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Universities value the well-being of those who work and study there. Hierarchies between students and staff, for example, are quite low. The low power distance and high collectivism in Finland accentuate the importance of self-direction and trust. These are the keystones of low hierarchy teams and organisations. Low power distance is largely synonymous with an egalitarian culture, where people are expected to be treated as equals, regardless of rank and personal background. The well-being and success of a community is built on the well-being of individuals. Universities promote inclusion and cooperation with others in many ways. Finnish higher education strives for equality and the opportunity for everyone to participate. 

Within university students’ initiative and activity are emphasized from the very beginning. This means that students can be, for example, involved in planning their own learning tasks and assessing their own learning and that of their peers. Assessment methods are varied. Project work is favoured to help students learn to work in different teams. Working together is a prerequisite for many things –  everyone is respected equally, and cultural diversity is valued. Projects are often cross-curricular and involve teachers from different subjects working together. The drive to master cross-curricular topics and issues reflects the need to understand the world outside the classroom in a broad and diverse way.   
Learner agency and the development of thinking skills are emphasized. Creative and critical thinking is encouraged and included throughout the education system. The wide range of activities in schools also includes problem solving individually and with peers. Digital skills and the processing of knowledge are practiced throughout the learning pathway.  

Finland has a pragmatic culture in which the most important issue is that the work gets done with sound quality. The outcome of work is thus typically considered more important than the process of how you get there. Especially in knowledge work, where there is a need to constantly innovate new working practices, how or where the work gets done is often up for negotiation or even left directly to the employee’s discretion. Employees are expected to work independently and smartly, and to regularly coordinate with team members and other stakeholders (owners, customers, suppliers, contractors). There are thus significant degrees of freedom in how one’s work is designed. Research groups can think of good practices that will combine the best aspects of remote work and working on campus. Although we work in multiple locations it is important to ensure that the connection to the campus and the work community will stay. Teams are encouraged to think together about the best practices that support the achievement of common goals and cooperation with others. 

Finnish working life is often described as autonomous, employing a culture of trust. Another perspective is that Finnish working life can leave people to fend for themselves with too little support. Finnish working life can shock with the level of autonomy with which people are expected to operate. Autonomy puts an emphasis on the individual leading their own work.  

In Finland, employees are generally expected to be the experts of their work. Employees are the ones who should tell their managers how the work could be done better instead of the other way around. To take the initiative regarding these types of improvements is to show self-direction. 

 Self-direction includes the ability to  

• take ownership of one’s work and its problems;  
• autonomously motivate oneself to accomplish everything from mundane routine tasks to the more challenging long-term projects; and  
• to continuously improve the routine work assignments.  

Work-life balance is important in Finnish work culture. The autonomy of work also translates into the autonomy of working hours in many professional roles, which can cater for a positive work-life relationship. Employee needs to communicate an accurate picture of the realities concerning their workload. The generic responsibility of a manager is to look after the people in their teams. In fact, the supervisor and managers are sometimes considered to be in a service profession facilitating learning. 

Based on the Aalto University Code of Conduct, every member of the Aalto community has the right to be treated with respect regardless of their gender, gender identity or expression thereof, age, ethnic or national origin, nationality, language, religion, beliefs, opinion, political or trade union engagement, family relations, health, disability, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics. 

Every community member has a right to enjoy a safe and pleasant university environment that allows unhindered progress in study and work, and we do not accept any kind of inappropriate conduct, bullying or harassment. Our employees’ and students’ wellbeing is core to us. Aalto is committed to providing healthy and safe working and learning conditions.  

You enter your new university classroom with a smile on your face and say: “Hi!” to the other students already in the room. No one even nods their heads.  

Are those students 1) being rude 2) deaf 3) ignoring you on purpose? None of the above. They are Finnish. 

Finland is filled with distant politeness and together with the notion that you’re not supposed to state the obvious, nor should you impose on anyone. At Aalto University campus, however, we have a very international crowd, and you meet different people daily, which is enriching and enlightening. 

Although silence may seem awkward to some, we can find positive aspects to the silence in Finland. You can hear your own thoughts when there’s no constant chatter around you and you may also recognize when someone has something to say as the silence is broken. Often people do not chit chat with each other, but there are also those of us who find meeting people and talking to strangers quite refreshing. 

 So, silence is tolerated well in Finland, and it certainly is seen as golden and something to strive towards. Buses, trains, trams all may seem usually very quiet, unless there are groups of younger children or teenagers in them. We’re not mourning anything, it’s the way we normally are. Quiet and not smiling. You can also see how parents may even whisper to their children in order not to fill the space with speech.  

