Workaholic or easygoing?
Interpretations of National Culture in Industries with Immigrant Workforce in Finland
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Growing immigration creates linguistically and culturally diverse working environments. National cultural characteristics are common concepts in everyday discourse in culturally heterogeneous workplaces as well as in academic research on work environments and management. By analysing empirical interview data from two arenas of productive activity in Finland, we show how national cultural characteristics are understood differently depending on the structural positioning of the arena in the local–national–transnational–global continuum. The data consists of a total of 53 in-depth interviews of foreign-born and Finnish-born experts working in high tech industries and research organizations, and white-collar and blue-collar workers in metal industries. Results illuminate how national interactive specificity is interpreted differently in global and local–national productive arenas. For instance, depending on the type of work, Finns could be describe as workaholics or as easy-going employees. The most central national cultural stereotypes have different interpretations among employees in the high tech business (global arena) and metal industries (mainly local and national arena).
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References
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https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651908320361
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Hsieh, H.-F. and Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research 15(9), 1277–1288.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687
Jaakkola, M. (2009). Maahanmuuttajat suomalaisten näkökulmasta. Asennemuutokset 1987–2007. [Migrants from the point of view of the Finns: Changing attitudes 1987–2007]. Helsinki: Helsinki City Urban Facts.
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Otten, M. and Geppert, J. (2009). Mapping the landscape of qualitative research on intercultural communication: A hitchhiker's guide to the methodological galaxy [62 paragraphs]. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 10(1), Art. 52.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Pitkänen, P. (ed.) (2011). Kulttuurien kohtaamisia arjessa. [Intercultural Interaction in Everyday Work]. Tampere: Vastapaino.
Raunio, M. & Säävälä, M. (2011) Metallin ja korkean teknologian työyhteisöt monikulttuurisen oppimisen areenoina [Working environments of metal industries and high tech as arenas of learning]. In Pitkänen P. (ed), Kulttuurien kohtaamisia arjessa. Tampere: Vastapaino.
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https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400864
Rosen, C. C., Levy, P. E. and Hall, R. J. (2006). Placing perceptions of politics in the context of the feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology 91(1), 211–220.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.211
Schwartz, S. and Sagiv, L. (1995). Identifying culture-specifics in the content and structure of values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 26, 92–116.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022195261007
Silfver, O. (2010). Vääränlaiset huippuosaajat? Entisen Neuvostoliiton alueelta tulleiden asiantuntijoiden kiinnittyminen suomalaiseen työelämään [Wrong kind of experts? The attachment of professionals from former Soviet Union in Finnish working life]. In Wrede, S. and Nordberg, C. (Eds), Vieraita työssä. Työelämän etnistyvä eriarvoisuus [Strangers at Work], pp. 122–146. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.
Ståhle, P. and Grönroos, M. (1999). Knowledge management – Tietopääoma yrityksen kilpailutekijänä. Helsinki, WSOY.
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Trompenaars, F. and Hampden-Turner, C. (1998). Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business. New York: McGraw Hill.
Trux, M.-L. (2010). No Zoo – Ethnic Civility and its Cultural Regulation Among the Staff of a Finnish High-Tech Company. PhD thesis, Acta Universitatis Oeconomicae Helsingiensis A-359. Helsinki: Aalto University School of Economics.
Tukiainen S. (2010). Finnishness in Cross Cultural Interaction in International Engineering Projects. PhD Thesis, Acta Universitatis Oeconomicae Helsingiensis A-373. Helsinki: Aalto University School of Economics.
Van Maanen, J. and Barley, S. R. (1982). Occupational Communities: Culture and Control in Organizations. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, mimeo.
Vartiainen, P., Pitkänen, P., Asis, M., Raunio, P.and Koskela, M. (2016). From the Philippines to Finland: Nurses exceptations and Finnish realities. Journal of Population and Social Studies, 24(1), 30-46.
Volkema, R. J. (2012). Why people don't ask: Understanding initiation behavior in international negotiations. Thunderbird Int'l Bus Rev 54, 625–637.
https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21489
Whitaker B. G., Dahling J. J. and Levy, P. (2007). The development of a feedback environment and role clarity model of job performance. Journal of Management 33(4), 570–591.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206306297581
Williamson D. (2002). Forward from a critique of Hofstede's model of national culture. Human Relations 55(11), 1373–1395.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267025511006
https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726702055011923
Witte, A. (2012). Making the case for a postnational cultural analysis of organizations. Journal of Management Inquiry 21(2), 141–159.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492611415279
Zander, L. and Romani, L. (2004). When nationality matters: Study of departmental, hierarchical, professional, gender and age-based employee groupings' leadership preferences across 15 countries. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management 4(3), 291–315.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595804047811
https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2008.34421995
Alapuro, R. (1994). Suomen synty paikallisena ilmiönä 1890–1933 [The Formation of Finland as a Local Phenomenon 1890–1933]. Helsinki: Hanki ja Jää.
