This study looks into the field of intercultural miscommunication and misunderstandings on small multicultural Non Profit Organization (NPO) seen from the expats point of view. It is a study based on a qualitative method-design, including a micro-ethnographic study and qualitative interviews on a small NPO on Bali, Indonesia called Project Clean Uluwatu (PCU) that contain volunteers from all over the world. These misunderstandings and miscommunications that occurred on PCU was mostly between local people born on Bali and foreign people working on PCU, due to many reasons, starting with the rapid pace of globalization and that culture don’t evolve in the same speed. Plausible explanations for this, that are raised in this thesis, is that people make sense of events in different ways, especially if the individuals within a misunderstanding belong to both a high context culture and a low context culture and aby that communicate in different ways. This thesis also explain them through Karl Wieck’s sensemaking perspective by applying 7 properties that describes how individuals make sense out of miscommunication by perceiving the event in different ways due to individuals former knowledge, their intentions and own identity.

The purpose of this study was to investigate if preferences for high- and low context communication differed significantly between individuals from individualistic and collectivistic cultures, living in a multicultural environment. A quantitative survey was used as method and the survey was answered by 150 students at Jönköping University and Uppsala University. Two self-assessment scales, obtained from previous studies were used to measure the degree of the two cultural dimensions and communication styles. Two multiple regression analyzes were performed to investigate the connection between collectivist cultures preference for high context communication and individualistic cultures preference for low context communication, that has been found in previous studies. Two ANOVAs were also performed to investigate differences in communication style depending on sex and length of stay in Sweden. The results partly confirmed previous research, reporting a significant link between high degree of collectivism and high context communication, as well as a higher preference for high context communication among women. / Syftet med föreliggande studie var att ta reda på om preferensen för hög- och lågkontextuell kommunikation skiljde sig signifikant åt mellan individer från individualistiska respektive kollektivistiska kulturer i en mångkulturell miljö. En kvantitativ enkätundersökning användes som metod och enkäten besvarades av 150 studenter vid Högskolan i Jönköping och Uppsala universitet. Två självskattningsskalor hämtade från tidigare studier användes för att mäta graden av de två kulturdimensionerna och kommunikationsstilarna. Två multipla regressionsanalyser utfördes för att undersöka det samband mellan kollektivistiska kulturers preferens för högkontextuell kommunikation och indvidualistiska kulturers preferens för lågkontextuell kommunikation som påvisats i tidigare studier. Det gjordes även två variansanalyser för att undersöka skillnader i kommunikationsstil beroende på kön, och vistelsetid i Sverige. Resultatet bekräftade delvis tidigare forskning, då det visade ett signifikant samband mellan hög grad av kollektivism och högkontextuell kommunikation, samt en högre preferens för högkontextuell kommunikation hos kvinnor.

The aim of this work was to transfer the attitudes of stakeholders through a text message on the social network Facebook. High context communication (along with the soft sell) and low context communication (along with the hard sell) was tested. The thesis shows the importance of communications to content usability for marketing purposes. High context communication generally affect the interviewee to favor all kinds of instrumental solutions (using soft sell and negatively excited emotions against institutional solution). While low context communication focused on explosions (hard sell and facts) influenced the interviewee to prioritize institutional solutions (insurance) of 49 % against to the promoted explosions. The investigation also tested attitudes of the two stakeholders, farmers and retailers on the issue of floods and drought and the status of institutions (state and insurance) in this issue. The thesis suggests that farmers are more trusting against institutional solutions (insurance, subsidies), and less trusting are against instrumental solution (alternative technology). The exact opposite is a group of businessmen. The meaning of this thesis is the recommended draft for a insurance communication (slogan) against these stakeholders to raise awareness about themselves.

