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This study investigates expatriate English teachers’ cross-cultural adjustment in Taiwan. Cross-cultural adjustment theories and the differences between Chinese and Western culture are reviewed. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected in order to develop the framework for the study. The process was examined across three facets of adjustment: general, working and interaction with host nation. The study was based on the framework of Black, Mendenhall and Oddou (1991) and develops an empirical cross-cultural adjustment model for native English- speaking expatriates who work in Taiwan as English teachers. The framework was successfully implemented by means of questionnaire and interview data and a literature review. The key findings of this study are: 1. Expatriate English teachers’ job satisfaction, age, previous crosscultural experience and their motivation for or purpose in coming to Taiwan are the key factors which affect their intention to stay in Taiwan. 2. Expatriate English teachers’ Mandarin or Taiwanese language ability has significant effects on their daily activities and social life outside work in terms of general adjustment. 3. Cross-cultural training for expatriate teachers could improve their living conditions in Taiwan in terms of general adjustment. 4. Expatriate teachers who possessed an undergraduate degree had more difficulties in their relationship with school management. 5. The total time expatriate teachers had spent living in Taiwan had some effect on their job satisfaction and adjustment in relation to interacting with the Taiwanese. Based on the empirical findings of this study, some recommendations for language education institutions and Westerners who are working or planning to work as English teachers in Taiwan are as follows: 1. Those who are planning to go to Taiwan to work as English teachers should receive some cross-cultural training and gain basic Mandarin or Taiwanese language skills before departure. An undergraduate degree is the basic qualification but an English teaching certificate or higher degree is strongly recommended. 2. English language education institutions should offer expatriate teachers cross-cultural training which includes basic local language skills, general information about living and working in Taiwan and the differences in the education system, teaching methodology and management style between Taiwanese and Western cultures. 3. When recruiting expatriate teachers, it is recommended that English language education institutions should avoid those who are including a trip to Taiwan as part of wider Asian travel and who are likely to stay in Taiwan for a relatively short time.

This comparative study of the corporate public relations strategies of the nuclear industry in the U.S. and Britain, specifically of Florida Power & Light (FP&L) in Florida and Scottish Nuclear Limited (SNL) in Scotland, examines the use of visitor centres and environmental messages as key components of advocational campaigns designed to influence public opinion and shape public policy in favour of a pro-nuclear agenda. The study would seem to confirm other research that draws a direct relationship between the function of public relations in an organisation and the degree of input by public relations into corporate policy-making. Moreover, the data also suggest that, given a prominent role within an organisation, public relations can and does develop strategies and programmes to pro-actively manage emerging strategic public policy issues in direct support of organisational objectives Such programmes, as the study reveals, have been designed specifically around visitor centres as communication vehicles for corporate pronuclear messages, carried directly to key publics without gatekeeping by the mass media. Moreover, it would appear that the nuclear industry has been intentionally 'greening' its corporate messages so as to capitalise upon the public's growing concern about the environment. The study also suggests that the nuclear industry is using such centres, as well as newer, emerging advocational initiatives, in a fully promotional sense to circulate and thereby enhance the reputation of the industry. A comparative analysis of corporate nuclear public relations in the U.S. and Britain suggests a 'cross-national' exchange of intelligence, and in some respects, an outright collusion of efforts. Moreover, it would seem that there exists a further government-industry alliance both within the U.S. and Britain as well as trans-Atlantically. This alliance represents a convergence of government and industry interests in the development of nuclear energy for military and civilian purposes, and further illustrates earlier research of collusion among politicaleconomic elites and the over representation of corporate interests at the expense of unorganised public interests in the government decision-making process. Finally, the study argues that upcoming public policy decisions on the future of nuclear power in each country will be a measure of the effectiveness of pro-nuclear campaigning in achieving its objectives. The public debate on nuclear power will represent a genuine test of the relative health of democracy in both the U.S. and Britain, nation-states in which, military-industry-government interests mostly have had their way as it has concerned nuclear energy.

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published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

The essay aims to generate deeper understanding of leadership competences in a multinational organization in China, i.e. what competences that are required for managing professionals in a cross-cultural context. Previous research within this field of study discuss this topic from the perspective of Western or Chinese expatriate managers, but the authors of this study regard that it is of interest to study Chinese employees in a Western organization in China in order to understand how the global Western culture interacts with the local Chinese culture. The research questions were thus formulated to study what competences that are required in a managerial position in a multinational organization in China according to different organizational actors and documents, and what differences there are in the meaning of the various descriptions. The study has been conducted with a qualitative approach and the results indicate that To Manage, To Have Expertise and To Communicate are the most important competences needed in the managerial role. The results also indicate that the different sources are very similar in the description of cross-cultural leadership competence, which can be understood as the influence of a strong organizational culture. Finally, one can see that the younger employees differ slightly in expectations of leadership, which can be understood as leadership not being formed only by national culture but also by generational culture. In other words, the results from the study show that the meaning of cross-cultural leadership competence in this specific context is not merely restricted to the necessity of understanding national culture when exercising leadership; it is also about generational differences in culture.

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South Africais a country with many well documented inequalities. To reduce some of them there are many volunteers working in the country. What is it like to observe and work with people affected by all these inequalities? The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of how volunteers experience their work with children inCape Town. The questions I intend to answer in the study are: How do the volunteers experience their work when meeting kids in vulnerable situations and seeing the situation in the country they work in? Does the volunteer work create more cross- culture understanding and do the volunteers' views change during the course of their volunteer work? What goals and/or reasons do the volunteers have for volunteering?           The study was performed inCape Town,South Africa, and consists of nine semi-structured interviews with volunteers that, in different ways, work with children.                       Previous research about volunteers suggests that volunteer work can increase cross-culture understanding but there is also a risk that it might strengthen the stigmatisation. It is also suggested that volunteer tourism is a more sustainable way of travelling than other forms of tourism. The volunteers are driven by different reasons for volunteering they can have altruistic reasons or they can be driven by more self-developing reasons. The participants in this study had different reasons for volunteering like making a change, getting new experiences etcetera. Many of the volunteers described their first encounter with the South African culture as a bit of a shock due to the extreme poverty evident in the country. They also stated that meeting the children was simultaneously a positive and negative experience, as the poverty and social deprivation affecting the children was hard to observe, yet these are still kids and they play and are happy like any other kids in the world. Many of the participants also felt that they could contribute trough their work and that they had the chance to make a difference.                       The results have been analyzed through two articles on the subject of cross-culture understanding and reasons on volunteering.     A majority of the volunteers described an increased cross-culture understanding, but seemed unaware of the risk of stigmatisation. The volunteers have both more self-fulfilling reasons for volunteering and some more altruistic reasons.