Bambicruz From Morocco, joined Nov 2001, 286 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 844 times:
Hey Everyone!
I have to do a report (school) on difficulties faced in regards to mergers of Companies of different countries, and I have picked the Air France - KLM merger but couldnt find anything interesting on the Net on the difficulties the 2 companies had to overcome from an Intercultural Business prespective; knowing that the managers of Air France (being french) have a very different way of doing business than their dutch counterparts which I am very sure have led to some conflicts between the two parts during the Initial period of the merger (Business practice, Language Barrier and so forth...).
Does anyone have more insight on this? any article or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Petertenthije From Netherlands, joined Jul 2001, 2781 posts, RR: 17 Reply 1, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 818 times:
Well, I have not heard yet that De Wijk kicked Spinetta in the balls after a small misunderstanding. So if there are any mayor intercultural problems, you won't hear them.
EHHO From Germany, joined Dec 2005, 815 posts, RR: 10 Reply 3, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 790 times:
Actually, the return of alcohol on KL's european flights is rumored to be a direct result of the merger. Whether that is to harmonize the inflight meal procurement, or actually because of cultural differences I don't know, but the latter sounds nice.
Just before posting this I decided to google (in Dutch) AF/KL and "cultural differences". According to an archived article of the Telegraaf newspaper, here's a list of cultural differences prevailing soon after the merger:
decisions taken by Spinetta would not be met with arguments, opposed to Van Wijk's;
AF senior management would have to be addressed in a more polite fashion ("vous" instead of "toi"), as opposed to KL (where everyone is supposedly "jij");
during meetings in Paris the French were so courteous to provide the Dutch with milk at their lunches (typical in Holland), while the French had wine and two hot meals a day (opposed to only one customary in Holland);
the Dutch are supposedly much more hands-on and focused where the French would be more concerned with the greater vision and take less issue with deadlines..
"Get your facts first. Then you may distort them as much as you please" -- Mark Twain
EHHO From Germany, joined Dec 2005, 815 posts, RR: 10 Reply 5, posted (3 years 2 months 1 week 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 622 times:
Quoting Bambicruz (Reply 4): ou wouldnt know of any more I could possibly add?
Well, as said, these are just the ones I found on Google. It sort of gives you the picture I guess. For real research info you should try to get in touch with AF/KL directly.
"Get your facts first. Then you may distort them as much as you please" -- Mark Twain
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