Research Problem: To what extent the corporate culture of an international joint venture resembles the organizational and national culture of its parent firms? Purpose: The purpose of this research is to study and explain the organizational and national culture of the partner companies that are involved in the international joint venture and finds out the extent to which the corporate culture that is embedded in the joint venture possess a resemblance with its parent's culture. Method: Our research is qualitative in nature and is based upon the case study and the secondary information gathered during the research. We have also taken into account some primary information through conducting three semi-structured interviews from each of the company involved in the joint venture. All the information collected during the course of our research has been analyzed in such a manner that has eventually led us to a formidable conclusion. Conclusion: After the analysis of results, both from the interviews and the secondary information, we came to a conclusion that the corporate culture at the joint venture possess some similarities with the national and organizational cultures of its parent firms and this likeness depends upon the location of origin of the joint venture and the employees working in it.

This thesis attempts to investigate if national culture still is a factor to consider for large multinational organizations when choosing a supplier, or if the global business environment due to globalization has become so standardized and homogenous that the influence of national culture differences has diminished. Existing academic literature is divided regarding this matter; some studies indicate that the influence of national culture on business relations is subtle while other argues that national culture differences may be a source for potential barriers and problems and therefore still an important factor to consider. The issue of globalization has also divided researchers, some argue that globalization has made it possible for a homogenous business culture to emerge while other argue that globalization is a myth and ‘global companies’ are in reality regional. Empirical information was collected through interviews at head offices from four large Swedish multinational companies and questions were asked to determine the importance of national culture when choosing a supplier, the influence national culture has on organizational culture and to what extent a homogenous business culture has emerged. The study’s findings identified little evidence to support the idea that cultural difference is a significant factor to consider when conducting business relations. None or very little consideration to national cultural differences was paid when choosing a supplier. However, consideration was sometimes taken to organizational culture, which findings indicate is partly influenced by national culture. The interviewed organizations were of the opinion that at high management level a ‘global culture’ has emerged, and therefore the ‘way of doing business’ has become more uniform. The conclusion, which turned into more of a tendency indication, made from this thesis were that although national cultural differences still exist and probably will do so for some time, the influence it has on ‘business-to-business’ relations between multinational organizations at high management levels has diminished due to the emergence of a more homogenous global business culture.

Employer branding has become an increasingly popular subject among practitioners. In order to gain competitive advantage it is claimed that companies should hold the best employees. However, in this thesis it is argued that the purposes of employer branding and HRM are strikingly alike, since they both aim to attract and retain employees. Earlier research lacks to explain how companies work with employer branding. Therefore, it is reasonable to wonder how employer branding is practiced and whether employer branding contributes something of value to the company, especially to HRM. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether employer branding contributes to HRM regarding attraction and retention of employees. A qualitative case study was conduced and the findings show that employer branding can contribute to HRM by: (1) giving HRM incentives to approach the whole spectra of employees; potential, current as well as former employees, (2) facilitating the maintenance of the corporate culture and (3) enabling a way for HRM to take a strategic approach.

