Business meeting styles

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Croatia

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Table of contents

Country introduction ...................................................................................................... 3

Meeting styles ................................................................................................................. 5

Patterns of information sharing ..................................................................................... 7

Display of emotions ........................................................................................................ 9

The role of authority .................................................................................................... 11

Reasoning styles ............................................................................................................ 13

Local meeting terminology .......................................................................................... 14

Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 16

Colophon ....................................................................................................................... 17

Business meeting styles

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Country introduction

The Republic of Croatia (Croatia) is a country that is located in Central Europe in a

region also known as the Balkan region. It is adjacent to the Adriatic Sea and is

surrounded by several countries. These countries (Hungary in the north east, Serbia

in the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Montenegro in the south east and

Slovenia to the North West) have had a lot of influences on Croatia in ways of

history, politics and culture.

The Republic of Croatia

Capital: Zagreb

Population: 4.5 million

Surface: 56.594 km²

Language: Croatian (Hrvatska)

National currency: Kuna

The majority of the population of Croatia is between the age of 15 and 64 years old.

Almost 90% of the people in Croatia is Roman Catholic. Other religions in Croatia

are Orthodoxy (4.4%) and Islam (1.3%). Several ethnicities live in Croatia. Most of

them are Croats, 89.6% and 4.5% are Serb. The other 5.9% include Bosniak,

Hungarian, Slovene, Czech and Roma people (TMA world, 2010).

History

Croatia’s history is very rich. The countries history dates back to the medieval era,

when the region we now know as Croatia was divided in to several dukedoms. Later

on, a kingdom was formed. It was called the Kingdom of Croatia. Croatia was in a lot

of wars ever since. After the Croatian-Ottoman Wars, the country became part of the

Austrian-Hungary Empire. Croatia had a lot of incidents and wars with their

neighbours. However, in 1929 Croatia became part of Yugoslavia. After WWII,

Croatia got more independent, starting with gaining greater respect for the Croatian

language. In 1992, the United Nations gave Croatia diplomatic recognition. In 1995

the Croatian War of Independence ended and Croatia became an independent

country shortly after that (www.hr/croatia/history).

Tourism

Thanks to its location, Croatia enjoys a continental climate as well as a

Mediterranean climate. A lot of the economy in Croatia is based on tourism. Thanks

to the beautiful coastline of Croatia with its hundreds of tiny islands that look like

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small paradises on earth, the tourism in Croatia is flourishing. The country’s

economy is based on a market economy that had a great boost after the last wars

in the mid 90's. For the future of Croatia, this means that the rising popularity as a

holiday destination will give a great boost for the economy. As a result, the

younger generation in Croatia is more likely to travel and have international

contacts. Hopefully, this can be the beginning of flourishing period for the Croatian

social life and economy (Lewis, 2006).

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Meeting styles

When it comes to meetings, the Croats have their own habits, styles and ways to

communicate with each other. Not knowing these styles of communication during a

meeting can make it a lot harder when you want to do business in Croatia. Croats

are eager to do business with foreign people. A reason for this eagerness could be

that they would love to join the European Union. However, the meeting styles

within Europe are very different and so is the Croatian style.

Before the meeting

The Croats find it important that you are well prepared for the meeting. You will

impress the Croats by being polite and well dressed. Be sure to be on time since the

Croats appreciate punctuality. When you plan a meeting in Croatia, be sure to do is

on time. The Croatian people like to be prepared and it is appreciated if the

meeting is planned several weeks before it actually takes place. Also, confirm your

appointment by phone a couple of days before the meeting. The Croats tend to

turn up late on their appointment but will always call you about delays. Be sure to

be on time and when you are late due to circumstances, always keep in touch with

the one you have an appointment with. The Croats are not very used to send and

receive emails. That's why you always need to be sure to call the one you have an

appointment with, because he won't always read the email you sent him. (TMA

World, 2010)

During the meeting

When you enter a meeting, be prepared that you should start off with some small

talk. You will be offered a coffee before the meeting starts. The Croats have a lot of

respect for people with titles. Be sure to greet everyone in the room and start with

the women in the room. Then greet the men and remember to use titles when

greeting the men and women. Soon enough, they will invite you to call them by

their first names. Until that point, be polite and use titles.

It will take several meetings before it is appreciated to negotiate during a meeting.

