...SWEDISH BUSINESS CULTURE FIELD REPORT – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010 [pic] [pic] [pic] SWEDEN FACTS AND FIGURES (2009 -2010) : Full name : Kingdom of Sweden (Sverige (SE), Ruotsi (FI) ) Capital :Stockholm ( 5 m inhabitants) Major language :Swedish Major religion : Christianity Land Area 449,964 sq.km (173 732 sq miles) Population: 9,3 m (=0,14 % of world´s population) Foreign born inhabitants : 13,8 % Population density: 20 sq. km Life expectancy: Men 80 years , women 84 years Adult literacy: 99% Average per household 2.1 Divorces per1,000 : 2.1 Internet domain : .se International dialing code :+46 Currency : Swedish Krona ( 9, 1310 Kr ~1 €) Parliament: The Riksdag, with 349 members in a single chamber National Day: June 6 Education: Nine years of compulsory schooling, but most pupils continue to the three-year upper secondary school. Around one third go on to higher education at universities and colleges throughout Sweden Working hours: Standard work week is 40 hours, minimum paid vacation is 5 weeks Labor force participation: Men: 74.0 %. Women: 68.3 % Employment (% of total): Agriculture 2%, industry 23%,services 75%,unemployed 9 % Longest north-south distance: 1,574 km Longest east-west distance 499 km Agricultural land: 8 % Forests: 53 % Marshland: 9 % Grasslands: 7 % Bare rocks and mountains: 12 % Lakes and rivers: 9 % Highest mountain: Kebnekaise (2,103 m) Biggest lake: Vänern (5,650 sq km) Natural resources: forest, ore, water power (see...
Words: 9324 - Pages: 38
...Informal Writing #4: Personal Reactions to “Facts and Fallacies about Paycheck Fairness” After reading the article, titled “Facts and Fallacies about Paycheck Fairness,” written by Phyllis Schlafly, I felt that the tone of the text was more on the angry side. I was surprised that a woman wrote the article since it talks heavily about how women vary from men in the workplace, as well as their salaries, in more negative ways than positive. In my opinion, this article is very biased and only talks about the fallacies the author believes that related to paycheck fairness. Yet, while reading, I wondered what sources the author was getting her evidence from and how reliable it was. Persuasive,credible statics would have helped the author prove her points even more to the reader. Even though the author makes several great points, such as working woman dealing with raising children and hypergamy, I feel that the negative sides of the story were being discussed more. The opening two paragraphs were a great introduction that captured my attention, but after that I feel that the author was just ranting about women's’ life choices and their negative effects. Also, towards the end of the reading, I feel that the details of marriage rates falling could have been eliminated, mainly because it’s misleading and too late to introduce into the article. The topic of work pay fairness and gender role in the workforce is an interesting social issues at this time, and this article would have more...
Words: 259 - Pages: 2
..."Niggardly" is an adjective meaning "stingy" or "miserly", perhaps related to the Old Norse verb nigla = "to fuss about small matters". It is cognate with "niggling", meaning "petty" or "unimportant", as in "the niggling details". 'Niggardly' is sometimes thought to be related to 'nigger', with unfortunate consequences. This is despite the fact that “Niggardly” means parsimonious or stingy and is derived from the Old Norse language. “Niggardly,” as you will thankfully already know or will doubtless be relieved to hear, is not related to the Latin word for black “niger” and thus is in no way connected to the deeply pernicious, pejorative racial epithet known in common parlance as the n-word. The fact that from the 1950s onwards the word usage has dramatically declined would suggest that it corresponds with the ever increasing use of “political correctness”, the idea that the first five letters of such a word would be deemed a racial slur, often deters the use of it and so it and it’s noun “niggard” rarely exists in written literature nowadays. The word homosexual brings about not only a change in language but a change in views, opinions and outlooks. Prior to the 19tyh century, no official word existed in the English language to describe a homosexual orientation. Indeed, the whole concept of 'heterosexual bisexual and homosexual' is a relatively new one, because of this, the word wouldn’t have been used often, due to its connotations and the idea that homosexuality, in those...
