time an expatriate mission is becoming relevant all the parties concerned are already long acquainted to each other. And of course the company tries to install groups that already proved to work well together in order to not face any additional problems. The more tricky a project is the more important the personal binding turns out to be ("bei den Schlüsselfiguren achten wir auf eine feste Bindung").
The company further promotes personal bounds by organizing workshops or training programs in which employees from all over the world join together. ("Damit möglichst viele Menschen im Konzern ein Netzwerk haben.") Thus when expatriates go to work abroad they do not arrive at a completely unknown setting. ("Normalerweise kennt man schon Kollegen aus dem anderen Land; Berührungspunkte gibt es überall.")
This concept of personal bounds also helps to avoid problems of power structures which the host country nationals often face. While it is never easy to admit mistakes or to ask strangers for help, a company is dependent on sharing knowledge. But a Polish employee would never call for help in the head office in Germany even though he might knew that the company has 100 experts sitting there especially trained in solving problems just like his. This is eased up by introducing employees to each other. Then the Polish employee does not have to call some unknown boss but calls Hans or Karl and turns to them for help as a friend.
The company also tries to consider employees personal preferences. This means if somebody often goes on vacation in Greece, he will most likely be assigned to projects taking place in Greece. As an international company they are dependent on being enrooted in the environment. They kind of expect their employees to also deploy their personal contacts and to cultivate networks ("ein Apparat will gepflegt werden").

Networking is further institutionalized by the kind of projects the company is participating in: joint-ventures are the most successful projects where each participating company is responsible for their share. Sometimes this is the only way to get into big building projects. They are often initiated by public institutions and nowadays financed through public-private-partnerships. Consequently it is difficult to give projects such as airports which are of public and national interest to a foreign company.
These professional partnerships on the other hand minimize the risks and allow access to already existing networks in the foreign market. The German company would assign a team of engineers which then would be responsible for assigning appropriate companies. The Joint-Venture-Board itself would meet once a month. And financial matters from all running construction projects are reported to the German head office every monday. While daily communication among all people in charge is absolutely essential, somebody from the German head office will visit the construction site at least every three to four weeks.

While sometimes only one expatriate will be sent abroad, a number between five to 20 is quite usual for a project with a turnover of 170 million ? and 400 employees in peak times.

So, now I started to sort information I have about Poland. Every icon on the structure board will in the end be at least one page in the web application. Thus I try to collect which will be the content of these pages.

One will be on the model employee:


One will be on issues such as motivation and feeback:



I started some more but to all of them I will need to add much more content. So this is just to give an impression.

I mean it is so obvious but still I was not sure if media or a web application in my case could actually help businesses to cross borders. It sure can! :-)

"Technology has permeated every aspect of organizations and has fundamentally redefined the meaning of work. Technology has simultaneously shrunk the world and expanded the boundaries of the organization. Businesses are able to effectively manage local businesses at the global level, and employees are able to participate in teambased work environments without ever leaving home."

[p.67 in: Gerald R. Ferris, M.Ronald Buckley, Donald B. Fedo. Human Resources Management - Perspectives, Context, Functions, and Outcomes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002. 4th edition]