Analysis and perceived severity of risk influences organizational decisions to anticipated threats. As economic development and technology improve our standards of living, they also create new challenges to conceptualizing concrete and abstract threats. Organizations that face new threats, along with agencies that oversee these organizations, produce tightly coupled systems that increase risks for direct, indirect, and future stakeholders (Perrow, 1999). Natural disasters, political misbehavior, organizational corruption, financial collapse, food and water contaminations, chemical or nuclear accidents, international tension, to name a few, all present risks and challenges. Unfortunately, many of these situations endanger the lives and well-being of persons. The ability of individuals to conceptualize, prioritize, and respond to myriad threats ultimately determines their risk perception and intention to act accordingly. Individuals often exaggerate some risks, while failing to acknowledge the severity of others (Sandman, 1989; Lachlan & Spence, 2007). This study will contribute to the understanding of subjectively constructed threats by examining three specific perceptual crises: A hoax, near miss, and risk misconstrual event. Each of these cases relies on robust newspaper descriptions, content analysis of media, and confirmatory organizational interviews. They are documented through a level of legislative action to determine real and structural changes incurred from perceptual crises. From these investigations this dissertation articulates how perceptual crises challenge organizations and governments, ascertains the viability of actional legitimacy theory, and observes variance in communication challenges between differing crisis contexts. These expectations encompass both applied and theoretical contributions.

<p>In May 2010 the plans for Malmö’s new Concert Hall, Conference Centre and Hotel were announced publically. The purpose of this thesis was to present strategy for communication in order to gain approval for the new concert and conference center from the inhabitants inMalmö and to incorporate the use of it in their everyday life.</p><p>Material from the receiver’s as well as the sender’s perspective has been collected from qualitative interviews. Through group interviews we have investigated the general consensus of the inhabitants of Malmö regarding the investment, placing, offered events, expectations as well as how they collected information. We have interviewed two persons from the expert group working with the project, in order to define a target group for the communication work and to formulate a concrete message. Finally, we have interviewed a person at Uppsala Konsert Kongress, to collect his conclusions and perspective from the communication processes surrounding the opening.</p><p>The material has been evaluated continuously and analyzed  in relation to theories such as the Agenda Setting theory and Rogers’ Diffusion of innovations, explaining how individuals in a society react to an innovation. Our collected data has been put in relation to these theories, complemented by earlier research about image building and communication planning.</p><p>Our analysis has given us a number of important values that will be vital in the communication process. The sender has to emphasize the variation in the events they offer to the public, as well as the fact that the centre will be a place for people to meet and exchange cultural values. The receivers also wish for these aspects. The target-group consists of all the inhabitants in Malmö, and has a wide diversity which puts pressure on the communicator to adjust message and communication channels according to the composition of the city.</p><p>As a result of our research we present a strategy for effective communication actions, including the importance of face-to-face communication, feedback and media relations.</p>

Gender interacts with other facets of English Language Learners’ social identity like race and ethnicity to guide their learning experiences, desires, and outcomes; however, much of traditional Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) research has focused on how motivation and language learning beliefs differ between male and female English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) students with the intent to identify difference, if it exists. English Language Learners who are studying abroad or who have immigrated to the United States have already established a gender identity influenced and created by their experiences in their first language and culture. Yet, immersion in a new culture and acquiring a second language may cause these students to re-evaluate their perceptions of gender roles and influence their choice of language, as previously found by Gordon (2004) and Schmenk (2004). This thesis attempts to break from this tradition of ‘differential tendencies’ research in the creation of two pilot surveys, one of which was tested, that attempt to solicit information on English Language Learner’s perceptions of their own gendered identity and their consciousness of the catalyst for identity change that is learning a second language. In this case, an English pilot survey asked 32 ESL students to evaluate their beliefs about their own perceptions of gender identity, their conscious choice of language utilization, and their perception of their inclusion in American culture; from that survey, a second has been created but not piloted. A conclusion is drawn that incorporates research about the appropriateness of addressing developing gender identity by teachers inside of the classroom.

Multilingualism has always been a feature of South African Education. It is only in recent years that a particular form of linguistic diversity has become unmanageable for schools implementing the official English/Afrikaans bilingual model associated with the previous regime. The subject of this study is a remedial language enrichment or support programme instituted as a response to multilingualism in the junior primary section in a parallel medium primary school in the Western Cape.

The research took place while the author worked as a volunteer theatre practitioner with the Arts and Culture Group in Wesbank township near Kuils River, Cape Town, South Africa. This organisation was founded in 2002 and was the result of one woman's efforts to keep the children of Wesbank off the streets, by keeping them busy through dance, song and drama. This study investigated the impact of basic theatre training, working towards performance and the performative act itself on the psyche of the drama group participants. More specifically, the study investigated in what ways being involved in a performance can help children and young people in an underprivileged community of Wesbank to develop confidence, a sense of competence, self-reliance, creative thinking, responsibility and the ability to work as an ensemble. The research was to a great extent focused on cross-cultural communication. How could the &quot / Cape Coloured&quot / and Xhosa members of the group overcome cultural barriers and express their cultural uniqueness equally through taking part in multicultural theatre performance.

