IT-services outsourcing from Sweden to India has increased in the last few years and it is often regarded as a strategic measure to handle the increasing costs of IT-related development and maintenance operations. There are a number of advantages of outsourcing however, there are many challenges that outsourcing initiatives face. One of the challenges mentioned by many researchers is the cultural differences between the Swedish culture and the Indian culture. At the same time there is not enough research done about these cultural differences in the context of IT-services outsourcing from Sweden to India. It creates difficulties for the partners involved in an IT services outsourcing initiative to achieve the desired results. In this work we have researched these problems by sending questionnaire to IT-outsourcing companies in Sweden. The questionnaire was prepared after a thorough literature review. The participants were asked if they are still facing the problems identified in the literature review and to also mention any other cultural problems faced by them. The questionnaires were analysed and the results obtained are presented in this work. The results show that the practitioners were still facing the problems. This thesis identifies the root causes, the negative effects and also suggests ways for handling the problems. This research will help the IT-services outsourcing practitioners to manage these problems for achieving better result.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate how culture is represented in the Wings 7 blue textbook and workbook and what implications this may have on learners’ cultural understanding. The research questions are: How is culture represented in the textbook and workbook Wings 7 blue?, and What cultural understanding is promoted through the task design of the learning material Wings 7 blue?The analysis of the learning material draws on the theoretical framework of the Swedish researcher Ulrika Tornberg. The result of our analysis, and first research question, displays that the main focus of the cultural content in the Wings 7 blue textbook is on the mainstream national culture of Britain, typical British behavior, and linguistic readiness.Cultural understanding may be seen as either general cultural understanding, based on Tornberg’s two first perspectives, or as intercultural understanding which can be found in Tornberg’s third and final perspective. The result of the analysis of the tasks shows that both types of cultural understanding are promoted in the workbook, but the possibility for learners to develop their own intercultural understanding is limited, which is the answer to our second research question. This leads to the conclusion that the learning material, by itself, does not cover the complete aim for cultural understanding in the National Syllabus.One might argue that the material should only be seen as a complement to the other tools of the teacher, who can compensate for any missing information in his or her communication with the class. However, according to the large National survey for English, teachers of English mostly use published learning materials and tend to trust that these correspond to the aims of the steering documents.

<p>IT-services outsourcing from Sweden to India has increased in the last few years and it is often regarded as a strategic measure to handle the increasing costs of IT-related development and maintenance operations. There are a number of advantages of outsourcing however, there are many challenges that outsourcing initiatives face. One of the challenges mentioned by many researchers is the cultural differences between the Swedish culture and the Indian culture. At the same time there is not enough research done about these cultural differences in the context of IT-services outsourcing from Sweden to India. It creates difficulties for the partners involved in an IT services outsourcing initiative to achieve the desired results.</p><p>In this work we have researched these problems by sending questionnaire to IT-outsourcing companies in Sweden. The questionnaire was prepared after a thorough literature review. The participants were asked if they are still facing the problems identified in the literature review and to also mention any other cultural problems faced by them. The questionnaires were analysed and the results obtained are presented in this work. The results show that the practitioners were still facing the problems. This thesis identifies the root causes, the negative effects and also suggests ways for handling the problems. This research will help the IT-services outsourcing practitioners to manage these problems for achieving better result.</p>

Le cerveau des primates, et plus encore celui de l’homme, a évolué en s’adaptant à un environnement socialement complexe. Le nombre élevé d’individus qui composent le groupe, la sophistication des modes d’interaction et le risque de manipulation constituent autant de pressions de sélection exercées sur le cerveau. Cette perspective évolutionnaire a alimenté tout un courant de recherche en psychologie développementale tourné vers la cognition dite sociale. Ces recherches se sont portées sur la lecture des intentions, la distinction soi/autrui, l’altruisme, l’empathie, la morale, la compétition et la coopération. Toutes ces capacités constituent les premières briques de ce que l’on pourrait appeler une sociologie naïve. Mais certaines de ces capacités sont restées au second plan, et l’objectif général de ce projet sera d’aborder l’une des plus ignorées mais pas des moins centrales : l’aptitude à traiter les hiérarchies. Les relations dominance, ou d’ascendance, constituent une dimension essentielle de la vie des espèces sociales. Sur le plan évolutionniste, un rang social élevé confère des avantages adaptatifs décisifs car il garantit un accès privilégié aux ressources nutritives et reproductives. Le rôle crucial du rang social