One of my tasks as financial manager was to implement a customer profitability system at a Swedish company located in Amsterdam. The system required a team of people from different parts of the company to aggregate and analyse information related to customer activities. Under my direction, this team of workers had created all the necessary processes and analyses for the customer profitability model. The new system had already succeeded in helping the company’s account managers to derive more profits from their existing customers.

Pleased with the results of my team’s customer profitability system, the Swedish head of the branch asked me to ensure that the system remained in place even after I had returned to the US. With this in mind, I wrote a formal document that stated the individual commitments of everyone on the team in terms of the profitability system over the next year.

My intention was to have each member of the team individually sign up to these commitments. My Swedish branch head believed that the idea to have all the team members agree to their commitments on paper was an excellent one because he believed that the project might otherwise fall apart after I had left Amsterdam.

Upon presenting my commitment document to one Dutch manager with whom I had worked closely, I was surprised by his unease when signing the document. He said that having individuals sign a document in this manner was very ‘un-Dutch’. However, if I failed to gain some kind of formal commitment to the project, I felt sure that my Swedish manager would be dissatisfied.

Questions

1. What do you think the financial manager should do to get the team’s formal commitment?

2. How can this situation be analysed using Trompenaars’ dimensions as given in Table 5.1?

Table 5.1

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1. Universalism versus particularism: societal versus personal obligation 2. Individualism versus collectivism (communitarianism): personal versus group goals 3. Neutral versus affective relationships: emotional orientation in relationships 4. Specific versus diffuse relationships: contact versus contract rapport versus report 5. Achievement versus ascription (doing/being): legitimating power and status Universalism: absolute rules apply, irrespective of circumstances and situations Particularism: circumstances and relationships are more important considerations than absolutes Example in business: the role of the contract Individualism: personal welfare and fulfilment Collectivism: social concern and altruism Example in business: goals of negotiating and decision-making This dimension concerns the contexts and ways that cultures choose to express emotions. Should emotion be exhibited in business relations? Specific: company employees are hired in contractually to be part of a system which performs efficiently Diffuse: company employees are members of a group working together. Their relations with each other and the organisation determine how the company functions In achievement-oriented cultures, business people are evaluated by how well they perform an allocated function. In ascriptive cultures, status is attributed, for example, to older people, those who are of good family or highly qualified