Norwegian Business Structures

In common with the other Scandinavian business cultures, Norway is extremely non-hierarchical in its approach to business structure.

In accordance with Norway’s famous interpersonal code of Jante Law (first put into words by the famous poet Aksel Sandemose), people in Norway are expected to be egalitarian in their approach to all aspects of life – you shall not think you are special is one of the main tenets of Jante Law. This egalitarian approach obviously lends itself to being comfortable in a more matrix-style organisation.

Thus the emphasis in a Norwegian operation is placed not on the hierarchy of people’s relationships but more on pragmatism and the development of efficient systems which allow people to perform their tasks effectively and with as little interference as possible. Hand in hand with this egalitarian approach goes an openness of communication and freedom of information which many more hierarchical societies would find difficult to accept.

When working with Norwegians, it is best to spend your time trying to find the person who is responsible for a specific task rather than working out what the hierarchy is and working from the top down to the fact holder. It might even be viewed negatively if the fact holder is initially ignored and a senior member of the organisation is approached first.

Author

This country-specific business culture profile was written by Keith Warburton who is the founder of the cultural awareness training consultancy Global Business Culture. 

Global Business culture is a leading training provider in the fields of cross-cultural communication and global virtual team working.  We provide training to global corporations in live classroom-based formats, through webinars and also through our cultural awareness digital learning hub, Global Business Compass.

This World Business Culture profile is designed as an introduction to business culture in Norway only and a more detailed understanding needs a more in-depth exploration which we can provide through our training and consultancy services.