Cultural Differences In America Essay

The United States of America is widely known for its cultural promotion of rugged individualism. As a result of this preferential focus on the individual, business practices and managerial styles in the U.S. tend to reflect that culture. The managerial culture of Scandinavia, and more specifically of Norway, by comparison possesses greater interest in collectivism and the advancement of all rather than the narrow focus of individualism held in the U.S. (Carpenter, 2010). This is one of many simple differences in cultural values between America and Norway that results in vastly different managerial styles. The main origin of Norway's higher sense of collectivism lies in The Law of Jante, which has been known locally as Janteloven since its creation in 1933 by Aksel Sandemose via his book titled En Flytning Krysser Sitt Spor translated in English as A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). As Peter Gratale describes in his article about Jante Law, “Janteloven is a list of 10 rules, with the exception of a recognized 11th rule, that govern how

Because of this large scale of cooperation and discussion in Norwegian companies, making a final decision can take much longer than it would in the more direct hierarchical structures common to businesses in the U.S. where only one or a handful of top executives and managers are given the opportunity to weigh their opinions against one another and make a final decision based solely on the opinions of a few people or in some cases of a single person. In cases where American companies cooperate with Norwegian companies, this cultural difference needs to be completely respected in order to ensure the success of the