Were the Vikings the First HR Executives? From Employment Relations Today

Were the Vikings the First HR Executives?
Aviad Meitar and Ravit Cohen-Meitar

A lthough the term human resources may
have been coined only about 40 years
ago, as a management function, one might
3. Be brave and aggressive.
4. Keep the camp in order.

argue that the roots of human resources can We describe how these laws can be used
be traced to an ancient society—the Vikings. as templates for doing business today. Exam-
It may, at first, seem far-fetched to draw an ples are included as well that illustrate how
analogy between HR and the warriors of these rules were utilized in the Pepsi venture
Scandinavian origin who lived over 1,000 in Romania to create a unique corporate cul-
years ago and raided foreign lands to expand ture that helped achieve significant business
their trading zones. However, the Vikings success.
established a set of laws that had the seeds
of management ideas that are relevant and BE A GOOD MERCHANT
useful to the business environment of the
twenty-first century. This Viking law, which is purely commercial,
The fascinating fact is that in each of the relates to two important aspects of a business
Viking rules, originally written for wartime venture. The first has to do with knowing
or commerce, one can find very relevant your market, and the second relates to keep-
guidance for developing human resources ing the promises you make to customers.
and maximizing the potential of individuals One could argue, therefore, that when the
at work in that society. Vikings enacted this rule, they laid the foun-
Research done by the historian novelist dation for what we refer to today as ethics,
Robert Low traces the set of laws referred to responsibility, and integrity.
as “The Viking Laws” to a literary piece The first subrule (each of the Viking laws
called “The King’s Mirror.” In that piece, includes subrules) is find out what the market
which dates back to 1240, a father gives needs. All too often, businesses use an inside-
advice to his son on what he should do to out approach, focusing first on the specific
become a good merchant. (Low believes organizations and only then on their markets.
these laws actually go back further, to old These organizations are trying to make the
legal codes pertaining to trading in a Viking environment fit their characteristics and
trade center in Birka, Sweden.) assume that the market will adapt. Theoreti-
This article offers a close look at the four cal and empirical evidence shows that it
laws that were a prescription for Viking should be the other way around (i.e., an “out-
warrior conduct: side-in” approach; that is, every organization
should understand its market and the mar-
1. Be a good merchant. ket’s needs and then find the best way to
2. Be prepared. meet those needs).

© 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 15
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ert.20305

Employment Relations Today

The problem with many organizations is their colleagues in school—it was considered
that they are trying to sell their customers “uncool.” This was one key reason the cam-
what they had decided their customers need, paign was a failure.
and not what their customers really desire. Often, the main challenge for providing
This is similar to the difference between good service is to fully understand the cus-
Henry Ford’s approach (customers can tomers’ needs—the obvious and the latent.
choose any car color, so long as it is black) Sometimes you can’t give the customer exactly
and the Japanese philosophy (let customers what he or she is asking for, but you can fulfill
decide what makes a car beautiful to them). other needs by listening carefully and by being
In consulting with client companies, we empathic. In a few interventions that we used,
found that many managers assume that they we trained employees to fully understand the
know what their customers want, but when needs of the customer and to try to fulfill
you ask the customers, you see that their them (even needs such as respect, informa-
needs are different from those assumed. This tion, and caring were very meaningful). These
is especially true in global and international interventions changed not just customer satis-
organizations. Many times, managers who faction and loyalty, but also employees’ satis-
faction, as they felt more capable and better
appreciated by their customers.
The problem with many organizations is that
Another subrule to being a good merchant
they are trying to sell their customers what they
had decided their customers need, and not
is don’t make a promise that you can’t keep.
what their customers really desire. This rule is of major importance in all aspects
of the organization. One aspect concerns the
promises that businesses articulate in order
have a certain experience in one market/ to attract customers and sell products or ser-
culture assume that customers in another vices. Too often, these promises are not pre-
market will react the same way, but in fact cise, and, following the sale, the customers
the needs and responses are quite different. find out that the products or services are dif-
As an example, we recently deployed a ferent from what had been promised. This
consumer marketing campaign in the Pepsi can be very damaging to the business’s repu-
Bulgaria operation that had been extremely tation and, in the long run, to the business
successful with consumers in Israel a few itself. In order to overcome this problem,
years earlier. It focused on teenagers and some organizations tie the salespersons’
offered a winning school class a prize of bonuses not just to sales, but also to cus-
going on a trip to the United States. We tomers’ satisfaction and their long-term rela-
checked whether the prize was considered tionship with the company.
attractive to the target group and found that Another aspect of keeping promises relates
indeed it was. What we did not check was to the integrity inside the organization. In
whether teenagers liked the idea of going on research that was conducted among 5,000
such a trip with their schoolmates. It turned managers in the United States, managers
out that this was a critical issue—young Bul- were asked to identify the most critical man-
garians loved the idea of going to the United agerial aspects. The trait that topped the list
States but hated the idea of doing it with was integrity.1

