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The career path of African American novelist Chester Himes is often characterised as a u-turn. Himes grew to recognition in the 1940s as a writer of the Popular Front, and a pioneer of the era's black 'protest' fiction. However, after falling out of domestic favour in the early 1950s, Himes emigrated to Paris, where he would go on to publish eight Harlem-set detective novels (1957-1969) for Gallimard's La Série Noire. Himes's 'black' noir fiction brought him critical and commercial success amongst a white European readership, and would later gain a cult status amongst an African American readership in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Himes's post-'protest' career has been variously characterised as a commercialist 'selling out'; an embracing of black 'folk' populism; and an encounter with Black Atlantic modernism. This thesis analyses the Harlem Cycle novels in relation to Himes's career, and wider debates regarding postwar African American literature and race relations.Fundamentally, I argue that a move into commercial formula fiction did not curtail Himes's critical interest in issues of power, exploitation, and racial inequality. Rather, it refocused his literary 'protest' to representational politics itself, and popular culture's ability to inscribe racial identity, resistance and exploitation. On the one hand, Himes's Harlem fiction meets a formulaic and commercial demand for images of 'pathological' black urban criminality. However, Himes, operating 'behind enemy lines', uses the texts to dramatise this very dynamic. Himes's pulp novels depict a heightened Harlem that is thematically 'pulped' by a logic of capitalist exploitation, and a fetishistic dominant of racial difference. In doing so, Himes's formula fiction makes visible certain anti-progressive shifts in the analysis and representation of postwar race relations. My methodology mirrors the multiple operations of the texts, placing Himes's detective fiction in relation to a diverse and interdisciplinary range of sources: literary, historical, and theoretical. Using archival material, I look in detail at Himes's public image and contemporary reception as a Série Noire writer, his professional correspondence with French and U.S. literary agents, and his private thoughts and later reflections regarding his career. This methodology attempts to get to grips with a literary triangulation between Himes's progressive authorial intentions, the demands placed upon him as a Série Noire writer, and the wider ideological shifts of the postwar era. By exploring these different historical, geographical and literary contexts, this thesis offers a wide-reaching analysis of how cultural and racial meanings are produced and negotiated within a commodity form.

The thesis on the topic of Taking Care of GE and Knowledge Transfer in Company X has examined the practice in the field of the global assignments of the company X hand in hand with a qualitative research method among the GE of X. First, theoretical proposals were introduced and analysed. Then they were connected with the results of the research and discussed and proposals were made for optimising of the care taking about the GE and for releasing the knowledge flow in X.

This Thesis deals with the analysis of foreign clients' service level on the Czech banking market. The main aim is to evaluate the level of foreign clients' service at selected branches and specialised centres of five largest domestic banks, using the method of Mystery Shopping. Evaluation is enhanced by a survey which questions the satisfaction of foreigners with current banking services and their interest regarding specialised centres. Based on the results of the analysis the final recommendations are provided to banks and three determined hypotheses are confirmed or disproved. The thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part is focused on general specifications of the basic concepts and legislative regulations which have an essential influence on foreign clients on the Czech market, the evolution in the number of foreigners in the Czech Republic, the Czech banking market including profiles of domestic banks and the definition of marketing research. The practical part includes preparation and implementation of research at the bank branches, a survey among foreigners, research outcomes and subsequent recommendations to banks.

The purpose of the study was to develop a substantive theory that would provide insight into the role of the Internet in expatriate adjustment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Expatriate adjustment research has identified a number of challenges that expatriates experience when adjusting to the host country. These include spousal influence, cultural training/ understanding, fluency in the host language and the personality or emotional readiness of the expatriate. These challenges are amplified when considered in the context of the KSA, which has a large cultural distance when compared to the average Western culture and therefore, provides a setting for an interesting study. There are a limited number of studies available that consider the role of the Internet during the expatriate episode in general, but none that examine the role of the Internet on expatriate adjustment specifically. Furthermore, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, there is no research that provides a grounded theoretical understanding of the Internet in expatriate adjustment. The research project used a Grounded Theory based approach to develop a substantive theory on the role that the Internet plays in expatriate adjustment in the KSA. The conceptual account emerged from interviewing expatriates living in Western compounds in Riyadh, the capital of the KSA. The core concern that emerged from this study is one that describes the mediating effect of the Internet. This study hypothesised that the Internet had a regulating effect on expatriates’ degree of isolation and degree of information flow which would affect both their process of adjustment and their state of adjustment. Both the expatriates’ process and state of adjustment is expressed in terms of their well-being. The theory building study presents a theoretical model, grounded in rich empirical data. The theoretical model consists of two substantive categories: degree of isolation and degree of information flow. The former explains what contributes to the feeling of isolation experienced by expatriates. It was shown that the degree of isolation is a multifaceted concept influenced by expatriates’ living space, status, social support, mobility in the KSA and state of mind. The latter substantive category, the degree of information flow, explains the extent to which information can be exchanged between expatriates and other entities, be it family, friends or the outside world in general, including communication with other expatriates in the KSA. These two substantive categories were explained through the core category which was conceptualised by using the following metaphor: “the Internet a lifeline to the real world”. Considering the lifeline properties of the Internet, the theoretical model explained how it positively effects expatriate adjustment in the KSA. It was shown that the Internet, as a mediator, had an effect when considering adjustment as a process, as a state, and as an expression of expatriate well-being. This research was guided by two key research objectives: (a) to add theoretical content to the understanding of the role that the Internet plays in expatriate adjustment, and (b) to contribute to the IS body of knowledge by producing a theory that could be applied in practice. To the researcher’s best knowledge, this study is the first in IS literature to describe the significant role and the contextual issues that surround expatriate use of the Internet in the KSA. In doing so, the study developed an understanding, grounded in rich empirical data from the substantive field of expatriates. This new understanding contributes to both IS research and practice, and provides guidance for future research. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / tm2015 / Informatics / PhD / Unrestricted

