Quote Originally Posted by stupidumboy
What I know is that German and Swedish have striking similarities in both of large companies and trade unions play defined roles alongside the government as partners in the economic and political system and both countries put high value on labours speciality and welfare system.
There may be similarities in the mentality (inflexibility) and working style (clear separation of professional and private, methodical, structured environment), but a striking difference is that Swedes are very egalitarian with very little hierarchy, and favour oral communication (phone over letter), while Germans are notoriously bureaucratic with all the hierarchy that implies and prefer putting things down on paper rather rather than contending themselves on oral agreements.

They are both so called social democratic countries.
That is correct that both countries favour strong social security, but so do most European states, including the UK.

what about Dutch,Belgian,Spanish?
Dutch are methodical, conformist and quite egalitarian.

Belgians are more hierarchical, but flexible and have a strong entrepreneurial spirit like the English. They are closer to the French and the English than the Dutch or German.

Not too sure about Spaniards, except that they like creating personal relationship with people before doing business, and are not famous for being good teamworkers (too proud ?).

Let me recommend you this book EuroManagers and Martians on European business cultures.

Do French labour union love ultra -hierarchical management style which looks pretty opposite of their usual philosophy?
What is their usual philosophy ? The French are among the most hierarchical and elitist people on earth. The Japanese and Indians are too, but in a different way. Japanese care especially about seniority because of Confucianism, and Indians about caste because of Hinduism. The French status is based especially on academic achievements, and the position reached in society (esp. politics, academics and business). About all high-ranking French politicians and big company managers have graduated from on of the ultra-elitist Grandes Ecoles. After graduating, it is usual to start a career at the government as high ranking bureaucrat (yes, they start from the top, as academics prime over seniority) then, when they have learned how the political world function, they are given a high managerial position in a big public (or even private) company. Few people start from the bottom and gradually reach the top like in Japan.

It's a bit like the system of Public Schools in Britain, where all the upper-class go, and all the top politicians and business people graduate from. The difference is that public schools are secondary education (usually leading to Oxford or Cambridge), while Grandes Ecoles are tertiary level.