Abstract
This case illustrates the challenges of cross-cultural leadership when a company opens a new subsidiary in a foreign country. Students are confronted with the example of a Dutch company, TOPdesk - a service management developer. The case is situated when they are in the process of opening an office in Sao Paula, Brazil and consequently having difficulty in acquiring personnel. The situation highlights a clash between corporate and country culture and students are motivated to think about the interaction between national and corporate culture, and the implications of differences therein. Possible solutions are looked in to from a Human Resource perspective, but the case is also useful for leadership students.
Citation Note
Based on field research
Follow the 'handle' link to access the Case Study on RePub.
For EUR staff members: the Teaching Note is available on request, you can contact us at rsm.nl/cdc/contact/
For external users: follow the link to purchase the Case Study and the Teaching Note.
Objective
1. Students must be able to define key components of effective cross-cultural leadership
2. Students must be able to identify the components of contributing to corporate culture
3. Students must be able to apply the theories of national culture and corporate culture to real-life examples, for example how Brazil/Sao Paulo region's local culture affect corporate culture within the office of Sao Paulo
4. Students must be able to argue how corporate culture is related to human resources
5. Students must be able to analyse national cultures using Hofstede's model of cultural differences