va dès lors exercer un certain nombre de contraintes cognitives. Les individus doivent, par exemple, être capables d’identifier l’organisation hiérarchique de leurs groupes et représenter les avantages offerts par le statut. On peut donc penser que chez bon nombre d’espèces sociales, des mécanismes cognitifs dédiés aux hiérarchies sociales aient évolué selon un processus sélectif. Néanmoins, les hiérarchies sociales chez l’homme se distinguent de celles des autres espèces par deux aspects importants. Premièrement, les attributs qui définissent la dominance sont beaucoup plus diversifiés et dépassent le simple cadre des relations agonistiques. Deuxièmement, à la différence des primates, les cultures humaines présentent des variations fortes dans le degré de structuration hiérarchique des sociétés. Il est donc possible d’imaginer que les mécanismes cognitifs impliqués dans le traitement des hiérarchies soient modulés par l’environnement culturel. La méthode interculturelle suivie ici permettra d’identifier des mécanismes potentiellement universels et d’autres sujets à une variation culturelle. Au cours des années 70 et 80, l’étude des hiérarchies chez l’enfant a connu une période féconde. Les travaux produits, largement inspirés par l’éthologie, ont permis de montrer que les relations de dominance étaient fréquentes, même chez des enfants très jeunes (1 à 2 ans), et qu’elles s’organisaient selon des structures linéaires. Néanmoins ces études, de part les méthodologies employées, ont largement négligé la perspective cognitive et n’ont pas donc permis d’établir des mécanismes précis impliqués dans le traitement des hiérarchies. Cette thèse vise à réintroduire l’étude de la dominance sociale au sein de la psychologie cognitive du développement. Elle s’articule autour de deux axes principaux : 1) Identifier la dominance : la capacité à identifier le statut hiérarchique et ses différents attributs et inférer les avantages que confère un statut élevé. 2) Agir face à la dominance : la distribution de ressources en fonction du statut et la préférence sociale en fonction du statut. Huit expériences sont rapportées dont une incluant une comparaison inter-culturelle entre la France, le Liban et le japon. Ces expériences ont montré la capacité des enfants dès 3 ans à identifier les relations de dominance et à inférer un certain nombre de caractéristiques à partir de ces relations. Les inférences de la dominance aux caractéristiques des individus incluent l'asymétrie de ressources, de compétences ainsi que le genre ; les enfants de trois cultures différentes ont associé le genre masculin au personnage dominant........ / According to the social brain hypothesis, the computational demands of living in large and complex societies favored the selection of unusually large brains and complex cognitive capacities (Dunbar & Shulz, 2007). Social cognition, that is, the cognitive processes devoted to monitor, control, and predict the behaviors of others, is vital to navigate the social world. It is especially essential for humans, who live in societies characterized by a dense convolution of social relationships. Given the importance of asymmetrical relationships within and across social groups (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001; Bente, Leuschner, Al Issa & Blascovich, 2010), the perceptual and inferential strategies necessary for processing dominance are certainly central to social cognition. Dominance is indeed pervasive in the human species (Fiske, 1992), it affects reproductive success (Ellis, 1995; Fieder, Huber, Bookstein, Iber, Schäfer, Winckler & Wallner, 2005; Kanazawa, 2003) and plays a central role in the formation of short and long-term alliances (Watts, 2010). Work in the human ethological tradition has described preschoolers' spontaneous social dominance structures: they are linear and stable (Strayer and Strayer, 1976; Lafrénière & Charlesworth, 1983); based on verbal and physical strategies (Hawley, 1999; Pellegrini, 2008) and are associated to social competence and affiliative structures (Vaugh & Waters, 1981; Hold, 1976). However, the observational approach adopted in these studies and the methodological shortcomings of some parallel experimental attempts (Omark & Edelman, 1975; Sluckin & Smith, 1977) preclude conclusions about the specific cognitive mechanisms responsible for coping with dominance relations.In line with the naïve sociology framework proposed by Jackendoff (1992) and Hirschfeld (1995), the present thesis takes an experimental developmental psychology approach to highlight the cognitive strategies that allow children to identify dominance relations, to form relevant expectations and to take action on the light of these expectations. A series of eight experiments investigated preschoolers’ abilities to make sense of social dominance situations, following two axes:Dominance Identification: the capacity to identify hierarchical status using several cues and to infer advantageous consequences of high status. Taking action in dominance contexts: allocation of resources and social choices in dominance contexts. The first set of experiments showed that preschoolers are able, from 3-years-old, to infer dominance not only from physical supremacy but also from decision power, age and resources. The second set of experiments showed that preschoolers have some expectations regarding how a dominant and subordinate individual are likely to differ. In particular, they expect that an individual who imposes his choice on another will exhibit higher competence in games and will have more resources. Another, intercultural experiment showed that children from 3 countries differing in gender equality norms associated masculine gender to dominant behavior since their 4th year. The three final experiments belonged to the second axis and showed a systematic age effect that suggests that choices that reinforce the status-quo are more salient before 5-years-old.

