Jacqueline
My name is Jacqueline, and I’m currently in Chapman’s Full-Time MBA program. While studying abroad in undergrad, I realized I enjoyed studying Global Business so much that I added Global Studies as a second major. I am extremely excited to be part of this travel course and learning more about business in Scandinavia.
Atorina
Hi! I’m Atorina, and I am also a student with Jacqueline in Chapman’s Full-Time MBA program with an emphasis in entertainment. Aftering hearing about this opportunity, I was interested in learning about how companies appeal to a world-wide audience. The ability to appeal to such a large group of people of different cultures, personalities and tastes is something that can easily be applied within the entertainment industry. Additionally, I am eager to learn from business professionals in different cultural contexts.
Our Focus
We are looking to observe the similarities and differences regarding the office environments of the companies we will be visiting during this course, looking at them both in comparison to each other and in comparison to American practices.
We have begun discussing some of the broader differences in class, such as the higher emphasis on family life and work-life balance in Scandinavian countries. In fact, “Only 2% of employees regularly work very long hours.” Rather, approximately 16 hours of their day is typically filled with more leisure, relaxing activities, which is quite the contrast from the typical American mindset.
Furthermore, we have also established how it is much more common to see higher level employees or even executives performing seemingly low level responsibilities, reinforcing the notion that they do not view themselves as better than everyone else. Instead, everyone in the company is valued, and their contributions matter.
We are also interested in learning more about the concept called “Jantelov”, a common term amongst Scandinavian countries. It stems from Norwegian author Aksel Andemose in his novel En flyktning krysser sitt spor. There are ten rules that sum up the idea as “an idea of equality where individuals shouldn’t think themselves as being any better than the rest of the community.” Essentially, the idea is that it encourages you to see the value in others. We are extremely interested in observing this idea and noting if it actually takes place in the Scandinavian office culture.
Scandinavian countries are known for their work-life balance, something Americans have been slow to adopt and is a growing problem in general. We are known for being “workaholics”, whereas Scandinavia prides themselves on disconnecting when they leave the workplace. It is said to promote a more calming, enjoyable environment and people love their jobs. We are interesting in examining these environments to see if they can practically be applied to American companies.