Becoming “We”: Navigating Roles and Belonging in the Multicultural Swedish Workplace
(2025) TKAM02 20251Division of Ethnology
- Abstract
- This thesis provides an ethnographic analysis of the experiences and expectations of international employees working within large companies within the Skåne region of Sweden. The research explores how these individuals perceive their positionality and integration into the dominant Swedish office culture. It highlights how they navigate and negotiate social roles, cultural scripts, and the emotional norms embedded in their workplace environments. This study closely examines the ways in which language proficiency, informal social practices, and cultural familiarity shape feelings of inclusion or exclusion. Office rituals such as fika, consensus-driven decision-making, and indirect communication are studied as both potential bridges and... (More)
- This thesis provides an ethnographic analysis of the experiences and expectations of international employees working within large companies within the Skåne region of Sweden. The research explores how these individuals perceive their positionality and integration into the dominant Swedish office culture. It highlights how they navigate and negotiate social roles, cultural scripts, and the emotional norms embedded in their workplace environments. This study closely examines the ways in which language proficiency, informal social practices, and cultural familiarity shape feelings of inclusion or exclusion. Office rituals such as fika, consensus-driven decision-making, and indirect communication are studied as both potential bridges and barriers to belonging for those new to the culture. These aspects are considered within the broader framework of integration versus assimilation in multicultural professional settings.
Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical theory and Barbara Rosenwein’s concept of emotional communities, this study employs ethnographic methods including interviews and participant observation. The findings indicate that, although Swedish workplaces emphasize values such as egalitarianism, work-life balance, and inclusion, these ideals can also act as subtle forms of social control. International employees are often expected to perform according to unspoken, culturally specific norms, which may require adapting or suppressing aspects of their own cultural identities.
This study offers valuable insights into the often-invisible emotional and cultural expectations that shape Swedish office life. It also provides practical recommendations for HR professionals and organizational leaders seeking to foster genuinely inclusive work environments that support integration without reinforcing pressure to assimilate. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9207396
- author
- Phillips, Megan LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- TKAM02 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Sweden, workplace culture, international employees, integration, Swedish values, cross-cultural communication, intercultural competence, performance, team dynamics
- language
- English
- id
- 9207396
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-15 14:29:43
- date last changed
- 2025-08-15 14:29:43
@misc{9207396,
abstract = {{This thesis provides an ethnographic analysis of the experiences and expectations of international employees working within large companies within the Skåne region of Sweden. The research explores how these individuals perceive their positionality and integration into the dominant Swedish office culture. It highlights how they navigate and negotiate social roles, cultural scripts, and the emotional norms embedded in their workplace environments. This study closely examines the ways in which language proficiency, informal social practices, and cultural familiarity shape feelings of inclusion or exclusion. Office rituals such as fika, consensus-driven decision-making, and indirect communication are studied as both potential bridges and barriers to belonging for those new to the culture. These aspects are considered within the broader framework of integration versus assimilation in multicultural professional settings.
Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical theory and Barbara Rosenwein’s concept of emotional communities, this study employs ethnographic methods including interviews and participant observation. The findings indicate that, although Swedish workplaces emphasize values such as egalitarianism, work-life balance, and inclusion, these ideals can also act as subtle forms of social control. International employees are often expected to perform according to unspoken, culturally specific norms, which may require adapting or suppressing aspects of their own cultural identities.
This study offers valuable insights into the often-invisible emotional and cultural expectations that shape Swedish office life. It also provides practical recommendations for HR professionals and organizational leaders seeking to foster genuinely inclusive work environments that support integration without reinforcing pressure to assimilate.}},
author = {{Phillips, Megan}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Becoming “We”: Navigating Roles and Belonging in the Multicultural Swedish Workplace}},
year = {{2025}},
}