Case on-cross

1. Summary: The Finnish company placed an order for garments in Italy, adhering to rigorous
ordering and delivery deadlines. The order was placed by two employees, and clients were
promised that the things would come by the delivery date; nevertheless, no goods arrived from
Italy. The Finnish boss chastised the two employees, who were then contacted by the Italians. The
management wanted to discuss the orders when the Italians requested supper, and they considered
the Italians to be extremely disrespectful, crowding meetings and failing to stay on topic, so they
wanted to keep the meeting going. The scenario was terrible, and the Finnish manager was worn
out. He had only done business in Finland and had no idea how different conducting business in
two countries with radically different cultures could be. Furthermore, the issue exacerbated as the
manager refused to change his ways, and he quit. After that, a new manager was hired, and cross-
cultural communication between Italian and Finnish employees began to improve.
Issue: Intercultural education,understanding,adaptation,and communication are all lacking in the
Finnish Company's management and personnel. Finland has a methodical approach to time
management, and everything must be completed on time. It is considered disrespectful and
unfriendly to be late or fail to perform a task on time, like the Italians did.
Recommendation: Intercultural training should be provided to the Finnish Company's manager
and staff so that they can notice thesimilarities and differencesamong people from various cultural
backgrounds throughout the world. Following training, the next step should be to learn how to
treat people from different cultures with respect, politeness, and tolerance, which are essential
business etiquettes. Furthermore, the manager and employees must be familiar with a variety of
work styles and not rely primarily on one. Because the Italian notion of time is different,
management should instruct staff to order items three weeks in advance to prevent being late,
ensuring that the same mistake does not happen again. Furthermore, the manager and employees
should always double-check that they are on the same page, and the manager should remind the
employees to repeat the task. Furthermore, the manager should warn the employees that the
garments must arrive in Finland by the deadline and that they should endeavor to contact the
Italians ahead of time. A written confirmation of the deal via email would be a good backup, but
communication at all levels of the Finnish company was poor until they hired a new manager who
recognized the multicultural issues and used his intercultural skills to address the intercultural
management problem in order to improve the company's intercultural communication.