Alcázar, F.M. (2013). Workforce diversity in strategic human resource management models. Cross Cultural Management 20(1), 39-49.
https://doi.org/10.1108/13527601311296247
Almutairi, Adel & McCarthy, Alexandra L. (2012). A multicultural nursing workforce and cultural perspectives in Saudi Arabia: an overview. theHealth, 3(3), 71-74.
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Apo, S. (1996). Agraarinen suomalaisuus – rasite vai resurssi? [Agrarian Finnishness – A burden or a resource?]. In Laaksonen, P. and Mettomäki, S.-L. (Eds) Olkaamme siis suomalaisia [So Let us be Finns], Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja, pp. 75-76. Helsinki: SKS.
Barth, F. (2002). An anthropology of knowledge. Current Anthropology 43(1), 1–18.
https://doi.org/10.1086/324131
Byrds, M.Y. & Scott, C.L. 2014. Diversity in the Workforce. Current Issues and Emerging Trends. New York: Routledge.
Cardon, P.W. (2008). A critique of Hall's contexting model: A meta-analysis of literature on intercultural business and technical communication. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 22(4), 399–428.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651908320361
Collier, M.J. (2015). Cultural identity and intercultural communication. In Samovar, L.A., Porter, R.E., McDaniel, E.R and Roy, C.S. (Eds.) Intercultural Communication. A Reader. 14th Edition, pp.47-61. Genage Learning, Genage.
Elias, N. (1969). The Civilizing Process, Vol. I. The History of Manners. Oxford: Blackwell.
Fitzsimmons, S. R., Miska, C. and Stahl, Günter. (2011) Multicultural employee: Global business' untapped resource. Organizational Dynamics, 40 (3), 199-206
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2011.04.007
Forsander, A. and Raunio, M. (2005). Globalisoituvat työmarkkinat – asiantuntijamaahanmuuttajat Suomessa [Golbalization of labour market – experts in Finland]. In Pitkänen, P. (Ed.) Kulttuurien välinen työ, pp. 26–53. Helsinki, Edita.
Gerhart, B. and Fang, M. (2005). National culture and human resource management: Assumptions and evidence. International Journal of Human Resource Management 16(6), 971–986.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500120772
Hall, E. (1976). Beyond Culture. New York: Doubleday.
Hampden-Turner, C. and Trompenaars, F. (2000). Building Cross-Cultural Competence: How to Create Wealth from Conflicting Values. New York: John Wiley & sons.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Hsieh, H.-F. and Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research 15(9), 1277–1288.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687
Jaakkola, M. (2009). Maahanmuuttajat suomalaisten näkökulmasta. Asennemuutokset 1987–2007. [Migrants from the point of view of the Finns: Changing attitudes 1987–2007]. Helsinki: Helsinki City Urban Facts.
Jensen, B. J., Johnson, B., Lorenz, E. and Lundvall, B-Å. (2007). Forms of knowledge and modes of innovation. Research Policy 36, 680-693.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2007.01.006
Koehn, P. H. and Rosenau, J. N. (2010). Transnational Competence: Empowering Professional Curricula for Horizon-Rising Challenges. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
Lamphere, L. (1999). Introduction: The shaping of diversity. In Lamphere, L. (Ed.), Structuring Diversity: Ethnographic Perspective on the New Immigration, pp. 1-34. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Lewis, R. D. (2005). Finland, Cultural Lone Wolf. Yarmouth: Intercultural Press.
Mahadevan, J. (2009). Redefining organizational cultures: An interpretative anthropological approach to corporate narratives. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 10(1), art 44. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0901440.
McSweeney B. (2002). Hofstede's model of national cultural differences and their consequences: A triumph of faith – a failure of analysis 2002. Human Relations 55(1), 89–118.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726702551004
Morrison, E. W., Chen, Y-R. and Salgado, S. R. (2004). Cultural differences in newcomer feedback seeking: A comparison of the United States and Hong Kong. Applied Psychology: An International Review 53, 1–22.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00158.x
Otten, M. and Geppert, J. (2009). Mapping the landscape of qualitative research on intercultural communication: A hitchhiker's guide to the methodological galaxy [62 paragraphs]. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 10(1), Art. 52.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Pitkänen, P. (ed.) (2011). Kulttuurien kohtaamisia arjessa. [Intercultural Interaction in Everyday Work]. Tampere: Vastapaino.