Words: 314 - Pages: 2
...This field of magick sciences is considered less demanding when compared to other systems within this field and its lurking dangers are unsurpassed as well. Although, rune-magick is linked to Quabbalah, it is not identical to the system of Franz Bardon’s work, The Key to True Quabbalah. True to our cosmic system of duality, every rune has an opposing negative rune aspect or anti-rune, if you will. The following example should emphasize the true danger of this system: Should the rune-magus speak a rune that symbolizes love through the three senses (like Quabbalistic letters), he must have evaluated his character that no trace of the opposing trait to love, namely hate, still lingers deep and unnoticed within his soul. He must be convinced without...
Words: 585 - Pages: 3
...at the Swedish case and how the state handled both internal and external pressures during the Seven Years War. It also talks about the communication between the commanding generals in Pomerania and the political leadership in Stockholm in order to understand what the Swedish army was ordered to do and how the generals became aware of the possibilities of fulfilling the orders that were given to them. It goes on with exploring how the Swedish government organized lending money during the war and what economic and political consequences their loans had in the country. It all leads to a better understanding of the resources that were available for welfare and how the population used the resources. The interplay between welfare, the raising of resources, and domestic politics in a smaller European state in the middle of the 18th century can be investigated. It explains Sweden’s role in the European States System. He explains how the European states system had a part of the formation of the Swedish state. Since the growth of the Swedish state in the 16th century and early 17th century was also associated with welfare and territorial expansionism. He also goes in to the borrowing of the countries, the debt they went in to because of it and goes a little bit in to the wars. Although the Swedish army did not expand to Persian territories, their military activities were still expensive and led to strains on the resources available to the state to support the troops in Swedish. There...
Words: 762 - Pages: 4
... which can fill our emptiness and become ours, if we are capable of receiving them.” The Swedish culture is a lot like this quote, they take advantage of every moment that passes even if it’s not so significant, focus on the present not the past or the future. In Sweden there is a high preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which individuals are expected to take care of themselves and their immediate families. In individualistic societies the employers and employees relationship is a contract based on mutual advantage, hiring and promotion and the decisions are supposed to be based on merit only. The Swedish culture is more of a low-context culture, meaning they place less emphasis on personal relationships and more emphasis on verbalized, explicit explanations. Swedish individuals make criticism private for distinction. They believe when you make criticism public it is embarrassing. Also, Sweden is a low-distance culture, where the power is evenly distributed throughout the citizens. In Sweden a person is expected to select friends and romantic partners not on the basis of class or culture but on the basis of such individual factors as personality, and appearance. Swedish individuals are expected to confront friends, their partner, and even their supervisor assertively; it’s based on a general feeling of equality that is consistent with assertive behavior. The Swedish lifestyle is composed of the love of nature, good housing, environmental thinking and lots...
Words: 653 - Pages: 3
...language represents the citizens of the nation-state and also hold a level of prestige that is recognized politically. This essay will endeavour to examine the language planning policy of Sweden, and in particular evaluate such policy in its effectiveness as a language. English as a language has gained exponential attention world-wide for its dominance as a result of globalisation, this is particularly obvious when examining the language planning policies of the different nations of the world (Hult, 2012; Spolsky, 2004 in Hult, 2004). It can be argued that within Sweden the previously strong Swedish official language is now being threatened by the implementation of English (Hult, 2004). While Swedish is the singular recognized official language of Sweden, English has extreme prominence as a language of academic instruction and as aforementioned has been argued to be of threat to the Swedish language (Winsa, 1999). Since gaining membership to the European Union, the English vernacular has seen rapid growth within the nation (Hylenstam, 1996 in Winsa, 1999). The language is being used for academic instruction and has become a core subject within certain schools across the country (Hult, 2012; Winsa, 1999). This can be argued to give a level of social prestige as the language is being used in a formal environment. It is likely that English within...
