You work for accounting firm based in Barcelona. Recently there has been a joint venture with a UK company but working conditions have deteriorated with many complaints being made by both the Spanish and UK staff about the working styles of the others. Here are some examples of the complaints.

Spanish complaints about the British: 

• “The bosses don’t act like managers, they don’t command authority – they want to consult their subordinates on everything, and I’ve even seen workers argue with the boss in meetings about ‘silly’ ideas – there is no respect!” 

• “Some of the managers are so young! I don’t want to take order from a kid!” British complaints about the Spanish: 

• “There is so much inconsistency with the rules – they are always trying to make exceptions. Here, I have found it’s good to be friends with payroll department if you want to be sure to be paid on time! It shouldn’t be that way!” 

• “They are incapable of making decisions without getting a group consensus- it makes everything so slow. Can’t they just make decisions for themselves sometimes?”

These complaints are symptomatic of two cultures that are distinct according to the findings of Hofstede and Trompenaars. Analyse the situation by not only identifying the dimensions that could be the cause of each complaint, but also examine what other difficulties they could cause and how the two cultures could work together better. You should back it up with evidence from Hofstede and Trompenaars.

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The situation described in the question is a classic example of cultural clashes between two distinct societies In order to better understand the source of the complaints and offer solutions it is imp... View the full answer