This thesis focuses on the socio-cultural and anthropological aspects of Tibetan medicine in contemporary Russia and investigates how Tibetan medicine is practised, consumed and represented in two major Russian cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. It is the first case-study of such kind in the context of Russian culture, as the anthropological aspects of Tibetan medicine in contemporary Russia have not yet been the subject of a systematic research. Up till now, scholarly publications on Tibetan medicine in Russia have dealt either with the translation and textual analysis of ancient Tibetan medical treatises or with the history of the first appearance of Tibetan medicine in Buriatia, the traditionally Buddhist region of Russia, and St Petersburg / Petrograd, paying little attention to contemporary developments and, most importantly, ignoring how Tibetan practitioners and their patients are making sense of Tibetan medicine. Based on twenty four interviews with practitioners and consumers of Tibetan medicine in the two Russian capitals, my research fills in this lacuna by looking at personal experiences, perceptions and accounts of my interviewees and exploring how they adapt Tibetan medicine to their skills, beliefs and ideas. My approach to sources is informed by Iurii Lotman's theory of intercultural communication. Although this theory was developed by Lotman for the analyses of the processes of cultural reception of literary texts, it is also relevant, with some modifications, for the analysis of the process of reception of non-textual cultural forms. The analysis of data collected from interviews with doctors and patients and the textual analysis of media, cinematic and literary sources has revealed two dominant trends and representational techniques. The first trend amounts to representing Tibetan medicine as unique and exotic, while the second trend amounts to the conceiving of Tibetan medicine as Russia's indigenous tradition, a part of Russian history, which had been subverted and suppressed in the Soviet period, yet rediscovered post-1991. Thus, we see here a co-existence of the inter-cultural dialogue between Russian culture and an exotic 'other' and the intra-cultural dialogue with a recently rediscovered part of 'self'. Both trends, which, at first glance, might appear to stand in contradiction to each other, sometimes coexist within a single explanatory narrative. The thesis also focuses on inter-cultural interactions between doctors and patients. It is argued that these interactions take place in the context of a noteworthy sociological and cultural phenomenon that the thesis calls 'mutual counter-adaptation'. Mutual counter-adaptation is the key mechanism used, consciously or spontaneously, by Tibetan doctors and their patients in order to facilitate the process of understanding between the parties involved in an inter-cultural dialogue around Tibetan medicine. The thesis finally reveals how this mutual counter-adaption takes place within a wider Russian cultural and media environment which exploits a set of specific symbols and images in order to make Tibetan medicine comprehensible and attractive to the wider Russian public.

