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The purpose of this study is to explore how Danish and Mexican communication and management practices are recontextualized at the Latin American office of a Scandinavian multinational corporation (MNC) located in Mexico.

A case study based on interviews, observations and company documents was conducted.

Well-educated Mexican middle managers appreciate the participative communication and management practices of Scandinavian MNCs, which transcend most experiences at local workplaces, but their interpretations and meaning system are influenced by the colonial legacy and political and socioeconomic context framing their working conditions.

This paper provides a contextualized analysis of a rich case study to further illustrate the challenges faced by MNCs in their quest to establish a regional office in a Latin American context and offers a theoretical model of the elements involved in complex recontextualization processes.

El objetivo de este estudio fue explorar cómo las prácticas de comunicación y gestión Danesas y Mexicanas son recontextualizadas en la oficina latinoamericana de una empresa multinacional (EMN) escandinava, ubicada en México.

Se llevó a cabo un caso de estudio basado en entrevistas, observaciones y documentos de la empresa.

Gerentes de mandos medios mexicanos, con educación superior aprecian las prácticas de comunicación y gestión participativa de la EMN escandinava, que trascienden en la mayoría de las experiencias en el lugar de trabajo local, pero sus interpretaciones y sistema de significado son influenciados por el legado colonial y el contexto político y socioeconómico que enmarcan sus condiciones de trabajo.

Este artículo proporciona un análisis contextualizado de un caso de estudio para ilustrar más a fondo los desafíos que enfrentan las empresas multinacionales en su búsqueda por establecer una oficina regional en un contexto latinoamericano y ofrece un modelo teórico de los elementos involucrados en procesos complejos de recontextualización.

O principal propósito deste estudo foi explorar como as práticas de comunicação e gestão, tanto dinamarquesa quanto mexicana, são recontextualizadas no escritório latino-americano de uma multinacional escandinava (MNC) localizada no México.

Foi realizado um estudo de caso baseado nas entrevistas, observações e nos documentos da empresa.

As gerentes intermediárias mexicanas, que são bem qualificados, apreciam a comunicação participativa e as práticas de gestão das multinacionais escandinavas, que superam a maioria das experiências existentes nos trabalho locais, mas suas interpretações e seu sistema de significação são influenciados pelo legado colonial e pelo contexto político e socioeconômico que enquadra as suas condições de trabalho.

Este artigo fornece uma análise contextualizada de um estudo de caso completo, que visa ilustrar melhor os desafios que serão enfrentados pelas multinacionais na sua busca por estabelecer um escritório regional neste contexto latino-americano, além de oferecer um modelo teórico dos elementos envolvidos nestes complexos processos de recontextualização.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic meltdown and social unrest severely challenged most countries, their societies, economies, organizations, and individual citizens. Focusing on both more and less successful country-specific initiatives to fight the pandemic and its multitude of related consequences, this chapter explores implications for leadership and effective action at the individual, organizational, and societal levels. As international management scholars and consultants, the authors document actions taken and their wide-ranging consequences in a diverse set of countries, including countries that have been more or less successful in fighting the pandemic, are geographically larger and smaller, are located in each region of the world, are economically advanced and economically developing, and that chose unique strategies versus strategies more similar to those of their neighbors. Cultural influences on leadership, strategy, and outcomes are described for 19 countries. Informed by a cross-cultural lens, the authors explore such urgent questions as: What is most important for leaders, scholars, and organizations to learn from critical, life-threatening, society-encompassing crises and grand challenges? How do leaders build and maintain trust? What types of communication are most effective at various stages of a crisis? How can we accelerate learning processes globally? How does cultural resilience emerge within rapidly changing environments of fear, shifting cultural norms, and profound challenges to core identity and meaning? This chapter invites readers and authors alike to learn from each other and to begin to discover novel and more successful approaches to tackling grand challenges. It is not definitive; we are all still learning.

The paper aims to report on an in‐depth study of the merger and acquisition processes involved in the creation of the leading financial services corporation in the Nordic countries: Nordea. The purposes are, first, to describe the roles played by the HR function and examine the effects of the roles enacted by the HR function on how the workforces were managed and integrated in the post‐merger processes; second, to analyze issues influencing the changing roles played by the HR function in Nordea during the merger processes.

The data for this paper were collected mostly through 60 interviews with HR managers and top executives in Nordea. In addition to the interviews, access was provided to company‐internal material and consultancy reports concerning the HR function.

The paper finds that the Nordea case shows, on the one hand, typical problems in organizing and managing HR issues, but also illustrates, on the other, how the HR function is easily left with a secondary non‐strategic role in these processes.

The paper shows that the general limitations of any single case analysis apply also to the present study.

The paper indicates that the communication of expectations both to and from the HR function may be particularly important in clarifying the roles the function is to play in the post‐merger process.

The paper offers unique insights into the roles played by the HR function in merger processes.

The purpose of this study is to understand how the concept of diversity management is translated and adapted into the Danish societal context. The authors therefore seek to answer these questions: to what extent do larger Danish companies experience a need to practice diversity management? Do they also have specific diversity policies? And how do these Danish companies discursively construct and manage diversity?

The authors surveyed 100 Danish firms and performed a discourse analysis of two frontrunner firms' diversity documents.

The Danish firms in the survey experienced a need for diversity management, but were somewhat reluctant to introduce diversity policies. The two frontrunner firms drew on a discourse of diversity as a business case intertwined with a discourse of social responsibility with focus on helping minority groups having difficulties accessing the job market. The findings indicate that concepts must be translated for the local context in order to be accepted by local actors.

Further studies should look closer into local practices of diversity management to increase understanding of how this seemingly universal management concept is translated.

Danish society, which until recently was relatively homogeneous, forms a specific cultural context for diversity management that differs significantly from American and British multicultural societies.

The purpose of this paper is to address gender and management in contemporary globalization by focusing on the ways in which male top managers in a multinational corporation (MNC) construct their identities in interviews with researchers.

Qualitative analysis based on interviews with virtually all top managers in the Nordic financial services company Nordea (53 men and two women).

It is found that becoming international induces a particular masculine identity for the top managers. In becoming international, however, their national identification persists. The unstability of the MNC as a political constellation leaves room for questioning the transnational identity offered.

This paper's findings suggest that in the global world of business, national identity can also be interpreted as something positive and productive, contrary to how it has been previously treated in feminist and men's studies literature.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how effective knowledge management practices combined with a unique corporate culture have enabled the company Sarkuysan to cope with the challenges it has faced throughout the years and made it an extremely successful company.

A company case was chosen to explain the influences of cultural determinants on the success of knowledge management. This objective was achieved by conducting several interviews with the top managers of the company.

The findings of the article are, that effective knowledge management practices combined with a unique corporate culture can enable companies to instill a lasting knowledge management culture.

The article is based on a case study, which limits the possibility of making general conclusions. Whereas many studies discuss knowledge management primarily as an IT problem, this study focuses on the topic as a cultural issue.

Most current literature on knowledge management deals with multinational companies with Western management structures. This article describes how knowledge management is applied in an emerging market context, which does not necessarily share the culture, structures and ideals of the organizations on which current theories are based.

This article focuses on the concept of knowledge as a cultural issue, rather than a problem that can be solved by sophisticated information technology infrastructures. The paper deals with a firm from an emerging market/country, i.e. Turkey.