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abstract: This dissertation examines the factors related to the success of host country field offices established by international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Further, this dissertation examines NGO field office mission success in the context of working with foreign host governments and clients. This dissertation is a case of the field offices of The Nature Conservancy in South and Central America. The principal research aim is to identify the primary factors that are related to success of field offices. Success is identified as a multidimensional concept. A conceptual model for success is developed. The conceptual model derived causal factors from the literature and captured categories of variables such as: (1) managerial tactics and techniques dictated by the NGO and adopted by field office leaders; (2) the distance between cultural features of the host country and those of the country of origin of the field office manager and personnel; and, (3) characteristics of the host country government. The dissertation: (1) utilizes a working definition of NGO drawn from the scholarly literature in the field; (2) describes the role of field offices (located in host countries) in the calculus of "home office" goal achievement; (3) discusses the types of "change"--delivery of goods, delivery of services, changes in behavior, changes in norms or attitudes--that field offices may have and how they differ in the challenges they create for field office managers; and, (4) develops a conceptual definition for success. This dissertation is concerned with the factors associated with success in the international NGO's field office. A model of success predictors is tested in this work. The findings suggest that the field offices mission success may be affected by local culture but this was not an issue for the organization studied. Mission success as perceived by the field seems to be a product of organizational culture. The contribution of the research to academic literature is that this study is both an exploratory and descriptive study of how NGO mission is carried out in the field and the impacts of national and organizational culture on mission success. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2011

Nowadays, organizations have to deal more and more with cultural diversity concerning their workforce due to globalization. The challenge for these organizations is to manage the cross cultural workforce in an effective way. Therefore, they have to have skills and the necessary knowledge in order to conduct cross cultural management. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to investigate how a cross cultural workforce could be managed effectively. In order to get insights into what differences exist between employees of different cultures, what kind of problems can arise out of these differences and how these problems can be overcome through cross cultural management, a qualitative research approach in form of a case study was conducted. Hereby, interviews with three managers including two head of departments were conducted. These interviews have used the frame of reference as foundation including well-known theories like Hofstede, Inglehart, the eight value orientations, McGregor and some other theories. The statements of the interviews were evaluated and analyzed in order to find answers to the research questions stated in the thesis. The findings of this study show that the management team at LTU is not necessarily focusing on cross cultural differences as the impact is less negative than expected. However, conflicts that still arise do not really seem to have bad consequences at LTU. Therefore, these conflicts can be fixed relatively easy by applying the most important variables connected to encountering cross cultural challenges in the frame of reference. These are: human skills, good communication, creating unity, respect, empathy, body language as well as harnessing differences. Especially the personal attitude as well as the human skills of managers and employees play an essential role.

The thesis discusses research on a selected international team that incorporates agile methodology framework. The team is distributed among multiple European states and has off-shore members in India. The research questions include cross-cultural aspects of teamwork, organizational viewpoint as well as other key areas of team cooperation. Analysis is performed based on questionnaire distribution and a series of structured interviews with members of the researched team. Research findings include a list of recommended changes to team organization and evaluation of cross-cultural and factors of cooperation and their impact. Research has provided an action plan and a set of research observations that include deep analysis of teamwork, the area has proven to be attractive for further research, hence the thesis is concluded with suggestions in this area.

This master's thesis analyzes the possibilities of implementation of Toyota Production System within Japanese subsidiaries in Czech Republic. It explores the fit between the cultural values of Czech and Japanese management and the values incorporated in the Toyota Production System. In order to conduct the study, 79 companies were contacted, and survey responses from a total of 108 Czech and Japanese employees were collected. Data from the survey show that both Czech and Japanese employees have similar values related to work and neither job satisfaction nor number of conflicts is connected with TPS training. In the conclusion, areas for further research and more detailed elaboration are identified and presented.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) can effectively bridge the cultural gap between their home market operations and internationalized operations in advanced markets like Sweden, particularly with regards to adapting recruitment strategies to secure top talent in the new business context. The authors aim to expand the existing ‘springboard framework’ for internationalization by multinational enterprises originating in emerging market countries which are increasingly reshaping the global competitive landscape. The study interviewed seven managers with extensive experience working in both advanced and emerging markets, and five top talent from two of the highest ranked Swedish business schools. The study found that for EMNEs cultural distance is a secondary consideration when expanding to advanced markets and their main focus is showcasing their value proposition to clients, customers, and top talent alike. From the experience of the executives interviewed for this thesis, top talent prioritizes organizational and managerial values that a company imbibes and the career progression that it provides over remunerations. This was confirmed by the top talent we interviewed who repeatedly spoke about how important career opportunities and organizational values were for them. The findings from our thesis contribute to expanding the field of cross- cultural management theory by supplying a qualitative study of EMNE adaptation for internationalization. They also contribute to the recruitment literature by demonstrating how EMNEs have to adapt their HRM systems to the local environments in order to gain the attention of and acquire the local top talent.