16 Aviad Meitar and Ravit-Cohen Meitar
Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

Fall 2010

Keeping promises is an issue of business BE PREPARED
ethics in general. The Israeli Institution for
Ethics found that the integrity of managers The Viking law we analyzed in the previous
and the organization toward its employees is section dealt with the identity of the organi-
a major enabler of employees’ identification zation and its positioning in the environment.
with the organization and their commitment to This next Viking law focuses on how organi-
it. Employees want to be part of an entity that zations must prepare to meet their goals and
is ethical and acts in accordance with their respond to the needs of the markets.
values. Keeping promises is key in this respect. All of the subrules under this law are
Ethical behavior also influences the pros- relevant to businesses in general and to HR
perity and success of a business. For cus- in particular. The first subrule is find good
tomers and suppliers, keeping promises is the battle comrades. This translates to the typical
basis for building a high-quality and long- HR function of selecting and recruiting
term relationship. Trust, as research showed, skilled employees. The process of finding,
is fundamental in every relationship and is selecting, and retaining the right people for
crucial in the business environment. the right roles is a key challenge, and in
In January 2010, a famous Israeli baking-
goods brand (named Maadanot) found out
The growing awareness of the importance of
that there was a problem with some of
ethics is part of the reason why more and more
the company’s products. The company organizations adopt codes of ethics to ensure
announced it to the public immediately, their ethical conduct.
promised compensation to those who had
already purchased the products, and provided
24-hour service for customers to call to some industries the “war for talent” makes
replace products or to be compensated for the process even more competitive. This is
products they simply wished to return. A few the case, for instance, in the global beverage
weeks later, the problem was fixed, and the industry, where all too often seasoned
company’s sales were even higher than they managers are being lured by an industry
were prior to the crisis. Customers appreci- competitor.
ated the company’s ethical conduct and This rule is a basic tenet for Viking war-
reciprocated by staying loyal. riors as well as HR managers. Having the
The growing awareness of the importance right people in key positions is the most
of ethics is part of the reason why more and important factor in defining the success of a
more organizations adopt codes of ethics to business. However, finding a person who fits
ensure their ethical conduct. (In the United the organization’s culture, the team, and the
Kingdom and Germany, about 75 percent of specific role is not an easy task.
companies have adopted such codes, and in Over the years, companies have used an
Israel’s finance industry, about 90 percent of array of evaluation processes and selection
companies have adopted codes of ethics.) In tests that were touted as being able to accu-
all the organizations that we were involved rately predict who will be the right person for
with, keeping promises was a key factor in a particular job. A colleague who was in
defining the codes of ethics. charge of such processes in one of the leading

Were the Vikings the First HR Executives? 17


evaluation companies in Israel told me that a person from one team to another can make a
the validity of such tests is under 20 percent. huge difference. Recently, I met a CEO who
Organizations are experimenting with vari- was a star in her previous company. When
ous tools to help them find the right people. she was brought to her new position, she was
Many organizations are looking for unconven- expected to replicate her success. Unfortu-
tional methods for selecting their candidates. nately, her personality didn’t fit the new
Google, for example, advertised riddles in organization, and many of the changes that
some prestigious universities, and those who she tried to implement failed.
solved them correctly got directly to Google’s The task of finding a good leader is best
job search engines. Another company used described by the subrule choose one chief.
short problem-solving questions and chose the This is another milestone in HR practices,
candidates who exhibited creative thinking. since it has to do with management and
Before the start of the Romanian Pepsi leadership—a highly researched topic in the
operation, we identified two candidates who field of organizational development and
would be qualified to fill the position of gen- the one most books and articles are written
eral manager. In order to make the best deci- about. As mentioned earlier, succeeding as a
sion between the two, we brought both of manager in one role doesn’t necessarily
them to Romania and also to our company’s ensure success in the next one.
headquarters in New York. This way we A true leader makes a huge difference to
an organization. However, in an article enti-
tled “The Half-Truths of Leadership,”2 the
It is important to give freedom in many aspects authors claimed that although leadership is a
of the job, but it is as important to have a very important factor to the success of the
“chief,” someone who sets the direction, pro-
organization, too often people mistakenly put
vides guidance and assistance, and helps to
all the blame on or give all the credit to the
exert the team’s and the individual’s potential.
leader.
Leadership has many angles and dimen-
were able to get some useful feedback on sions. There is agreement that managers need
them from people in the environment where to be effective leaders. A few organizations in
they were going to manage as well as from Australia tried to use self-managed teams (i.e.,
colleagues in our head office. It widened the teams that are autonomous without a formal
spectrum of views on the candidates and leader). Their experience showed that in most
enabled us to make a better decision. cases it was very difficult for the team to
In our experience, the person who may function without a leader, especially in disci-
seem to be the perfect candidate “on paper” pline matters. This notion does not deny the
is not a perfect one in reality. In addition to importance of providing autonomy to the
the issues of experience, abilities, and skills team and of empowering employees. It is
(technical, intellectual, and emotional), there important to give freedom in many aspects
is the notion of “chemistry” with various con- of the job, but it is as important to have a
stituencies of the organization such as man- “chief,” someone who sets the direction, pro-
agers, colleagues, company culture, cus- vides guidance and assistance, and helps to
tomers, and the like. Sometimes just moving exert the team’s and the individual’s potential.


