Hello, and welcome to Josh and Stella’s blog! We’re so excited to share our journey as we travel through Sweden and Finland and explore the cultural differences we can experience there! Over the next two weeks, we can visit various companies and industries and explore the cities. We are excited to explore how the work-life balance in the companies we visit compares to companies we have worked for in the US.
We both left early to ensure we had time to settle in. While we all experienced flight delays and journey difficulties, we made it on the 25th! We met up with our fellow travelers, Nikki and Nicole, and ate dinner at the Irish Embassy Pub, which is open from 11 am – 5 am most days! Then we all tried a Diam bar McFlurry (very yummy!) before calling it a night and settling in.
The week before we left, we were learning about unique aspects of Sweden and Finland, with some popular phrases and cultural differences. From what we have learned so far, while there are certainly many differences between the cultures, there are also several similarities. One thing that seems evident about Scandinavian culture is the care for everyone and society, which seems to have always been the case. We learned that Scandinavians have made significant contributions to stockholder theory, such as producing the first publication and description of the term “stakeholder,” the first stakeholder map, and developing three tenets of stakeholder theory. Scandinavians consider everyone in their surroundings and will go out of their way to benefit them. We expect to see this same attitude and culture within the businesses we visit.
From what we have learned in class during the three days in Orange and based on my experiences in Scandinavia and across Europe, I expect to find much more emphasis on work-life balance in Sweden and Finland compared to the US. First, the government systems in these countries allow employees to get more benefits such as healthcare, childcare services, etc. Employees in these countries also have a much more balanced schedule. For example, I assume fewer people in Scandinavian countries work 70-hour work weeks. The culture in the office could be more productive because fellow employees have a genuine bond and understanding of one another from spending time together outside of the office. “Dominant cultural norms and institutional structures encourage engagement between companies and their Stakeholders in [Scandinavia]” (Gjølberg 2010). “These norms and structures include a general tendency to embrace and promote participatory leadership” (Bjerke 1999; Dorfman et al. 2004; Grennes 2003)”. These are just some predictions, but we look forward to seeing the different businesses and learning how they operate and compare to US-based companies.
It will also be interesting to see the differences in work-life balance between the companies we visit. We are excited as each company is unique in a particular aspect, whether in industry, location, operating style, etc. We are curious to see how the differences in work-life balance translate to these differences. For example, Einride has 501-1,000 employees, most of which are in Sweden. Volvo Group, however, has over 10,000 employees, and while Sweden is home to many employees, there is a significant number of employees in France, the United States, India, Brazil, and more. We expect that Volvo Group may be more corporate and have less work-life balance, but we are excited to see it.
Follow along as we learn a lot more about the culture here in Sweden and Finland, and how business differs from what we’re used to!