<p><strong>Introduction:</strong> In this investigation I have illustrated, teacher treatment in a mono-cultural pre-school class and in a multicultural pre-school.</p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of the study was to illustrate how educators go about it when they face bilingual children to see how they work in a comparative perspective. The purpose was answered, based on four questions relating to how teachers relate to the meeting with bilingual children, the approach teachers use, which operation mode the use, if the take advantage of children's traditions, and if there is any different in the teachers’ treatment of bilingual children in the mono-cultural pre-school class and in the multicultural pre-school.</p><p><strong>Theories: </strong>The theory is linked to the concepts like operation mode, inter-cultural approaches and communications.</p><p><strong>Methodology:</strong> The used methods are qualitative interviews with four pre-school, teachers where an interview guide with formulated questions and observations were used. The purpose of the working methods was to highlight teacher treatment of bilingual children to discover different approaches to meet the bilingual children.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The study has shown that the multicultural pre-school working inter-culturally, they are taking advantage of children's home language that is lifted in the nursery and the children's background, while in the mono-cultural pre-school class, they meet bilingual children foremost to develop the Swedish language and they also show interest to the children's traditions. Teachers’ treatment leads to a growing confidence in the children and knowledge for the cultural background.</p>

Introduction: In this investigation I have illustrated, teacher treatment in a mono-cultural pre-school class and in a multicultural pre-school. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to illustrate how educators go about it when they face bilingual children to see how they work in a comparative perspective. The purpose was answered, based on four questions relating to how teachers relate to the meeting with bilingual children, the approach teachers use, which operation mode the use, if the take advantage of children's traditions, and if there is any different in the teachers’ treatment of bilingual children in the mono-cultural pre-school class and in the multicultural pre-school. Theories: The theory is linked to the concepts like operation mode, inter-cultural approaches and communications. Methodology: The used methods are qualitative interviews with four pre-school, teachers where an interview guide with formulated questions and observations were used. The purpose of the working methods was to highlight teacher treatment of bilingual children to discover different approaches to meet the bilingual children. Conclusion: The study has shown that the multicultural pre-school working inter-culturally, they are taking advantage of children's home language that is lifted in the nursery and the children's background, while in the mono-cultural pre-school class, they meet bilingual children foremost to develop the Swedish language and they also show interest to the children's traditions. Teachers’ treatment leads to a growing confidence in the children and knowledge for the cultural background.

After opening of China‟s borders to foreign trade and investment, over the last decades, a growing number of foreign company‟s attention has been drawn to China due to the immense market potential, and a huge source of cheap labor. Swedish industry, however, is not an exception from this tremendous trend in the world, as their recent acquisitions have given access to production facilities in China. This transfer of product/production from Sweden to China has emerged two major concerns including Design and Manufacturing (DM) interaction between geographically distant settings, in conjunction with inter-cultural considerations. Lately, the concept of interaction between DM has been growing in the scholar thoughts. Typically, different challenges such as different personalities and cultural differences exist towards having an enhanced collaboration during the development process. This study uses a framework for integration mechanisms which comprises number of approaches such as DfX, CE, cross-functional teams, and modern quality management. Second, this study by carrying out 6 interviews within the Chinese plants in four Swedish-Chinese based companies identifies the main challenges of interaction of design in Sweden and manufacturing in China (2 pilot companies and 2 target companies). The most frequent challenges are spotted as cultural clashes, ineffective collaboration, frustrating verification process, inadequate management system, and lack of technical knowledge. By including cultural attributes, a literature based classification is adopted to classify the determined challenges. Eventually, this study comes up with suggestions for managing challenges associated with geographical distance. More face-to-face interactions instead of electronic communications in order to have a better insight to the cultural differences (such as trust, lose face, and direct/indirect confrontation), cross-functional integrations, localizing the verification process, facilitating the early involvement of suppliers, rotation of the expertise across projects, use of DfA index, and function-wise motivation system, are stated in our recommendations to cope with these challenges. Besides, the influence of reward system on challenges of dispersed settings, is proposed to be investigated for further studies.