Raunio, M. & Säävälä, M. (2011) Metallin ja korkean teknologian työyhteisöt monikulttuurisen oppimisen areenoina [Working environments of metal industries and high tech as arenas of learning]. In Pitkänen P. (ed), Kulttuurien kohtaamisia arjessa. Tampere: Vastapaino.
Raunio, M. (2002). Image of Finland divided among foreign ICT professionals. Economic Trends 2, 21–28.
Raunio, M. and Forsander, A. (2009). The Welfare State in Competition for Global Talent: From National Protectionism to Regional Connectivity - the Case of Foreign ICT and Bioscience Experts in Finland. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Robinson-Easely, C. (2014). Beyond Diversity and Intercultural Management. New York,: Palgrave.
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400864
Rosen, C. C., Levy, P. E. and Hall, R. J. (2006). Placing perceptions of politics in the context of the feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology 91(1), 211–220.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.211
Schwartz, S. and Sagiv, L. (1995). Identifying culture-specifics in the content and structure of values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 26, 92–116.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022195261007
Silfver, O. (2010). Vääränlaiset huippuosaajat? Entisen Neuvostoliiton alueelta tulleiden asiantuntijoiden kiinnittyminen suomalaiseen työelämään [Wrong kind of experts? The attachment of professionals from former Soviet Union in Finnish working life]. In Wrede, S. and Nordberg, C. (Eds), Vieraita työssä. Työelämän etnistyvä eriarvoisuus [Strangers at Work], pp. 122–146. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.
Ståhle, P. and Grönroos, M. (1999). Knowledge management – Tietopääoma yrityksen kilpailutekijänä. Helsinki, WSOY.
Statistics Finland (2016). Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Population structure 2014 [statistical table]. http://pxnet2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/fi/StatFin/StatFin__vrm__vaerak/045_vaerak_tau_200_fi.px/?rxid=c9cf42ec-79ed-43b9-926e-13f303e8f936
Trompenaars, F. and Hampden-Turner, C. (1998). Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business. New York: McGraw Hill.
Trux, M.-L. (2010). No Zoo – Ethnic Civility and its Cultural Regulation Among the Staff of a Finnish High-Tech Company. PhD thesis, Acta Universitatis Oeconomicae Helsingiensis A-359. Helsinki: Aalto University School of Economics.
Tukiainen S. (2010). Finnishness in Cross Cultural Interaction in International Engineering Projects. PhD Thesis, Acta Universitatis Oeconomicae Helsingiensis A-373. Helsinki: Aalto University School of Economics.
Van Maanen, J. and Barley, S. R. (1982). Occupational Communities: Culture and Control in Organizations. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, mimeo.
Vartiainen, P., Pitkänen, P., Asis, M., Raunio, P.and Koskela, M. (2016). From the Philippines to Finland: Nurses exceptations and Finnish realities. Journal of Population and Social Studies, 24(1), 30-46.
Volkema, R. J. (2012). Why people don't ask: Understanding initiation behavior in international negotiations. Thunderbird Int'l Bus Rev 54, 625–637.
https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21489
Whitaker B. G., Dahling J. J. and Levy, P. (2007). The development of a feedback environment and role clarity model of job performance. Journal of Management 33(4), 570–591.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206306297581
Williamson D. (2002). Forward from a critique of Hofstede's model of national culture. Human Relations 55(11), 1373–1395.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267025511006
https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726702055011923
Witte, A. (2012). Making the case for a postnational cultural analysis of organizations. Journal of Management Inquiry 21(2), 141–159.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492611415279
Zander, L. and Romani, L. (2004). When nationality matters: Study of departmental, hierarchical, professional, gender and age-based employee groupings' leadership preferences across 15 countries. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management 4(3), 291–315.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595804047811
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| Published |
April 27, 2017
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| Issue | |
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Articles
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| Keywords | national culture, stereotypes, migrant labour, transnational interaction |
| How to Cite |
Raunio, M., & Säävälä, M. (2017). Workaholic or easygoing? Interpretations of National Culture in Industries with Immigrant Workforce in Finland. Nordic Yearbook of Population Research, 51, 41-60. https://doi.org/10.23979/fypr.56873
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Copyright (c) 2017 Finnish Yearbook of Population Research  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Authors who publish with the Nordic Yearbook of Population Research agree to the following terms:
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