Η εργασία αναφέρεται στον αρχαιολογικό χώρο της Κνωσού και πραγματεύεται την πολιτιστική διαχείριση και πολιτιστική επικοινωνία του. / The work refers to the archaeological site of Knossos and deals with the cultural management and cultural communication.

Coaching has become a phenomenon of the 21st century. It is considered to be one of the most effective methods of personal and corporate development and the way of communication. When participating in management style, coaching tends to strengthen responsibility, creativity, motivation and power to overcome internal and external barriers obstructing staff improvement. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the use of coaching in hotel chains management. Borders disappearence, free trade and the internationalization process create favorable conditions and new opportunities for expansion of hotel chains, recruitment of international workforce as well as the arrival of large numbers of both domestic and foreign tourists. The society has discovered the extraordinary potential of multicultural teams, but also realizes the threat caused by their improper leading. Nowadays, the managers and directors are forced to work under increasing pressure. Firms and employees requirements are becoming more and more demanding. On one hand, flexibility, independence, expertise and ability to act effectively in crisis situations are needed. On the other hand, ambitions and aspirations of employees themselves are also getting more obvious. The companies already know that a well-chosen leadership styles lead to the attainment of corporate goals and achieve personal and professional staff developement. During the eight-month work placement in one of the leading Spanish hotel chain Iberostar on the Canary Islands was studied approach and management styles on different levels of the organizational structure. Based on observations, structured interviews and the actual involvement in the managerial team work, the study serving as a basis for a final proposal for the application of coaching in this particular chain has been created. Considering the international work environment and multicultural teams, so typical just for tourism industry, the issue of cross-cultural management is also discussed. The previous coaching and intercultural communication studies at Johannes Kepler University in Linz have become the theoretical basis in this area.

xi, 48 p. : ill. (mostly col.) / For most influence attempts in everyday life, success makes life easier and failure is a disappointment, not a tragedy. When U.S. soldiers deployed overseas attempt to influence civilians, however, success can save lives and failure can be deadly. Along with the high stakes consequences of influence attempts, soldiers face the challenges of bridging differences in language, culture, beliefs, and agendas. The current study examined cross-cultural influence attempts made by deployed soldiers, contributing to existing influence research by examining influence attempts in a complex and challenging wartime environment. Survey data from 228 military personnel with deployment experience to Iraq and Afghanistan revealed that empathy, respect, prior relationships, and familiarity with influence targets predicted success. Five influence technique clusters emerged, and use of technique clusters involving resources and positive feelings were more successful than negative tactics. / Committee in charge: Dr. Holly Arrow, Chairperson; Dr. Gordon Hall, Member

Domestic abuse is “the willful use of an intimidating action [physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern] to exert power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another” (“What Is Domestic Violence?”, 2016). For African American women in the United States, “some studies have found that negative racial and sexist stereotypes portray African American women as aggressors rather than as victims due to their perceived rough, aggressive, and outspoken characteristics. Because of these persistent stereotypes of African American survivors, police can mistake the victim as the aggressor, thus reducing the amount of legal action taken to aid them. The past and present domestic violence responses have little positive economic or social effects on African American survivors. This thesis argues for educational changes to improve the legal response from law enforcement agencies for African American survivors of domestic violence. Realistic solutions such as, changing the stereotypical image of African American survivors, having law enforcement agencies enforce laws in domestic violence cases, and incorporating mandatory implicit bias and cross cultural communication trainings in a variety of educational areas can help resolve the low amount of law enforcement being used for African American domestic violence victims, unconscious racism in courtrooms, and ineffective mandatory arrest policies.

Constructions of race, reproductive health, and gender have been inextricably linked in the United States since the beginning of the nation. Today, these linkages remain evident in the marked racial and gender inequities in reproductive health outcomes that persist in the U.S. To better understand how these meanings and material outcomes are negotiated and produced by actors on the ground, this study asked: “How do reproductive healthcare providers (RHPs) communicate about the intersections of race, reproductive health, and policy?” I conducted semi- structures interviews with 24 RHPs, resulting in over 35 hours of recorded interviews. Drawing on critical-cultural communication, Reproductive Justice, Narrative Medicine, and Postcolonial theories, I developed a novel approach to narrative inquiry—Critical Narrative Analysis—to explore my data. Here, I present an in-depth analysis of 8 narratives shared by my participants. I conclude that participants communicated about race, reproductive health, and policy by engaging with dominant cultural narratives around these topics. While some participants contested dominant narratives, most upheld the foundational logics of oppressive systems in the stories they shared. To advance reproductive justice, I argue that new approaches to teaching clinicians, which engage with both narratives and sociopolitical structures affecting these narratives, are needed. By sharing my participants’ stories and contextualizing them within dominant narratives and social institutions, I aim to identify future research and practice opportunities for creating new stories about reproductive health and physician identity, stories which could suggest more equitable and just ways of doing reproductive health care.