The dissertation underlines an approach towards mission, where the epistemology, hermeneutical key and methodology centre around relationship. This, by tracing trends in the pastoral context, verified through research and an analysis of congregational surveys. The results were then analysed in terms of biblical revelation (the creation narratives, God's covenental relationship with Israel, Christ as the New Israel, Christ's missiological methodology and an understanding of the Holy Trinity). The resulis were then also brought into conversation with recent developments in science, recognising the interdependence of all things, and also exploring recent definitions of mission. The study then grapples with a new way of engaging in theology. This new model simultaneously promotes the symbiotic nature of theologies, while placing them within the framework of relational objectives; using dialogue as medium, Holland and Henriot's Social Analysis and quantifiable relationship goals to engender a theological process accessible to people from all contexts and backgrounds. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

Jag har genom en förberedande fältstudie, litteraturgenomgång och enkätintervjuer undersökt svenska och kinesiska företagsrepresentanters upplevelser av det interkulturella mötet, med utgångspunkt i svenska företag som opererar på den kinesiska marknaden. Det var uppsatsens syfte och jag har utgått ifrån frågeställningen: Hur upplever svenska och kinesiska företagsrepresentanter det interkulturella mötet? Subfrågor till denna är: Vilka kulturella faktorer skapar det kinesiska sättet att kommunicera? Hur upplever svenska företagsrepresentanter det interkulturella mötet med den kinesiska marknaden? Hur upplever kinesiska företagsrepresentanter det interkulturella mötet med svenska företagsrepresentanter? Vilka av studien framkomna faktorer skulle kunna underlätta det interkulturella mötet för svenskars fortsatta affärer i Kina? Det är gjort genom att identifiera skillnader mellan den svenska och kinesiska kulturen för att förklara de bakomliggande faktorerna till att vi uppfattar varandra som vi gör, och genom det belysa ett urval möjligheter och fallgropar som den kinesiska kulturen kan medföra för svenska företag som opererar på den kinesiska marknaden. Det teoretiska ramverket utgörs av teorier inom publika relationer samt interkulturell kommunikation. Litteraturgenomgången fokuserar på faktorer såsom mianzi, lian, guanxi samt filosofiska influenser som har inverkan på kommunikationsmönstret. Jag har använt mig av exempel på hur andra svenska och internationella företag anpassat sitt PR-arbete till den kinesiska kontexten för att skapa ytterligare en dimension. Vidare belyses respondenternas svar ur skenet från Hofstedes dimensioner kollektivism, maktdistans, maskulinitet, osäkerhetsundvikande, tidsorientering samt Halls teori om låg och hög kontext. Min slutsats är att interkulturell kommunikativ kompetens snarare rör sig om social kompetens och förståelse, vilket grundar sig i att lyhördhet, ödmjukhet, självinsikt och självkännedom är ledord för all kommunikation – oavsett om det är intra- eller interkulturell sådan. Skillnaderna i kulturerna skall inte överdrivas då människor i grunden är ganska lika. Majoriteten av de svenska och kinesiska respondenterna har aldrig råkat ut för något större problem på grund av kulturella skillnader. Sverige och Kina är inte så långt ifrån varandra som mycket litteratur insinuerar. I ljuset av den förberedande fältstudien, enkätintervjuerna och viss litteratur vågar jag påstå att stora delar av litteraturen präglas av ett närapå sensationsjournalistiskt angreppsätt med dualistiska perspektiv som exotifierar och mystifierar Kina.     Seeing is believing! Vi ser inte Kina som det faktiskt är, utan som vi hoppas, tror eller fruktar att det är. Frédèric Cho, Senior Adviser, Handelsbanken Capital Markets / I have through a preparatory field survey; literature review and survey interviews examined Swedish and Chinese business representatives’ experiences from the intercultural meeting, based on Swedish companies operating on the Chinese market. It was the purpose of the essay and I have started from the question: How has Swedish and Chinese business representatives experienced the intercultural meeting? Underlying questions are: What cultural factors create the Chinese communication style? How does Swedish business representatives experience the intercultural meeting with the Chinese market? How does Chinese business representatives experience the intercultural meeting with Swedish business representatives? Which of the study presented factors could facilitate the intercultural meeting of the Swedes continued business in China? This is done by identifying differences between Swedish and Chinese culture with the aim to explain underlying factors to why we perceive each other as we do, and through this highlight a selection of opportunities and pitfalls that the Chinese culture may have on Swedish companies operating on the Chinese market. The theoretical framework consists of theories in public relations, and intercultural communications. The literature review focuses on factors such as mianzi, lian, guanxi and philosophical influences that have an impact on the communication pattern. I have used examples from Swedish and international companies that have adapted their public relations work for the Chinese context to create an additional dimension. Moreover, the respondents’ answers are elucidated in the light of Hofstede’s dimensions of collectivism, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, time orientation and Halls’s theory of low and high context. My conclusion is that intercultural communicative competence, rather are social skills and understanding, which is based on responsiveness, humility, self-awareness and self-knowledge – keywords in all aspects of communication whether it is intra- or intercultural such. Differences in cultures should not be exaggerated since people are fundamentally quite similar. The majority of the Swedish and Chinese respondents have never encountered any major problems due to cultural differences. Sweden and China are not as far apart as much literature insinuates. In the light of the preparatory field survey, survey interviews and some literature I venture to say that much of the literature is characterized by an almost sensational journalistic approach with dualistic perspective exotifying and mystifying China.     Seeing is believing! We do not see China as it actually is, but as we hope, believe and fear it is. Frédèric Cho, Senior Adviser, Handelsbanken Capital Markets