Purpose: This purpose of this study is to deconstruct market orientation to explore how culture interrelates with conduct and value-creating innovation and its effect on performance. The authors suggest that market orientation is an organizational identity that can be built and managed for sustained competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a split sample of 553 Canadian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in both the manufacturing and technical service sectors. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis is used to test the main hypothesis that culture moderates the relationship between conduct and innovation. Support for the respective hypotheses is determined by the statistical significance of each focal variable.Findings: The study finds that culture does in fact moderate the relationship between conduct and innovation but only in service firms, not in manufacturing firms.Research limitations/implications: Theoretical implications include establishing support for the main premise of the paper, namely, that market-oriented culture interacts with the behavioral component of market orientation influencing the firm’s ability to create value through innovation.Practical implications: Managerial implications include the refinement of the many conceptualizations of the innovation construct by establishing innovation as value-creating. It also provides insight on how firm culture relates to the systems and processes used to operationalize both a market and innovation conduct within the firm.Originality/value: This paper provides a unique insight into the marketing/innovation interface, specifically in the context of SMEs.

In recent years the important of leadership in the organization has become an area of interest. Leadership has been noted to impact corporate culture, employee commitment and response and the overall performance of the organization. Given the fact that leadership is such an important part of organizational development and discourse, effective methods for developing effective leadership in the organization are needed. Without definitive methods for leadership development, organizations will not be able to optimize the outcomes of leadership in the organization. Thus, there is a clear impetus to delineate what works best in the context of leadership development. This study used concurrent qualitative and quantitative research to understand better the effect of cross-cultural influences on the leadership development programmes and leadership practices development in a study population consisting of managers and supervisors in the Kuwaiti banking industry. Although Kuwaiti organisations employ many international employees and operate foreign subsidiaries, they have not created leadership development programmes to improve cross-cultural leadership skills for managers. As a result, Kuwaiti managers often rely on traditional transactional methods and an authoritarian style of leadership that may be less effective with employees from different nations and cultural backgrounds. The qualitative phase of the research collected data from Kuwaiti bank managers through interviews while the quantitative phase of the research collected data with survey instrument. The quantitative phase of the study also tested the validity of a conceptual model and hypotheses using structural equation modelling and regression analysis. The research was guided by distributed leadership theory, which considers leadership as a series of interactions between leader and follower with the follower sometimes adopting an informal role as temporary leader. The theory also considers the context in which the leader operates as a critical factor for motivating leadership practise. The testing and validation of the theoretical model in the study led to the acceptance of a new 'Effective Cross Cultural Leadership' (ECL) model. This model describes the relationship between the exogenous or independent variables of cultural differences, training and development in traditional Kuwaiti leadership, cross cultural leadership development programmes and international leadership practises with the endogenous or dependent variables of leadership development programmes and leadership practises development. The testing of the hypotheses of the study showed a statistically significant relationship between the four independent variables and the two dependent variables with exception of the relationship between the independent variable of international leadership practises and the dependant variable of leadership programmes development. The quantitative findings also indicated that demographic variables do not have a moderating effect on the model. The qualitative findings of the study determined that cultural differences between employees and managers influence the managers' leadership behaviours and their understanding of the type of leadership development programmes to improve their cross-cultural leadership skills. Managers with greater experience or knowledge of foreign cultures adopt more flexible leadership practises when leading international teams. The qualitative findings also determined that front office managers are more willing to use participative leadership styles in leadership practises, while back office managers rely on authoritarian leadership styles focusing on tasks in their leadership practises, indicating that the context influences leadership styles and practise. The findings of the study including the development and validation of the Effective Cross-Cultural Leadership (ECL) model contribute to the theoretical and practical knowledge of cross-cultural leadership in Kuwait that can be extended to other Middle Eastern nations. In addition, the study finding extends cross-cultural theory by indicating that international influences both internal and external to the organisation affect leadership styles despite national norms and preferences. These findings implied that Kuwaiti organisations experience significant pressure to adopt some international leadership practises and styles to accommodate the expectations and needs of the many international workers employed in Kuwait. The practical implication of these findings showed that Kuwaiti managers would benefit from leadership training emphasising that no standard or correct approach to leadership exists and that it can be acceptable for leaders to use participative styles when warranted by the situation.

