business culture

geschäftskultur

Business culture is a broad term that could potentially apply to a number of issues.  Below are a couple of the items that Americans might easily recognize when doing business in Germany.

Working Hours

Germany has the shortest work week of any industrialized nation in the world.  Depending upon the source, the average German work week ranges between 35 and 38.5 hours.  In addition, Germany has a number of national holidays, which decrease the calendar work year that already includes between four and six weeks vacation.

Shops tend to close early on Saturday afternoon and remain closed on Sundays.  Aside from gas stations and their connecting convenience marts, there are no twenty-four hour stores.  The German government has limited the number of operational hours for commercial businesses since the economic expansion of the 1950s with hopes that families would have more time together.

Labor Unions

Labor unions retain much more power in Germany than they do in the US.  Unions have a voting representative on the boards of all corporations, and companies with more than 500 employees have a union representative on their company's board voicing the concerns and demands of the labor force.  The union representative is usually a career position at most German companies, and the representative is therefore well-educated in both the needs of the company and the needs of the labor force.  For this reason, the unions usually have a relatively good reputation in Germany and enjoy a number of privileges not seen at American companies.