This is an era of globalization due to which the world has become a Global Village and organizations are transforming into multicultural firms while increasingly building diverse teams. However, due to the organizations’ tendency towards becoming international, individuals worldwide travel and migrate from one society to another. This cross-culturalism is fabricating challenges for the countries of higher immigrant rates because individuals bring the complex nature of mixed cultures with them. The context of cross-culturalism is based on various different elements e.g. cultural specific values, norms, behaviors, lifestyles, ethics and beliefs which promote diversity in multicultural organizations. Thus the diversity of people creates intercultural barriers for managers/leaders to manage multicultural teams as well as challenges have increased for employees/followers who work in those teams. However, it has become crucial for both leaders and followers to learn cultural competencies so that they can manage cultural barriers and perform effectively as well as efficiently in multicultural teams.Due to the rising demand to learn intercultural competencies, this research was initiated to help future leaders and followers to better understand and manage ICC barriers. This study is an addition to existing research and will guide multicultural organizations and their participants (leaders & followers). However two questions were developed around which this study has been executed 1) How do participants from High context and Low context cultures experience intercultural communication barriers while working in multicultural settings? and 2) How can intercultural communication barriers/challenges effectively be managed among participants? In order to answer these questions, interviews on students were conducted at four universities of Sweden for the purpose of collecting empirical data which later on analyzed with the existing literature relevant to ICC.The findings of this study conclude that both High-context (HC) cultures and Low-context (LC) cultures have differences among each other which create barriers/challenges for the individuals working in multicultural settings. The results represent that when an individual from HC moves to LC, he/she comes across challenges or even if an HC moves to HC he/she faces some sort of challenges in any way possible too and, same goes for LC. The empirical data after analysis with existing literature proved that every culture whether it’s LC or HC wants to interact with HC or LC, it always creates challenges and conflicts. But at the same time there are some possible steps which can be taken to manage these barriers e.g. observation of cultures, active listening, comparison with own culture, have a dialogue around the problem as well as understanding of others’ behaviors and giving them space.

Den här uppsatsen syftar till att analysera och identifiera skillnader och likheter i webbdesign mellan två länder, Japan och Sverige. De japanska och svenska webbplatserna för två företag etablerade i både Japan och Sverige, IKEA och DAIKIN, har analyserats utifrån en modell framtagen av Würtz (2006) i en tidigare studie på området. Denna modell är i sin tur baserad på Halls och Hofstedes teorier om kulturella skillnader och skillnader mellan så kallade låg-kontextuella kulturer (t.ex. Sverige) och hög-kontextuella kulturer (t.ex. Japan). Modellen fokuserar på användandet av animation, främjande av kulturella värderingar som maskulinitet/feminitet och individualism/kollektivism, om individer avbildas tillsammans med produkter eller inte, grad av transparens på webbplatserna och slutligen linjär kontra parallell navigation på webbplatserna. Förutom studien av webbplatserna har två intervjuer hållits med en designer/utvecklare från respektive företag för att få ökad förståelse för hur företagen tänker kring webbdesign.   Studien har inte funnit några väsentliga skillnader i användandet av animation, graden av transparens eller navigation mellan de studerade webbplatserna men skillnader i kulturella värderingar har identifierats. De japanska webbplatserna främjar familjeorienterade värderingar och stereotypiska könsroller i valet av bilder på webbplatserna. De svenska webbplatserna främjar värden som är mer typiska för låg-kontextuella kulturer som till exempel livsstil och frihet. Det har också noterats att det japanska företaget använde sig av en maskot vilket kan tolkas som typisk för japansk kultur. I intervjuerna gav utvecklarna från båda företag liknande svar kring hur de tänker om användande av bilder och animation kontra text på sidorna. Den japanska utvecklaren förklarade att japanska kunder uppskattar kundrecensioner för att minska graden av osäkerhet vilket kan sägas vara typiskt för Japan. Den sammanfattande slutsatsen från studien är att kulturella skillnader i webdesign minskar, kanske på grund av globaliseringen av företag och samhällen. / This thesis aims to analyze and capture differences and similarities in webbdesign between two countries, Japan and Sweden. The Swedish and Japanese websites of two companies established in both Japan and Sweden, IKEA and DAIKIN, have been analyzed based on a model devised by Würtz (2006) in a previous study of the same topic. This model is in turn based on Hall and Hofstede’s theories on cultural differences and differences between so-called low-context cultures (e.g. Sweden) and high-context cultures (e.g. Japan). The model focuses on the use of animation, promotion of cultural values such as masculinity/femininity and individualism/collectivism, individuals being depicted together with products or not, level of transparency in the web design and finally linear vs. parallel navigation on the websites. Besides the study of the websites two interviews were held with a designer/developer from each company to get further input into how the companies think about their web design. The study did not find any significant differences in the use of animation, transparency and navigation between the websites studied but differences in cultural values could be seen in terms of the Japanese sites promoting more family-oriented values and stereotypical gender roles through the pictures used on the websites. The Swedish sites promoted values more typical for low-context cultures such as lifestyle and freedom. It was also noted that the Japanese company featured a mascot which can be said is typical for Japanese culture. Regarding the interviews the developers had similar thoughts on the use of text versus pictures and animations. The Japanese developer explained that Japanese customers appreciate customer reviews in order to lower uncertainty which can be said is typical for Japan. The overall conclusion from this study however is that cultural differences in web design are becoming less, perhaps due to the globalization of business and society.