Globalization has led to interdependent relationships between nations and economies. As a result, there is a growing trend for organizations to send employees abroad for temporary assignments. Organizational development specialists have identified intercultural competence--a combination of affective, cognitive, and behavioral skills-as essential for executives to successfully manage the challenges of an increasingly diverse working environment. When couples are sent abroad on assignments, the employee and the non-working accompanying spouse often have very different experiences in terms of their contacts with the host culture. The employee moves into an organizational environment with a specific role and objectives. In contrast, the accompanying spouse may find him- or herself in an entirely different role. This study explored experiences of the employees and accompanying spouses in terms of their contact with the host culture and the intensity factors associated with their expatriate assignments. The participants completed the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDiv.3) to measure their intercultural competence, and engaged in a structured interview. I found similar levels of intercultural competence in both spouses. The majority scored in the ethnocentric stages of Minimization and below. Only one participant scored above Minimization in Acceptance. The findings from this study suggest that should offer support to the assignee and accompanying spouse according to their needs in that situation. Ideally the support would include both pre-departure cultural training and ongoing access to a skilled cultural mentor. The development of intercultural competence beyond Minimization requires self-reflection and an examination of assumptions, and this process is rarely followed without support or intervention.

The master's thesis investigates the employment of foreigners in the Czech Republic, work, personal, and family life of expatriats, community life and other influence over the integration of expatriats. In the theoretical part there are drawn up basic theoretical attitudes to these problems. In the practical part you can find the results of the interviews realized with expatriats. On the basis of the results the analysis of quality data was realized and the changes were suggested. They are aimed to make easy and streamline cooperation of all parties concerned.

