Kamprad remarks that the fear of making mistakes is the enemy to evolution and at IKEA responsibilities of the individual should not end anywhere. Decisions are made without long and difficult discussion. This shows in the company’s guideline called “IKEA mässigt” demanding that people should not stick out remarkably. Bonds among employees create relationships of concern. The social touch is especially emphasised upon where the company likes to see itself as a big family. The corporate culture at IKEA reflects the Swedish characteristics shown above. In cultures low on the power distance scale, status differences are considered undesirable and openness, directness and two-way communication of superior-subordinate is enforced. Related to this, power distance is also relatively small. In that sense, Sweden can be seen as a welfare society in which caring for all members is an important goal. Individual careers are less important and managers are modest and helpful. The main goal is relationship building instead of achievements and work is done in self-contained social units. This proves that the country is guided by more feministic traits. There, Sweden is evaluated as the least masculine country. Looking at exhibit one, the results of Hofstedes cultural research on 50 different nations are laid out. Sweden is a very social country where power distance is low. The way that employees at IKEA handle each other can be compared to the general Swedish culture where emphasis is given to family like attributes with shared responsibilities and informal structures. Corporate culture as reflection of Swedish culture Inside their company culture, employees generally enjoy to work for the company and give a good service through this. The corporate culture at IKEA reflects the characteristics of its Swedish background, and it is enforced throughout the world. By definition this is a “pattern of shared values and believes that gives the members of an organization meaning and provides them with the rule for behavimy in the organization”. With this focus, the company has build a strong corporate culture. The founder of the company, Ingvar Kamprad once said: “For me the thing most essential at IKEA is the employee”. This follows the Processual argument were “the intelligence of people on the ground becomes critical to strategy, not top-down command”. IKEA sees their employees as important asset. Also, customer contacts are not dealt with in depth. For example, I did not write about the purchasing network and relationships to suppliers. IKEA is a very complex company and I couldn’t concentrate on all of the given information. Internationalisation puts challenges on the above success areas and those need to be evaluated, as well. The aim of the paper is to look at the sources for IKEAs success where special emphasis will be given to the Swedish impact on leadership, corporate culture and product offer and the success they have with it. The difficulties that IKEA faces is to keep their unique “IKEA spirit” and still be successful around the world. It seems that today’s “game of global strategy increasingly … a game of coordination”. While the internationalisation of IKEA is one of the reasons for their great success, it seems that it is also the source of trouble. The background of the company seems to play a role in managing this uniqueness where Swedish influence on leadership, corporate culture and product offer leads towards the successful “IKEA spirit”. The company seems to offer something that is unique to people and that appeals to them as something preferable. IKEA is the only company in their field, that has been able to expand so widely. The success came as a surprise to many since the furniture business is originally a local business. The Swedish market is comparably small and IKEA had to expand in order to keep their steady growth rates. Higher tariffs, transport costs and the loss of economies of scale in domestic production further encourage production abroad. In only a few decades the company “went from the woods of southern Sweden to 31 countries around the world” and has become a large Multinational cooperation (MNC) with an interorganisational network. IKEA is a well known Swedish company where almost every European person under 30 has purchased something from to decorate their flats. Standardisation versus adaptation to national conditions Corporate culture versus cultural sensitivityģ.4. Analysis of Problems with the IKEA wayģ.2 Scandinavian leadership at all subsidiariesģ.3. Successful spread of Swedish product designģ. Sweden’s national advantage in home designĢ.3.4. Enforcement of Corporate Culture worldwideĢ.2.2. Corporate culture as reflection of Swedish cultureĢ.2.3.
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