...Finland and Nokia Executive Summary Finland had transformed itself from a sleepy economy to a highly competitive one with maximum contribution from the telecommunications sector. Focused efforts in R&D and education helped Finland achieve this position with Nokia being a major player. While Finland maintained its ranking as a leading competitive nation in 2001, it was facing challenges. The overall growth rates were declining and the telecommunications cluster was experiencing a severe downturn. Nokia’s revenue and profits were falling and considering the fact that Nokia and the telecommunication sector played a large role in Finland’s economy, there were concerns about the level of exposure to a single cluster and company. Also, Finland was facing shortages of experienced engineers and scientists. Universities were offering programs tailored for foreign students in order to attract people to Finland. However, unemployment was increasing among the young and less skilled. Nokia was facing a challenge in evolution of standards and innovation. New standards were being developed in mobile internet services as well as software and hardware for phones and infrastructure. Smart mobile phones with multimedia messaging, internet connections and downloads from websites were being around the corner. We feel that Nokia has the options of outsourcing production to India and China to achieve reduced costs, higher production and improved benefits. They should consider development...
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...“The values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs over diversity.” - Jared Diamond (Collapse 275) Defining who we are is a very important part of our lives. It is vital for humans to have a sense of identity and our belonging. Identities are made up of many factors, such as culture, values and ambitions. As humans we tend to hold on very closely to our beliefs, because they usually come hand in hand with our identity. The things we grew up seeing or believing play a huge role when trying to define who we are, and who we want to be. Once we have made up our mind on who where are, and what our identity consists, of it is very hard to change our mentality. I find the saying “old habits die hard” very true. It is very challenging adapting to a new lifestyle, environment, culture and values. The Greenland-Norse are a perfect example of a society who couldn’t adapt to a new lifestyle. They identified themselves with the European and Christian culture, and when they arrived in Greenland they had no intention of changing that, even if that particular lifestyle wasn’t suited for their new environment. Their perseverance in trying to maintain a European and Christian culture identity led them to their collapse. In the book Collapse, Jared Diamond provides details about the collapse of the Greenland-Norse. According to Diamond, Greenland was founded by Erik the...
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...off to have her child or children and heal correctly, yet in the mist of it all, she still has to have child care for the baby. Even when she gets off her leave (not paid, what did she accomplish no money was made and her body still its healed. Many mother rushes back to work because they don’t get paid leave, so while she’s on leave the bills pile up and theirs another concern. I’m still fighting to get paid leave I don’t know what I’m supposed to do when I do attempt to leave, the bill will continue and kids must be feed. I don’t understand many can work you like a slave but can’t give you sick leave or maternity leave. This part of the article I read from Work and Family in our Library- I wish we had days like this. The Nordic countries have been pioneers in easing the burden of both parenting and working. According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway all...
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...system. The success of the Danish model has stimulated ideas on the actual presence of a new model of the employment system, explained in general through the so-called “Golden Triangle” of flexicurity. Generous Welfare System Active LMP Flexible Labor Market Analyzing the corners of the golden triangle and specially the relationships, we can really understand how the Danish labor market works. Concerning the Job Mobility, Denmark presents very high level of turnover, about 30 per cent; this is due to the ease with which employers can dismiss or hire new workers, indeed if we analyze the data on the average tenure of employees we find that Denmark is at the low end of the international scale in term of average tenure, conversely Nordic countries have...
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...Scandinavia is part of Northern Europe and is mainly made up of the Scandinavian Peninsula that is located east of Greenland. Scandinavia is usually misconceived as one big country, but instead, is the cultural term used to sum up the five countries that comprise it. The personal experience that I have chosen to talk about for this paper is the Norsk Hostfest that occurs every fall in Minot North Dakota. I had heard of this festival many times, but never made it to Minot to witness it. My husband who works for the advertising company for Hostfest, told me very interesting things about it and said we should go up to experience it. He and I went this past October, and what I saw was some amazing old time bands, cultural vendors, craft booths, and amazing food that was sinful to eat. Norsk Høstfest is a nonprofit Scandinavian Festival held annually in the fall on the North Dakota State Fairgrounds in Minot, North Dakota. The festival, now celebrating its 37th year, has grown into North America’s largest Scandinavian festival with people attending from all over the world. The festival features world-class entertainment, authentic Scandinavian cuisine, Scandinavian culture on display, and handcrafted Norsk merchandise. Norsk Høstfest celebrates Scandinavian culture from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It is usually a week-long festival that occurs in the early fall. This year, the festival starts on Tuesday, October 1st, and runs through Saturday, October 5th...