This is a case study on the communication between Nordic and Chinese business people using English as a lingua franca in their business communication. The aim of this paper is to establish if misunderstandings in communication occur between Chinese and Nordic language speakers (Finnish and Swedish) in a business environment and, if they do, what the nature of these misunderstandings is. In this paper, recorded conversations are analysed to establish if there are misunderstandings between the parties. The recordings were made at a global industrial company in Sweden and in China. Interviews with the participants were also carried out in order to establish their own ideas concerning the communication flow and to find out if the participants are themselves aware of using any particular communication strategies when interacting with one another. The results of the case study show that there were some misunderstandings in the communication between Nordic and Chinese business people; however, there were not any particularly serious misunderstandings with respect to the company’s business aims and objectives. The results indicate that the parties use communication strategies to enhance their messages and to determine if a message has been conveyed successfully. The strategies that were commonly used were confirmations in the form of follow-up questions and speaking slowly. Written or non-verbal communication were found to be used as a supplement to verbal communication. A strategy that the participants themselves noted as successful was keeping their messages short and simple. This is also known as the KISS-principle. The result of the study indicates potential misunderstandings caused by the Chinese using Yes as an act of active listening rather than agreement and it is suggested that an awareness of this cultural difference may help improve the intercultural communication between the parties.

This master thesis explores the process of integration of the group of 5 russian- speakers in the Czech republic. In the first part of the thesis the theoretical terms connected with the integration of foreigners are introduced. The migration policy of state, bias and stereotypes or language aspect of integration is mentioned. The second part of the thesis contains the report of the research. At first chosen methods of language biography and follow- up interview are characterized here. Their analysis and interpretation of particular speakers follows. At the end of the thesis the results are sum up and the integration tendencies of speakers are decribed here.

International students have long been an important part of the U.S. higher education community, but generally they have received inadequate attention in the classroom. Also, American teaching and learning strategies have not taken full advantage of international diversity. The purpose of this narrative study was to qualitatively understand the experiences of Japanese graduate students in U.S. higher education classrooms. The study highlights the challenges that Japanese graduate students faced due to cultural differences, pedagogical differences, and language problems and provides a number of suggestions for faculty, domestic students, and institutions to help create a more welcoming environment for Japanese graduate students.

Despite heightened efforts to increase gender parity, organizations in the technology industry are struggling to implement and enact Gender Diversity and Inclusion policies (GDIPs). This purpose of this dissertation was to enhance understandings of obstacles to policy enactment and unearth ways in which organizations can create more equitable work environments. Specifically, this project investigated how members of technology organizations construct knowledge about Gender Diversity and Inclusion policies through their personal experiences, attitudes and beliefs, and interactions with others within and external to their organization. Utilizing a critical-interpretivist and intersectional feminism as ontological and epistemological frameworks, this dissertation study draws from structurating activity theory (SAT; Canary, 2010) and theories of organizational identification (Scott, 2007) to explore issues of policy knowledge construction, implementation, and enactment. Completed in two phases,this dissertation employed a mixed-methods design. Phase One used DeVellis’ (2017) framework to develop a Gender Diversity and Inclusion policy attitude scale (GDIPAS) to evaluate how personal opinions about GDIPs and larger constructs like sexism, feminism, identification, and social desirability contribute to the policy knowledge construction process. Phase Two used a parallel analysis design to quantitatively (i.e., surveys) and qualitatively (i.e., interviews) investigate how members of tech-based organizations construct GDIP knowledge through intra- and extra-organizational interactions, as well as personal beliefs and attitudes (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). Phase One resulted in five-factors underlying Gender Diversity and Inclusion policy attitude: perception of policy abuse, policy familiarity, perception of workforce gender inequity, policy support, and perception of organizational gender diversity. Results from Phase Two indicated that members of technology organizations interact within and across activity systems to construct knowledge about GDIPs through structural contradictions that (re)produce barriers to policy implementation and enactment.This project contributed to organizational communication theory by investigating the role of organizational identification in the policy knowledge construction process. Further, this dissertation extended SAT by identifying two new structural contradictions and a primary system-level contradiction, and by centralizing power in the investigation of policy knowledge construction. Methodologically, this dissertation offers a new policy attitude measure for scholars and practitioners. Finally, results of this project provide practical insights into barriers to policy implementation and enactment.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering (Mechanical, Industrial, and Aeronautical Engineering), October 2017 / The research was conducted to investigate the existing cultural factors that influence international projects and whether project teams are aware of these dynamics. The research specifically focused on South African and German project teams. One company from each country was chosen for the investigation; namely Company SA (from South Africa) and Company GER (from Germany); Company SA is Company GER’s subsidiary company. The project teams that were included for data collection were working on the Medupi/Kusile coal-fired, new-build power stations. The commissioning of these power stations is severely delayed. A case study approach was utilised to collect data; and qualitative methods were incorporated. This entailed conducting semi-structured interviews with six managers; two of which were based at Company SA and four at Company GER, respectively; and participant observations at Company SA’s and Company GER’s prefabrication workshops. Cultural factors do exist in international projects and the project-specific ones were summarised for the project relationship between the South Africans and Germans. Furthermore, the management level is mindful of cultural factors; however, their employees are not consciously aware that the reasons for their differences stem from cultural diversities. All managers also were of the opinion that management of cultural factors do affect the successful outcome of projects. Both companies have not provided their employees with a fixed technique or process on how to manage and adapt in projects with variable cultures. Some recommendations were included regarding methods to increase knowledge and manage an international project where there is cultural diversity; including specifics to manage a South African and German project. / CK2018