This is because the Croats will expect a relationship between two people who do

business together. Therefore, it is considered impolite to hurry down to business.

Building a relationship is also why the Croats don't really use agenda's. While it is

acceptable to bring one, the Croats will not always follow the agenda. One of the

reasons for this is that the Croats don't like to control a meeting very much. This is

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why meetings mostly end up in a conversation where everybody appears to talk at

the same time. (TMA World, 2010)

After the meeting

When meetings end, the deal is sealed with a shot of Rakia. Rakia is a typical

Croatian alcoholic beverage. Rejecting this will raise eyebrows and people will get

suspicious. Also, it is very common for meetings to end in a diner. Most likely, you

will get invited by your host. Feel free to accept this invitation. (TMA World, 2010)

We can conclude that it is important to prepare yourself before going into a

meeting in Croatia. Be sure your appointment or meeting is confirmed before you

go to the meeting. It will take several meetings before the negotiations start. The

Croats don’t like to hurry down to business. When the meetings are done and the

deal is closed, you will have dinner with the business partners and will have a

pleasure of tasting a typical Croatian drink, Rakia.

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Patterns of information sharing

The way people share their information can tell you a lot about the person you are

working with. It can give you an image of how these people value information. It

can also tell you about the collaboration between colleagues or the emotional

commitment to the information. Looking at the patterns of information sharing in

organisations, we see how these patterns affect not only the organisational culture

but also the economy of Croatia and its position in the economical world.

On a business level

Inside a business organisation, there can be several ways to share information. This

depends on the organisational culture. The business organisations in Croatia can be

divided in a group of traditional organisations and modern organisations (TMA

World, 2010). In the traditional organisations, the information will always go from

the top of the organisation to the bottom. This top-down information flow is based

on a need to know basis. This means that workers at the bottom of the organisation

will only get information if it is really important to them. The traditional

organisations also have a bureaucratic style of communication, which means that

information cannot be shared as easy as it would be in another style of

organisation. However, there are modern organisations as well. These have a flatter

hierarchy than the traditional ones. Also, the way of communicating within a

modern organisation is far more informal. Information is more likely to be shared

with all types of employees. Thanks to open communication within the company,

the employees will have easy access to their superiors and their information.

The bigger picture

On a national scale, information sharing can have big influences on Croatia (M.

Brown, T. Japelli, M. Pagano, 2007). It can affect the county's economic position

within Europe. For instance, sharing information among Croatian banks can affect

their performances and, indirect, the credit market performance. Although the

information on finance, costs of finance and firm debt is, the development in

sharing information in Croatia is low. This means that there is a low level of

institutional reform and little macroeconomic stability. When organisations share

information instead of only competing with each other they can become stronger

and will eventually help Croatia to become a stronger and more important country

in Europe.

Croatia

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These observations imply that the patterns of information sharing in Croatia

depend on the different types of organisations. Due to bureaucratisation and a

steep hierarchy in traditional organisations, information is not being shared a lot.

Information is easier to get in the modern organisations because of the informal

way of communicating and a flatter organisation structure. The Croats are getting

more used to sharing information but the Croatian companies are far from

transparent. By being more transparent, the country's economy can grow. This is

how the Croatians share their information and how it can affect the organisations

and the country's position in the economical world.

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Display of emotions

Emotions have different meanings in different cultures. In some cultures it is not

acceptable to show emotions in a business environment. In others it is very normal

and even appreciated to show your emotions during a meeting. This differs from

country to country and depends on the county's culture. Like any other country,

Croatia also has its own culture and rules for showing emotions. To understand the

Croatian behaviour during a meeting, we must know about the way the Croats

display their emotions. To fully understand, we need to know about the emotional

behaviour in general as well as during a meeting.

Emotions in general

To start with, the Croatian people are very patriotic (Lewis, 2006). They are very

proud of their country and their cultural history. Croatia is influenced by their

Balkan neighbours, they are very close to the Austrian culture. Therefore, they

consider themselves European. It is common in Croatia to show affection in public. It

is normal to see people kissing and hugging each other. This is mostly done by

young people, while the elderly will disapprove this behaviour and will pretend not

to see it. As well as showing affection, publicly how anger and disapproval is normal

in Croatia. Showing deep emotions like suffering is unlikely to be seen. In Croatia,

people will look down upon people who show these emotions (TMA World, 2010).