Fall 2010

In our Pepsi venture in Romania, we care- In a recent international conference that
fully selected and nurtured a strong team of dealt with innovation in Israel,3 there was a
managers, each with solid experience and call for HR to lead this concept in organiza-
expertise in their respective fields. We were tions. The claim was that the engine for orga-
very proud of the fact that our top manage- nizational innovation is employees’ creativity,
ment had over 100 years’ combined tenure in and that it is within the scope of HR to train
the company. However, we had a clear leader and develop employees’ creativity. The mes-
at the top whose charisma and leadership sage for HR was that nurturing employees’
traits pulled the organization ahead and creativity will strengthen the function of HR
ensured that we maximized the venture’s as valuable to organizational success.
business potential. In recent research that we conducted in
Eastern Europe,4 we found out that when
BE BRAVE AND AGGRESSIVE people were given proper conditions to brain-
storm about improving their individual as
After finding out what the market requires well as the company performance, the result
and then setting up the infrastructure of the was very fruitful. One hundred people came
organization, including getting the right up with about 700 ideas.
team for the task, the next challenge is to
use the right methods. This Viking law has
Creative ideas regarding how to deal with the
to do with determination and persistence
difficult business environment are critical to
necessary to get the job done. It has to do
improving the chances of survival.
with being focused on the one hand while
allowing a certain level of flexibility on the
other. We find these Viking subrules, which
A few studies conducted at Bar-Ilan Uni- focus on creativity in executing a plan
versity and the Teknion in Israel showed that of attack, to be especially crucial in light of
there is a substantial amount of tension in today’s economic reality, where companies
organizations between their desire to be are forced to deal with difficult conditions.
focused, efficient, and disciplined and their Creative ideas regarding how to deal with the
desire to encourage autonomy, creativity, and difficult business environment are critical to
initiative. They claim that the challenge in improving the chances of survival.
organizations today is to be ambidextrous—to In a large bank that we counsel, manage-
allow these two somewhat conflicting ment decided to use various methods in order
approaches to coexist. HR managers should to grab all opportunities: employees were
help in training employees to function in asked to think of any and all ideas in order to
both of these modes. improve the service and satisfaction of cus-
This Viking law contains two subrules that tomers. Small teams from each branch were
are essential to achieving competitive advan- looking for creative ways to improve the effi-
tage: grab all opportunities and use varying ciency and the service in their branch. They
methods of attack. They represent milestones were not looking for “big” or “breakthrough”
in looking at employees’ creativity and orga- ideas, but rather for new opportunities
nizational innovation. that were under their control—they were