Globalisation is increasing, reason for people working more and more cross-culturally and with the use of computer-mediated tools. The field of research on both of these individual topics is existent and has thoroughly been discussed. Nevertheless, the integration of these topics in the field of research is still scarce and relatively unknown. The purpose of this study is therefore to understand the communication issues that arise between people from different cultures when interacting through textual computer-mediated communication tools, and how these issues are dealt with. These communication issues and their consequences will therefore be identified and investigated, in order to get a better understanding of what this entails. A qualitative study has been done to fulfil this purpose. Data has been collected through nine semi-structured interviews with people from different locations around the world. With this way of data collection, the focus lied on extracting the perspectives of the individuals on these topics. Thereafter the data has been analysed according to seven steps for a grounded analysis, in order to create a theory. The results of this study have shown that there are mainly three communication issues arising from the use of textual computer-mediated communication tools across cultures. These issues are named as linguistic barriers, cultural differences in communication, and the absence of nonverbal communication. It has shown that these issues have a significant impact on this type of communication, causing several consequences. The direct, negative consequences coming from these issues are the deterioration of professional relationships and a decrease in productivity. Next to these consequences, the study has shown that people also tend to develop certain counterstrategies against these issues. That is so to say, ways of minimising the negative impact that the issues have on the communication.

Cultural competency is theorized as the sensitivity of practitioners from the dominant culture towards the diverse cultural backgrounds of their patients. Less attention is placed on how communication between providers and patients can enable patients to share their health care beliefs. An evidence review of the literature around the conceptualization of cultural competency in health care was performed, and interviews were conducted aiming to understand what immigrant patients perceive as culturally competent care and its effect on the relationship between them and their providers. Definitions of cultural competence varied, and no conclusive studies linking cultural competence to improved health outcomes were found. Findings from the participant interviews helped to address gaps in the literature by confirming a preference for a patient-centred approach to culturally competent care, in addition to identifying pre-existing expectations for the health care encounter and patient-dependent factors as additional elements influencing the physician-patient relationship.

This dissertation is an ethnography of communication, situated in the context of a feminist utopian community, that examines members' use of communication and communicative embodiment to counter what they consider to be oppressive United States gender practices. By integrating speech codes theory and cultural discourse analysis with theories of the body and gender, I develop analyses of spoken and written language, normative language- and body-based communicative practices, and sensual experiences of the body. I argue that there are three key ways communication and communicative practices are used to counter gender oppression: the use of gender-neutral words, the "desensationalization" of the body, and egalitarian nudity practices. Additionally, I argue that "calm" communication, as a normative style of communicating on the farm, underprivileges both male and female members of color and of the working class. From the perspective of members, gender was understood to be a category distinct from sex and analyses demonstrated that sex as an identity was a factor in interpretations of gender performances. Sex identities were also necessary for community feminist practice. Communication practices in the community articulated with feminist, health, environmental, and egalitarian discourses to normalize forms of embodiment such as female shirtlessness and public urination to counter dominant U.S. forms. It was found that making sense of normative communication practices required a cultural understanding of how both spaces and bodies were constituted as public and private. Community spaces were understood by members to be either relatively public or private with the public spaces being the more regulated spaces. Members contested the meanings of bodies as public (and therefore able to be regulated) or private (and therefore not able to be regulated). Normative communication practices in the community indicated that members work to preserve boundaries between private bodies in public spaces by developing rules for privacy, confidentiality, and non-communication. Community feminist communicative practices were understood to be liberatory because (1) the small size of the community allowed members to co-create feminist discourses that resignified body parts and gendered identites and (2) the community provided a space in which women could embody feminist discourses as everyday, sensual performances. This study has implications for the theorizing of embodied verbal and nonverbal gender-based cultural communication practices and for understanding community-based counter discourses as well as sex and gender as cultural identities.

Today's global economy demands that international automobile companies have an awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences. Companies use advertising to promote their goods or services, but how many of them manipulate their international marketing to reflect the needs and concerns of specific cultures? Many people share concerns when it comes to purchasing a car, including the cost and environmental impact of specific models. Cultural values, however, vary distinctly around the globe and have an effect on a person's consideration of a purchase. As one of the world's leading automakers, BMW must address both cultural values and global concerns in order to sell the luxury vehicles they are known for. By analyzing BMWs print, television, and Internet advertisements, I have determined how the company presents their products as potentially fulfilling the customer's needs and addressing German and American cultural values. I evaluated the prominence of common rhetorical features, strategies, and appeals by developing a rubric that can be applied equally across media. This project combines technical communication and German to ultimately conclude in practical applications. My research and conclusion demonstrate that an international company's willingness to include precise design choices reflects cultural values in specific contexts and that these choices can address international problems.

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