Emotions during meetings

Because of pride and traditional roles for men and women, it is a sign of weakness

to appear too emotional during a meeting. Also, giving to much information about

your private life can be a sign of weakness as well. Croats are a bit reserved when

you first get to know them. They appreciate small talk and the Croats tend to use

humour in their meetings. The humour that is used is very sarcastic and cynical and

therefore can be misunderstood by people who are not used to this kind of

humour. When the Croats get to know each other, they become more relaxed. They

start to use expressive body language and stand close to each other when in

conversation. They accept it when the other person is a bit more reserved, but when

someone tries to widen the gap between two people that will be seen as impolite.

Concluding these facts, we can state that the Croats won’t show a lot of emotions

during a meeting because this will make them look weak. They will make jokes and

use intensive body language. They like showing their appreciation to each other in

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public. In general, the Croats like showing emotions as long as it's not a very intense

emotion like heavy suffering.

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The role of authority

Knowing the role of authority within a business organisation can be very useful

when doing business in Croatia. Not only will it help you to understand the Croatian

society, it will increase your chances on doing business in Croatia. Knowing the role

of authority, you can adjust your approach and develop a better business

relationship with your client. Before looking at the role of authority during a

meeting, it is best to get an overview of the role that authority generally has in

Croatia. Afterwards, we look at the role in business organisations. Eventually, a view

on authority in business meetings will be given.

Authority in Croatian society

To understand the role of authority in Croatian society, we look at the hierarchical

differences in the society. Looking at this society, several layers can be described

(TMA World, 2010). At the top of the pyramid, the urban people with good jobs can

be found. Many of those people are Christian or Jewish. Just underneath this group,

there are the urban people with less important, but decent jobs. Although many of

these urban people moved to the city from out a rural area, they look down upon

those people. Needless to say, the rural people are considered to be below the

urban types. At the bottom of the pyramid, the ethnic Albanians can be found. But

there is another group of people in Croatia. This group is the Romany, or gypsies

and does not take part in the Croatian society. The Croatians are very aware of

these different classes. The group that is in the lower regions of the pyramid will

look up to a person from a higher layer.

Authority in business

After looking at the role of authority in the Croatian society, we can look at the role

it plays within a business organisation. Croatian companies are divided into two

types of business organisations. We separate new businesses from traditional ones.

After the war in the 1990's a lot of companies came to Croatia to do business. This

helped Croatia a lot, as it made it easier to rebuild the economy. The businesses

from outside of Croatia were very different from the Croatian ones. The differences

already occur by starting a company. The Croatian people don't like to take risks

and therefore, it is no surprise that the new businesses are more western than the

traditional. Although most of these companies are in tourism, an industry known

for its informal structure, the differences with traditional Croatian companies are

prominent. The traditional business organisations have a vertical hierarchy, which

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means that the difference between boss and employee is big. The workers deeply

respect their superiors but have little interaction with them. This is due to the

communication within a traditional company, which is top-down only. Although

Croatia is a traditional country, the amount of new business organisations is

increasing (Lewis, 2009). Therefore there will be more businesses using a horizontal

hierarchy instead of a vertical one.

Authority in meetings

Now that we have an overview on the role of authority in general as well as in

business organisations, we can take a look at how Croatian people will deal with

authority during a meeting. After seeing how Croats respect authority in their

society as well as in their business organisations, it may be no surprise that during a

meeting, there is great respect for the chairman. However, the chairman is unlikely

to use a very strict agenda. The Croats see an agenda more as a guide throughout a

meeting (Croatia: Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette). Also, the Croats don't

like to be rushed into doing business. First there will be some small talk. When

talking business, the Croats like their information to be clear, as they don't like to

take risks. Since authority is much respected, it is not likely that an employee is the

one making jokes during a meeting. Also during a meeting, the role of authority is

respected.

Looking at the previous facts, it is only logical that Croatia scores 73 in the power

distance dimension, element of the Cultural Dimensions of Geert Hofstede (Croatia).

This means that the Croatians accept hierarchical order. Geert Hofstede is known for

his Cultural Dimension theory. He divided six dimensions. These contain the power

distance, individual versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty

avoidance, long term versus short term orientation and indulgence versus restraint.

Now that we know how Croatian people deal with authority in their society,

business organisations and meeting, it is easier to understand the score of 73 in

power distance dimension.

