Mittuniversitetet

Globalisation and other forces require to know about cultural differences and tounderstand them. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are countries with littlegeographical distance and partly long common history. This paper introduces howsubstantially decision making differs in these countries. Cultural values have aninfluence on various aspects of decision making. Hofstede’s theoretical concept ofnational culture is predominately used as a base for this research, although otherrelevant cross-cultural studies are presented. Additionally an overview of decisionmaking in a cultural context is given. The thesis work is executed in cooperation withthe Swedish company ABCinternational. A qualitative approach is used and nine semistructuredinterviews were conducted in Copenhagen, Helsinki and Oslo. The collecteddata provides information about decision making and allows for comparison. Theanalysis identifies four major aspects of decision making; differences between theNordic countries become clear. The Finnish culture is considered to be slightly morehierarchical then the others, whereas in Sweden decision making is affected by longdiscussions, it is very important to find consensus among everyone. Danes are fastdecision makers, conditioned by their pragmatic way. In Norway team spirit wasidentified as the major characteristic in decision making.