Part 1 - Lessons Learned from a Brazilian SM/PO - IT sector cultural difference - Brazil x Sweden

Since I moved to Sweden in 2021, I've been learning a new culture and how to deal with people from all over the world. My first challenge was to understand what was this new reality and how the Swedish work environment is.

My first shock was that nobody is untouchable you have the freedom to talk with all the managers even the company CEO I saw this in the consultancies companies that I worked on and on my assignments.

In Brazil, we are very hierarchy-oriented and I understood more about that when I did my project conclusion in my master's degree that was: "Agile Adoption by IT leaders who work in the automotive business S?o Paulo X Gothenburg", in my research I used the Hofstede study about country comparisons.

As you can see above, the Hofstede study brings the following analysis of Brazil and Sweden, and if we analyze the first dimension Power distance, according to Hofstede:

"Brazil is a society that believes hierarchy should be respected and inequalities amongst people are acceptable. The different distribution of power justifies the fact that power holders have more benefits than the less powerful in society. In Brazil, it is important to show respect to the elderly (and children take care for their elderly parents). In companies, there is one boss who takes complete responsibility. Status symbols of power are very important in order to indicate social position and “communicate” the respect that could be shown."

Sweden has a completely different mindset, check this out:

The Swedish style: Being independent, hierarchy for convenience only, equal rights, superiors accessible, coaching leader, management facilitates and empowers. Power is decentralized and managers count on the experience of their team members. Employees expect to be consulted. Control is disliked and attitude towards managers are informal and on first name basis. Communication is direct and participative.

After proving what his research says and with my empirical experience, I could feel how important it is, that we are open to understanding how people think and what are their cultures because communication can be smoother. In my experience, the Swedish people are very practical, direct, and polite, and I understand that after starting to learn Swedish, their language is direct and polite because it is a North Germanic language, so this reflects directly in their behavior.

Portuguese is a romantic language and we express ourselves in a not direct way and we can be polite and impolite, depending on the situation, but the differences start there, while in Brazil we do a lot of explanations, for example, if you invite a colleague to an AW, and this person cannot go, the person will not going to say "No, thank you I can't", they will start explaining themselves why they can't go instead of a direct answer, but the Swedish people are the opposite they will going to say "Sorry, I can't today" and they are not been rude.

It is very interesting to understand this little behavior because it is reflected in others too. After this introduction, I hope that you enjoy it and I can bring part 2

Sources: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison-tool?countries=brazil%2Csweden

A brief history of the Swedish Language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiM1Lvi2c9g&ab_channel=TheSwedishLad

History of Brazilian Portuguese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2vaXODBIrw&ab_channel=SpeakingBrazilianLanguageSchool