Scandinavian management on the Swedish market

Abstract: Scandinavia comprises Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Twenty years ago, the concept of Scandinavian management was created (Grennes, 2003). Earlier research is referring to culture as the reason for different management styles around the world. It is also found that human resources are highly valued in Scandinavian manage-ment (Eriksen et al., 2006). This study aims at understanding what Scandinavian management is and see if this matches with the style of management actually practised in Sweden. The purpose of the thesis is to, through empirical examples, study what Scandinavian management is and if it is practised on the Swed-ish market. Included in the purpose is also to investigate how Scan-dinavian management is addressed in prior research. This study uses a qualitative method. Two earlier done case studies about Manpower and IKEA are used. Using a qualitative method, we have conducted five interviews to get accurate data to help us answer our purpose. Two of the interviews were conducted with representatives from both Manpower and IKEA. One interview was done with Schramm-Nielsen who is an expert in the field of Scandi-navian management. The last interviews were carried out with two persons with a wide range of experience in the field of management in Sweden. The study concludes that the main focus of Scandinavian manage-ment lies within human resources. Equality, communication, coop-eration, trust and consensual decision making are vital elements in the concept of Scandinavian management. Managers in Sweden are focused on their employees and feel that they need to satisfy them in order to motivate them. This motivation has proven to lead to better productivity and performance of the organization. Swedish managers are indeed focused on human resources and are practising Scandinavian management. Scandinavian management is necessary on the Swedish market as it increases the chances for having a pro-ductive company with satisfied employees and customers.