Modern-Day Vikings: A Pracical Guide to Interacting with the Swedes (Interact Series) by Robinowitz Christina Johansson

Author:Robinowitz, Christina Johansson [Robinowitz, Christina Johansson]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2011-01-10T16:00:00+00:00

No One Is above Another

Striving for the ideal of a society without large class, gender, and economic differences has been a key component in the development of the Swedish Model. “Whether you are a waiter, bank clerk, janitor or finance director, people are treated the same,” said an American woman living and working in Sweden. “No special treatment is given to those with money and it is highly looked down upon if you try to make a difference between the classes.”

In 1809 the Swedish aristocracy deposed King Gustav IV Adolf, whom they considered incompetent, and installed a monarch of their own choosing: Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, a French general who had served under Napoleon during Sweden’s last war. Although technically the enemy, Bernadotte accepted the invitation and became King Charles XIV John; his descendents occupy Sweden’s throne to this day.

His first act as king was to address the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag, in Swedish, which he did—badly. The Swedes found his broken Swedish hilarious and roared with laughter. The stunned king was so upset that he never tried speaking Swedish again. Never had the Frenchman, product of an authoritarian culture, experienced subordinates who laughed at their superior (Hofstede 1991).

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