Introducing the company

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a multinational

professional services network with over 150 years in the domain. Deloitte is one of the "Big
Four" accounting organizations and the largest professional services network in the world by
revenue and number of professionals.
Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, enterprise risk and financial advisory services with more
than 286,200 professionals globally. In Financial Year 2018, the network earned a record $43.2
billion USD in aggregate revenues. As of 2017, Deloitte is the 4th largest privately-owned
company in the United States.
Deloitte has been ranked number one by market share in consulting by Gartner, and for the
fourth consecutive year, Kennedy Consulting Research and Advisory ranks Deloitte number one
in both global consulting and management consulting based on aggregate revenue.
“Deloitte” is the brand under which tens of thousands of dedicated professionals in independent
firms throughout the world collaborate to provide audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk
management, tax, and related services to select clients. These firms are members of Deloitte
Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”). Each DTTL
member firm provides services in particular geographic areas and is subject to the laws and
professional regulations of the particular country or countries in which it operates.
Each DTTL member firm is structured in accordance with national laws, regulations, customary
practice, and other factors, and may secure the provision of professional services in its territory
through subsidiaries, affiliates, and other related entities. Not every DTTL member firm provides
all services, and certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and
regulations of public accounting.
DTTL and each DTTL member firm are legally separate and independent entities, which cannot
obligate each other. DTTL and each DTTL member firm are liable only for their own acts and
omissions, and not those of each other.
In Romania, the services are provided or supported by Deloitte Audit SRL, Deloitte Tax SRL,
Deloitte Consultanta SRL, Deloitte Fiscal Representative SRL, Deloitte Tehnologie SRL,
Deloitte GES Support Services SRL and Deloitte Shared Services SRL.
“Deloitte in Romania is one of the leading professional services organizations in the country,
providing services in four professional areas - audit and risk services, tax, consulting and
financial advisory services, with more than 1100 professionals. Deloitte in Romania is an
affiliate of Deloitte Central Europe, an organization devoted to excellence in providing
professional services and advice, focused on client service through a global strategy executed
locally in nearly 150 countries, with access to the deep intellectual capital of more than 200,000
people worldwide.” This is how the company characterizes and describes itself on the Romanian
job recruitment websites, whilst holding the position of a “Big four” at a global level, amongst
the other three giants in the audit and risk service industry.

Cross-cultural management and communication in Multinational

Corporations

Globalization becoming present and having a great impact in every field of activity, economy
and market, has led to an imperative need for the management of companies of every scale to
focus on understanding and developing cross-cultural strategies in which concerns
communication, negotiation and decision-making processes. By doing so, the process of adapting
is increasingly facilitated for persons in managerial positions that are well trained and possessing
the knowledge and skills of cross-cultural communication and capabilities.
Multinational Corporations are economic structures that are built to adapt to the global economy.
They prefer to produce goods or services in foreign countries, because of a multitude of reasons,
most common being finances and labor force. They are structures that are multicultural and
require a different management approach to cope with cultural differences. Being multicultural is
about being positive and open to learn about other people’s backgrounds. It creates new ways of
communication that contribute to a better and more creative work environment.
We can find this type of companies in almost every sector of activity. It requires management
and work force that come from different cultures. Taking into consideration this aspect and the
fact that these people need to establish relationships with workers from the host country,
management of cultural differences is something imperative. This is why the activities of
multinationals are usually very different from local companies.
Managers coming from different backgrounds have different perspectives on how things should
be done. Understanding the host country culture should be the number one thing when it comes
to taking decisions in such teams. People are the most important resource of any organization,
and so if they are not correctly lead, achievement of objectives and a healthy work environment
cannot be achieved. Ignoring the human side of business leads to wasted resources and reduced
productivity. You have to be able to bring together people from different contexts in order to
achieve goals and create a strong corporate culture.
If we were to dissect multiculturalism, we would have different components: cultural self-
awareness and capacity for self-assessment, understanding other people’s perspective,
adaptability and adjustment to new cultural environments, openness toward intercultural learning
and to foreign people and adaptation to varying intercultural communication and learning styles.
The most important elements of multicultural management are:
 Recruiting candidates that can be effective in cross-cultural environments
 Handling differing regulatory environments for business
 Training employees to handle intercultural communication issues
 Facilitating cross-cultural teams
  Aligning HR policies and procedures across corporate entities in different
nations

Overview of Cross-cultural management in Romania

Romania is a country that is still influenced in many aspects by its communist period, reality
which is also reflected in teamworking and managing attitudes and customs. We can easily reject
this reality as we could think that younger generations – which are often to be found in
multinationals, as in Deloitte as well - are to be perceived as being eager and vibrant when it
comes to seeking opportunities, but there is to be kept in mind that the educational system
-which has been slightly modified and adapted to the current reality - has actually influenced in a
great manner the attitude towards teamwork and collaboration. As for example my case, it was
only in university that this area has been truly explored and encouraged through various group
projects and activities, as high school and previous educational cycles have not focused on this.
Thus, it is still relevant that responsibility for making a decision is rarely taken upon oneself,
there is a general tendency of telling what is perceived as the other wanting to hear rather than
speaking your own mind, and there is an increased fear of exposure and embarrassment potential
resulting from possibility of failures that is still present in the Romanian mindset. This requires
cross cultural sensitivity as personal short-comings can lead to long-term effects that might
reflect in the whole group.
Relationships are very important in the Romanian culture and this reflects into business. A
characteristic present in the Romanian work environment that transcends close hierarchical
levels is that of personal concern amongst work colleagues, with managers often exhibiting care
and concern for personal issues as well, not only for professional situations.
It is perceived as a commonality for the Romanian workplace to approach deadlines, productivity
and punctuality in a relaxed manner, with employees showing up regularly to work, but late.
There can be noticed that long coffee and smoke breaks are common amongst Romanian
workers.
When it comes to hierarchy and decision making the style is still a totalitarian leadership one,
being as well a really centralized one, with the highest-ranking persons being the ones to do the
most of the decision-making. What plays an important role when it comes to sharing
information, ideas and reaching decisions are informal relations, as Romanians tend to chitchat
quite a lot, being difficult to reach this in a formal meeting and also keep track of it if that was
the case. Lots of decisions are take relying on context, personal interest and also what is at stake.

Origins of the cultural issue

Taking into consideration the position the company holds in the industry and the fact that it
represents a multinational company, it comes naturally for a mix of cultures and nationalities to
blend together – the issue arises once the blending does not go as smoothly as it should or it is
not carried out completely. This is also the case with Deloitte, where some of the teams are
having as team leaders foreigners from all around the world – African countries, the Netherlands,
France, Poland, Pakistan, for example. Looking at the multitude of nationalities and cultural
backgrounds it is easily understandable that cultural issues are easy to interfere in both the
communication process and work environment, as mostly, the teams are made up of persons that
are Romanian at origins.