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...Skiing or Snowboarding? Skiing and snowboarding are both great activities to enjoy during the winter months. Not only do they offer a nice leisure experience, but they are both beneficial to your health as they are both excellent forms of exercise for whatever skill level you may be. Deciding which activity to partake in should be thought with care and consideration. They are both costly activities but can result in a generous payoff for a person’s mind and body. When deciding which winter sport to participate in, first consider the various similarities and differences between skiing and snowboarding. As with any other sport or hobby, the equipment used is a decision to consider. Skiing involves a pair of skis appended to boots by the way of bindings that clip in and the use of two poles to help keep balance. A person’s body is positioned facing forward with feet straight ahead, facing the front. Snowboarding on the other hand uses a single board which is attached to a person’s feet using special boots and bindings facing sideways with the body perpendicular to the direction of movement. The stance is an important factor when deciding which sport to participate in due to the abundant varieties of skiing and snowboard positions. The rider must determine which position feels the most comfortable for the direction in which an individual’s body faces as this is a primary aspect of both activities. Some other factors to consider are the basics of the sport, such...
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...By definiton, eugenics is "the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics." Miriam Webster dictionary. Eugenics came to exist back in Nazi Germany and was majorly developed by one Francis Galton. The idea was to create a "superior race" known as the Aryan race. The Aryan race had very set specifications, blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. During that time, eugenics was mainly achived by selective breeding, meaning that individuals would reproduce with other individuals who fufilled the Aryan requirements. Today, in the 21st century, eugenics is more scientific. In 2003, scientists finished mapping out the human genome- a blueprint for the human race. The practice was first introduced to the USA in 2009 at a fertility clinic in Los Angeles, California. The clinic tried to offer hair and eye colour choices to prospective parents. This attempt caused a lot of public back lash. The process takes place by collecting eggs from the mother which are then fertilized in vitro with the father's sperm. After a successful fertilization, many genetic tests, called pre-implantion genetic diagnosis or PGD, are run to determine if the embryo has any defects such as down syndrome, heart issues, spina bifada, deafness and blindness. If the embryos pass this stage, they go into more indepth and specific tests. The parents set out a list of desirable and undesirable characteristics such as hair colour, eye colour...
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...Despite being the most peaceful country in the world for the past seven years in a row according to the Global Peace Index from the Institute for Economics and Peace, there exists an inconsistency between what appears to be true and the reality of what is true in Iceland. Isolated with a modest population, not much is known of the island-country of Iceland outside of Europe. Since little news of Iceland (or Scandinavia as a whole) is broadcast to the Americas, the social issues must be shared in a different manner. Scandinavian crime novelists have “transformed the genre into a sort of thrilling social exposé of matters both big and small” (Michaelis 17). Through their writings, readers around the world are able to learn about the problems within Scandinavia. In Jar City, Arnaldur Indridason displays the Icelanders’ sentiments towards the amount of violence and crime, their distrust towards the police and doctors, and their concerns over the collection of genetic data in their country. The novel begins with a series of crimes within the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik. A stranger attempts to rob a house but beats up two women in the process. Meanwhile, an elderly man named Holberg is found murdered in his nearby flat. The lead detective on the case, Erlendur, remarks at the murder scene that it was another “typical Icelandic murder” (Indridason 6), suggesting that this was a common occurrence. During the murder investigation, secrets from Holberg’s past are uncovered. Holberg...
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...Bad decision making: The German food chain LIDL in Norway LIDL is a global discount supermarket chain from Germany. Since 1988 the company expanded to 21 states e.g. Italy, France, Great Britain, Spain and many Eastern European countries. In 2004 LIDL entered the Norwegian marked. Norway at this point had no real low price food market and the LIDL managers were sure of having a big advantage using their low price strategy and without having competitors in that field. After only four years the company announced its withdrawal from Norway due to sustained losses and all the stores were sold to a Norwegian supermarket chain. What happened? The Norwegian people avoided LIDL because they favoured their traditional brands and small shops over the imported products and the big LIDL-stores. Three psychological traps that undermined the decision of the LIDL management should be highlighted: Sunk-Cost Trap: After LIDL realized the absence of success in 2006, they decided not to rethink their local strategy but to open another 20 new stores in the capital Oslo. The management tried to compensate former losses by increasing the number of stores. Confirming-Evidence Trap: Klaus Gehrig, chairman of the board, is said to be the power behind the strict expansion policy. He justified the Norwegian expansion by referring to the success in other countries but fades out Sweden and Denmark, where LIDL suffered from similar problems. Estimating and Forecasting Trap: The LIDL managers...
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...com/ Work-Life 'Balance' in Europe Rosemary Crompton and Clare Lyonette Acta Sociologica 2006 49: 379 DOI: 10.1177/0001699306071680 The online version of this article can be found at: http://asj.sagepub.com/content/49/4/379 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: Nordic Sociological Association Additional services and information for Acta Sociologica can be found at: Email Alerts: http://asj.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://asj.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://asj.sagepub.com/content/49/4/379.refs.html >> Version of Record - Nov 13, 2006 What is This? Downloaded from asj.sagepub.com at University of Huddersfield on October 7, 2012 ACTA SOCIOLOGICA 2006 Work–Life ‘Balance’ in Europe Rosemary Crompton and Clare Lyonette Department of Sociology, City University, London, UK abstract: Although work–life ‘balance’ is an EU policy priority, within Europe there are considerable variations in the nature and extent of supports that national governments have offered to dual-earner families. In general, the Nordic welfare states offer the highest level of supports, although other countries, such as France, have historically offered extensive childcare supports to working mothers. We examine national variations in reported levels of work–life conflict, drawing upon questions fielded in the 2002 Family module...
