During 2001 experienced Turkey a deep financial crisis with high inflations, large public dept and a growing currency account deficits that caused a loss of confidence among investors. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Turkish government together established a stand-by-arrangement which gave remarkable results. The recover of Turkey’s economy has been a success story with an average growth of 10 percent that has attracted Foreign Direct Investments facilitated by the investors’ recognition of the country’s valuable opportunities. This has also attracted Swedish companies and today it is over 400 Swedish companies represented in Turkey. Hofstede (1997) study shows that there are significant cultural differences between Swedes and Turks which will imply that the expanding Swedish companies will face problems that hinder their effectiveness due to these differences. The aim of this study is therefore to identify the common cultural differences in order to facilitate the cultural interaction in the workplace. This thesis applies Hofstede (1997) study of nationalities as a foundation to identify the cultural differences. The authors have also used qualitative methods and ethnographic science to be able to interpreted and analyse the findings. The information was gathered from the managers of Volvo Cars, Tetra Pak and IKEA and was also complemented by a questionnaire to the Swedish and Turkish employees. The findings shown important cultural differences that is essential to consider in man-agement in order to increase the effectiveness in the workplace. The analysis show that Turks want to be provided clear directives rather than guidelines, while Swedes want a consultative manager, take more responsibility and solve their task independently. Turks are also very emotional integrated with their tasks and thereby take criticism more per-sonally. Swedes, on the other hand, handle the criticism more professionally due to their emotional distance to their work. The findings also shown that there are differences in risk taking where Swedes are willing to take risk at a greater extent than the Turks. The nationalities moreover belong to different time cultures which require the managers to be tolerant to delays. However, there are also similarities as both Turks and Swedes value team-work as a prior motivator. The conclusion state that it exist common cultural differences but that are not considered as troublesome in the studied companies due to the expatriates cultural experience and intercultural skills. ii

En ökad handel med Kina har inneburit att fler svenskar arbetar och bor där tillfälligt. Det betyder att det finns intresse att undersöka kulturella skillnader för att underlätta anpassningar vid arbete och fritid. Åtta personer med erfarenhet av att arbeta och leva i Kina intervjuades. Resultatet visade på betydande skillnader i kommunikation, tidsuppfattning, organisation, relationer och socialt beteende. Kommunikationssvårigheter fanns både under arbete och vid fritid vilket berodde på språket i sig samt olika kommunikationsstilar. Den hierarkiska organisationen bidrog till att saker tog längre tid, men goda relationerna upplevdes minska tidsåtgången. Socialt beteende skiljde sig till exempel vid bordskick. För att motverka skillnaderna underlättar ett gott tålamod samt en kulturell förståelse och acceptans. Resultatet diskuteras utifrån skillnaderna i de kulturella samhällsvärderingarna.

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate cultural differences in consumer perception of online advertising. As the Internet grows it has become important for companies to adjust website design to cultural differences in online advertising. Internet users are more comfortable with website design related to their own culture. There have been a limited number of previous investigation regarding website design and our study aims to fill this gap. Schwartz cultural values are used to investigate cultural differences on a micro level. Our study aims to compare Sweden and China based on cultural values. The two countries were chosen because of the cultural differences. Schwartz cultural values have been selected since Schwartz investigates cultural differences on an individual level. The result of the dissertation indicates that there are other factors than colour text and image that influence consumers’ perception of the website design. One of the challenges in the dissertation was to connect the conceptual model to the collected data from the focus group interviews. However, some of the Schwartz’s cultural values could be captured where the participants were motivated by the culture in the responses. The result of the study can be used for companies and their website design in connection to Swedish and Chinese culture. The investigation gave us more understanding regarding the area of online advertising in connection to website design.

<p>During 2001 experienced Turkey a deep financial crisis with high inflations, large public dept and a growing currency account deficits that caused a loss of confidence among investors. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Turkish government together established a stand-by-arrangement which gave remarkable results. The recover of Turkey’s economy has been a success story with an average growth of 10 percent that has attracted Foreign Direct Investments facilitated by the investors’ recognition of the country’s valuable opportunities. This has also attracted Swedish companies and today it is over 400 Swedish companies represented in Turkey. Hofstede (1997) study shows that there are significant cultural differences between Swedes and Turks which will imply that the expanding Swedish companies will face problems that hinder their effectiveness due to these differences. The aim of this study is therefore to identify the common cultural differences in order to facilitate the cultural interaction in the workplace. This thesis applies Hofstede (1997) study of nationalities as a foundation to identify the cultural differences. The authors have also used qualitative methods and ethnographic science to be able to interpreted and analyse the findings. The information was gathered from the managers of Volvo Cars, Tetra Pak and IKEA and was also complemented by a questionnaire to the Swedish and Turkish employees. The findings shown important cultural differences that is essential to consider in man-agement in order to increase the effectiveness in the workplace. The analysis show that Turks want to be provided clear directives rather than guidelines, while Swedes want a consultative manager, take more responsibility and solve their task independently. Turks are also very emotional integrated with their tasks and thereby take criticism more per-sonally. Swedes, on the other hand, handle the criticism more professionally due to their emotional distance to their work. The findings also shown that there are differences in risk taking where Swedes are willing to take risk at a greater extent than the Turks. The nationalities moreover belong to different time cultures which require the managers to be tolerant to delays. However, there are also similarities as both Turks and Swedes value team-work as a prior motivator. The conclusion state that it exist common cultural differences but that are not considered as troublesome in the studied companies due to the expatriates cultural experience and intercultural skills.</p><p>ii</p>

