Because this study is designed to focus on the barriers on firm level in cross-culture
communications in multinational firms, the interviews are designed for managers,
who have more knowledge of the organization and can provide more valuable
information to the study, in both Swedish parent company and Chinese subsidiary
company. The authors have interviewed three managers (R&D manager, Technical
and Production manager, and Quality Control manager, they are all Swedish) in
Sweden parent company and two managers (R&D manager and Assistant manager of
Vice President, both of them are Chinese) in Chinese subsidiary. For Swedish
managers, the authors used English to communicate with them. For Chinese ones,
mandarin was employed, in order to have a better understanding of each other. All of
these three Swedish managers have been to China and cooperated with Chinese
subsidiary company’s managers and employees for many times. Therefore, they have
seen and experienced the differences and difficulties during the cross-cultural
management. The Chinese R&D manager is one of the most experienced managers
who have worked in the company for many years, he has sufficient information about
company’s history and status quo, and he contacts frequently with Swedish parent
company. In the meantime, the Chinese assistant manager works closely with Vice
President (who is a Swedish) of Chinese subsidiary company. Therefore, he has more
possibilities in contacting with Swedish company and observing the Swedish
management.