Fredrik Kullberg is the author of, among other things, the reportage book "Kriget mot skönheten", about the Swedish demolition wave during the post-war period, which was nominated for the Great Non-Fiction Book Award 2020. In his seventh book, "Swedish Phrasebook", he lists around 300 phrases used mainly by companies and organizations , in so-called management jargon.

- Like many others, I have walked around and teased myself about these strange word soufflés that you are drowned in as a citizen.

So innovation, flexibility, transformation journey.

It turns out when you scratch the surface that they do not mean much.

At the same time, it can be difficult to criticize the language in a workplace when you easily appear a little stupid, like someone who is not at the "front edge", says Fredrik Kullberg.

The words often come from the tech industry and its start-up culture, where it is important to attract the interest of the media and investors.

The terms aim to make the business sound more interesting than it really is and are used in different sectors such as economics, culture and politics.

- Today we have a large group of people who work with organization, with tasks that may not always be so brilliant, but in this success and career ideology that prevails today, it is very important to make it seem nice and good.

Among other things, this leads to a title inflation.

For example, it is no longer called HR Manager, but CHRO, Chief Human Resources Officer, says Fredrik Kullberg.

Creates a ambiguity

He thinks the risk with language use is that it creates ambiguity.

- It becomes difficult to understand what is happening around us, when you are not even allowed to talk about problems.

It is never a problem in a municipality or a company, but a wall of communicators describes it instead as challenges, which is something positively charged.

This means that you can blame yourself further down the hierarchy, if only the others make an effort, we will fix this, because it is just a challenge, says Fredrik Kullberg.

Words that associate with market-friendly policies, such as market rents, Davos and new public management, are also described in a sour way in the book, but the book is not political, says Fredrik Kullberg. 

- I oppose all types of disseminators of this, from all political directions.

I am critical of phrases, he says.