US Business Culture: Why your US team members might not openly disagree with the boss

33 on Thursday is back! In today’s 33-second video, we talk about how Danish bosses sometimes assume their US teams are 100% behind them when it comes to strategy…but it ain’t necessarily so.

While Danish teams can be counted on to challenge their managers directly, Americans are less likely to do so. This is in part because US business culture is more hierarchical – the boss is The Boss – and partly because American employees don’t want to get fired and find themselves on the street. The US has very little safety net.

Danes often underestimate the role of the welfare state when it comes to their willingness to hold the boss to account. If you know that your medical care and your kids’ education isn’t dependent on your continued employment, you’re much more willing to tell the boss that her new idea is about as well-chosen as a flaming dessert on the Hindenburg.

Read more – and see as-yet unpublished 33-second videos – on Amerikansk.dk.