Towards an Understanding of Management Style Differences between China and Sweden

With the world becomes closer,the issue of understanding management and culture difference is getting more and more important.The purpose of this research is to find how culture factors impact management style in China and Sweden.The study used Hofstede's five cultural dimensions,traditional management practice and Denison's model of organizational culture and effectiveness as framework to identify what different management styles exist between two countries,as well as explain why the difference occurs in term of national culture dimensions and traditional management practice.The interviews were made by five Chinese employees whom have work experiences in China and now are working in Swedish organization in Sweden.From their perspectives,the paper found the dimension of involvement and consistency is significant different between two countries,subsequently,those differences were analyzed by Hofstede's five culture dimensions,the study found:the small power distance,feminine value and lower uncertainty avoidance as well as lower hierarchy are the reasons of Swedish management style such as high level of agreement,good communication,and high capability development in Sweden.Meanwhile,the large power distance,masculine value,high uncertainty avoidance,guanxi and paternalism style of leadership are the mainly reasons of Chinese management style such like lower level of team orientation,ineffective and lower learning capacity in China.In addition,the long-term orientation cause Chinese organization like to have a long time planning,but the paternalism style of leadership induce the strategy of company departs from the reality.