One aspect of distant politeness is not to interfere with others, i.e., not to impose on them, and it is not necessarily common to share private matters at work. It means, for example, that if someone has had a death in their family, their colleagues may not even know about it. People may also hesitate in helping others unless they are asked for help, since unsolicited help may be seen as imposing on others. This distant politeness may seem very different to those who are used to the more positive politeness. 

Finnish communication style is on one hand very direct - we don’t even have many politeness phrases and Finnish language doesn’t have the word “please” as such. Quite often “please” is replaced with conditional in the verb form. Finns do not beat around the bush, but most often say what they need from you, unless they feel they can’t say it (see imposing on others, above). 

In addition to direct communication style, Finnish communication is also very packed, not everything is stated aloud expecting the listener to infer meaning without explicit statements.

Additionally, in Finland the responsibility of comprehension both in spoken and written communication is with the recipient so the speaker may not explicate too much. An example of not stating the obvious combined with distant politeness as well as with high-context communication, comes from public transportation. You have sat next to a person sitting by the window in a two-seat setting. You notice how the person sitting next to you starts to gather their things, possibly putting their gloves on. They may even reach out to push the stop button, but they do not say anything. As the bus approaches their stop, they may just push past you, if you do not understand to get up to let them out. Rude, you say. Perhaps, but the fellow passenger was giving you the signals they are going to get off at the next stop. Sometimes it may seem like Finns are charged for their words. 

Speaking of public transportation, do not be alarmed about your body odor or halitosis if a Finn who has been sitting next to you on an aisle seat rushes to a window seat that becomes vacant. It’s not you, it’s the Finnish desire to sit alone. Finnish requirement for personal space is quite high and being forced to sit so close to stranger takes a lot out of us.  

Although you may find your Finnish peers very quiet, don’t be put off by it. Try finding something in common or ask for help. Finns are quite eager to help anyone and often go out of their way to do so. 

Finns and Finnish work culture is a high-context culture. High-context culture means that most are sensitive to other people’s emotions and how a person takes others into consideration. Finns also have a healthy sense of self-worth. To act as if one is better than others or to publicly give another reprimand is generally considered condemnable. High-context communication means that a manager might think for themselves in a typical situation “Damn, the quality of this person’s work is poor and they don’t seem to understand it” and yet ask calmly, “What do you think should be improved in this?” In more general terms, being in a high-context work environment means that one often needs to read between the lines to get a complete sense of what is going on and being said.  

It is true that Finns can also be regarded as frank and direct, but seldom to the extent of creating interpersonal tension. One source for the perception that Finns are direct is that the Finnish language does not contain pleasantries to the same degree as, for example, the English language. Where one might ask in English “Could you please send me this information?” a Finnish version would be “Send me this.” In this sense, Finnish is closer to Chinese than English. Even though the latter version could be considered impolite in English, it may just mean that the person’s English is not on par with their Finnish. Such sentences can be interpreted by non-Finns as impolite and direct.  

In a performance review, for example, a Finn might go directly into talking about problems and issues that could be improved, without discussing what is good. For a non-Finn, such communication can be interpreted as negative or as a big crisis, given the lack of balance between the positive and the negative information. For a Finn, going directly into the problematic issues is just pragmatic. What works well can be left unsaid and be taken for granted.  

Acts of communication include implicit evaluations of self-worth and other-worth. One can show disrespect and arrogance by not taking another person into consideration or by overplaying one’s own worth. For example, in a team meeting, interrupting others is often found rude and arrogant. A milder and yet somewhat rude behaviour would be to not ask others’ opinions while strongly advocating one’s own. Finns tend to prefer everyone to act on the same level of face.  

In emails and other communication, titles such as professor or doctor are rarely used. Regardless of rank, most consider others as co-workers and are on first-name terms. This practice is typical for all Nordic countries. These kinds of casual communication practices signal low power distance, but this can also manifest in other ways. In work teams, low power distance means that everyone contributes more or less equally to decision-making, planning and coordination. Perhaps one drawback of this sensitivity to power differences and praise is that compliments can be difficult for Finns to give and take. Although it is increasingly common to thank employees for their good efforts, most would agree that such a culture change is still a work in progress in Finland. In addition, there is much truth to the cliché that when a Finn says “it’s not bad”, an American would have said, “it’s great”. 