Words: 1568 - Pages: 7
...a highly skilled labor forces. Compared to Finland, which has a highly industrialized, largely free-market economy and is one of the best performing economies within the European Union. They were able to avoid the worst global financial crisis in 2009 (The World Factbook, 2015). Both Sweden and Finland are part of Nordic Europe on GLOBE society/culture cluster. Although they shared the same region with dynamic and energetic culture, there are many differences between the two countries that make each individual country unique. The GLOBE scores on society level, culture and leadership style on each dimension shows many similarities yet many differences as well. Assertiveness Sweden scored 3.38 and ranked 61st globally. This demonstrates Swedish society does not emphasize on rewarding performances. Compared to Finland, they scored 3.81 and ranked 47th globally. This demonstrates the Finnish are neither dominant nor aggressive in their social relationships. Many countries characterized Finland as a “cultural lone wolf” (Chhokar, J., Brodbeck, F., House, R., 2007) Future Orientation Sweden scored 4.39 and ranked 9th globally. Sweden’s society encourages and rewards future-oriented behaviors. For instance, Sweden prefers its society to plan and invest in the future, and delay gratification. They are more concern with long-term rather than short-term goals. On the other hand, Finland scored 4.24 and ranked 51st globally. The Finnish supports the opinion of moving forward in the future...
Words: 1057 - Pages: 5
...Risk “The world economy has hit a rough patch on the road to recovery and is in danger of skidding off course.” Political uncertainties are growing more and more common as the years pass on. As America should be a thriving economy in the world, strong and manageable, it just so happens it is now a “crippled growth” in the global economy. The key to crushing global debt and enhancing the market economy is not to sign on to policies that put the economy at risk, but to take a risk to enhance the smaller, emerging markets. Gloom, fear and anxiety need no longer be the descriptive words for America’s entrepreneurs. We need to advance into the world, learn from other nations and rid the U.S. of the reoccurring mess of debt. The same goes with the world as it does America: we are figuring out the present issue (which seems to be the right plan) but we are ignoring the long-term effects of what our current decisions about defeating the debt crisis will turn into. What’s happening is the U.S. economy is losing momentum. Exports from different economies around the globe are slowing down drastically due to fear of losing even more money than what has already been lost. Not a single nation, even China (who has a robust economy and booming outflows), can afford to lose money made in exports. The slower the momentum in global economies, the slower general output to advanced markets, thus increasing more reason for loans from the federal reserve and central banks, henceforth increasing...
Words: 576 - Pages: 3
...that has informed me of myself or has connected with me easier than Swedish. My heritage is more than just something about me. It is part of who I am. It is this part of me that yearns to know more about my roots and where my ancestors came from. This fascination is what drove me to learn Swedish and to become involved in the strong Swedish community in Minnesota. I first realized that being Swedish was an integral part of who I was was the first time I met my family from Sweden. I was 4 years old when they first came over. I was captivated by the language and their sense of “coolness” that they carried with them. They came bearing many gifts and cool things from this odd far away land. They brought lots of chocolate of course and some other cool things, but what I remember the most is what my cousin gave me. He brought me a orrefor polar bear. I looked at it with a sense of “aw”, imagining the journey that this bear had gone through. I still have that bear and it serves as a reminder of my family on the other side of the globe. Since then, they have visited many times and my fascination with the language and the culture has only been amplified. I began to take language lessons at the American Swedish Institute to try to immerse myself in Swedish in an attempt to gain the “coolness” of my cousins. I also started to get my hands on anything Swedish that I could. I got Swedish books, movies and even found Swedish radio stations. Once I got the hang of the language, I was able to...
