National women in the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) countries are highly educated yet their work participation remains low when compared to the rest of the world. This thesis aims to assess the impact of religion and family in the shaping of national women’s careers in the GCC workforce, in particular the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This aim is fulfilled by conducting three interlinked research projects; a systematic literature review, a qualitative study and finally, a quantitative study. The first research project comprises a systematic review of the literature that identifies the barriers and enablers to the participation and advancement of female national managers in the GCC workforce. The synthesis of articles reveals findings at the societal, organizational, family and individual levels. At the societal level, barriers and enablers are identified as those influenced by socio-cultural and religious norms and practices. These norms and practices influence how organizations (public and private) engage with their employees, and families engage with their individual members. In the second research project, I choose to narrow the scope of my research from six GCC countries to one country, the UAE. I explore the influence of family on the experiences of ten senior female UAE national managers at key work decision stages; I employ semi-structured interviews and, based on their experiences, the findings reveal that the family has influence at both the role entry and role participation stages. No data were available for the role exit stage. Furthermore, the experiences are different for women from extended versus nuclear families. In the third research project I choose to focus on the factors that support and impact on the experiences of UAE national women during their career life cycle. The findings indicate that overall there are no differences between the experiences of women from nuclear families versus extended; however, there are differences between the model and the UAE sample, both at the overall level and individual age stages. My second research project; a qualitative study provides three contributions to knowledge. Firstly, I extend the understanding of work related decisions, taking into account family influences. However, in the UAE, based on my research, the outcome will primarily be in favour of family due to the influence of socio-cultural and religious norms and practices. I propose that the conceptual framework be extended by adding the component of religion to it when considering the context of the UAE. Secondly, I propose a modification to the framework enabling it to be used in the UAE context. Thirdly, no previous empirical research has been conducted using this framework, with the result that the data from my research contribute empirically. With respect to contribution to practice, this qualitative study identifies the need for enhanced recruitment strategies for women and more gender friendly policies and practices to ensure the effectiveness of Emiratization within both the public and private sectors. The evidence from my third research project; a quantitative study contributes theoretically as my research demonstrates that the O’Neil and Bilimoria (2005) three phase women’s career development model does not fit in the UAE context. The research also contributes from a practical perspective as it identifies the need to improve the development of networking, communication and leadership skills for women and the implementation of comprehensive flexible working practices for women.

This study examined the significant impact of culture on global public relations practices using a case study analysis of Dove, H&M, and Nivea’s media campaigns between 2017 and 2019. The analysis was carried out through a structural comparison between the public’s reaction from the United States and Nigeria. Cultural variations between the two countries were examined, and how the variations impact GPR practices were explored. Social judgment theory, apologia, and image restoration theory were used as the theoretical frameworks alongside Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. This study demonstrates that understanding cultural dimensions as it applies to diverse countries operating in the global market can reveal how organizations can design and implement effective public relations practices across borders regardless of the existing cultural differences, which pose as a challenge.

摘要     “语言决定论”说明了语言和思想之间的联系，且通过分析语言与文化间的关系而不断改善。文化在一个人思想形成的基础阶段中发挥了决定性作用，是语言意识形态的基本特征。于是我们可以假设，文化价值作为一种可以衡量文化影响力的手段，文化影响力理应能够在文字中被识别出来和与文字建立起联系，而这也可与网络新词，这个从未被研究过的领域联系起来。     为了证明中国的文化价值对网络新词的影响，笔者会使用“定性内容分析”的方法与“定量分析法”。文化影响了字词的本意，也影响了在网络上出现的新词的意义。此外，中华文化价值与网络新词之间的联系不单可由文化对新词直接的影响中识别出来，亦可间接地在用法中加以识别。而有些网络新词虽然源于其他语言或文化，但是中国文化影响了这些网络新词的语境，使这些新词最终能够与中文融为一体。 / Linguistic determinism has prompted one of the earliest discussions about the connection between language and thought. This link has been further refined through the identification of cultural values playing a determinative role on the basic stage of thought formation, which is one of the fundamental aspects of language ideology. Such findings have sparked the hypothesis that cultural influences, in the form of cultural values as measurable means, should be recognized in or connected to words, even to those that belong to previously uninvestigated areas, such as new Internet words. The methodology of qualitative content analysis as well as a quantitative study applied to a sample of new Chinese Internet words and expressions has demonstrated that the influence of Chinese cultural values on them is identifiable to a significant extent. The cultural values either directly affect the words in their original or new meaning or have an influence on the Internet words indirectly, in their usage. Furthermore, it is argued that such connections between the researched Chinese cultural values and the meaning or usage of the collected new Chinese Internet words and expressions are not only to be strictly categorized into direct and indirect influences but should be considered in a broader sense. Despite some words and expressions originating from other languages and cultures, the influence of Chinese cultural values should still be acknowledged since it is through these that words are able to integrate into the Chinese language.

This thesis describes how and what Wattana-dharm Thai [Thai culture] has influenced Thai PR practice through the eyes of Thai PR managers and practitioners. It also provides some background information about the evolution of Thai PR practice to link to the current Thai PR practice. The study employs a qualitative paradigm with in-depth interviews as the main method. Documentary sources are mostly used as a supplement. This thesis provides detailed qualitative data describing how Thai public relations (PR) practitioners operate in Thailand both offline and online. The findings highlighted that Wattana-dharm Thai has a strong influence on Thai PR practice. There are eight main Wattana-dharm Thai aspects that influence Thai PR practice: 1) Relationship orientation (relationships in a Thai style including Bunkhun, Pen-Mitr, and Alum aluay relationships); 2) Community-based orientation; 3) Sanook orientation; 4) Hierarchical structure; 5) Buddhist orientation, 6) Monarchy institution respect; 7) Face and eyes in society; and 8) Form over the content. Thai PR practice has an emphasis on Saang Kwaampratabjai [impression building] through Wattana-dharm Thai. For example, historically, Thais accepted westerners because they did Saang Kwaampratabjai by bringing technology and development to the country. Thais have a positive attitude toward westerners because of this history of impression. Thai PR practitioners also try to use Saang Kwaampratabjai influence the public, such as journalists and opinion leaders by offering incentives altruistically (e.g. Namjai, Bunkhun, etc). Thai PR practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based on Buddhism and their respect of the monarchy. Thai PR place an importance on details of public’s personal information to instigate Saang Kwaampratabjai. For online PR, Thai PR use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support Saang Kwaampratabjai. It would appear that ICTs, in part, are used to promote company’s image rather than having any practical use. Hence, the core of Thai PR is how to practice Saang Kwaampratabjai based solely on personal and social relationship. This thesis aims to fill in the gaps in knowledge relating to PR and culture. It will make a contribution to the academic literature on culture and public relations, not only in the West but globally. This will also provide a framework for Thai PR practitioners to improve and develop their work. This thesis examines culture and PR through the lens of Thai terminology and discourse facilitated by a native inside-out view moderated by the distance obtained by leaving my country for a substantial proportion of the period of the study. This distance allowed me to re-consider many taken-for-granted aspects of my own culture, as well as allowing me to take on board other cultural perspectives available in a Western but international university. Thus this thesis is in part autobiographical, product of my research journey that allowed me to engage with a range of fundamental issues central to cross-cultural living such as hierarchy, religion, political and regal institutional frameworks, and gender.