Understanding people from different cultures is essential but differences in thinking, which can cause misinterpretations and further on conflicts, are often neglected. To be able to understand peoples' actions as a result of their culture makes their behaviors apprehensible and acceptable. This type of understanding is important in schools and organizations as well as in societies in general. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how Hofstede’s (2001) three cultural dimensions individualism or collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and power distance appear in Tanzanian organizations. The study was accomplished by doing interviews within each dimension, which was compared with the theory. The results showed that the respondents tended to be more collectivistic than individualistic, to have a low tolerance for uncertainties and to perceive a large power distance in some situations but a small in others. / <p>Validerat; 20101217 (root)</p>

The Japanese automobile manufacturer invented Lean Production or Toyota Production System (TPS) which has been introduced and implemented in Swedish manufacturers for around 20 years (Dabhilkar, et al., 2005). Many studies discussed how it creates success in optimizing production process and quality. However, many researches show that the gap between culture become the main barrier in the process of realizing ‘true’ lean manufacturing. So, what problems has been brought out because of cultural difference in the process of implementing the lean method in Swedish industry and how to eliminate them?   The adaptation of lean method will have influences on the culture of a company. The purpose of this paper is to find out the problems which brought out by the cultural difference and a set of general approaches and principles which can be used for Swedish cultures to adapt and implement lean methodologies successfully and effectively.

It is well known that males dominate politics, both in elected positions and in the media as political pundits (Melber, 2011). Is it the masculine style that is appealing to society? Do popular political pundits (male and female) emulate this masculine style in order to appeal to and persuade their audience? Through a content analysis of the rhetoric of six specified political pundits, it is hypothesized that both males and females are more likely to incorporate masculine styles of rhetoric, and those who display more masculine style traits will be more acceptable to the general audience leading to more airtime and appearances across networks. Through the analysis of the programs' 2013 transcripts, the communicative style of both male and female political pundits of the top five news programs from the big five networks will be studied: ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CBS's Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, and NBC's Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. / Master of Arts

To αντικείμενο της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η μελέτη της συμπεριφοράς των χρηστών της Wikipedia, όταν πραγματοποιούν μια τροποποίηση περιεχομένου ενός άρθρου, σε σχέση με την χώρα καταγωγής τους. Η μελέτη ξεκινάει με μια γενική παρουσίαση των ιστοσελίδων κοινωνικής δικτύωσης με έμφαση στις Wikipedia αλλά και της έρευνας του ολλανδού κοινωνιολόγου Geert Hofstede και τις θεωρίας του περί την ύπαρξη πέντε κοινωνικών διαστάσεων που μπορούν να περιγράψουν αρκετά ικανοποιητικά κάθε κράτος και τους κατοίκους του. Στην συνέχεια, κατασκευάζουμε μια εφαρμογή η οποία αντλεί και συλλέγει δεδομένα σχετικά με τις τροποποιήσεις από πέντε διαφορετικές εκδόσεις – γλώσσες της Wikipedia για 8 διαφορετικά άρθρα και τα κατηγοριοποιεί ανάλογα με το είδος της τροποποίησης. Τέλος, γίνεται η προσπάθεια εξαγωγής κάποιων συμπερασμάτων σχετικά με τον τρόπο συμπεριφοράς των χρηστών που προέρχονται από το ίδιο κράτος συγκρίνοντας τα δεδομένα που συλλέξαμε για κάθε διαφορετική γλώσσα με τις διαστάσεις που έχει μετρήσει ο Geert Hofstede για το αντίστοιχο κράτος. / The subject of this thesis is to study the behaviour of the users of Wikipedia when editing the content of an article, with respect to the country of origin of the user. The study begins with an overview of social networking websites with a focus on Wikipedia and a presentation of the research of the Dutch sociologist Geert Hofstede and his theory of the existence of five social dimensions that can describe quite well each country and its residents. Afterwards, we develop an application that draws and collects data from the article history about the edits of eight Wikipedia articles from five different editions – languages of Wikipedia and classifies them according to the type of the edit. Finally, we attempt to export some conclusions about the behaviour of users from the same country by relating the data we exported for each language to the dimensions measured by Geert Hofstede for the corresponding country.

<p>The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the implications and challenges of intercultural communication. An in-depth study was performed of the perspectives from people who work within an international organization. How they experience cultural differences and how they handle them, in particular when it comes to communication. Also, their perceptions of communicative competence were explored. The study was carried out at Svalorna India Bangladesh, at the Swedish office in Lund. Svalorna’s staff was interviewed on their experiences of intercultural communication. Both employees at the Swedish office and employees on location in India and Bangladesh were interviewed. The method used in the study was qualitative interviews where the interviewees could expand their answers fully as the interview developed. The main theory used was Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, presented in the thesis and considered in the study. It was concluded that being aware of cultural differences and having knowledge of other cultures but also your own is important for understanding the so-called non-verbal communication in an intercultural situation. There are also differences in to what extent a certain culture uses non-verbal communication. Both India and Bangladesh, according to the interviewees, are high context cultures whereas Sweden has a low context culture. All the interviewees had similar experiences when it comes to intercultural communication. A cultural difference in the perception of time is an example of when verbal communication can be inadequate, if one is not aware of cultural differences. Both India and Bangladesh use polychronic time whereas in Sweden monochromic time is used. This is indeed confirmed by all interviewees. Many of Hofstede’s cultural dimension theories are found to be coherent with the results of this study, for example the Individualism.</p>

