eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

Objective of the Study:

The objective of the study was to examine the communication of corporate strategy and values across a multinational corporation with focus on the Finnish-Russian context. The case company was a Finnish organization with multiple foreign branches. The purpose of the study was to determine which factors affected the communication of corporate strategy and values across cultures. The topics of recontextualization, language and communication channels were researched in order to get an understanding of how meaning can change when communicating strategy and values across cultures.

Methodology and the Analytical Framework:

An inductive, quantitative approach was taken for this study. A survey was conducted prior to my involvement in the study. The survey was answered by the case company's employees in several countries, but for the purpose of this study the Finnish and Russian responses were considered. The Analytical framework of this study intends to show how the headquarters communicates strategy and values to the branches of the company and in the process how recontextualization, language and communication channels affect the message.

Findings and Conclusions:

The findings of this study showed that there was a clear gap between the perceived and actual knowledge of corporate strategy and values of employees. A number of reasons for this were evident including differing cultures as well as language competency, it was found that using local management as middle-men between the headquarters and subsidiary will assist in the communication process. In addition, considering the use of multiple functional languages so that foreign employees will more easily be able to understand what is being communicated would benefit the process.