Att arbeta ombord på fartyg innebär ofta att man måste leva och samarbeta med människor från andra länder som har en annan kultur och andra värderingar. Med en besättning där flera kulturer finns närvarande kan detta påverka arbetet såväl som det sociala umgänget ombord. Svenska fartygsbefäl som jobbar med filippinskt manskap har upplevt denna interaktion. I denna studie undersöktes fartygsbefälens upplevelse om den maktdistans som finns mellan dem själva och det svenska respektive filippinska manskapet och hur denna distans påverkar livet ombord. Studien genomfördes med personliga intervjuer med sex informanter för att ge en djupare och mer ingående bild av deras åsikter och upplevelser ombord. Under arbetet framkom det att det var en stor skillnad i maktdistans mellan dem som svenskt fartygsbefäl och svenskt respektive filippinskt manskap. Det var en gemensam upplevelse av informanterna att det skedde en förändring i tankesättet hos det filippinska manskapet med ökad erfarenhet av svenska fartygsbefäl. Det upplevdes som att de hade anammat en mer svensk förhållningssätt. / Working on board ships today often means that you have to live and work with people from other countries that have different cultures and values. With a crew where several cultures are present, the work as well as the social life on board is affected, Swedish officers who work with Filipino crew have experienced this interaction. This study examined the officers' views and experience of the power distance that exists between the Swedes and Filipinos and how this affects the life on board. A semi-structured interview was used with six informants, to provide a wider and more detailed picture of the opinions and experiences on board. During the interviews the informants gave the opinion that the power distance between the Swedish officers and the Filipino deck crew was bigger than between them and the Swedish deck crew. It was a common experience that when the Filipino deck crew had worked with Swedish officers during an extensive time they often adapted themselves to Swedish approach.

This study is concentrated in recruitment strategies and finding the right competence for firms establishing in transition economies. The study is conducted with six Swedish companies operating in Russia and the Baltic States. Thus, this is a qualitative study in order to identify the different strategies used by the companies and why or why not they have been successful. Furthermore this study is based on in-depth interviews that give us the dimensions we need to solve the issue of recruitment in transition economies.  In conclusion the study shows us that major companies have issues when recruiting personnel in Russia and also a guidance what should be done in order to be as successful as possible in process of recruitment.

No description available.

This thesis describes the corporate environment in Italy and is devided into 4 chapters. In the first chapter is generally described Italy as a country. Next chapter discusses major macroeconomic data and charachteristics of the italian corporate environment. The third chapter describes the aspects of italian culture and its influence on trading negotiations and corporate culture. The last chapter describes the business relations between Czech Republic and Italy.

The aim, of this paper, is to analyze two international culturally diverse teams, identify positive and negative effects of cultural differences present in the teams and consequently propose measures to eliminate the negative effects and make a better use of the positive ones. In the first part the thesis deals with the theoretical framework of the topic and then proceeds to the application of the knowledge to practice. In the practical part an analysis of data obtained through a questionnaire survey is carried out. The analysis focuses on the cultural setting of the chosen teams, discrepancies between their settings and personal preferences of individual members and furthermore, on specific manifestations of cultural differences present in the teams. Subsequently, a set of measures is proposed, designed to tune the team environments so that the negative elements caused by cultural differences are eliminated while the positive elements are accentuated.

Mexican-American adults and adolescents in general have been reported to have high levels of anxiety symptomatology. In our study of a tri-ethnic sample of 2528 junior and senior high school students, the Youth Self Report (YSR) version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and a sociodemographic questionnaire was used to assess the anxiety symptoms of Hispanic youth. We compared the ratings on anxiety symptoms, using Achenbach's anxiety subscale on the YSR, between two populations. The anxiety levels of youth in coastal southeast Texas (Galveston County) were compared to the anxiety levels of youth in the lower Rio Grande Valley. We found that Mexican-Americans of the Lower Rio Grande Valley scored higher on anxiety symptoms than the tri-ethnic population of Galveston County. Other factors associated with higher anxiety scores for Mexican-American youths included being born outside the US, linguistic fluency, father absent from the home, mother's education, and household size. Multiple regression analyses showed that socio-economic status (SES), family composition, and linguistic fluency had a greater relative impact on anxiety symptomatology than all other factors, both for the total sample as well as for the Mexican-American sample. These results parallel previous findings, with Mexican-American adults, which suggest either higher risk for anxiety symptomatology or a culturally related bias in the reporting of such symptoms.