responsible for generating as well as imple- a supervisor and his or her coworkers create
menting these ideas. This process led to is quite valuable for feeling that their work is
greater empowerment and a sense of satisfac- meaningful. Our experience showed that
tion from the employees, who felt that the enjoyable activities in the workplace and in
bank trusted them to find the best solutions. various training workshops create high-qual-
Management felt that the new methods ity relationships among coworkers who then
improved employees’ responsibility as well as tend to support and encourage each other to
processes and the level of service of the go “above and beyond” and to achieve better
bank. All of this enabled the bank to grab results together.
many new opportunities. Taking an example from our Romanian
In An Unimaginable Journey: How Pepsi venture, we created an annual marketing and
Beat the Odds in Romania,5 there is emphasis sales conference, to which the entire sales
on the importance of attacking one target at a force was invited. It was originally meant to
time. Over the 15 years of the Pepsi business deal with a crisis situation, and these people
in Romania, there were many temptations to were gathered to try to understand the roots
expand beyond the beverage business and of the problem. Over time it became a venue
venture off in other directions. It was the to celebrate the company’s achievements and
strategic decision to stay focused on just one energize the workforce ahead of the summer
season. The employees were looking forward
to the next conference, and the unique atmo-
Our experience showed that enjoyable activities
sphere created during these events played a
in the workplace and in various training work-
key role in the outstanding performance of
shops create high-quality relationships among
coworkers who then tend to support and encour- the company.
age each other to go “above and beyond” and These activities were crucial not just in
to achieve better results together. strengthening the unique culture of the orga-
nization, but also in attracting and keeping
valuable and committed employees. Keeping
field of activity, which allowed our organiza- valuable employees is part of talent
tion to successfully handle the competitive management—a topic that is gaining top
challenges, especially given our limited priority for organizations around the world.
resources. Another very important subrule that is
critical to managing HR is make sure every-
KEEP THE CAMP IN ORDER body does useful work. This is not only
related to exerting the full potential of each
This is the last Viking law. Of the four, this is employee, but also to meaningfulness at
the one that really focuses on HR. One of the work. Two studies that we conducted in
subrules is arrange enjoyable activities that Israel and Romania found that when
strengthen the group. In a series of studies that employees feel that what they do is useful
stem from positive organizational psychology, and challenging, they experience their
we found that meaningful work is one of the work to be meaningful. In a recent manage-
most important engines for employees’ engage- ment class for MBA students, they chose
ment as well as a basis for improving their meaningfulness as the most important factor
performance. We found that the atmosphere for them in their roles. They stated that they


Fall 2010

felt their work was meaningful when they fairly advanced even by modern standards.
were challenged, had a certain level of Although it may be farfetched to argue that
autonomy, and felt that their work was con- the Vikings should be considered the first HR
tributing to their organization—essentially, executives, it is easy to see how the laws of
doing useful work. these ancient warriors can add value to the
In the course of our work, our company practice of HR management today.
has surveyed about 20 organizations from
various industries and sizes and about 30,000 NOTES
employees from all levels. Overwhelmingly,
employee responses pointed to the impor- 1. This research was cited in Hitt, M. A., Black, J. S., &
tance of positive experiences of the individu- Porter, L. W. (2009). Management. Upper Saddle River,
als at their workplaces—especially in relation NJ: Prentice Hall.
to their direct supervisors and coworkers. 2. Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. I. (2006, May). The half-truths of
The Vikings’ words of advice in terms of nur- leadership. Stanford Business, pp. 14–19. Retrieved from
turing the human capital of an organization http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm0605/feature
are more relevant today than ever before. _leadership.html.
3. In-Innovation, organized by the DeMarker financial maga-
ANCIENT ADVICE STILL RELEVANT FOR HR zine.
4. Cohen-Meitar, R., Carmeli, A., & Waldman, D. A. (2009).
It is quite astonishing to think that people Linking meaningfulness in the workplace to employee cre-
who lived over a thousand years ago, who ativity: The intervening role of organizational identifica-
created a primitive and brutal society, came tion and positive psychological experiences. Creativity
up with rules that place the development Research Journal, 21, 361–375.
and well-being of their “employees” at the 5. Meitar, A. (2009). An unimaginable journey: How Pepsi
forefront—a concept that would be considered beat the odds in Romania. Charleston, SC: BookSurge.

Aviad Meitar is the chairman of Quadrant European Beverages Limited, the Pepsi bottler
for Bulgaria. He served as the chairman of Quadrant Amorq Bottling Company Limited
(QABCL), the exclusive PepsiCo licensee for Romania and Moldova, until its successful
sale to PepsiAmericas, the second-largest PepsiCo bottler in the world, in July 2006. Meitar
set up QABCL’s operation in Romania in 1991 and has had oversight managerial responsi-
bility for the company’s operations for over 15 years. He recently published a book about
this experience titled An Unimaginable Journey: How Pepsi Beat the Odds in Romania,
available on Amazon. He may be contacted at ameitar@inter.net.il or through his Web site,
www.aviadmeitar.com. Ravit Cohen-Meitar, Ph.D, is a managing partner at Tmurot, an
organizational consulting firm in Israel. She has been conducting workshops on various
management-development topics for 15 years and acted as a consultant to managers and
organizations—private, public, and global. She is also a lecturer at the Bar-Ilan University
School of Management. Her main research topics are creativity and innovation in organi-
zations and meaningfulness in organizations. She may be contacted at ravit@tmurot.com.


Were the Vikings the First HR Executives? From Employment Relations Today

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Were the Vikings the First HR Executives? From Employment Relations Today