The globalization of negotiation, and the emergence of new companies operating in the international market, actualize the problems of studying national styles of negotiation. The subject of the theses is the specificity of negotiating Russian companies with companies from China and Iran, which is due to the development of Russia's economic cooperation with these countries. Despite the decline in Russian foreign trade and the devaluation of the ruble, trade with Asia grows, its share in the overall foreign trade turnover of the country is rapidly increase. The theoretical base of a research relies on works of such authors as G. Hofstede, F. Trompenaars, S. Ronen, R. Meade, E. Shane, M. Porter, F. Lyutens, E. Renan, O. Bauer, G. Le Bon, K.S. Aksakov, A.S. Homyakov, Yu.F. Samarin, B. Anderson, R. Brubeyker, I. Berlin, E. Balibar, E. Gellner, G. Kohn, E. Hobsbaum, G.D. Gachev, D.S. Likhachev, G.M. Andreyeva, O.A. Bayeva, V.L. Israelyan, E.Ya. Solovyov, R. Coen, J. Nirenberg, etc. Research objective is to define a role and value of national style as most important factor of negotiations on the example of China and Iran. Information base of a research are 6 indexes Hofstede across China and Iran of measurements of culture, statistical data for definition of the population of the countries and a share of the agrarian population of China, data on the Uralmekhanobr company: the balance sheet for the analysis of activity of the company for 2015 and 2016 given deep interviews of staff of the company. Main results of the theses are: classification of formal and substantial characteristics of business negotiations is given; the common and distinctive features inherent in these cultures are revealed; recommendations about behavior are made during business negotiations with partners of China and Iran; the hypothesis of the importance of cross-cultural factors for success of negotiations and financial results of activity of the company is confirmed. / Глобализация переговорных процессов, появление новых компаний, действующих на международном рынке – всё это актуализирует проблематику изучения национальных стилей ведения переговоров. Предмет исследования –особенности ведения переговоров российских компаний с компаниями из Китая и Ирана, что обусловлено развитием экономического сотрудничества России с этими странами. Несмотря на спад российской внешней торговли и девальвацию рубля, торговля с Азией растет, быстро увеличивается ее доля в общем внешнеторговом обороте страны. Теоретическая база исследования опирается на работы таких авторов, как Г. Хофстеде, Ф. Тромпенаарс, С. Ронен, Р. Мид, Э. Шейн, М. Портер, Ф. Лютенс, Э. Ренан, О. Бауэр, Г. Лебон, К.С. Аксаков, А.С. Хомяков, Ю.Ф. Самарин, Б. Андерсон, Р. Брубейкер, И. Берлин, Э. Балибар, Э. Геллнер, Г. Кон, Э. Хобсбаум, Г.Д. Гачев, Д.С. Лихачев, Г.М. Андреева, О.А. Баева, В.Л. Исраэлян, Э.Я. Соловьев, Р. Коэн, Дж. Ниренберг и др. Цель исследования: определить роль и значение национального стиля как важнейшего фактора переговоров на примере Китая и Ирана. Информационной базой исследования являются 6 индексов Хофстеде по Китаю и Ирану измерений культуры, статистические данные для определения населения стран и доли аграрного населения Китая, данные по компании «Уралмеханобр»: бухгалтерский баланс для анализа деятельности компании за 2015 и 2016 гг., данные глубинных интервью сотрудников компании. Основные результаты работы: дана классификация формальных и содержа-тельных характеристик деловых переговоров; выявлены общие и отличительные черты, присущие данным культурам; составлены рекомендации по поведению во время деловых переговоров с партнерами из Китая и Ирана; подтверждена гипотеза о значимости кросс-культурных факторов для успеха переговоров и финансовых результатов деятельности компании.

The relevance of the topic is due to the need for the head of the Russian branch of a cross-cultural company to make decisions on the implementation of the best way to manage personnel: the optimal leadership model, the correct incentive schemes for employees, an adequate reporting system and performance monitoring, helping to form and maintain an effective work team capable of fulfilling the tasks set. The purpose of the thesis is to identify the features of the adaptation of the values of corporate cultures of Western companies to their Russian divisions in order to improve the personnel management system. The main results of the work are as follows. Most European models of building organizational culture are being introduced and adapted in Russia quite successfully, provided that the company has selected personnel with a certain European mentality and psychological characteristics. When developing managerial decisions, the manager should take into account the peculiarities of the Russian mentality and, above all, the tendency to collectivism and erosion of personal responsibility, as well as a high degree of emotional closeness of employees, when personal personal qualities are sometimes put at the expense of business qualities. / Актуальность темы обусловлена необходимостью принятия руководителем российского филиала кросс-культурной компании решений о реализации наилучшего способа управления персоналом: оптимальной модели руководства, корректных схем стимулирования сотрудников, адекватной системы отчетности и контроля результатов, помогающих формировать и поддерживать эффективную рабочую команду, способную обеспечить выполнение поставленных задач. Цель диссертации – определить особенности адаптации ценностей корпоративных культур западных компаний в их российские подразделения с целью совершенствования системы управления персоналом. Основными результатами работы являются следующие. Большинство европейских моделей построения организационной культуры внедряются и адаптируются в России вполне успешно при условии, что в компанию подобран персонал с определенной европейской ментальностью и психологическими особенностями. При разработке управленческих решений руководителю следует учитывать особенности российского менталитета и в первую очередь склонность к коллективизму и размывание личной ответственности, а также высокую степень эмоциональной близости сотрудников, когда на первое место ставятся личные человеческие качества порой в ущерб качествам деловым.