Appendix 2 Functional organisation structure Thales Nederland (Corporate Presentation) Middle East

Appendix 1 Global presence Thales Group (Corporate Presentation)

Appendix 2 Functional organisation structure Thales Nederland (Corporate Presentation) Middle East

20 locations Europe

220 locations

Korea 3 locations

Australia 10 locations

Asia 40 locations

Africa 5 locations Latin America

10 locations North America

30 locations

Chairman

Human Resources

Sales &

Marketing

Finance &

Control

Legal Affairs Multi Domain Multi Domestic

Business Group Naval Branches:

Kiel Hamburg Wilhelms- haven

Branches:

Hengelo Delft

Business Group Communica- tions Systems

Business Group Optronics

Business Group Air Defence Branches:

Huizen

Branches:

Den Haag Eindhoven

Branches:

Eindhoven

2

Appendix 3 Customers of 'JRS' (Joint Radar Sensors Presentation)

= headed by a Dutch manager = headed by a French manager

Appendix 4 Organisational structure 'JRS’ (Corporate Presentation)

Technical Unit Processing Programs &

Integration Technical

Unit Antenna’s Sensor

Engineering Innovation

Technical Unit Microwaves Technical

Unit Mechanics Programs &

Integration Product &

Project Management

Radar Operations

FR Radar

Operations NL Projects &

Engineering

Technical Support

General Management

Human Resources

Financial

Control

Appendix 5 Introductory letter

Dear Sir / Madam,

Within the scope of my internship, I am conducting a research in the ‘BU’ Joint Radar Sensors. This research focuses on the influences of culture on the cooperation between Thales France and Thales Nederland. It tries to define the impact that national and organisational cultures have on this cooperation. Both the national culture of France and the Netherlands are part of this study as well as the organisational cultures of Thales France and Thales Nederland.

Being a student from the University of Groningen, this research is supervised by two mentors from this university, who guard the scientific value of this study. At the University of Groningen, I study Business Management, with a specialisation in International Business. In this background, the research as mentioned above, will take place.

To get insight in the intercultural cooperation that exists within JRS, I am planning to conduct a number of interviews. This interview will consist of a number of open questions. Topics discussed in this conversation include ‘the cooperation with the Dutch (or French)’, ‘differences between the Dutch and French’ and ‘the consequences of this intercultural cooperation for Thales’. The conversation will take an hour.

Considering your experience in the cooperation with the Dutch (or French), I would like to ask you if you want to participate in one of these interviews. To get an answer to this question, I will contact you in the coming weeks. If you have any questions till that time, you can reach me by mail or telephone or via the mail address of one of my mentors within Thales.

With kind regards,

Joost van Os

4

Appendix 6 Invitation letter for the workshop

Invitation Workshop Intercultural Cooperation Thursday 24 ^th of June, 15.30 – 17.00

Dear all,

Within the scope of my internship, I am finishing my research in the ‘BU’ Joint Radar Sensors. This research focuses on the influences of culture on the cooperation between Thales France and Thales Nederland. It tries to define the impact that culture has on this cooperation. Both the national cultures of France and the Netherlands are part of this study as well as the organisational cultures of Thales France and Thales Nederland.

As a student from the University of Groningen, two mentors from this university, who guard the scientific value of this study, supervise this research. At the University of Groningen, I study Business Management with a specialisation in International Business.

In this background, the research as mentioned above takes place.

The first phase of my research tried to describe both organisational cultures (of Thales France and Thales Nederland). Next to describing both organisational cultures (part I), my research also tries to generate ways to manage a bi-cultural cooperation (part II). “How to improve the cooperation between two parts of Thales, which are based in two different countries?” is the main question of this second phase. For this second part of my internship, I ask your cooperation.

For part II of my research I have organised a workshop. During this workshop, ways to deal with a bi-cultural cooperation are addressed. This will be done by discussing recommendations that are proposed in literature about this topic. In this workshop, these recommendations will be concretised for the Thales situation. A more complete programme of this meeting can be found on the next page.

To make sure that this workshop will actually generate enough information to come to substantiated recommendations, I kindly ask you to confirm your attendance to this meeting. If you have any questions regarding this meeting, you are more than welcome to contact me by e-mail or telephone.

