Question

Identify cultural differences that are likely to arise between Norwegian employees working in Denmark and Sweden and Thailand. How might these differences affect interpersonal interactions, and what can the company do to reduce any unintended conflict from these differences?

Answer 1

Norwegian employees working in Sweden and Denmark are likely to have less of a problem cultural differences because of shared history, similar time zones and a common culture and professional working style. There would be significant difference with those working in Thailand though with Thailand being in a different time zone, having a different language altogether and also having a different community and professional culture.
The differences in culture would pertain to finding a common time for holding important meetings, making sure a common communication framework is put in place and also the incentives in these two different regions would be different with people in the Nordic area being more person centric and those in the Asian region likely to be more community centric.
These differences might create potentially confusing scenarios when team from these two regions interact with differences in language, local market perspective and also the team incentives being different causing a misalignment of objectives.
The company can decide on a common minimum framework based on which all communication across global teams would occur. Also the number & frequency of interaction needs to be more with greater transparency to ensure greater faith and eliminating chances of any confusion.