Toivonen Paper In The US Human Resource Implications Of Foreign Corporate Ownership Case Solution

2. Does it make sense for Toivonen to focus on dispersing its corporate culture to local subsidiaries in USA? Why?

It makes sense for Toivonen to disperse its corporate culture as long as it is in the long-run interests of the company in the USA. The interests would be kept intact as long as the subsidiary in the USA is able to retain or improve its productivity levels. Therefore, the parent company should disperse its corporate culture to the extent that it does not choke local customs and traditions (Strizhakova & Price, 2012). In other words, the useful aspects of the headquarters and the good practices followed internally by Treelin should be blended in the resulting corporate culture of the new organization that would result due to Toivonen’s takeover of ownership. For example, the culture of hiring workers by the work groups would motivate the work groups in their jobs. Secondly, employee training and development programs should be made a part of Treelin to help improve the workers’ productivity and efficiency (Tabassi & Ramli, 2012).

3. What potential problems and pitfalls do you see with implementing Toivonen corporate culture in the Treelin facility?

The primary problem that would result with implementing Toivonen corporate culture would be that USA employees would not easily accept the imposition of Finnish culture and values to their set up (Kostova & Ravlin, 2007). Secondly, since it is known through the case that some of the Toivonen management does not trust the USA management and Americans in general, an unreliable culture with strict rules and regulations is likely to be imposed by the Finnish management. Moreover, a sense of insecurity would prevail in the USA employees about their future associations with Treelin. A potential problem is the uncertainty that prevails about Finnish culture. The American culture encourages more individualism rather than valuing group efforts and recognition (Schoenherr, Samson, & Power, 2010). Therefore, encouraging development of more teamwork may not be welcomed by the Treelin employees and shop floor workers. As the powers of supervisors are likely to be delegated to work groups in the new set up, it is likely to cause more conflicts between the workgroups and their supervisors, such as decisions related to hiring.