Best regards,

Joost van Os

Appendix 7 Introduction to the interview in English

This conversation takes place within the scope of my internship at Thales. I am conducting a research on the influences of culture on the cooperation between Thales France and Thales Nederland. It is, therefore, important to understand how culture is defined in this research. First of all, there are several levels of culture. One can talk about a national culture or, for instance, about an organisational culture. Further, a culture can be described in a number of ways. Culture can be seen as a concept that deals with the values and meanings of people, but culture can also be defined as a phenomenon that deals with the behaviour and conduct of people. This last definition of culture will be used to define an organisational culture in this research.

The topics that will be addressed in this conversation deal with the intercultural cooperation between Thales France and Thales Nederland. The goal of this discussion is to get more insight in the organisational cultures of Thales France and Thales Nederland and the influence of these organisational cultures on the cooperation. It is possible that, next to these organisational cultures, both national cultures are discussed as well.

Three phases can be distinguished in this interview. The first phase focuses on your personal background. Topics, such as your education, your period within Thales and your function within Thales will be discussed in this part of the interview, which will take approximately five minutes. The second part will deal with the cooperation between Thales France and Thales Nederland. This phase takes half an hour. The third and last section of this interview tries to give insight in the organisational cultures of both Thales France and Thales Nederland, which will be done by using a theory.

The information gathered during this conversation will only be used for this research.

Your name will not be mentioned in the final report and therefore, anonymity is

guaranteed. Further, it is important to answer the questions in an honest way and mention

both the negative as well as the positive aspects of the cooperation. Finally, do you mind

that this conversation is tape-recorded?

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Appendix 8 Introduction to the interview in Dutch

Dit gesprek vindt plaats binnen het kader van mijn afstudeeronderzoek bij Thales. Mijn onderzoek richt zich op de invloeden van cultuur op de samenwerking tussen Thales Frankrijk en Thales Nederland. Vanwege de focus op cultuur is het van belang om inzicht te hebben in de manier waarop dit onderzoek tegen cultuur aankijkt. Er zijn verschillende cultuurniveaus aan te wijzen. Je kunt bijvoorbeeld praten over een nationale cultuur of een bedrijfscultuur. Hiernaast kan cultuur op verschillende manieren worden beschreven.

Cultuur kan bijvoorbeeld gezien worden als een concept dat zich bezig houdt met de waarden en normen van mensen. Maar cultuur kan ook worden gedefinieerd als een fenomeen dat handelt over de gedragingen en het optreden van mensen. Deze laatste omschrijving van cultuur zal worden gehanteerd in dit onderzoek.

Onderwerpen die aan bod komen in dit gesprek zijn gerelateerd aan de interculturele samenwerking tussen Thales Frankrijk en Thales Nederland. Het doel van deze discussie is inzicht verschaffen in de bedrijfsculturen van Thales Frankrijk en Thales Nederland en de invloed van deze bedrijfsculturen op de samenwerking. Naast deze bedrijfscultuur kunnen ook de beide nationale culturen ter sprake komen.

Het interview kan, grofweg, ingedeeld worden in drie fasen. De eerste fase richt zich op uw persoonlijke achtergrond. Zaken als vooropleiding, de periode werkzaam binnen Thales en uw functie op dit moment zullen hier besproken worden. Aan deze onderwerpen zullen ongeveer vijf minuten besteed worden. Het tweede gedeelte van het interview zal gaan over de samenwerking tussen Thales Frankrijk en Thales Nederland. Deze fase duurt ongeveer een half uur. De derde en laatste fase van het interview zal trachten inzicht te verschaffen in de beide bedrijfsculturen van Thales Frankrijk en Thales Nederland. Dit laatste onderwerp zal besproken worden aan de hand van een theorie over organisatie cultuur.

De informatie die dit gesprek oplevert zal alleen worden gebruikt voor dit onderzoek. Uw

naam niet worden genoemd in het rapport, dus anonimiteit is gewaarborgd. Verder is het

van belang om op een zo eerlijk mogelijke manier te antwoorden en zowel de negatieve

als positieve aspecten van de samenwerking te belichten. Tot slot, heeft u er bezwaar tegen

als dit gesprek wordt opgenomen met een bandrecorder?

