Internationalization of the oil and gas service company Petrolink AS : a quantitative and qualitative approach

Abstract

The mean CQ score for our sample of 26 employees at Petrolink is 89. As such, the overall score for our sample of Petrolink employees is in the ‘need to develop’ category. The four contextual factors were used to analyze the current cultural intelligence score within our sample: Vision and strategy, expatriation and repatriation, core competences and Petrolink’s corporate culture. These four contextual factors were also used as part of a discussion between employees and ourselves regarding current routines and potential improvement areas. We have concluded that the four contextual factors affect the CQ score collectively for our sample. In the last section of this thesis we present policies and actions Petrolink should consider implementing in the future to improve its CQ score and its internationalization process. Among our recommendations we recommend that Petrolink needs to develop a clear vision and strategy for internationalization which are communicated across the firm, increase expatriation of employees, create systematic routines for employee selection for overseas work assignments and seek future cooperation with a third party entity with regards to cultural training.