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This is a practice-based research project that explores a new aesthetic perspective and approach in the Western medium of photography, through the application and interpretation of contemporary Chinese master artist Qi Baishi’s philosophical notion of between likeness and unlikeness. Rooted in Chinese ink painting tradition, Qi Baishi [齊白石] (1864-1957) developed and created his theory of achieving likeness in spirit and unlikeness in form as the ultimate goal of painting aesthetics. Adapting Qi’s aesthetics and design approaches to inform the research, and through theoretical explorations and photographic practices, a series of works will be developed that manifests the fusion of Chinese aesthetics with Western photography, to propose a confluent cross-cultural aesthetic thought. The aspiration of drawing upon Qi’s aesthetics at a philosophical level, which is unfamiliar in the context of Western photography, has posed a challenge to the creative exploration. The final outcome is intended to trigger aesthetic resonance in the viewers to further dialectic discussion. The outcome of this research project is presented through a series of photographic works and displayed in a gallery environment.

Information Technology (IT) outsourcing is a serious option available to modern managers. An emerging trend is the focus on relationship management in IT outsourcing, imploring organisations to look past tactical objectives and concentrate on strategic outcomes. In a global economy business sponsors are connecting with overseas vendors in IT outsourcing in an attempt to accelerate realisation of benefits. This complicates outsourcing arrangements, because cross-cultural differences may add to the complexity of fostering relationships. This study examines how to manage IT outsourcing relationships in a cross-cultural context to enhance IT outsourcing success. Due to the exploratory nature of this study, interpretivist case studies were adopted. The researcher investigated three IT outsourcing cases within one Chinese organisation. One case has a vendor with a western cultural background and the other two with a Chinese cultural background. The main data were collected through interviews with key managers in the case organisation, complemented by secondary data (such as published reports, internal documents). Some additional data concerning the cross-cultural differences were also collected from the two Chinese vendors and another western vendor who provided corporate strategy consulting services to the case organisation. Analysis of data showed that a good contract implementation, the established trust and the acknowledgement of vendor's high value were recognised as the three distinguishing characteristics of a satisfactory IT outsourcing relationship. In managing relationships the outsourcing company emphasised not only contract implementation but even more importantly communication with vendors, recognition of mutual interests, establishment of social/personal bonds, and appropriate allocation of project resources. It was shown that the relationship management practices influenced the dynamics of a relationship as well as the outcome of an IT outsourcing project. Furthermore, the relationship management in IT outsourcing was found to be culture-sensitive. By demonstrating that companies with different cultural background held different perceptions of relationship management practices and had different understandings of the nature and dynamics of the relationships, this study contributes to the understanding of relationship management in IT outsourcing, especially when cultural differences among the parties are involved. These findings also have practical implications for IT outsourcing involving global and partner-based alliances.

Workplaces abound in conflict. Individuals within organisations are therefore vulnerable to a wide range of intimidating interactional tactics. These tactics can have an extremely negative impact upon individual workers and upon subsequent organisational performance. Consequentially, the diverse forms of organisational social harassment, and specifically bullying, place a large financial burden upon both organisations and nations. Therefore, the identification of strategies used to prevent and ameliorate workplace bullying and an examination that highlights their comparative success or failure is of great importance for all employers, employees and government. This study focuses upon those strategies used to prevent and ameliorate such workplace bullying and investigates their impact.