Appendix 9 Structure of the interview

Phase I: Personal background (5 minutes):

- Education

- Period of working within Thales - Function within Thales

Possible questions:

- Can you tell me something about your personal background, for instance about your education, period of working within Thales and your function within Thales?

Phase II: Intercultural cooperation (30 minutes):

- Personal experiences in cooperating with French (Dutch) people (working for Thales) - Differences and overlaps between French and Dutch people (working for Thales) - Positive and negative aspects of French (Dutch) people (working for Thales) - Influences of both cultures on cooperation and performance

- (Handling the intercultural cooperation)

Possible questions:

- What were your first impressions of the French (Dutch) (working in Thales) when you came in contact with them?

- Can you tell me something about your personal experiences in cooperating with French (Dutch) people (working for Thales)?

- Is there a difference in working with a French (Dutch) colleague compared to working with a Dutch (French) colleague?

- Are there any differences in the behaviour of French and Dutch people (working for Thales)?

- What are the positive aspects of the French (Dutch) people (working for Thales)?

- What are the negative aspects of the French (Dutch) people (working for Thales)?

- How can the French (Dutch) organisational culture be characterised in for instance a decision- making situation? And in a meeting situation? And in a conflict situation?

- What can be said about the amount of social contacts with your French (Dutch) colleagues?

- What do you think is the influence of culture and the cultural differences on the cooperation with French (Dutch) people?

- Do you perceive the cooperation as a good thing and if so, what are the reasons to cooperate?

- What is the influence of this cooperation on the performance of Thales?

- How do you cope with the cooperation with French (Dutch) people?

- What can be said about the future of the French / Dutch cooperation?

- Can you summarise the intercultural cooperation in three keywords? And the French culture? And the Dutch culture?

Phase III: Organisational cultures (15 minutes):

- Process versus result orientated - Open versus closed orientated - People versus work orientated - Loose versus tight

- Organisation versus profession orientated - Normative versus pragmatic

Possible questions:

- Where would you like the organisational culture of Thales Nederland (France) to be?

- How can the organisational culture of Thales France be described?

- How can the organisational culture of Thales Nederland be described?

8

Appendix 10 Overview of advantages and disadvantages of cultural diversity (Adler 2002: 109)

Advantages Disadvantages

Synergistic advantages: Disadvantages:

Organisational benefits derived from Organisational costs caused by

cultural diversity diversity

Expanding meanings Diversity increases

Greater openness to new ideas Ambiguity Multiple perspectives Complexity Multiple interpretations Confusion

Expanding alternatives Difficulty converging meanings Increasing creativity Miscommunication

Increasing flexibility Harder to reach agreement Increasing problem-solving skills Difficulty converging actions

Harder to agree on specific actions

Culture-specific advantages: Culture-specific disadvantages:

Benefits from working with a particular Costs inherent in working with a

culture particular culture

Better understanding of local employees Over generalising Better able to work effectively with local Organisational policies

clients Organisational strategies

Better able to market effectively to local Organisational practices

customers Organisational procedures

Increased understanding of local political, Ethnocentrism social, legal, economic and cultural

environment

Appendix 11 An 11-phased approach to change an organisational culture

Step 1: Understand the environmental and other forces that will influence your future strategy

Step 10: Institutionalise, model and reinforce the changes in culture

Step 11: Continually reassess the organisation’s culture and establish a norm of continuous learning and transformation

Step 9: Identify obstacles and sources of resistance and develop strategies for getting around them Step 7: Craft an implementation plan with targets of intervention, time lines, milestones and

accountabilities

Step 8: Communicate the need for change and the plan for change and create motivation and buy in among key stakeholders

Step 6: Define the role of senior management in leading the culture change

Step 5: Determine what changes need to occur to implement strategy and address the gaps Step 4: Assess the existing culture and determine what elements of culture need to change Step 3: Create a shared vision of what the company needs to become

Step 2: Determine what are the core values that have been fundamental to your businesses identity, core

purpose and success and that you will not compromise

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Appendix 12 Managing cultural diversity

Be cultural

aware and sensitive

Identify and apply universal

issues

- technical / professional

- financial / planning

Share success

by applying transparent appraisal and reward systems

Create repeated interactions

Create

a vision that transcends individual differences

Provide

possibilities for multi-

cultural learning