Swedes can be cold

“We would not have lunch first and have business like France and Italian people; we would have business first and have lunch later.” Mr. Gustavsson (CEO of ITAB) begins with quotation at the lecture. For Swedish people business and personal life is very distinctive and this characteristic shows not only in business area but also in general Swedish life. Swedish people do not share their personal information until they feel that they know the person quite well. In the beginning, high level of English and tend to not offend the people (foreigner) makes foreigner feel that they are welcomes and have no problem get mingle, but as time pass and more you get to know Swedish people, you can feel that it takes really long time to become close friend with Swedes.

Since Swedes talk directly and come to the point quickly many foreign businessmen often feel that Swedes are ignorant and limited or even boring due to the fact that they rarely talk their personal life in business. However at the same time Swedish businessmen feels that talking personal life is inappropriate, inefficient and also consider small talk as waste of time. Therefore when the Swedes talk directly or shows the impression that does not wish to hear your personal story, it is in their culture not as to offence you.

Swedes are equal

It has been already 20 year that corporate Sweden collapsed the hierarchy and became flat organization. Experiencing environment of horizontal organization was bit surprising from Asian point of view. Some cases as Female employees are allowed to bring their child into the workplace, can breast feed in the middle of the meeting (in front of the boss) and as long as they work, time of working was not restricted are not even imaginable in Korean companies. Most of Swedish managers think themselves as a coach instead of commander and all the employees in all levels have freedom to make decision and solve firm’s problem without asking permission. However sharing opinion is very much appreciated but showing emotions during the business is considered as unprofessional in Sweden.

Swedes are Sweet

Historically Sweden has not been to a war in 200 years and it shows on Swedish people that they do not like conflict. Some of culture might see this as “afraid of conflict” or “too sweet” but Swedish people feel that it is better to find neutral solutions than engage into the fight. As an example, CEO of Franssons has stated during the interview that he does not wish to compete with his own nationality people. The solution of Mr. Franssons that avoid conflict with Swedish people yet running the business was to expand his business internationally. Also during the research it is often shows that Swedish companies do not like to compete or create competitive atmosphere even in the same business industry. However Swedish think themselves aggressive whenever we ask them question. “Is your company aggressive towards competitors?”

In additions, honesty is very important to Swedes. Believing the honesty is the basic value, the whole society runs in the base on honesty and so as business. It is important that when the deal is made between the company. According to Masreliez-Steen, at the final stage, if a Swede shakes hand on the agreement they would stick to the contract and if you are dishonest, there will be no deal at all and even comes with enormous punishment.

Source:

Ÿ Building relationships in Sweden. By: Frazee, Valerie, Workforce, 10928332, Oct97 Supplement Global Workforce, Vol. 76

Ÿ Business Culture in Sweden by: smorgasbord the shortcut to Sweden http://www.sverigeturism.se/smorgasbord/index.html