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Welcome to C3Consultings podcast.
In this podcast episode, C3 Consulting's Hungary Country Specialist Dániel Szabó
shares some key points on how Danish managers can collaborate efficiently with Hungarian colleagues and employees,
and what they should be especially aware of when doing business in Hungary.
Daniel, what do you find is the biggest challenges for Danish managers when collaborating with Hungarian colleagues and employees?
Like any other nationalities, Danish people also have their cultural 'blind spots'.
This means that they do not notice or want to notice the differences between the cultures,
but bring their cultural assumptions abroad and act as if they were still in Denmark.
This can be a big mistake in inter-cultural relationships and can cause lot of difficulties.
The situation is actually further worsened by the fact that if confronted with another culture,
many Danish people tend to think that they are always right and force the Hungarians do things their way.
I often hear the argument that because a Danish company established a subsidiary or branch in Hungary, the Hungarians should act in a Danish way.
They are working for a Danish company, with a Danish corporate culture, so they should act Danish.
These Danish managers are only forgetting that the subsidiary or branch is located in Hungary,
employing mostly Hungarian employees and is influenced by the Hungarian cultural environment.
These are very big mistakes when dealing with Hungarians,
since in Hungary the level of nationalism is relatively high and Hungary also has a proud culture.
More specifically, from historical reasons a proud culture of resistance, which can make future cooperation very difficult.
Can you give me some examples of the cultural differences that Danes should be especially aware of when collaborating with Hungarians?
One of the most important, but not instantly obvious cultural differences is that Hungary is much more hierarchical than Denmark.
The hierarchy pervades the entire society and therefore also Hungarian organizations.
The hierarchy, or in working relationships the high power distance,
also influences the way how managers and subordinates behave with each other.
The obvious politeness of the subordinates is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hungarian subordinates are also less likely to challenge the management and the manager's decisions openly, even if they don't agree with it.
Naturally such a structure requires a different management style than the Danish organization structures.
A Hungarian manager has to be a leader, not a coaching style manager.
This also influences how Hungarians deal with responsibility.
Hungarian employees tend not to take responsibility;
responsibility is distributed to them by the manager in a clear way.
Shared responsibility for example, which is common in Denmark, is less likely to work in Hungary.
Many times if responsibility is shared, no one takes responsibility for the task.
There is a different way of dealing with mistakes as well. In Hungary making mistakes is a big risk, a loss of face, so to say.
While Danish people tend to bring the mistakes out in the open, Hungarians tend to keep quiet about it.
Therefore the meaning of silence differs.
While in Denmark, silence is a positive thing, in Hungary it is a very negative thing.
How can a Danish manager prepare for the meeting with his or her Hungarian colleagues and employees? What is your best advise?
First and foremost; leave the cultural presumptions at home.
For meetings, make a detailed plan:
make detailed agendas, specify the goals of the meetings and send the information well beforehand to the Hungarians,
so that they have time to prepare it.
And even before the meetings, sometimes weeks or moths before, start building relationships.
If you have any feedback to Daniels advise, or if you would like to know more about C3 Consulting, please send us an email to info@c3consulting.dk.
You can also visit us online at our webpage, www.c3consulting.dk,
or at our LinkedIn company page www.linkedin.com/company/c3consulting.
Thank you for listening!