The main motivations of this thesis are to bring new insights into the different forms of international assignment in a non-multinational context. For this purpose, the dissertation provides new evidence on the roles of different forms of international assignees in offshore insourcing and outsourcing arrangements. The thesis is based on four research essays. The first chapter develops a conceptual framework that links the extent of international assignments to the characteristics of service offshoring strategies in terms of drivers, task complexity, governance mode, and host country location. We argue that offshoring strategies are associated with different needs for control, coordination and transfer of tacit knowledge. Those needs are in turn best served by using a different combination of international assignments. The model suggests that opting for extensive international transfers when the offshoring strategy does not require doing so, exposes firms to unnecessary extra costs. On the contrary, limiting the use of international transfers below the level required to guarantee cross-border control, coordination and knowledge transfer increases the risk of not being able to integrate the offshored services. Therefore, the adequate use of various forms of international assignments (such as expatriation, inpatriation and virtual assignments) constitutes an important capability for the offshoring organization to be able to integrate globally dispersed value chain activities whilst at the same time containing costs. The aim of Chapter 2 is to develop a comprehensive integrative framework that provides a deeper understanding of the use of expatriates and inpatriates to exert control in the specific context of offshore outsourcing. This study extends the agency theory by investigating different practices used by expatriates and inpatriates to exert control on third party providers in order to reduce the agency problems of the client-provider relationships. The research approach consists of an exploratory qualitative study of 32 offshore outsourcing initiatives from 32 companies located in Belgium. The model suggests that even though expatriates and inpatriates play a vital role in exerting control through different strategic control practices implemented in the client company or the third-party provider, they may differ in various matters. Companies prefer to use inpatriates than expatriates as the latter is difficult to find, costly, have an attitude of dominance, and have difficulties in adjusting to the new environment. The specific advantage of using inpatriates is that they provide unique understanding and insight into ‘why things are happening’, which is difficult for expatriates to decipher. This emphasises that the process of inpatriating offshore members into the client company appears to hold significant potential in exerting control in offshore outsourcing relations. Control is a role that has traditionally been attributed to expatriates. Our research shows that inpatriates offer valid alternative with several advantages in the context of offshoring.Chapter 3 develops a comprehensive framework of potential factors responsible for hindering the learning process of offshore team members that should be considered in an offshore insourcing context. This paper adopts a longitudinal case study approach for over a period of one year for studying a large firm in the financial services sector based in Belgium and offshoring its service in Poland. The study focuses on a firm that has set up its own service operations abroad using an offshore insourcing arrangement. Based on a longitudinal study, this research recognizes delayed barriers that still hinder the learning process of offshore team members. Unexpectedly, the study demonstrates that the role of expatriates and inpatriates is an influencing factor (positive or negative) in the learning process of offshore team members. In addition, the results highlighted the fact that short-term perspectives for companies to fully benefit from their actions may not be the solution to enable offshore team members to learn their tasks efficiently in the long-run. Even though offshoring provides access to lower costs and specialised resources, the primary challenge faced by companies is to be able to manage its knowledge efficiently across locations and facilitate the access of knowledge to its offshore team members. The purpose of chapter 4 is to explore how a large firm in the financial service sector transfers different types of knowledge, particularly through different forms of international assignees in an offshore insourcing arrangement. This study adopted a single in-depth case study of a firm based in Belgium where his offshore location is in Poland. The findings from 31 interviews concluded that different forms of international assignees are used in the form of complementary sequences to transfer various types of knowledge during the offshore insourcing arrangement. Therefore, all international assignments are not the same and should not be generalised into one category. Further, the findings offer qualitative evidence to support the roles of different forms of international assignees for creating and retaining new knowledge and avoiding knowledge loss for the organisation. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This dissertation explores the ethical and aesthetic stakes of readers’ judgments by analyzing mock trials of literary characters that were performed in Soviet Russia and abroad in the 1920s and 1930s. Literary trials were part of a larger craze for public mock trials in the decades after the Russian Revolution. Mock trials functioned as a participatory and educational form of entertainment. Fictional defendants included Lenin, invented characters accused of drunkenness and hooliganism, and the Bible. At the same time as increasingly propagandistic mock trials were being performed, intellectuals staged trials of characters from nineteenth-century and contemporary Russian literature. In émigré communities such as Berlin, Paris, and Prague, literary trials were popular as entertainment and fundraisers through the 1920s and 1930s. My analysis focuses on mock trials of characters from works by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, whose novels proved especially popular for mock trial adaptations in the 1920 and 1930s. I also consider Nabokov’s participation in a mock trial based on The Kreutzer Sonata as a bridge between Tolstoy’s novella and Nabokov’s later novel Lolita. I read back and forth between the literary works and their mock trial adaptations in order to explore both how trial participants interpreted the texts and how the texts respond to the kinds of judgment at work in the trials. The challenges that Dostoevsky and Tolstoy’s fiction pose to readers became the central questions of mock trial adaptations: What is the relationship between interpretation and truth? Do we have the right to judge others? Does narrative have the power to redeem? I argue that while Soviet and émigré literary trials offer selective, politically motivated readings of the original works, they also enter into dialogue with the works’ major ethical questions and offer new ways of thinking about how truth, judgment, and redemption operate in them. As a result, the mock trials bring together two approaches to literature: a reader-centric approach that interprets the text in order to reveal something about the reader’s current reality, and a text-centric approach that aims to uncover the original meaning. While some of the literary trial interpretations and judgments appear to be misreadings, or bad readings, of the original works, I argue that this kind of reading, which closely attends to textual details while asking the text to speak to the readers’ present, offers a model for an ethically engaged approach to literature.

Harold Frederic's The Damnation of Theron Ware (1896) is an important work of American fiction that deserves greater critical attention. My intention in creating a website devoted to Frederic's masterpiece is not only to promote awareness of the novel but also to provide high school and undergraduate students, as well as their teachers, with a resource that will situate The Damnation of Theron Ware within an historical as well as a literary and cultural context. Significant events and discoveries in the fields of science, technology, religion, philosophy, art, and literature shaped Frederic's thinking and writing, particularly the events and characters of The Damnation of Theron Ware. An understanding of this milieu is critical to understanding the issues of the richly complicated novel. The Damnation of Theron Ware, or Illumination as it is known in England, is the story of a Methodist minister who loses his faith when he makes the acquaintance of a Catholic priest, a post-Darwinian scientist, a New Woman, and a pragmatic con artist. In the end, critics are in disagreement as to the extent of Theron's damnation or illumination. A best seller in the 1890s, The Damnation of Theron Ware was heralded as both "the great American novel" and as "anti-American" in its sentiments. Conceived as an ongoing project and research tool, my thesis is an online study guide with annotated bibliography of criticism devoted specifically to The Damnation of Theron Ware. The website is divided into six main sections: (1) the home page, which briefly introduces users to the site, identifies the scope of the project and provides links to other pages; (2) "Harold Frederic," which includes a biography of the author, a timeline of significant events during his lifetime, a select bibliography of his writing, and a sampling of interviews with and articles on Frederic as author and critic; (3) "Bibliographical Studies," which lists bibliographies, checklists, catalogues, critical overviews, and online resources; (4) "The Damnation of Theron Ware," which includes a discussion of the contemporaneous critical reception of the novel, an annotated bibliography of criticism in list form and broken down by subject, a bibliography of dissertations and theses, and recommended discussion questions or topics for essays; (5) a "Glossary," which includes terms that may be unfamiliar to students; and (6) "Links of Interest," which directs users to other websites relevant to a study of The Damnation of Theron Ware.