Beiersdorf - how does culture impact on a small German multinational

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: B bzw. 2, ESCP Europe (Organizational Behaviour), course: Organizational Behaviour, language: English, abstract: This work deals with the way Beiersdorf's does business in Europe. It considers the German impact of this particular culture on local practices, such as the organisational structure, human resource issues, team working or employee reward systems. First we introduce you to the firm behind Nivea, a product that is well known worldwide. Beiersdorf, though a relatively small company, is present around the world and therefore worth analysing. We than picked a cultural theory to base our analysis on. We chose the cultural framework as discussed by Hofstede, which is accepted throughout the scientific world as a useful tool. We will explain what is meant by the four considered dimensions and say how the UK, Germany and France fit into this framework. Then we outline BDFs values, beliefs and norms, as integral part of the Beiersdorf culture and how they partly reflect German values. In the end we will show how these values are set into practice in general and on a day-to-day basis.