Intercultural management : Ikea case study

Résumé du document

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the culture of a company and highlight how this culture could have a real impact on the smooth running of its international activities. In order to conduct such an analysis I have chosen an important company which caters into numerous international activities. Ikea was easy to chose for me since as it provides all the elements that I am keen to include in the analysis (international activities, strong culture company, etc.). More over Ikea is influenced by the Scandinavian cultural aspects which I found more "interesting" than French or American company. Ikea is a well known brand across the world, on one side its blue and yellow logo reminds people of the Swedish flag and on the other side it highlights its innovative concept and its peculiarities. Ikea is specialized in the home furnishing products and has operations in 36 countries. The company's turnover is around 21 billion euros with a constant increase every year ( 7% as on August 2008) and it is the world leader in flat packed furniture.

Extraits

[...] More over, Ikea had a good experience in the approach of new culture and knows how to act in order to improve the understanding of each culture. In the Chineseʼs case the implantation of Ikea had done different actions: - Ikea adapt its management to a little more structured one. Chinese staff could integrate more easily the Swedish way of working - In the same way the firm implemented seminars permitting to improve discussion, respond to the expectations and thus avoid frustration. [...]

[...] Some values of the company came directly from him, what it proved that they seemed really important for Ingvard Kamprad; such as work, simplicity, common sense and what he called management which takes each human being into account”. Since the beginning of its activity Kamprad had understood that one of the key of success was its employees. That explains why he focuses part of its effort on the Human resources in order to create good working environment and so on. Ikea culture is made of severals aspects shared by the employees and the management. [...]

[...] Ikea was easy to chose for me because it has all the aspects sought (international activities, strong culture company, etc.). More over Ikea is impacted by the Scandinavian cultural aspects which I found more “interesting” than French or American company of wich we already know their cultural aspects. Ikea is a well known brand all over the world, on the one hand by its blue and yellow logo, which reminds people of the Swedish flag and on the other hand, by its innovative concept and its numerous peculiarities. [...]

[...] More over Ikea put in place a traditional anti bureaucracy week in which manager work as simple employees, as warehouseman for instance. This week enables to reinforce the team spirit and good relationships between each member of the staff. Management based on the human being: Highly inspired by the Scandinavian management, Ikea wants a management based on the listening of its employees and not only based on the results. This type of management is opposed to the British one. In Ikea, one of the priorities is the well-being of the employees because it allows them to be efficient. [...]

[...] Indeed each employee has integrated the “philosophy” and the corporate values of the 13 firm. Generally, this values initially come from the founder (here is the case with Kamprad) and then assimilated by everyone. Indeed this level enables to have a strong corporate culture and thus to transform it in a competitive advantage. The basic assumptions are quite difficult to decipher because they are unconscious. In reality they were shared values at the beginning and then they became shared assumptions. [...]