Doing business in Denmark can be a pleasure for internationals: the Danish business culture prizes transparency, trustworthiness, and innovation. Yet Danish business manners aren’t always clear if you come from abroad.
Should you bring a gift for your Danish business contact? How much small talk is required before you get down to a business deal in Denmark? Does Danish business etiquette require you to treat men and women differently, or show special respect for the management team versus other employees?
Kay Xander Mellish is a cultural trainer and speaker based in Copenhagen, Denmark who offers tips on working in Denmark for internationals. Kay is a US-Danish dual citizen and the author of “How to Work in Denmark” and “Working with Americans: Tips for Danes.”
How high are the taxes if you work in Denmark?
Many internationals would like to have a “tax calculator” to show exactly how much take-home pay they can expect after the Danish tax bite.
But it isn’t so straightforward: your tax level will depend on which municipality you live in, whether you have a mortgage, how long you commute to work, and other factors.
Danes sometimes need to reach out and help international employees understand the unwritten rules of Danish working culture.
Many Danish managers are surprised to discover the unwritten and unspoken rules they have been expecting the newcomers to follow, without really explaining them.
In my book, “How to Work in Denmark: Tips for Finding a Job, Succeeding at Work, and Understanding your Danish Boss,” I explain how international employees can fit into the Danish workplace.
While outsiders sometimes see the three Scandinavian cultures as “pretty much alike”, there are significant differences when it comes to working styles.
Working with a Danish boss can be a shock for Swedes, with their extreme need for consensus and passion for sticking to whatever has been agreed on by the group.
The Danes’ more free-form, flexible approach can take Swedes by surprise, as can the Danes’ directness and sometimes lack of political correctness.
Here are a few tips for Swedes (or anyone else!) working with a Danish boss.
If you ask the Danes what they like about their business culture, they’re sure to mention the flat hierarchy.
What they mean is that a management pyramid that might have ten or more layers in a hierarchical country like Japan has only two or three layers in Denmark.
The flat hierarchy is a virtue born of necessity: salaries are high in Denmark, so middle managers are expensive. And because Danes aren’t supervised or monitored as much as many employees elsewhere, middle management isn’t as necessary.
Selling in Denmark isn’t about exaggeration or appeals to the emotional side of buying.
Danish customers want deep product knowledge and a readiness to explain specific benefits, delivered in a calm, steady tone.
Trustworthiness is the most important factor when selling in Denmark, as well as a comprehensive understanding of what the product can offer and how it performs against its competitors in the Danish market.
In general, the Danes believe that a good product sells itself.
A kvajebajer, or “failure beer” is a Danish tradition.
You buy one for all your colleagues when they’ve just seen you make a foolish or avoidable mistake.
Another option is a kvajekage, or “failure cake”, which serves pretty much the same purpose without alcohol.
Americans and Danes both enjoy a good business deal, but there are significant differences between US business culture vs Danish business culture.
The most significant difference is the importance of trust in Danish culture and business culture.
As a small country where people generally know each other, it’s easy for the Danes to trust each other, and in business terms this means less monitoring and less record-keeping. Lawsuits and litigation is much less common in Denmark than they are in the US, so Danes spend less time documenting their activities in case of a lawsuit.
A kvajebajer, or “failure beer” is a Danish tradition. You buy one for all your colleagues when they’ve just seen you make a foolish or avoidable mistake. Another option is a kvajekage, or “failure cake”, which serves pretty much the same purpose without alcohol.
Comparing Danish working culture vs Swedish working culture results in a lot of similarities, but a few significant differences.
Both countries shy away from hierarchy and rarely use job titles. Both place a strong emphasis on job satisfaction and work-life balance.
And both offer extensive benefits to workers, including generous time off to care for children. But Swedes are more consensus-oriented than the Danes, while Danes are more spontaneous and rely more on humor in the workplace.
Working hours in Denmark are not as extensive as they are in many other countries. Although there is no legally-mandated limit on working hours – just as there is no legally-mandated minimum wage in Denmark – the umbrella agreements that many unions set with employers limit the ordinary work week to 37 or 37.5 hours. This breaks down to about 7.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, with a half-hour unpaid for lunch. Most Danish employers provide a hot lunch for employees to eat together as a team.