This study investigates the continuity and discontinuity of Persian traditional mural decoration and art, focusesing on the Qajarid period. The study intends to establish that cultural sources and forces such as religion, language and the socio-political environment have had an impact on the development and continuity in Persian mural decoration and art. Continuity and discontinuity of Persian art were parallel with the continuity and discontinuity of Persian cultural forces the rise and decline of art was closely associated with the development of national culture. Persian artistic traditions can be shown in continuity over three millennia was influenced by external sources, without radical change of direction. Continuity can be observed until the seventeenth century, to a peak of achievement as remarkable as the art of the Safavids. Three main epochs may be seen in Persian culture; the pre-Islamic. Islamic and contemporary epochs. National culture and art was formed and evolved in antiquity, and then continued and was enriched by the assimilation of Islamic beliefs during the next epoch and it finally merged with international styles very slowly during the post- Safavid epoch due to the strong impact of western culture and art, finally changing definitively during the Qajarid period. The assimilation of Persian art with European art led to the sudden decline of Persian art as a self-contained, self- dependent style.

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Aim: To investigate the impact of national culture on the process of managing change and innovation in the sector of higher education and identify what kind of environmental factors could produce a moderating effect on the cultural impact. Method: Inductive method and qualitative approach were used. With the purpose of collecting qualitative data, 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees of Faculty of Education and Business Studies in University of Gävle, Sweden. Results & Conclusions: The study suggests that any innovation is a change, while change is always a process and, thus, should be managed as such. Authors draw attention from the process of management of innovation itself towards managing through manipulating by such an influencer as national culture. At the same time authors point out that not everything can be explained on the basis of culture providing a range of potential factors that can strongly moderate the impact of culture. Suggestions for future research: Current research is limited by the choice of country, sector of economy, number of studied cases, etc. Investigation of cultural impact on change and innovation management in universities of other countries or the choice of another economic sector would open opportunities for further research. Contribution of the thesis: During the study the authors verified a part of the suggested hypotheses demonstrating the strength of the impact that national culture produces on management of change and innovation. Moderating effect of different environmental factors such as employee’s age and position within organizational structure, governmental policies in the sphere of higher education, type of organizational structure and type of leadership, was demonstrated. Authors come up with implications of managing the process of change and innovation through manipulation of cultural impact.

Globalisation has always been researchers' main concern and interest over a long period of the time. One effect of globalisation is that the composition of project teams had become increasingly diverse. The differing national cultural backgrounds of members increases the complexity of team composition, which regulates the success of the project performance. Research has shown that diverse teams outperform homogenous ones. Other studies have investigated the impact of national culture on projects. But our knowledge of how effectively companies can manage a complex, multicultural team project is inadequate and limited. Furthermore, theoretical and empirical studies concerning how the national cultural diversity of teams can impact project performance are limited. Most of the studies are qualitative, either focusing on one country or discussing one aspect of culture, and mainly considering team performance. To fill this gap, this study investigates the national cultural factors that influence multicultural project teams and determine the cultural dimensions that impact on project performance. In particular, it examines the influence of five national culture dimensions developed by Hofstede on multicultural team complexity variables including integration, communication, trust and knowledge-sharing, and to recognise how these factors are related to project performance. The territory chosen for this study was the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, as all of these nations rely intensely upon an expat workforce because of the lack of both skilled and unskilled manpower in the local market. A survey instrument was extracted and developed from previously validated questionnaire scales. Pilot testing was conducted to ensure the scales, format and contents of the survey instrument were appropriate. A range of project team members were targeted, and 329 valid questionnaires were returned. The data obtained was analysed by using two widely used statistical software tools, SPSS and AMOS. The data analysis steps included reliability (Cronbach's alpha) and validity (Confirmatory Factor) analysis. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the entire model. By using SEM, it was possible to test the parsimonious nature of the model, identify the model, determine whether it makes theoretical sense, and examine its fit to the data. The relationship between national culture, team performance and project performance was analysed using path analysis as part of the SEM. The research outcome showed that national culture has a significant impact on the team performance, especially on integration, communication, trust and knowledge sharing, which will also moderate the relationship between national culture and project performance. The finding of this research study confirmed that there is a relationship between national cultural differences and project success. Understanding the cultural differences among team members, who are from different national cultural backgrounds, is an essential aspect of managing projects successfully. Moreover, mismanaging or ignoring cultural differences of the team members may lead to project failures. Furthermore, the outcomes have obviously shown that the optimal project performance is accomplished when the entire project team is thoroughly integrated and incorporated with the project purpose. This study contributes to the literature by delivering a deeper understanding of the cultural issues that influence the performance of multicultural project teams in GCC countries. In addition, it provides greater insight into national culture within projects context, in particular providing empirical evidence that different nationalities have different cultural orientations and that these different cultural orientations are associated with different levels of performance. In practice, the findings will assist project directors and managers in similar countries to further recognise the role of national culture in the context of enhancing project performance. In particular, project directors and managers can undertake an assessment of their teams' national cultural background and based on that, forecast the probable team and project performance. Where necessary, action can be taken to manage or even change the cultural orientation in terms of the attitudes and behaviours of project teams. This research expressed the views of professionals who work in a multicultural environment on the extent to which national cultural dimensions may affect the outcome of a project.

