This study identifies the competencies needed by a multi-cultural project manager, and investigates a potential link between conflict management styles and national culture. It takes as its base the assumption that cultural differences are demonstrated during conflict, and may in fact be the cause of the conflict. As a result, the manager of a multi-cultural project team must be able to manage conflict constructively in order to realise the full potential of the team. The research begins by reviewing literature on project management, national culture, and conflict. A survey was performed on over 60 individuals from various cultural backgrounds, to analyse patterns in their methods of handling conflict. The study shows that there is in fact a link between different cultures and different management styles.

The global competition and as the worldwide market has become more open a company’s ability to outsource activities to external companies based in other countries, i.e. offshore outsourcing, has increased dramatically. Companies are starting to transfer higher value-added activities that require certain skills, domain knowledge and experience, i.e. Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO). These activities are getting more difficult and complex to manage compared with standardised activities such as payroll, and predict another kind of co-operation and communication between the companies. When the sender and receiver are based in different context, such as organisational and cultural, other aspects might be added to the difficulty. The purpose of this thesis is to describe, and analyse knowledge transfer in a cross cultural context based on three categories identified in the theoretical framework: character of knowledge, distances between sending and receiving context and mutual understanding. Also to answer how cultural differences might affect the knowledge transfer process. The objective of this study is mainly from a Swedish R&D company’s perspective that has an established relation with an external consultancy company based in India. The activities are within the area of dynamical changing software development of complex, communication and knowledge intensive products. A qualitative case study has been performed based on open target interviews. The findings show that the character of knowledge is an important factor to consider when establishing the knowledge transfer process. It was a need to transfer knowledge not only related to the product itself but also knowledge embedded in organisational routines, processes, practises and norms. This is related to distances between sending and receiving context: organisational and knowledge differences shown in organisational skills and previous experience, and cultural differences mainly visible in communication such as raising problems and an expected top-down approach by managers. The geographical distance adds to the difficulty due to the missing face-to-face contact. The sending company must therefore be very active and can not just expect the receiving company to handle the activity, and especially when the companies’ prerequisites differ as much as in this case. Culture awareness and mutual understanding are factors that improve knowledge transfer.

Nunavut Inuit youths exhibit cultural resilience and leadership. However, researchers frequently neglect such assets and instead emphasize these youths’ challenges or perceived inadequacies. I conducted an intrinsic case study regarding Nunavut Inuit youths’ experiences with an experiential learning program, Northern Youth Abroad (NYA), in order to investigate participants’ growth in cross-cultural awareness, individual career goals, leadership, and global citizenship. Drawing on post-colonial theory, semi-structured interviews, archival research, and participant observation, I argue that NYA’s Nunavut Inuit participants reported significant personal growth in these four objectives. I also provide an in-depth analysis of how NYA’s Nunavut Inuit participants described and developed distinct and rich leadership styles that draw on Inuit and Euro-Canadian influences.

I bakgrunden redogörs olika aspekter som berör kultur samt sjuksköterskos förhållning till patienters etnicitet. Patienters syn på vård skiljer sig åt beroende på kulturtillhörighet vilket påverkar mötet i vården. Sjuksköterskans ansvar är att ge vård samt behandla patienterna med respekt och värdighet oavsett etnicitet. Svårigheter kan finnas i att tillgodose detta i mötet med patienter då uppfattningen av sjukdomsorsak kan skilja sig ifrån sjuksköterskans. Svårigheter i kommunikationen samt i förståelsen för respektive kultur kan leda till missförstånd. Gränsen är hårfin gällande kulturell lyhördhet då patienten lätt kan särbehandlas eller diskrimineras. Syftet med examensarbetet är att beskriva sjuksköterskors upplevelser i möten med patienter med annan etnisk bakgrund än majoritetsbefolkningen. Metoden som användes var en systematisk litteraturstudie där vetenskapliga artiklar analyserats. Resultatet presenteras under fyra teman: Förståelse för genusperspektiv i vårdandet, Förståelse för olika uttrycksätt, Kunskap om sjukdomssyn samt Utbildningsbehov. Resultatet visar att sjuksköterskor önskar mer kunskap om kultur i sin utbildning, samt mer förståelse för skillnader i genusdynamiken då kulturella möten uppfattas som svåra vilket kan medföra ett uteblivet vårdande möte speciellt när kommunikationsbrister fanns. Sjuksköterskor behöver och önskar mer utbildning om kulturella aspekter för att känna större trygghet i mötet med patienter med en annan etnicitet än dem själva. / The background describes cultural aspects and how nurses relate to patients' ethnicity. Patients' view on health care varies depending on cultural background, which affects the encounter with health care. Nurse's responsibility is to provide care for and treat patients with respect and dignity regardless of ethnicity. During the encounter with patients difficulties may arise in meeting these needs when the understanding of what caused the disease may differ from the nurse. Difficulties in communication and in understanding each culture can lead to misunderstandings. There is a fine line to cultural sensitivity as the patient can easily be treated differently or discriminated against because of their ethnicity. The aim of the thesis is to describe nurse’s experience in encounters between patients with another ethnic background than the majority ethnic population. The method used was a systematic literature review where scientific articles were analyzed. The result is presented in four themes: Understanding the gender perspective in caring, understanding of different modes of expression, knowledge of insight to disease and Educational needs. The result shows that nurses desire more knowledge about culture in their training, and a broader understanding of differences in gender dynamics as cultural encounters were perceived as difficult resulting in a non-caring encounter especially when communication deficiencies were found. Nurses need and want more training about different cultures.