Global markets are increasingly taking advantage of the strength and economic advantages of a diverse global workforce. It is common on international projects to find multi-cultural teams located in multiple countries. It is also common to find such projects led by Project Managers who come from many different countries. So having a person raised in India managing a project in China, with a design team in the USA, procurement procurement teams in Japan and Mexico, and a drafting team in Albania is not unusual. Even in historically monolithic markets like the USA, it is far more common to have mulit-cultural teams and foreign competition. In addition, the pressure on the industry to increase productivity and reduce costs is unrelenting. This leads to flatter project structures, and the need for leadership at multiple levels. My experience in such markets, and the glaring need for a Cross-Cultural Leadership model that could be used to improve leadership skills in international markets were the reasons for undertaking this thesis. The hypothesis of this thesis is that there are of cross-cultural leadership dimensions that are effective and essential, regardless of culture. Those dimensions are Trust, Empathy, Transformation, Power, and Communication. The thesis first explores the cultural and leadership aspects of Cross-Cultural Leadership through a review of the published literature. The literature research was then subjected to an exegetical review of the themes that emerged, and used to construct the Descriptors, and Sub-Descriptors for each of the leadership dimensions. The thesis also explored the transfer of cultural knowledge with metaphors and storytelling. In a fast paced business environment, developing a richer understanding and sensitivity to other coulters, in general and specific, is a skill that Leaders must possess. Lastly, the thesis explored the connections between conflict management and Cross-Cultural Leadership. Conflict management skills are becoming ever more important due to the rapid changes that are common in the current business environment. Change, cultural mis-information, scarce resources, poor communication skills, contractual ambiguity and complexity are but a few of the reasons that managing conflict is a critical skill for leaders. IV The design of the testing protocols was bifurcated. One track evaluated the hypothesis, the other track evaluated the connection between the Leadership Dimensions hypothesized, and the GLOBE survey. The GLOBE survey was utilized to investigate if a viable connection existed between the Leadership Dimensions and a broad based international survey of cultural dimensions. The testing of the hypothesis was performed using a Delphi panel of experts in international cross-cultural leadership, through two sessions of questions with feedback after the end of the first session. Subsequently, the results were analyzed, studied, and evaluated with an eye toward my practical experience in the field - sense making. The results were that the hypothesis was confirmed, and the connection to the GLOBE Survey cultural dimensions was also confirmed. A model is presented to summarize the findings of the thesis, called the Cross-Cultural Leadership Intelligence (XLQ) Model. As discussed in the thesis, Project Management has not emphasized leadership in the current body of knowledge (PMBOK), and it only makes general reference to cultural considerations. Recognizing this, The Project Management Institute (PMI) has funded a study that recommends more research in the area of cross-cultural leadership, and a new grant to study the question of how global the PMBOK really is. Both of these issues are addressed by this thesis. The XLQ model provides a framework for assessing and training Project Managers in cross-cultural leadership skills. The model is a global one that can be used across cultures, business models, and markets. The model also points towards the need for further research into metrics, education, training techniques, and of course, further empirical testing of the model itself.

Products are designed to satisfy user needs. Thus, industrial designers are expected to have a thorough understanding of user needs and to incorporate those understandings into the design of products; however, it is not a straightforward task for designers to translate their conditional understanding into a product. The gap between product and user can be even wider when latent user needs, such as cultural ones, are calculated into the problem. Therefore the meanings and functions imbued in products by the designer may not be recognized and acknowledged by users, due to the differences in cultural preferences of designers and users from separate cultures. In spite of the fact that user satisfaction has been extensively supported in the design literature, it seems that such an approach allows only a passive role for designers, who actually act as cultural intermediaries; that is, the designers' role is merely presumed to catalyze the process and match user requirements to the end product. Thus, the impact of designers' cultural preferences is considered as incidental, or at least overlooked. A content analysis method was triangulated to collect and analyze diverse visual and textual data relating to the concept generation stage of the product development process. To collect data, professional industrial designers in the two culturally diverse countries of Australia and Iran were recruited to participate in half-hour design exercise sessions to sketch to a design brief, followed by responding to an interview questionnaire. The analysis of data revealed that: (1) designers' cultural preferences do influence their approaches toward tackling the design problem; (2) there are nexuses between the design aspects of the concepts generated and the cultural dimensions of the values of the societies in which the designers were born and has lived, and; (3)potential users can unconsciously comprehend the meaning invested in the product by the designer. This thesis breaks new ground for further advancing the study of the Designer-Precedent Approach (DPA) in other cultural and social contexts, while it challenges the conventional approaches of user-centered design (UCD) broadlyperceived as the ultimate method of incorporating users' wants into products.

In comparing the semantic structures of Maori and English, differences were found between the two languages in the way in which binary complements partition the universe of discourse. Furthermore, these structural principles which differed for Maori and English turned out to be contingent upon the separate development of the two languages and transferable from one language to the other by the native speakers of each language. As a consequence, it is possible to explain how Maori and Pakeha interpretations of society can differ considerably even when English is the only medium of communication used. Two examples were taken to demonstrate that this hypothesis can lead to alternative interpretations of both traditional and contemporary social situations. Firstly, Maori semantic structures can provide an alternative and parsimonious account of the canoe traditions and secondly, it raises interesting possibilities for a reconsideration of the educational processes which are important to Maori people both within their own social context and within the state education system.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1988. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 156).

Thesis (M.A.)--Reformed Theological Seminary, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-105).

<p>The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions that the expatriates have on what personal characteristics a good expatriate should possess as well as their view on cross-cultural training (CCT). The study was conducted on two groups of expatriates from European companies – those who took part in some form of CCT when preparing for the assignment abroad and those who did not. The results show that some of the views are shared by both groups of the respondents. However, there are some difference in the way both groups think, which might depend on the fact that the two companies focus on different factors regarding the view on what features are important for an expatriate to have and how s/he should be prepared for the job. The three main conclusions of this study is that expatriates need to be motivated, willing and able to adjust and flexible to better acclimate themselves to new situations and environments; the family should be incorporated in the training to improve the chances of success; finally, CCT is perceived by the respondents as a good tool for expatriates going on assignment. This study can be seen as an introduction to more detailed studies on the effectiveness of CCT and decrease of expatriate failure.</p>