The relation between Culture and Business has caught researchers’ attention long ago; itis not hard to find studies relating to these topics. According to Hofstede et al. (2010, p.18), Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (2012, p. 8), and Erez and Gati (2004, p. 5),culture can be defined in many levels, for example, organizational culture, and national culture. The field of Business also contains several disciplines, for example, International Business Management, Project Management, and Project Governance. However, not somany studies can be found studying the relation between National Culture and Project Governance; therefore, this study is focused on this relation.This study is designed following a qualitative approach in order to clarify the relation between National Culture and Project Governance Principles. Case studies are used targeting the IT industry of three countries, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan. These cases also contain the classical theory of cultural dimensions from Hofstede. Hofstede’s dimensionsare Power Distance (PDI), Individualism vs. Collectivism (IDV), Uncertainty Avoidance(UAI), Masculinity vs. Femininity (MAS), Long-term Orientation (LTO), and Indulgencevs. Restraint (IDU). They are applied in this study for distinguishing the differences between countries. This study is also based on the definition of Project GovernancePrinciples from Garland (2009), Klakegg (2008), and Müller et al. (2013). ProjectGovernance Principles are split into two categories as well, hard/ structural principles andsoft/ behaviour principles.In order to clarify the link between National Culture and Project Governance Principles,this thesis’ authors interviewed 19 people, including 10 project managers and 9 experts.All of them have a long experience dealing with Project Management in the three selected countries. Their answers are based on the knowledge and experience of Project Management and Project Governance, as well as their opinions about their own national culture. After analysing the interviews, the authors consider that differences between these three countries in Project Governance and Project Governance Principles do exist. On the other hand, there are also some similar parts, for example, the influence ofcustomers’ orientation and preference. Moreover, respondents, Project Managers and Experts, all mentioned it is also necessary to be aware of the globalized environment, inother words, there is no influence of a single national culture in one country anymore.However, they all admit the importance of their own national culture as well. All these findings from this study encourage further and deeper study in the future.

Forskningsproblem Earnings management, i studien uttryckt som resultatmanipulering, handlar om redovisningsval där företagsledningen vilseleder företagets intressenter om dess verkliga ekonomiska prestation. Behov finns att förklara skillnader i användandet av resultatmanipulering mellan länder. Syfte Syftet med denna studie är att förklara resultatmanipulering i nordiska börsbolag utifrån kulturens inverkan på redovisningsvalet. Metod Utifrån en deduktiv ansats härleds en hypotes som sedan prövas genom våra empiriska observationer. Observationerna samlas in genom en dokumentstudie av nordiska börsbolags årsredovisningar. Resultat Studiens resultat visar att resultatmanipulering är mer förekommande i norska än svenska bolag. Vidare visar resultatet att osäkerhetsundvikande kan förklara en del av användandet av resultatmanipulering, men att övriga kulturella dimensioner inte kan göra det. Kunskapsbidrag Studien bidrar till en ökad förståelse av redovisningsval i nordiska börsbolag. / Problem Earnings management is the common expression to explain the management’s use of accounting choices that mislead its stakeholders about the business performance. There are needs to explain differences in the use of Earnings management between different countries. Purpose The aim of this study is to explain the cultural factors impact on the use of Earnings management within Nordic stock exchange companies. Method Based on a deductive approach we have derived one hypothesis that is tested by our empirical observations. The observations are gathered through a document study of Nordic listed companies’ annual reports. Results The results indicate that Earnings management is more frequently used in Norwegian companies compared to Swedish. Uncertainty avoidance seems to explain some of the variation in Earnings management. However the remaining cultural dimensions fail to explain the variation between the Nordic countries. Contribution The contribution of the study is an increased understanding of accounting choices in Nordic listed companies.

The subject of this diploma thesis is the foreign policy of Japan in the period since the Second World War to the present and its cultural and historical determinants. The aim of the thesis is to identify fundamental cultural and historical factors reflected in Japan's foreign policy and in its behaviour in international relations. The thesis comprises analysis of history, culture and foreign policy of Japan and the connections between them. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is focused on the history of Japan. The second chapter concerns Japanese culture and its specifics. The third chapter characterizes Japanese culture using cultural dimensions models by Geert Hofstede and Fons Trompenaars. The fourth chapter focuses on the analysis of Japanese foreign policy. The final chapter attempts to identify the major cultural and historical determinants of Japanese foreign policy.

This thesis deals with the ethics approaches in advertising in different countries. First of all I describe the culture influence to the ethical values in the countries which need to be respected in the advertising appeal selection especially in the international advertising. In order to identify the concrete ethical values and attitudes in particular countries, the legal regulations and self-regulatiuons rules in advertising were analyzed. Furthermore, I choosed the unethical ads in particular countries and explained that approach through the theory of Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Model. The conclusions of such ethical analysis could be used in the international advertising. For this cross-country ethical comparison was chosen Czech Republic, China, India and Great Britain.