This descriptive, correlational study investigated small learning community campuses‘ teachers‘ perceptions and traditional high school campuses‘ teachers‘ perceptions of eight factors as measured by the Cultural Awareness and Beliefs Inventory (CABI): (1) cultural awareness, (2) teacher beliefs, (3) school climate, (4) culturally responsive classroom management, (5) home and community support, (6) curriculum and instruction strategies, (7) cultural sensitivity, and (8) teacher efficacy. Further, the statistical differences between teachers‘ perceptions were explored as related to ethnicity and gender. The relationship between teachers‘ perceptions as measured by the CABI and student achievement as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Ninth Grade Reading Test was examined. The data were collected from eight secondary campuses in a large urban school district in the southwest United States: four small learning community campuses and four traditional high school campuses. This descriptive, correlational study of ninth grade teachers‘ perceptions of cultural awareness and beliefs yielded unexpected results when delineated by the campus group in which the teacher was employed. The data found statistically significant differences between Small Learning Community campuses‘ and Traditional High School campuses‘ teachers‘ perceptions of school climate by campus group, by ethnicity and campus group, and finally by gender and campus group. Two additional factors of the CABI reported statistically significant difference when delineated by ethnicity: cultural awareness and teacher efficacy. The relationships between teachers‘ perceptions of the eight factors and the TAKS for ninth grade reading reported negative correlations for the small learning campus groups‘ teachers and a mixed results for the traditional high school campus groups‘ teachers with five negative correlations and three positive correlations for HCS, CI, and CS. In the final analysis, these results countered the expected responses given the research on small learning communities.

This study examined what items driver education instructors felt should be included in a cultural awareness survey to assess instructors' preparedness to teach a culturally diverse student clientele. In addition, the study examined the ways driver education instructors felt a cultural awareness survey should be administered. The instrument used in the study was the Driver Education Cultural Awareness (DECA) Survey that consisted of 14 items. There were eighty-one (N = 81) participants in the study with forty-six (N = 46) from the Texas' Education Service Center, Region 4 area (Houston area) and thirty-five (N = 35) from the Texas' Education Service Center, Region 10 area (Dallas area). The findings of this study were: (1) Instructors believed that a survey instrument should include information about "preparedness to teach a culturally diverse student clientele," "men and women presented in equitable roles," and "images of teenager drivers;" and (2) Instructors did not agree on how a survey instrument should be administered.