Liquor plays an important role to ease tension in Chinese lives. When people hold parties or social events with their friends and relatives, liquor can often represent joyfulness and tact, and which led to many special cultures like toast, cheers, and drinking like a fish. If a new product wants to successfully enter a foreign market, it must be understand the local consumer¡¦s behavior and usage habit to satisfy their needs. Hence, this research study will base on Taiwanese national cultures to recognize the relation between national cultures and the effective of advertisements. This research study is using personal interviews and questionnaire surveys as its research methodologies. Based on five different liquor representational advertisements, this research study is focusing on consumers¡¦ perceptions and effectiveness of the foreign liquor advertisements in terms of the national culture. The results are as follows: First, in Taiwanese culture, the liquor advertisement under our national cultural should be approaching Taiwanese Power Distance Index, Medium Individualism, and high Masculinity Index. Second, the interference factors, such as noises, are easily to affect an advertisement¡¦s effectiveness result. Third, there are partial significant differences in terms of foreign liquor advertisements by different gender. Lastly, this research study will propose the managerial implications and suggestions for future research directions.

In today’s constantly changing environment globalization offers opportunities as well as threats to manufacturing companies. One trend in industry is that to meet customer demands and global competition, manufacturing companies need to frequently introduce new products to the market at the right time and cost. Another trend is that manufacturing companies relocate their production sites abroad. Therefore, in this thesis the context is global development projects, which includes both new product development and production relocation projects. The global dimension implies that team members are located in different countries. Integration between team members, which in this thesis refers to interaction processes involving information exchange on the one hand and collaboration or cooperation on the other, is therefore a challenge. Even if much research exists with regard to integration, integration across national borders in global development projects has not been addressed to a greater extent. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to expand the analysis of integration in global development projects in order to gain insights regarding the use of different integration mechanisms. The thesis specifically addresses the influence of national cultural and linguistic differences on integration as well as the use of various integration mechanisms. The results originate from one longitudinal case study of a global new product development project and two retrospective case studies including global new product development and production relocation projects. In general, it is concluded that in global development projects national cultural and linguistic differences amplify integration difficulties among project team members who belong to different functions. The comparison of the three global development projects indicated that some of the integration mechanisms worked and were used to integrate team members from different functions, while others did not work as intended. Therefore, this thesis argues that there is a need for a diverse set of integration mechanisms that depend on the context of a global development project and specifically on national cultural and linguistic differences.