O ensino de biologia requer ferramentas adequadas para a aprendizagem dos alunos. Argumenta-se que os conflitos diários vivenciados na sala de aula podem ser minimizados ou até mesmo resolvidos através do envolvimento de técnicas de aprendizagem significativas. Para apoiar a aprendizagem significativa surge o mapa conceitual (MC) desenvolvido por Joseph Novak como uma ferramenta para organizar e representar o conhecimento. Há também o círculo hermenêutico-dialético (CHD) que é um método interativo e dinâmico realizado em grupo que permite captar a realidade em estudo, através de uma análise que se configura em um consenso entre os grupos pesquisados. O ambiente cultural, em conjunto com a metodologia de ensino escolhida, pode influenciar a forma como os alunos aprendem. Hofstede apresentou um método de identificação de dimensões culturais: índice de distância hierárquica (PDI), individualismo versus coletivismo (IDV), masculinidade versus feminilidade (MAS), índice de aversão à incerteza (UAI) e orientação de longo prazo versus orientação normativa de curto prazo (LTO). Neste trabalho, estudou-se a construção de mapas conceituais (CM) em associação com uma sequencia didática interativa (SDI) envolvendo a aplicação do círculo hermenêutico-dialético (CHD). Além disso, as dimensões culturais de Hofstede foram verificadas para os estudantes. Os resultados mostraram que as características das dimensões culturais de Hofstede, como o baixo índice de distância hierárquica (-11 pontos) associado a um baixo índice de individualismo (5 pontos) indicaram que os estudantes foram participativos e gostaram de realizar atividades em conjunto. Além disso, os alunos apresentaram índices moderadamente elevados de masculinidade (68 pontos) e orientação de longo prazo (51 pontos), contribuindo para um grupo competitivo e comprometido. Foi proporcionado um ambiente estruturado e motivador em função do elevado nível de incerteza (88 pontos) dos estudantes. Os alunos ensinados usando o método de mapeamento conceitual associado ao círculo hermenêutico-dialético (MC-CHD) obtiveram melhores resultados do que quando construíram os mapas conceituais individualmente. A construção de mapas conceituais associada ao CHD foi estruturalmente mais complexa do que os mapas construídos individualmente. A aplicação do CHD devido à sua própria funcionalidade proporcionou um diálogo motivacional/interativo entre os alunos e professor favorecendo a aprendizagem significativa usando os mapas conceituais. De acordo com a escala de Hake esta proposta mostrou um ganho de aprendizagem a um nível médio. Este trabalho gerou um material complementar ao manual do professor da rede pública do Estado de São Paulo enriquecido com a construção de mapas conceituais e discussões no CHD. Além disso, usando as dimensões culturais de Hofestede. Esta proposta traz uma perspectiva inovadora para o uso do CHD e poderá contribuir para futuros estudos na área de ensino e aprendizagem. / Teaching biology requires appropriate tools for student learning. It is argued that everyday conflicts experienced in the classroom can be minimized or even solved through the involvement of meaningful learning techniques. To support meaningful learning emerges the conceptual map (CM) developed by Joseph Novak as a tool to organize and represent knowledge. There is also the hermeneutic-dialectic circle (HDC) that is an interactive and dynamic method carried out in a group that allows capturing the reality under study, through an analysis that is configured in a consensus among the groups surveyed. The cultural environment, together with the chosen teaching methodology, can influence the way students learn. Hofstede presented a method to identify cultural dimensions as power distance index- PDI, individualism versus collectivism-IDV, masculinity versus femininity-MAS, uncertainty avoidance index-UAI and long term orientation versus short term normative orientation-LTO. In this work, the construction of conceptual maps (CM) in association with an interactive didactic sequence (IDS) involving the application of the hermeneutic-dialectic circle (HDC) was studied. In addition, the Hofstede cultural dimensions were verified for the students. The results showed that the characteristics of the cultural dimensions of Hofstede, such as the low hierarchical distance index (-11 points) associated with a low individualism index (5 points) indicated that the students was participative and enjoyed doing activities together. In addition, students had moderately high rates of masculinity (68 points) and long-term orientation (51 points), contributing to a competitive and compromised group. A structured and motivating environment was provided due to the students\' high level of uncertainty (88 points). Students taught using the conceptual mapping method associated with the hermeneutic-dialectical circle (CM-HDC) obtained better results than when constructing the conceptual mapping individually. The construction of conceptual maps associated with the HDC was structurally more complex than the maps constructed individually. The application of HDC due to its own functionality provided a motivational/interactive dialogue between students and teacher favoring meaningful learning by using concept maps. According to the Hake scale, this proposal showed a learning gain at an average level. This work generated a complementary material to the teacher\'s manual of the public network of the State of São Paulo enriched with the construction of conceptual maps and discussions in HDC. In addition, the Hofstede cultural dimensions were used. This proposal brings an innovative perspective to the use of CHD and could contribute to future studies in the area of teaching and learning.