Language teachers, including educators from all levels &ndash / from primary to college level &ndash / and teacher trainers have all agreed with the idea that it is impossible to consider language skills as independent from each other since each of them has a great contribution to the language itself as a whole system. However / it cannot be ignored that all language teachers have also agreed with the idea that reading is a skill that has its own significance, especially in foreign language education. What makes reading so unique is that it can be considered to be the door that is about to be opening to a new world in which the target language is spoken. In that sense, as an essential skill, reading, throughout the centuries, has also had its own keys that have been difficult to be unlocked even by the native speakers of English. This matter of fact brings the question to the light that what guardians are waiting in front of this castle door especially for foreign language students. Although many scholars claim that formal aspect of language, including syntactical and lexical features, stand as great challenge, they ignore the cultural significance of a language. The relationship between language, thought and culture shows that even formal aspects are affected by culture. This fact brings the importance of &lsquo / content schema&rsquo / as well as &lsquo / formal schema&rsquo / in reading to surface. However, now the question is that how it is possible to provide students with sufficient cultural background. As foreign language students are less likely to experience exposure to foreign culture when compared to second language learners, there is an urgent need to create a &lsquo / social context&rsquo / or &lsquo / second hand reality&rsquo / in Kovalik&rsquo / s terms in classroom settings. At this point, literature is believed to give her helping hand to FL students with her wide range of texts carrying a variety of formal aspect of language, but at the same time, a range of cultural components, and thus, constructing &lsquo / schema&rsquo / for them. Apart from this, what literature offers is examined in detail within the framework of brain-based learning principles. This paper tends to contribute to this controversial issue with a case study, which aims to illustrate that the use of literature in FL settings enhance language/cultural awareness. The result of the study showed that 1) literature is a useful source to teach the formal aspects of language such as grammar and vocabulary (language awareness) 2) literature contributes to students&rsquo / cultural awareness which is essential to have language awareness 3) literature is a brain-compatible source with various advantages over the other written materials. In accordance with what is mentioned above, this study has a direct aim to show how ELT and Literature can intrude the ancient walls of this castle when work interdisciplinary.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Hons.))-University of Western Sydney, 2007. / A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Education, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Honours). Includes bibliographical references.

Globally operating business organizations tend to use a global strategy by using a standardized strategy as a fixed format. However, this has developed to be very ineffective for the ability to compete in the different markets worldwide. The adaptation of local preferences hence, seems to be crucial but also very complex for multinational retailers. This study therefore, determines the complexity of considerations that a shift from a global to a transnational strategy includes. The decision making of which strategy is appropriate for multinational retailers to compete on a global market can be quite puzzling, as is can be seen in the bed textile segment. Therefore this research paper investigates, within a case study of IKEA’s bed textile department, if a shift from a global to a transnational strategy is of advantage for a multinational retailer like IKEA and to what extend cultural awareness has to be considered. The methods that were used for this study include a literature review in the mentioned focus area and a collection of primary data through a qualitative research design with an open questionnaire sent to the Sales Leaders of IKEA. The research has shown that market research is an important factor when it comes to cultural related differences between the countries. Also, when dealing with the concern of adaptation of the market relevant bed textile sizes to the product range, the Sales Leaders of IKEA have perceived different concerns. Therewith a full adaptation may not be the solution for all businesses, since this depends on the product and market preferences. The cultural preferences in each country and the right degree of standardization and local preferences are a big issue for the global bed textile industry and are hence perceived as the main challenges in this concern. Possible paths for future investigations are shown by the results of this study. Thus, an inclusion of other cases could enable the possibility of a generalization of the study’s findings. Also, the same case study could be expanded by including customers input in the individual markets; this would lead to a better understanding of the customer’s preferences and a higher validity of the study. Last but not least this study has shown that there is no simple answer given whether a shift from a global towards a transnational strategy is of advantage for multinational retailers; however interesting factors concerning the shift could be identified.

This embedded case study examined middle school principals' self-reported cultural awareness, teachers' self-reported cultural awareness, and principals' influence on cultural awareness in the school. In addition, the study focused on how principals influenced teachers' cultural awareness and implementation of multicultural education, and culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy in classrooms.The conceptual framework for the study was based on theoretical perspectives of Banks' (1999) Eight Characteristics of the Multicultural School, Gay's (2003) Culturally Responsive Curriculum and Pedagogy, and Lindsey, Roberts, and CampbellJones' (2005) Cultural Competence Continuum. Two principals and 10 teachers from two schools volunteered to participate in the study. The methodology included the development and use of semi-structured principal and teacher interview instruments, a teacher classroom observation instrument, and an instrument for analysis of curriculum documents. Findings revealed variable levels of participants' cultural awareness and competence, pedagogical practices, and curriculum implementations. A triangulation of data sources from interviews, observations, and documents suggested that the two principals' leadership conveyed similarities and differences in influencing teachers' cultural awareness and supporting their implementation of culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy within classrooms.