The number of culturally diverse project teams has increased significantly over the years, as internationalization within organizations become more common. Individuals are more interconnected than ever, due to increased cultural exchange. The increased globalization also has created many challenges, such as streamlining multinational organizations, management and communication in multicultural settings. Furthermore, there has been studies showing that culturally diverse project teams have both a positive and negative impact on projects. The purpose of this study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of perceived challenges in multicultural project settings. In order to get a deeper understanding of the challenges, the study will address the perceived impacts of cultural differences in regard to the project member, as well as the challenges project members encounters and how these are managed. The author found that the cultural differences were noticeable when adapting to a new culture but faded as the respondents adjusted and became more like the individuals in the new culture. The challenges most of the respondents faced not speaking the language, not being used to the language and surrounded by different accents, which originated from language barriers. There was no universal solution to these challenges, instead, respondents dealt with it their own way or with the help of guidance from organizations. The study was done by conducting semi-structured interviews with a qualitive method to ensure extensive data. There were ten interviews in total, with individuals from different backgrounds and cultures around the world.

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Abstract AbstractThe aim of this essay was to investigate the level of the organizational state of readiness for receiving students with learning disabilities in classes specialized in working with students recently arrived in Sweden, called förberedelseklasser, which could be translated as preparational classes. I tried to do so by answering two questions:*What routines do principals believe that the particular School has for dealing with cases in which a student in a preparational class is suspected to have some form of learning disability?*What perception do teachers have in regards to whether or not the system at their School is well prepared for discovering and aiding students in preparational classes suspected to have learning disabilities?The first question was directed to principals currently working in schools where a large part of the students are bilingual, and many of those recently arrived in Sweden. The second question was aimed at teachers that work in preparational classes.By interviewing two principals and three teachers I came to the conclusion that the teachers believe that their students are often misplaced in preparational classes when in deed they should be placed in a special educations group. My essay also shows that both principals and teachers are dissatisfied with the amount of time the process of discovering, investigating and diagnosing a student with learning disabilities takes. They also seem to believe that it’s largely due to cultural differences resulting in the parents’ unwillingness to participate in interacting with psychologists.Key words,

This thesis examines the ethical challenges faced by technical communicators working in global virtual teams. Virtual teams usage are becoming increasingly more popular and diverse. As a result, it is valuable for technical communicators to understand and recognize the challenges that are faced within global virtual teams in order to find solutions and preventive measures for these challenges. The ethical challenges present in global virtual teams were determined by examining the literature on virtual teams and intercultural ethics and conducting a survey of practicing technical communicators who have experience in virtual teams. The purpose of the survey was to determine the ethical challenges that are present for technical communicators and how these issues were resolved. The survey results reveal valuable approaches to resolving and preventing ethical challenges in virtual teams. This thesis contributes to a better understanding of virtual teams and intercultural ethics and examines the ethical challenges that are faced by technical communicators. Furthermore, the thesis presents preventive measures for addressing ethical challenges. Finally, the thesis also provides suggestions for future research into the ethical challenges that are faced within global virtual teams, particularly those related to cultural differences.

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>

As German organisations expand their businesses into China, the potential risks associated with a lack of fit in management styles among International Joint Venture (IJV) partner-firms have become increasingly obvious to academic researchers, human resource professionals and partner-firm managers themselves. The general consensus among researchers and practitioners is that cultural differences in management styles are a major deterrent to the success of IJVs. Limited research has been undertaken to specifically examine and identify how partner-firm managers can overcome this barrier in Sino-German IJVs.

Companies are going through a phase that is called “Industrie 4.0” where the aim is to adapt their organization and culture toward the industrial revolution that is going on. There are multiple cultural aspects to look at while going into this process. This study applied Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to go in depth when it comes to the cultural development and Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index-model to create a foundation for digital transformation to measure the digital maturity of the organization. As one of the variable is distance work and the impacts on culture development, a quantitative study has implemented to clarify the connection between these variables, but also measuring the current stage of the digital maturity of the organization. Thus, a questionnaire was shared with employees from 9 different countries to compare the responses both country wise but also department wise. Therefore, the questionnaire covered following variables: digital maturity, digital transformation, effective workforce, distance work/remote work, cultural dimensions. Additionally, hypotheses were discovered and thereafter the results were put into SPSS system and then the authors analyzed the graphs and shortly compiled the outcomes of the study. The main result showed that employees are expecting the company to take next steps on its journey toward a more digitalized company, but they are not willing to move into a hybrid model that force them to work from home more than once a week since they are satisfied with their current system. However, the company should take into account the cultural differences and attitudes that employees carry before doing any radical changes.

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