Tommy Borglund

Anglo-Saxification of Swedish Business : Working paper within the project 'Scandinavian Heritage'

An increasingly globalised world challenges old orders, structures and arrangements. This becomes especially apparent in the ?eld of international business, where mergers, acquisitions and foreign direct investment can trigger job cuts, divestment and the closing-down of traditional industries. For this reason mergers and acquistions are sensitive issues. When two companies from different countries merge, or when a ?rm is purchased by a foreign actor, a new dimension enters into the life of the companies. This is very likely to cause worry and unrest among employees. In such a situation con?icts and clashes may arise and old values and norms may be challenged by the new order. In this paper we examine that issue. A special focus will be given to the con?icts and clashes that can be the consequence of such an encounter between old and new. We shall exemplify this with a case concerning a Swedish company recently bought by an American competitor. The particular aspect of the problem that we are interested in is the in?uence of the new ownership on the ethical values and virtues of the Swedish company. We look speci?cally at the sense in which the changes in the ethical ?eld are expressions of a new Anglo-Saxon shareholder-oriented model, as opposed to a more traditional Scandinavian stakeholder model.