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Reasoning styles

A cultural background has all kinds of influences on a person’s behaviour. The way

one acts or thinks is all related to what kind of culture the person has. The previous

chapters explained about the way the Croatian culture influences the way people

act. The main subject of these chapters was how the meeting styles where affected

by the Croatian culture. This chapter is about how the Croatian culture influences

the way the Croats reason and eventually make decisions. A lot of aspects of the

Croatian culture form a reasoning style that is unique for Croatia and although

influenced by, very different from the other European countries. These aspects

contain the effectiveness of Croats, as well as the rationality and directness in

communicating with each other.

Aspects of reasoning style

As explained in the chapter about emotional display, the Croats are known to be

emotional. It is accepted to show these emotions in public. This use of emotions will

lead to taking decisions that are influenced by emotion. Croats are not known for

their rationality. The communication style of the Croats is also an important part of

reasoning. This is because the Croats are very direct. People with a direct attitude

towards others are used to process information in a direct way. This will lead to a

more direct way of thinking as well and this way the reasoning style of the Croats.

Another aspect that contributes to the reasoning style is the organisational

structures. The structure a person is familiar with will affect the reasoning of that

person. People who work in traditional organisations are more used to hierarchy

and will be reacting in a different way in the same situation than people who work

in modern organisations.

As a conclusion, it is to say that those different parts of a country's culture, have a

big influence on the reasoning style of Croatian people.

Croatia

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Local meeting terminology

It is appreciated to know some Croatian words en sentences when doing business in

Croatia. Not only will it come in handy when meeting with a Croatian business

partner, it is also a sign of respect to talk a bit of Hrvatski since the Croats are very

proud of their country.

Useful Croatian word (TMA World, 2010):

English Hrvatski

Hello Zdravo

Goodbye Dovidjenja

Yes Da

No Ne

Please Molim

Thank you Hvala

Many thanks Puno hvala

Excuse me Oprostite

Sorry Pardon

I don’t understand Je ne razumijem

What‘s your name? Kako ti je ime?

How much is it? Koliko kosjta?

Where is...? Gdje je...?

Bank Banka

My hotel Moj hotel

Market Trsjnica

Post office Poshta

Beach Plasja

Church Crkva

Useful Croatian business words (TMA World, 2010)

Sometimes there are several ways to say something in Hrvatski when the English

have only one expression for it.

English Hrvaski

Enterprise Poduzeće, ustanova

Corporation Poduzeće, ustanova

Financial corporation Financijska ustanova/poduzeće

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Holding poduzeće,

krovno poduzeće

(u grupi poduzeća),

Holding corporation matica, matično poduzeće

Zamjenjiva stopa

(vrsta promjenjive stope

Obnovljivih kredita koja se može

Zamijeniti drugom po

Renegotiable rate Obnavljanju/zanavljanju kredita)

Poduzeće u privatnom

Privately owned enterprise Vlasništvu, privatno poduzeće

Consumer price index Indeks potrošačkih cijena

Instalment credit Kredit na rate

Managing Director Generalni direktor:

Offshore company Offshore poduzeće,

"izvanteritorijalno" poduzeće

Harmonizirani indeks potrošačkih

cijena

Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) Polica otplate kredita,

Capital redemption policy Οsiguranje otplate kredita

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Bibliography

Websites

Croatia (n.d.) Retrieved March 14, 2012 from Geert Hofstede:

http://geert-hofstede.com/croatia.html

Martin Brown, Tullio Japelli, Marco Pagano. Information sharing and credit:

Firm-level evidence from transition countries. (2007). Retrieved March 13, 2012

from Science Direct:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042957308000193

Croatia: Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17,

2012, from Kwintessential Ltd:

www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/croatia.html

History and Homeland War. (n.d.) Retrieved March 17, 2012. From

www.hr/croatia/history

Books

Lewis, Richard D.. (2006). When cultures collide:leading across cultures, third

edition.(Books24x7 version) Nicholas Brealey Publishing

TMA World. (2010). Flightpack Croatia. Retrieved March 15, 2012, from

Surfgroepen CCBS:

www.surfgroepen.nl/sites/CCBS_2012_spring/Country%20readers/Sweden.pdf

Business meeting styles

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Colophon

NUR: 812

First edition: 2012

Authors: Jules Huijskens. Joël van Bodegraven

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