Being a Manager in Sweden
By Marie-Louise Hansson, Sweden Career Advisor

Sweden underwent massive government reforms in the 1970s. The unions became part of every major business decision, from filling positions to major decisions affecting cost or profitability.  This is affecting managerial leadership in Sweden today. On a larger scale, this can cause cultural dilemmas between the different parts in an international company.

Top leaders in Sweden don’t distinguish much between leadership, the ability to create and give direction and motivate people towards that direction and management, and other managerial skills, such as planning and budgeting, staffing and organization, follow-up performance and the initiation of problem-solving activities. In Sweden in general, a manager’s job is to give direction, be accountable, manage employees, communicate, motivate, and follow-up on progress and report results.

Give Direction

The overall style of Swedish leadership is to give direction in a pragmatic fashion. A vision has to be anchored in true business realities. Swedish leaders in general are practical and avoid the more “esoteric” ways in describing a vision. The vision has to be clear and understandable.

The ability to create strategies is crucial in Swedish companies and there is a constant drive to shape long-term strategies, even if the business environment is fast and rapidly changing. The ability to adapt to changes is strong but the focus remains on the long-term objective. The Swedish manager is constantly striving to set clear objectives and targets for the people to follow

Accountability

When it comes to decision-making, the general attitude is to make decisions, even without thorough fact gathering and analysis. In Sweden, it is worse to not make a decision than to make an incorrect decision. This means also that a manager can change a decision without losing prestige. The Swedish leader listens to the personnel but the responsibility of the final decision rests with the manager, who then expects full cooperation from the management team. Even when decision-making style is by consensus, the leader must take the responsibility for the outcome. Negative decisions are expected to be presented by the top leader. Swedish managers in general are low or moderate risk-takers and prefer evolution rather than revolution.

People Management

In Sweden, the responsibility for recruiting, staffing and developing people is the task and responsibility of the line manager rather than the personnel department. The personnel department provides support.

Staffing and developing people are crucial and the Swedish leader is aware of that results are created by people. The main way to develop people is to give challenging tasks rather than to send people to classroom training. Health and safety training in traditional manufacturing businesses is very important and the Swedish laws are tough, so there is a strong need for leaders to focus on this area. In Sweden, the company covers the employee’s medical costs the first two weeks after an illness or accident, so there is a strong business reason for caring for the individual.

Delegation is a favored business technique in Sweden. The manager in Sweden is not expected to be the specialist or expert and this is a consequence of the organization’s delegation of authority. This delegation gives a strong focus on building up a strong organizational structure but also a strong focus on follow-up systems as performance reviews, good technical follow-up systems around cost management, quality and business performance in general. The leader in Sweden is expected to be very structured and to have an ability to ask the right questions of colleagues and employees, rather than being the expert himself.

The suggestion systems in Sweden are a very important tool to get employee ideas for improvement. It is also a tool to increase employee involvement. Therefore it is acceptable for people working in Sweden to have ideas and make proposals and suggestions for improvement to leaders of the business.

Communication

The Swedes are in general more silent than, for example, Americans or South European people. The ability to communicate with the people in the organization is important and should be further developed. This potential weakness is often solved by having a strong information department supporting the leaders. It is important for Swedish leaders is to communicate in a way so everyone understands – expectations, objectives and targets to reach – and the communication is very often practical rather than social. There is a tendency to start the meetings immediately with practical issues, jumping over the social communication. This can confuse foreign leaders working in Sweden, but it is just the Swedish mentality to be effective and efficient.

Motivation

Swedish leaders tend to stress the importance to “walk the walk and talk the talk.” This is an important signal to the people in the organization, being a front figure in what behavior that is expected and wanted.

Swedish leaders are trying to stress the more inner motivators by giving challenging tasks and targets. The culture of Sweden is not expressed with small external rewards such as formal prizes. The recognition given by Swedish leaders is to give more power, such as a new position to a person, rather than presents or public recognition. 

Swedish leaders understand that they need to prepare the organization for change by communicating. They also understand that one way to motivate employees is to listen to them, as well as being visible and available to the employees. Swedish employers are also very respectful of the employee’s ‘life-balance’ or personal time outside of the office.

Conclusion

One weakness in Swedish leadership the lack of following up on results; the focus is on the future and forthcoming activities. There are coping strategies in place, working to build up strong financial and quality systems.

To be successful in Sweden is to involve people, to create consensus, provide direction after listening carefully to the different line functions, involve people in problem-solving and maybe be somewhat more social than the average leader, but not too social in business meetings. Visibility is also very important, as is being able to make decisions with moderate risk and be prepared to change the decision if the expected results don’t show up.

About Author

Marie-Louise Hansson holds a master’s degree in personnel management from Gothenburg University with a focus on training and education. She has more than 25 years of experience in management consulting, executive and leadership training and counseling. Hansson is also the author of the book “Management Teams—How to Create the Teams of the Future.”