Scandinavia

The College of Business at West Texas A&M University is committed to giving students the opportunity to learn in a global business environment. By studying abroad, you will expand your skills in network-ing, cross-cultural communication, and international business while focusing on innovation, engage-ment, and impact in your host country. Study abroad programs in the College of Business are led by faculty members. Programs are typically during May intersession and last two weeks. In recent years, we have visited Russia, Canada, England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. During your time abroad, you will visit universities and successful companies and hear from various business professionals in your host country. You will experience the many differences in the ways in which businesses in other countries operate and study the reasons for such differences.

The WT Office of Study Abroad offers the International Education Fee Scholarship to each student participating in a study abroad program. Other financial aid and scholarships are available to those who qualify.

Beyond our Shores

As an online student, you may find it difficult to feel like a Buff. You likely face challenges connecting to your professors, instructors, and other Buffs. The College of Busi-ness encourages all students to take advantage of each opportunity to get involved and get connected. What better way to connect with facul-ty members and peers, than to study with them in a foreign country. You will get a very different learning experience than you are used to. You will have the opportunity to be much more hands-on and you will be able to learn firsthand as opposed to read-ing from a textbook. We encourage you to study abroad with the West Texas A&M College of Business!

Online Students

Denmark

Most Scandinavian businesses operate very differently than American business. We are accustomed to hierarchal structure within large companies. We expect that in a career in busi-ness, there will be a manager we report to and a manager that your manager reports to. You may even be a manager with employees that report to you. We studied the Scandinavian preference for flat organizations. To get a better understand-ing of flat organizations in action, we visited BestBrains, a Danish consulting firm with 13 employees. The employees are all considered to be of the same importance to the firm. Each has the ability to make decisions that would be left to upper-level managers in the United States. This method is successful for firms like BestBrains because it gives each employee a strong sense of ownership, causing them to be deeply invested

in the well-being of the company as a whole.

While in Denmark, we also visited IT-Kartellet, an IT based consultation firm started by a young entrepreneur, the beautiful Tivoli Gardens Amuse-ment Park, and the world-famous Kronborg Cas-tle. Having opened in 1843, Tivoli Gardens is the second oldest amusement park in world. The park has many rides, arcades, an aquarium, multiple theatres, concert halls, and other areas for various types of performances. Kronborg Castle was home to Scandinavian Royalty beginning in the 1400s. It is the castle in which the Shakespearean play, Hamlet, is based. Although parts of the castle and its history has been destroyed by fire, it has been restored and opened to the public for informational tours. This includes a tour of the casemates which were once home to soldiers and prisoners of war.

SwedenWhile in Sweden, we studied Scandinavian innovation and design. Sweden has produced many companies and products we use regularly such as, Electrolux, H&M, Skype, and Spotify. We spent a day in Almhult visiting with employees of IKEA in the building that was once the headquarters. We were able to see and hear about the simplicity IKEA focusses on. We also visited MINC, a Swedish business incu-bator that gives entrepreneurs and budding busi-ness owners the resources, training, and work-space to turn their ideas into products and services. MINC is responsible for acceler-ating the development of invisible helmets and showers that recycle and reuse water.

Sweden

NorwayDuring our stay in Norway, we visited the In-formatics Department at the University of Oslo and learned from professors and students in the Health Information Systems Program. The Informatics Department is similar to the WT Computer Information Systems Department,

but works closely with the Health Information Systems Program to create and improve software used in healthcare. We heard from experts in both software and technology and healthcare about eHealth research initiatives that are imple-mented locally and in developing countries.

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