The Royal Norwegian Embassy is sponsoring two half-day seminar events in cooperation with the Norwegian Business Forum and the Norwegian Business Association. The events are open to members of NBF and NBA, and will take place in Beijing on March 8th and in Shanghai on March 11th.
Talking About Talking
The seminar is titled “The Chinese view on cross-cultural communication and leadership”, and explores business management and leadership theories in both China and Europe. It is led by Norwegian expat Henning Kristoffersen, who has recently completed a research project on how to improve cross-cultural communication between operations in Europe and China. His findings are based on interviews with Chinese, Scandinavian, and German managers and employees.
Kristoffersen has also co-authored an article published in the Scandinavian Journal of Management about western leadership development and Chinese managers. As part of the study, 171 Chinese MBA students give their thoughts on if, and how, Western theories of leadership are useful in their business environment. The study incorporates elements of both Chinese philosophy and Western leadership theories, and concludes that leadership development techniques need to be adapted to fit their cultural context.
A Jack of All Trades
Henning Kristoffersen was previously the head of the Nordic Centre at Fudan University in Shanghai, and director for International Relations BI Norwegian School of Management. His experience with business in China includes entrepreneurship and trading as well as consulting and teaching in BI’s MBA programme with School of Management at Fudan. He has recently published the 2nd edition of the book “The New China – Chinese trade, culture and politics”. He currently works for DNV (Det Norske Veritas), which is one of the leading risk-management companies in the world.
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