Comparative Analysis of Corporate Cultures of Ukraine and Poland: Substantiation Methodology, Theoretical Significance, Practical Conclusions

Abstract

Generalization of the management experience of the leading domestic entrepreneurial formations shows that the results of their management increasingly depend on appropriate conceptual approaches to the organization and direct implementation of entrepreneurship, management style, and methods, the imperative of values and norms of business activity. This is a common practice for developed countries, is perceived as an axiom in the world, and serves as the basis for the justification of specific economic decisions; however, in the conditions of the Ukrainian economy, it is only beginning to acquire proper assimilation. In the business sphere, this concept in a more specific sense is most often used as “corporate culture”, it is scientifically correct concerning holding and/or corporate-type formations. For domestic economic science, national economy, and economic practice of business formations, it is objectively the most legitimate and expedient to conduct a comparative analysis of corporate cultures on the example of Ukraine and Poland. The initial basis of the analysis is the identification of a clear categorical meaning of the definition “corporate culture”. The experience of developing researched issues in world economic science is summarized. The content of the conceptual approach of C. Hampden-Turner and F. Trompenaars regarding the typology of corporate cultures is considered. The results of the author’s pilot survey of entrepreneurs of Ukraine and Poland regarding their self-assessment of the content of corporate cultures of their countries, which was carried out in the context of the implementation of the project of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the National Agency for Academic Exchanges of Poland, are presented. Such a comprehensive scientific and practical approach made it possible to determine the common and distinctive features of the corporate cultures of these countries. The realization of really significant competitive advantages of Ukraine and Poland in the system of pan-European division of labor (as opposed to the trivial declaration of such advantages) requires taking into account the real existing common and distinctive features of the corporate cultures of the two countries. This is especially important when implementing joint projects of cooperation of Ukrainian and Polish business formations in priority industries and spheres of economic complexes of countries at the stage of the post-war development of Ukraine.