The effect of national culture on the performance of teams is becoming an increasingly important issue in advanced western countries. There are many interlinked reasons for this, including the increasing globalisation of companies and the use of joint ventures for the development of expensive platforms. A further issue relates to the export of complex sociotechnical systems, where a culture clash between designer/manufacturer and user can lead to significant problems. This report describes research work that was carried out to analyse the cultural factors that influence the performance of teams (including researchers, designers, operators and crews), and to determine whether these factors could be captured in a tool to provide assistance to team managers and team builders. The original point of interest related to the development of increasingly complex sociotechnical systems, for example nuclear power stations, oil refineries, offshore oil platforms, hospital systems and large transport aircraft. Answers that might be sought, in particular by the senior managers of global companies, include (1) the best teams (or best national locations) for fundamental research, industrial research & development, product/system improvement and other key activities, and (2) the implications for system performance and, as a result, for system design, of targeting an eastern Asian market, a South-American market, etc. A literature review was carried out of the effects of culture on team performance, of culture measures and tools and of task classifications; in addition, empirical evidence of the validity of measures and tools was sought. Significant evidence was found of the effects of culture on teams and crews, but no national culture-based team performance prediction tools were found. Based on the results of the literature review, Hofstede's original four-dimension cultural framework was selected as the basis for the collection and analysis of empirical data, including the results of studies from the literature and the researcher s own empirical studies. No team or task classification system was found that was suitable for the purposes of linking culture to team performance, so a five-factor task classification was developed, based on the literature review, to form the basis of the initial modelling work. A detailed analysis of results from the literature and from the author s pilot studies revealed additional culture-performance relationships, including those relating to cultural diversity. Three culture-performance models were incorporated into software tools that offered performance prediction capabilities. The first model was primarily a test bed for ideas; the second model incorporated a task/behavioural approach which achieved limited success; the third and final model was evaluated against a range of team and crew performance data before being tested successfully for acceptability by users. The research results included the discovery that the effects of cultural diversity must be sought at the individual cultural dimension level not at the composite level, that the effects of national culture on team performance are consistent and strong enough to be usefully captured in a predictive culture tool and that the relationship between culture and behaviour is moderated by contextual factors.

Abstract Title: National Culture and Influences on Leadership: A Case Study of CBRE in Sweden Level: Final thesis for Bachelor Degree in Arts/Science and Business Administration Authors: Chatzidakis, Emmanouil & Stenström, Dennis Supervisor: Ehsanul Huda Chowdhury, PhD Date: 05.06.2014 Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine the influences of national culture on leadership based on Power Distance, Masculinity versus Femininity and Uncertainty Avoidance within CBRE in Sweden. Method: Explorative interviews with five top managers from CBRE in Sweden was performed and a questionnaire was sent to the staff. To achieve an understanding of national culture and influences on leadership, we have based our study on the scientific philosophy of hermeneutics. Findings and conclusions: Managers from CBRE in Sweden share many views on leadership that include the importance of teamwork, cooperation, open communication and negotiation. They motivate employees by making them feel important, integrating them into the group and give them responsibility to handle difficult situations in the way they feel is best. The level of stress at work varies between managers but they all tries to handle it by being creative and enhancing performance by prioritizing their workload. Family, friends and physical exercise are also important factors as to reduce stress. Practical implications: This paper gives an insight of the national culture of Sweden and influences on leadership within the real estate service industry. Originality/value: This paper does not give a complete picture of the situation in all industries in the whole country, since we have only focused on one company, CBRE, which operates within the real estate service industry. It can, however, contribute as a guide mostly for managers and employees from other countries who are interested in Sweden’s national culture and business environment. It may also be useful for companies that are planning to expand to Sweden so they can see how leadership looks like. Suggestions for further study: National culture and influences on leadership within larger companies can be studied, as well as on mergers and acquisitions and implications of national culture on a foreign employee or manager. Key words: Internationalization, National Culture, Leadership, Real Estate Service Industry,

This thesis addresses a neglected aspect in the emotional labour literature by seeking to identify the impact of societal culture on how service workers perform emotional labour and its effect on their wellbeing, in terms of the emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation dimensions of burnout. Its original contribution lies in using respondents residing in two contrasting cultures, the Philippines and Australia. The research instrument brings together the INDCOL survey, Emotional Labour Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and job autonomy questions from the Job Diagnostic Survey. Data is analysed from 734 surveys completed by guest-contact workers; hypotheses are tested using the independent samples t-test in SPSS. Meaningful results mainly emerge from comparing responses filtered according to how respondents describe themselves on the INDCOL dimensions rather than by their countries of residence, highlighting the importance of identifying individual-level differences within societies rather than relying on overall descriptions of culture, for such comparative purposes. Respondents report higher levels of burnout when using surface-acting more frequently, and lower levels of burnout when using deep-acting more often. Further, they report similar levels of deep-acting and burnout, and those who report high job autonomy also report lower levels of burnout. Higher levels of burnout are reported by individualists who use surface-acting more frequently. The significance of these findings is the emergence of similar results among respondents in the contrasting culture of the Philippines. The final key finding is that respondents who perform high levels of emotional labour and who experience high job autonomy report less depersonalisation in Australia than the Philippines. Overall, these findings support the usefulness of applying culturally sensitive HRD interventions in the Philippines as well as Australia, to increase the ability of service workers to perform sincere emotional labour and replace negative consequences with positive outcomes for workers, customers and hotels.