Norwegian Managers’ Intercultural Competence

As a small country with international ambitions, Norway has a long tradition of sending managers abroad to meet potential new partners, and, of course, receiving the latter in Norway on return visits. Are Norwegian managers as competent in cross-cultural communication as generally believed? Is fluent English a sufficient prerequisite for interacting effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds?

Norwegians rank at the top globally in two specific cultural traits: egalitarianism and social trust. These two traits strongly influence the way Norwegians tend to communicate, especially regarding degree of formality, verbal directness, and will