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...Sweden and new age of globalization In the last recent years, world trade had an outstanding growth in domestic product leading to spread more about the word ’’globalization’’. However, the new market’s demand is reason of this development, yet the trade practices reduction that prevent movement of services from one state to another thru World Trade Organization (WTO) had an important impact on this growth in world (Christopher, 2011). In the start, globalization recognized as a solution to insufficiency and assistance to overcome the inadequacy, however, this view has changed after the US Presidential election speech in 2008 and globalization became a concern for both the U.S and Europe stated (Mandelson, 2008). Therefore, challenging those who state that ‘’the boom is not sustainable’’ is what Mandelson attempted to deliver. So in this paper I’m going to evaluate the globalization’s effect on Sweden’s economy & industry and will compare the achievement with Mandelson’s view. Let’s start with he’s opinion on Europe’s social models which are considerably well managed and in favor of globalization compared to the models from the states. Over the last decades, Europe attempted to come up with new social and economic model in order to handle the challenges exposed by the globalization. And one of the countries which could cope successfully with globalization challenges was Sweden by proposing ‘’Swedish model’’. This model defines that ‘’ it is perfectly possible to uphold and...
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...Crystal Gleason Professor Kilguss Comparative Government April 18, 2014 Sweden: Not so Sweet on Drugs Located in Northern Europe, Sweden lies on the eastern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula sharing boundaries with neighboring Denmark, Finland and Norway. Officially known as the kingdom of Sweden, by size it is the third largest country in the European Union with a population of 9.6 million. Sweden follows a parliamentary democratic form of government where the people elect representatives into parliament and they in turn elect a prime minister to lead the group. This Nordic country is known for its neutrality in times of conflict, and avoids making allies in times of peace. Sweden is an export-oriented country that’s economy is reliant on trade of a variety of goods with Europe and the rest of the world. The land of IKEA, meatballs, vodka and Vikings is often looked to as a role model due to its successful welfare policies and strong economy. Sweden takes care of its people with a cradle to the grave system, making sure all of its citizens have access to healthcare, higher education, and retirement benefits. The United States could benefit from looking at the successes of Sweden’s no tolerance approach to drugs. A recent news article from The Local titled, “Sweden’s Tough Drug Laws Leaves addicts behind” highlights Sweden’s zero tolerance approach towards drug use and its impact that it has had on the country. Sweden has some of the toughest drug laws...
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...Leif Eriksson has always been closer to me than his dad. His father was always out, finding new land or simply picking fights. The fact is, I’ve lived with Leif Eriksson and Erik the Red my whole life, they’re my family. One day, Erik got into a fight with one of our villagers. One thing led to another and soon enough, Erik realized he had just killed one of our people. When the King found out about his crime, we were banned from our home forcing us to find new land to live on. Erik had heard of a land mass to the West of Iceland a while ago, so we decided to set sail to this mysterious land mass. Once we got there, Leif was with me while his father went out exploring Greenland, mysteriously, around the same time the natives were killed off....
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...Sigurd the Volsung In the Germanic/Norse myths the peoples were often analyzing the major conflicts between the forces of good and the forces of evil, often playing into what we now know as the concept of Karma. By taking a deeper look into the actions and reactions of the characters in Norse mythology we can see how their beliefs in every action having a consequence affected the way the stories represented events of their lives. Since these myths are still alive today we can further delve into how society has used and still uses myths. In looking through various theoretical viewpoints we are able analyze deeper the myth of Sigurd the Volsung to better understand a small part of history and the impact it has on today’s culture. To better understand what we are analyzing we must first understand what a myth is. Now dictionary.reference tells us that a myth is “a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature” but these ideals belong to the people of today’s society and not back in the times of the people telling these stories. So I’d like to use a broader view that a myth 1) can be most aptly defined as the meaning or context that one perceives in the phenomena one encounters, and 2) is an inescapable part of all perception and all thought – yours, mine,...
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...Theories of Myth University of Phoenix Theories of Myth Myths could have dissimilar meaning to society. A myth can portray a fairy-tale that is not true which could be precisely meant for entertainment to a narrator and whoever is listening to the story. A myth could portray a fairy-tale that maybe true. The stores told many years ago could have some false and true meaning. In order to comprehend the history of mythology, brilliant intellects capture dissimilar methods to understand the fairy-tales being read and determining to view if the stories were true, to view if the stories were false, to view if the stories of the imagination or if the stories were actually real thousands of years ago. An example of brilliant intellect is Sir William Jones who found legitimacy in the myths by investigating the dialect the stories were printed in. Sir William Jones was valued and respected as a young adult who spoke five languages and was considered a youthful genius in the 18th century. Sir William Jones assumed he could confirm the authenticity of the fairy-tales by using the dialect utilized many years ago. Sir William Jones traced the languages to one resource that all languages were developed from; this was called proto-indo-European that was a dialect presented as an idea. Sir Jones found a way to give legitimacy to his process, which others used and found that myths were vital and crucial windows into cultures and...
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