在目前全球化下, 文化差異使公司在國際環境下,需要國際化經理的全球策略,不同文化使各的消費者,員工,供應商都不同,所以只有知道文化差異,才能有成功機會 / With the onset of globalization, many companies operating in international environments have found it more and more necessary to incorporate management of cross cultures into their global entry strategies. Differences in approaches, values and expectations between customers, suppliers, employees and team members with different cultural backgrounds have led to many business failures. By understanding the impact of cross-cultural differences, owners and managers can increase the probability of their business success. This thesis identifies cultural differences and similarities in the Taiwanese and Belizean societies and their influence on the leadership style adopted by Taiwanese managers in Belize. Greet Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions model was used in the analysis. Both primary and secondary data were utilized. In January 2004, ten (10) Taiwanese nationals managing Belizean employees were interviewed. Analysis of data collected indicated that despite the cultural similarities, there were still challenges faced by Taiwanese managers in managing their Belizean employees. Some of these challenges include: inadequate English communication skills on the part of the managers, lack of employee loyalty and job stability; and unskilled labor force resulting in low quality services and products. Culture as defined by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions has some effect on the leadership style adapted by Taiwanese in Belize but not necessarily on the success or failure of their businesses. According to the findings, Belizean employees lack loyalty and stability. As a result, Taiwanese managers in Belize are less trustful of their employees hence they tend to adopt a micro-managing style. Success factors of Taiwanese doing business in Belize include: building relationships (guanxi), value of time and work orientation; and clear labor laws.

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between United States and French cultural expectations and symptoms of menstruation. The study works first to demonstrate that the French culture holds a more positive view of menstruation and the United States a more negative one. This study then proposes the following hypotheses: 1) United States women will report more PMS and other debilitating symptoms, while French women will report less 2) Older, French, menstruating women will rate higher on positive items than any other category of women in France and the United States 3) Younger, French and U.S. American women will rate similar experiences and expectations of menstruation, due to the globalization of cultures. Finally, the study proposes establishing scales that are more multicultural­friendly.

A refugee reception has been placed in Kungshall, one of Nybros residential areas. The area has a bad reputation and there are arguably prejudices about the area from the local population. I therefore want to investigate if an ethnic residential segregation exists in Kungshall, from a postcolonial perspective. The following research questions have been formulated: How do residents who doesn’t live in the refugee reception, look at ethnic residential segregation in Nybro? How has Kungshall changed since the refugee reception? Does a cultural racism exist in Kungshall?   The study is a qualitative study using semi structured interviews of four people living in the residential area, a person who has moved out of the area and a person working on the housing corporation “Nybro bostads AB”, who is one of the housing corporation responsible for the residential area Kungshall. The study is based on post-colonial theory. According to all the interviewees, there is an uneven balance between Swedes and immigrants in the neighborhood. And according to all the interviewees living in the area, too many refugees have been placed in Kungshall, and the residential area has changed for the worse in recent history. One of the interviewees has already moved, and the others living in the area either know someone who has moved out of the area or is planning to themselves. And the main reason to ethnic residential segregation is often explained in terms of cultural differences between “us-and- them”: between the refugees and the others. It is clear from the interviews that there is a cultural racism among people and the main reason for people moving out of the area could arguably be related to cultural racism.

Today, globally distributed software development is an unstoppable trend in Information Technology (IT) all over the world due to the benefits it provides such as cost benefits, time saving, accessing the large labor pool and available resources. However, globally distributed software companies face some issues in this regard. Cultural differences are introduced and discussed as one of the fundamental issues in globally distributed IT companies. Further, it is evident from the literature that business analysis process is the fundamental phase of software development process that affects the entire process of software development, and requires effective communication and collaboration among teams and between team members. Globally distributed software development makes the business analysis process and its related sub-phases even much more complicated than it is. Therefore, in this study, the influence of cultural differences on globally distributed business analysis process is analyzed. In order to do that, I conduct a qualitative study in which employees of the Turkey and Poland branches of the GTECH IT Company are interviewed. Hence, in this study remote project team member are asked about varying cultural differences that I extract from several existing cultural models and unify them into an integrated model. There are many studies exist about cultural differences in literature and these studies has similarity and differences which are creating complexity for readers and researchers. Hence, in this research Hofstede’s, Hall’s and Trompenaars’ cultural frameworks are unified and then I develop a new cultural model. By applying this new framework or model I investigated the influence of varying cultural differences on business analysis process that is conducted in a globally distributed IT company.

Uppsatsens syfte var att undersöka de anställdas upplevda orsaker till lågt antal medarbetare med utländsk bakgrund på företaget BYGGET. Företaget är ett av Sveriges större byggföretag och för säkerställandet av anonymitet har de i uppsatsen fått det fiktiva namnet BYGGET. Informationsbrevet skickades ut till ett målinriktat urval av medarbetare med chefspositioner i den lokala verksamheten där slutligen sju (n=7) personer valde att delta. Insamlandet av data gjordes med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer och via en tematisk analys framkom tre huvudsakliga teman med tillhörande underkategorier, vilka ligger till grund för uppsatsens resultatdel. Resultatet visade att företagskultur och utbildning ansågs vara de grundläggande upplevda orsakerna till varför det är ett lågt antal anställda med utländsk bakgrund. Vidare framkom även temat kvotering, som diskuterades i sammanhanget om förändring och hur detta skulle kunna ske. För vidare utveckling av mångfalden på arbetsplatsen måste dels den traditionella påverkan av facket minskas samt att utländska utbildningar på ett enklare sätt måste kunna kvalitetssäkras för att de ska kunna anses valida på svenska byggplatser. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the employees’ experienced reasons of why there are so few workers with other ethnic backgrounds in the organization BYGGET. The organization is one of the largest construction firms in Sweden and to ensure the company’s anonymity they have been given the fictitious name BYGGET. An information letter was sent to a targeted selection of managers within the local office and seven (n=7) people agreed to participate in the study. Data was collected with semi structured interviews which were then analyzed with a thematic method. The analysis revealed three main themes with associated subcategories, which became the foundation of the study’s final results. The results showed that organizational culture and education were the experienced reasons of why there were so few employees with other ethnic background. Further the results showed that quotation also was a theme that was discussed in the event of change and how that could happen. To increase the diversity in the organization the company must decrease the traditional influence of the trade union. Also it must be easier to ensure the quality of educations from other countries so that they will be valid for Swedish construction jobs.

