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The aim of this thesis "American cultural standards" is the identification and explanation of cultural standards typical for American culture and the creation of practical guide of Work and Travel program. American cultural standards are defined according to the interviews with Czech participants in the program Work and Travel USA and my own experience. The cultural standards clearly and concisely indicate the essential differences between American and Czech culture. The thesis also includes advice and recommendations for more effective communication with Americans. The thesis also contains an introduction into intercultural management and methodology of cultural dimensions and standards and their most popular representatives. The thesis is recommended to all who want to be more familiar with American culture or who plan to cooperate with the Americans. The thesis will be most useful for students who plan to participate in the program Work and Travel USA.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), which has emerged as a global trend, has gained increased focus in the everyday media and among practitioners on the political agenda. CSR has also risen as an important research topic in the field of organization. This study investigates European multinational corporations’ tendencies to adapt CSR policies and practices, or more specifically corporate community involvement, to different national cultures. The paper explores if/how and why companies with subsidiaries in different countries differentiate CSR policies. Theories of culture are used to analyze the basis and/or validity of such adaptation. The units of analysis in this research paper are two European multinational corporations, namely, the Husqvarna Group and Nestlé S.A.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine what values influence Swedish consumers when purchasing tomatoes. Previous research show that there are many factors and attributes that consumers choose from. These aspects included health, low price, labelling of products, knowledge of what labels stand for, trust in the information of the packaging and appearance of the product. The values that were investigated in this study were conceptualized by Geert Hofstede and Fons Trompenaars. They both have similar theories of national cultures, which they explained by making cultural dimension scales. These were based on values that can be identified in cultures. The cultural dimensions were individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, high or low uncertainty avoidance, long or short-term orientation, how humans relate to the environment and individualism versus communitarianism. To investigate this, the following research questions were asked; (1) what factors/attributes are important to Swedish consumers when purchasing tomatoes, (2) what values are prominent in Swedish consumers and (3) what the relations between factors/attributes and values regarding Swedish tomato consumption are. In order to answer this, a survey was answered by 310 respondents. To understand why consumers value different factors/attributes, and possibly change consumption patterns, it is important to know what influences consumers. The results showed that the factors/attributes investigated proved to be more or less equally important no matter what pole of the different dimensions the respondents belonged to. Finally, some parts of the results did not correspond with previous research, the main difference was that low price was not considered as important as previous research showed.

The rapid rate of globalisation is changing the face of the business environment. Not only do managers have to deal with challenges such as multiple time zones and geographically divergent locations, but they must also increasingly operate in culturally diverse environments and work with employees from various cultural backgrounds. The importance of culture in the workplace is often neglected, and this may have a negative impact on the overall success of organisations. Cultural Intelligence is a facet of intelligence that describes the success with which individuals such as managers are able to deal with people from different cultural backgrounds. By exploring the degree of Cultural Intelligence of a management corps, it is possible to address the training needs in a given organisation in order to optimise the performance and productivity of a team. It was apparent that, because Cultural Intelligence as a concept is a relatively new and unexplored notion, there was an urgent need for further exploration in this field. The purpose of this study was therefore to compare two groups of managers, one from South Africa and one from the Netherlands, in terms of their levels of Cultural Intelligence and to explore the generalisability of a Cultural Intelligence measurement instrument across cultures. The Cultural Intelligence Questionnaire was administered to the two groups under review and the results were subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA), chi-square testing and independent t-tests. Various iterations of the exploratory factor analysis indicated that the primary components of Cultural Intelligence, namely Motivation, Behaviour and Cognition, were present in both groups. Independent t-tests showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of their levels of Cultural Intelligence. Both groups had high scores on Factor 1: Cultural Identity (related to the behavioural component of Cultural Intelligence) and Factor 3: Willingness to Learn about Different Cultures (related to the meta-cognitive component of Cultural Intelligence), and both groups had moderately high scores on Factor 2: Adaptability to a Multi-Cultural Setting (related to the motivational component of Cultural Intelligence). A high level of reliability for the instrument was established for both groups with a Cronbach alpha of 0.85 for the sample from the Netherlands and a Cronbach alpha of 0.75 for the South African sample. Exploratory factor analysis yielded similar factor loadings for 22 of the 24 items that were included in the final factor analysis. The exploratory research conducted in this study has contributed to the refinement and expansion of Cultural Intelligence theory. The instrument that was used for assessment can be a useful tool in selecting and developing managers to work with multi-cultural groups. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Human Resource Management / MCom / Unrestricted

The objective of this thesis is to characterize the corporate culture of the United States, both from a theoretical and practical point of view, taking into account some specific U.S. companies. The entire thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is solely theoretical and its purpose is to familiarize the reader with the most basic terms connected with this topic (i.e. culture, national culture, corporate culture, etc.). The second chapter deals with the specific typologies and theories of national and corporate culture. The third subsequent chapter analyzes both the relationship between national and corporate culture, as well as the comparison of Czech and American culture. On top of thar, the Hofstede's and Trompenaars's dimensions are used in this chapter to help highlight the differences but also common features of both nations. The fourth chapter is devoted to the American corporate culture, focusing on its connection with corporate identity, the importance of code of ethics and the portrayal of the work environment and employment process in the United States. The final fifth chapter contains the analysis of information obtained from interviews with employees of four U.S. based companies, as well as of the FBI agency.