This thesis analyzes the challenges technical writers face when designing documents for high-context cultures, such as the Japanese. When developing documents intended to cross cultural gulfs, technical writers must take into consideration cultural expectations, preferences, and practices in document design and communication. High-context cultures, such as Japan, design documents using drastically different design strategies than those used in the United States. Japanese communication habits are more ambiguous than communication in the United States. Thus, the Japanese often use visuals for their aesthetic appeal, not for their ability to complement the text that surrounds the visual. The ambiguous nature of high-context culture communication habits often pose problems when Americans try to communicate--whether through written or oral communication--with a high-context audience. Without careful analysis and research into these cultural implications, the technical writer risks developing unsuccessful documents that do not accomplish the goals of the communication. It takes years of research to understand cultural differences, especially in the case of Japanese communication habits. With the research presented in this thesis, technical writers will understand better how to address document design issues when designing for high-context cultures in general and the Japanese culture specifically. In order to effectively analyze document design strategies across cultures, I have collected documents from two cultures--from the United States and from Japan. These two cultures represent a low-context culture, the United States, and a high-context culture, Japan. The United States and Japan are opposite each other on Edward T. Hall's cultural continuum, providing ideal subjects for a cross-cultural document design analysis. Using previous research in document design and cultural studies, I have established a grid for analyzing visual elements in the documents I have collected--full color automobile sales booklets. I analyze both high- and low-context documents against this grid. The various document design grids allow for visual representation of document design decisions in both cultures. American international technical communicators can use these grids as a starting point for addressing the cultural implications of document design for high-context audiences. The research presented in this thesis shows that high- and low-context cultures use visuals much differently. Readers, in both cultures, are persuaded differently by visual elements. By exploring and analyzing the use of visuals such as photos, diagrams, line drawings, and the way both cultures use visuals to approach their audiences, this thesis attempts to present an explanation of visuals in high-context cultures that will aid American technical writers who design documents for international audiences. This thesis uses Japanese cultural analysis and Japanese design theories to explain high-context design decisions applied to Japanese documents.

This thesis explores the cultural considerations American technical communicators must address when working with French colleagues and when creating technical documentation for French audiences. A review of the literature on intercultural communication theory was conducted, along with a review of the limited research on technical communication in France and the needs of French audiences. A qualitative online survey of French technical communicators was also conducted. Through this survey, French technical communicators reported on their intercultural beliefs, experiences, and practices, and information, language, and cultural needs. Survey responses were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Two main themes were developed as a result of this analysis: the importance of adapting content to French audiences, and the cultural differences between French and American information needs and communication styles. Survey findings are combined with theoretical and practical literature to offer American technical communicators guidance for successful intercultural interactions. This thesis concludes with suggestions for future practice and research in intercultural technical communication.