With the increasing emergence of multinational companies and the increased popularity of these companies, the question of the organization of their activities becomes interesting for the HR community worldwide. These companies are renowned for deliberate management structure of human resources and their effective use. For effective use of employees’ skills and knowledge the company has to constantly motivate them by intrinsic and extrinsic motivational tools. Motivational tools which use a company may be different depending on specific features of the country that the office is located. The purpose of this research is the study of how multinational companies organize the motivational system in different countries taking into account cultural characteristics and needs of the personnel in the offices of a particular country. On the basis of data derived from interviews with 12 representatives of 6 companies (4 of them Swedish companies, Oriflame, SCA, Volvo, IKEA, and two American companies, IBM and Deloitte, that have representative offices in Sweden and in Russia) it was revealed that modern multinational companies use similar motivational tools that partly standardized to keep the specifics of the company, and partly adapted to the local requirements.

Notre travail porte sur l’enseignement/apprentissage de la culture dans l’enseignement de la langue française et celui de la compétence interculturelle dans les départements de français des universités chinoises. Des incompréhensions et des malentendus apparaissent dans la communication entre les Chinois et les Français. Les étudiants chinois manifestent dans ce contexte d’enseignement / apprentissage du français des difficultés, autant d’ordre culturel que linguistique. A l’issue des entretiens réalisés en Chine et en France, nous nous sommes intéressée aux différences culturelles et aux dysfonctionnements relevés par les étudiants ainsi qu’à leurs attitudes et stratégies vis-à-vis de ces différences culturelles. Nous avons ensuite conduit une enquête auprès de l’équipe pédagogique en Chine et une analyse du manuel utilisé afin d’expliquer l’importance des différences constatées dans la méthode et les démarches d’enseignement. Nos deux hypothèses ont ainsi pu être validées : Les représentations des différences et des dysfonctionnements entre les étudiants chinois qui ont seulement un vécu scolaire du français (en Chine) et ceux qui ont vécu en France sont très différentes; l’importance de ces différences et l’intensité de ce décalage peuvent s’expliquer par le contenu et les démarches d’enseignement du français comme spécialité en milieu universitaire chinois qui préparent fort peu à la rencontre du milieu endolingue. Nous avons enfin proposé des pistes pédagogiques pour développer cette conscience interculturelle. / Our research concerns the education / learning of the culture in the teaching of the French language and that of the intercultural competence in the departments of French of the Chinese universities. Incomprehensions and misunderstandings appear in the communication between the Chinese and the French people. The Chinese students show in this context of education different kinds of difficulties, so much of cultural order as of linguistics. At the end of the surveys realized before in China and in France, we were interested in the cultural differences and in the dysfunctions found by the students as well as in their attitudes and the strategies towards these cultural differences.We then led an investigation with the teaching staff in China and an analysis of the manual worker used to explain the importance of the differences noticed in the method and the steps of teaching. Our two hypotheses were so able to be validated: the representations of the differences and the dysfunctions between the Chinese students who have only a school real-life experience of French (in China) and those who lived in France are very different; the importance of these differences and the intensity of this gap can be understandable by the contents and the methods of teaching French as speciality in chinese universities which prepare hardly for the meeting of the real environment. We finally proposed educational tracks to develop this consciousness.

The aim of this thesis is to introduce the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as an important potential partner for the Czech business entities based on a comprehensive and objective analysis of factors that could affect the cooperation between these two countries. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first one deals with the general characteristics of Saudi Arabia, particularly with demographic and geographic data, administrative structure, history and political-legal environment. The second chapter is about the economic characteristics of the country and it concentrates on the development of macroeconomic indicators, the various sectors of economy, finance, foreign trade and investment climate. The third section focuses on business cooperation between the Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia, with an emphasis on the development of mutual relations, trade balance and the specifics of the entry of Czech subjects on the Saudi market, including SWOT and PESTLE analysis and information about companies that have been already successful on the Saudi market. The last chapter is about cultural differences and I mention Hofstede's cultural dimensions, gender issues, values in society and the impact of cultural differences on the business negotiations.

The study examines the relationship betwen innovation,culture and innovative behaviour support in organizational environments.The theoretical section view cultural differences and authors'varying approaches to the evaluation of cultural dimensions,declared value and attitude characteristic of the cultura and their impact on actual behavioural demonstrations.

The diploma thesis describes business and cultural environment in Saudi Arabia by PEST analysis. The second part of the thesis reflects my own research of experience of exporters to Saudi Arabia.