Finnish managers seldom like to regularly praise or motivate their employees. Showing emotions can be difficult for typically reserved Finns. Emotional communication is consequently toned down. In the use of emojis, for example, a smiley actually means that they are happy; while the absence of a laughing emoji or a lot of exclamation marks does not indicate passive-aggressiveness. Most Finns appreciate calm and rational arguments instead of emotional appeal.   

Most managers in Finland expect self-directed professionalism from their employees; it is part of the village mentality that everyone is in the same boat. Everyone should understand that they should do their part without constant praise, monitoring, or motivating. 

Professionalism includes the ability to motivate oneself to accomplish a professional quality according to agreed-upon specifications and deadlines. Most work consists of some tedious routine tasks, some variety, and some unexpected and highly challenging assignments. 

Most managers in Finland would prefer to help solve novel and complex challenges instead of supervising or monitoring routine tasks. Working independently and yet in good coordination with others in the team is consequently sought after. The ideal is that the employee knows when to work independently and when to seek advice and ideas from others. 

In most Finnish organisations, there is the expectation of open and honest communication. Relevant information should not be held back, and nor should it be sugar-coated. The difficulty is that open and honest communication should take place without risking anyone “losing face”. To lose face means to be publicly embarrassed or humiliated.  

In a Finnish work culture, trust is not only about a person’s ability to communicate transparently and accurately. Trust also includes a person’s ability to communicate and ask questions without fear of initiating interpersonal tension and confrontations. Personal conflicts are typically avoided, but differences in opinion are common. Trust thus includes the notion of being skilled at high-context communication. 

However, when it comes to work relationships and personal issues, people may be more reserved and careful in their communication. A general sentiment is that all work-related issues should be discussed directly without anyone taking them personally. 

In Finland, it is important to go to lunch together with the team and regularly engage in chit-chat and other forms of subtle and informal acknowledgement. The important part is that mutual respect is communicated between co-workers. Such informal practices are important everyday routines that maintain the egalitarian work culture and help people to understand each other when it comes to high-context communication. If people appreciate each other then they also tend to understand each other’s communication more accurately and positively.  

Active networking on professional platforms can do wonders for your future job and projects. “Everyone knows everyone” is a cliché that, to a large degree, holds up in Finland within an industry or a particular level of seniority. Some networks are formed at a very early career stage, for example at high school, in the Finnish army, at university, and later in working life. Also, networking activities take place more and more on digital platforms such as LinkedIn. It is good to recognise that university provides great opportunities to network with peers. 
 

Finnish universities offer study programmes in English, and English is widely used in both university life and Finnish society. Since learning a new language is time-consuming, requires work, and sometimes places you in awkward situations, the question arises: if it is not necessary to learn some Finnish in order to live in Finland and study at a Finnish university, why bother? 
 

There is a persistent myth (also cherished by Finns themselves) that Finnish is a particularly difficult language. A common misconception is also that you must become extremely proficient in a language before being able to use it. Taken together, these ideas seem to discourage people from even attempting to begin to learn Finnish. In reality, it is perfectly possible to learn Finnish, and there are many advantages to knowing the local language even at different stages of the learning path. 
 

Simply being able to buy your coffee or greet the university staff in Finnish means that your being ‘an outsider’ is not highlighted in every minor encounter; this makes you feel more at home. Since the language reflects the culture and society, knowing a little about the language also deepens your cultural understanding and thus helps you gain more from your experience in Finland.  
All in all, even rudimentary knowledge of Finnish brings you one step closer to the inner circles of the society, away from the sphere of a casual visitor. 
 

It is a fact that advanced language skills open wider job opportunities. Being proficient in Finnish, you will also feel like an equal participant in all different life situations, such as parents’ evenings at your children’s school or the meetings of your housing cooperative. If you wish, after having lived in Finland for 4–5 years, you can even apply for the Finnish citizenship (the language requirement is B1 CEFR level).  

• Begin your language studies right away, even if you are not planning to stay in Finland.  Knowing some Finnish makes even a short stay more fruitful.  
• Be persistent! If someone changes into English when you have spoken Finnish, tell them explicitly that you want to practise your Finnish.  
• Make learning the language a social activity: ask for help and support from your friends and colleagues – usually they are extremely happy to help (but shy to take the initiative). 
   

In conclusion, speaking or understanding Finnish is not absolutely necessary, but one should understand that if one does not know the local language, sometimes some information is lost, some opportunities are missed, and some social situations are not so smooth. Knowing at least some of the language will open many doors and help you enjoy your Finnish experience more!