Words: 486 - Pages: 2
...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 practice social democratic values of social cohesion, liberty and equality in the process of modernization and that those values remain of crucial importance to a country’s ultimate economic success’’ stated (Taylor, 2005). Therefore, Sweden consider as one of the most successful countries regarding economic position among its competitors. There are factors have influenced the success of this...
Words: 1330 - Pages: 6
...Table of contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Research and findings 3 2.1 Government 3 2.2 Political Economic System 5 2.3 Employment laws and regulations 5 2.4 Economy 7 2.5 National Culture and Hierarchy 9 2.5.1 Hofstede’s dimensions 9 3. Analysis 12 3.1 Government 12 3.2 Political Economic System 13 3.3 Employment law and regulations 14 3.4 Economy 14 3.5 National Culture and hierarchy 15 4. Conclusion 17 References 18 1. Introduction The Kingdom of Sweden; IKEA, VOLVO, forests, lakes, snow, democracy, how is it up there? We all know about how well IKEA is doing, and we all know about Zlatan and Abba… but how do we become equally successful? The demands on Human Resource Management is currently increasing as it has been widely discovered and discussed that it directly affects the economic growth. What do we have to think about when we develop our HR department? In this paper we will analyze the institutional context of Sweden and evaluate what impact they have on the decision making of Human Resource management. As students of Economics and Business it is a vital part of our education to go in depth to actually understand and be able to adapt our theoretical skills in a new country. To do this we will consider the government aspect, with political system and political landscape included and its affect in the context of people management practices. Subsequently, the political economic system and its impact will be reviewed, looking at aspects such as welfare...
Words: 7654 - Pages: 31
...IKEA Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda With a 1988 turnover of 14.5 billion Swedish kronor (U.S. $1 SKr6 in 1988) and 75 outlets in 19 countries; IKEA had become the world's largest home furnishings retailer. As the company approached the 1990s, however, its managers faced a number of major challenges. Changes in demographics were causing some to question IKEA's historical product line policy. Others wondered if the company had not bitten off too much by attempting major new market entries simultaneously in two European countries (United Kingdom and Italy), the United States, and several Eastern bloc countries. Finally, there was widespread concern about the future of the company without its founder, strategic architect, and cultural guru, Ingvar Kamprad. IKEA BACKGROUND AND HISTORY In 1989, furniture retailing worldwide was a fragmented industry in which small manufacturers and distributors catered to the demands of their local markets. Consumer preferences varied by region, and there were few retailers whose operations extended beyond a single country. IKEA, however, had repeatedly bucked market trends and industry norms. Over three and a half decades, it had built a highly profitable worldwide network of furniture stores (see Exhibit 1). COMPANY ORIGINS IKEA is an acronym for the initials of the founder, Ingvar Kamprad, his farm Elmtaryd, and his county, Agunnaryd, in Smäland, South Sweden. In 1943, at the age of 17, Kamprad began his...
Words: 3535 - Pages: 15
...NAME: _______________________________________ CASE 8: Research In Motion: Managing Explosive Growth 1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION |Timeframe |Country(s) Involved |Key Individuals & Titles |Company Type & Size | | | | | | 2. BRIEF SUMMARY OF CASE SITUATION |Business or Industry Description |Particular Company Situation | 3. INDUSTRY AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS |Dominant Economic Characteristics |Strategic Group MAP | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ...
Words: 277 - Pages: 2
...the right hair, and covering nothing up but your crotch area. This interprets sexuality. The same goes for women. typical images for women are a big chest, a big behind, slim waist, long legs, skinny, oh and flawless. The stereotypes these advertisements perpetuate are that men are supposed to be taller, bigger, heartless, and tough. As for women, they have to be smaller, looked down upon, and even always being innocent. When it comes to race, a white boy has control over the white girl. But when it's a black boy and a white girl, the girl has the control. Go figure that race would have a part in advertisement. Another way race is involved in this is when it comes to colored women, they're seen as animals. They would dress up the colored models into an animal such as a tiger and have her pose as...
Words: 528 - Pages: 3