Försvarsmakten har sedan länge haft uppgiften att delta i internationella insatser, och som på senare år intensifierats. I början på 2000-talet startade en transformation mot en ny försvarsmakt med ökat internationellt fokus. I denna förändring har arbete skett i olika steg för att förändra myndighetens organisationskultur. Ett av syftena med denna kulturförändring var att öka officerares benägenhet att söka sig till befattningar i utlandsstyrkan. När ett sådant förändringsarbete sker kan diskurser uppstå kring vissa frågor, inom en given kontext med ett specifikt syfte, och ett givet språkbruk. I detta fall uppstod en diskurs kring internationell tjänst och meritvärdering av denna. Denna uppsats syftar till att kartlägga den diskursiva och sociala praktiken mellan åren 2000 - 2007 och finna diskrepanser eller överensstämmelser. Utifrån detta resultat utvärderas praktiken med hjälp av teorier om organisationskultur. När en ny organisationskultur ska utvecklas finns primära och sekundära mekanismer som bör hanteras för att lyckas med ett förändringsarbete. Dessa mekanismer samt teorier om mångtydighet och motsägelser används i uppsatsen för att utvärdera och förklara resultatet inom diskursen. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att diskursen har förändrats under undersökningsperioden, dels beroende på byte av ledare för organisationen och sannolikt även av ett ökat politiskt tryck på förändring. När det gäller genomslag i den sociala praktiken är upplevelsen av den enskilde officeren att det inte meriteras. Analysen av resultatet har skett ur olika perspektiv på att utveckla organisationskultur, bl.a. belöningar, befordran och statusbildande åtgärder. Resultatet pekar på en tendens, att det finns ett institutionaliserat sätt att befordra officerare som inte utgår från den internationella tjänstgöringen. / For many years now the Swedish Armed Forces have been tasked to participate in international missions, more intensely so in the last couple of years. At the beginning of the millennium the Armed Forces started a transformation with a more international focus. In this transformation work also started to change the organizational culture within the Armed Forces. The purpose of this change was to increase the willingness of officers’ participating in international missions. When changes like this are launched discourse arises - in this case a discourse about international missions and merit rating. The purpose of this essay is to map the discursive and social practice between the years 2000 and 2007 and investigate discrepancies and concordance between them. Theories about organizational culture are used to interpret the results. When a new organizational culture is to be launched there are some mechanisms to be dealt with for a successful result. These mechanisms and theories about inconsistencies in organizational culture are used to evaluate the results. The result of the study is that the discursive practice has changed during the studied period. In the social practice the results are that there is a tendency for the officers to experience that the merit value is not in concordance with the discursive practice.

Charities struggle with scarce marketing and branding resources, as do many non-profits, but nevertheless they need to communicate a trustworthy external brand. A strong internal brand is suggested to enhance the external brand and storytelling is addressed as an established tool for internal branding. As charities seem to have a natural asset of corporate stories, we believe storytelling in terms of internal branding is of great use for the charity sector in order to create strong and competitive brands. The aim of this paper is hence to investigate what role storytelling could have on internal branding in the context of the charity industry. To do this, a qualitative case study with four different charities is conducted. A theoretical framework on internal branding and storytelling guides the data collection consisting of several interviews with managers, employees and volunteers. The findings indicate that both founder stories and recent stories play an important role for organizational culture, core values and internal communication. We conclude that storytelling can be strategically implemented in charities’ internal branding as stories have the possibility to embrace and include the entire organization, which is crucial for trustworthy and competitive brands.

Introduktion av en ny medarbetare kan ha stor betydelse för den enskilda individens framtida resultat i organisationen, vilket i sin tur påverkar även arbetsgruppens och organisationens totala resultat. Utgångspunkten för studien är arbetslivets förändrade förutsättningar, vilka har fört med sig nya former att styra medarbetare i organisationer. Detta har medfört att även introduktionen antas ha fått en mer framträdande funktion. Denna kvalitativa studie fokuserar på att fördjupa sig i hur detta har påverkat introduktionsprocessen av nyanställda medarbetare. I kandidatuppsatsen undersöks hur Handelsbanken, genom sin introduktion av nyanställda, försöker påverka dessa att anpassa sig till organisationens normer, värderingar och arbetssätt i syfte att generera effektiva representanter för organisationen. Datan i studien har samlats in via information från organisationens hemsida, tillhandahållna dokument samt intervjuer som därefter tolkats och analyserats med hjälp av teorier om socialisering och identitetsstyrning. Slutsatsen är att Handelsbanken använder flera olika metoder i syfte att socialisera de nyanställda in i organisationen samt att dessa, under introduktionen, stimuleras att utveckla en identitet som överensstämmer med organisationens behov. Med hjälp av dessa kulturella, formella och sociala metoder antas organisationen försöka generera vad de själva benämner som ”handelsbankare”. / Induction of a new employee can be of the highest significance for the individuals future result within the organization, which in return influences the result of the workgroup and the organization as a whole. The basis for this study is the changing conditions in the working life, which have introduced new forms of managing the co-workers in organizations. A consequence of this can be that the induction can be assumed to have a more prominent function. This qualitative study is focusing on immersing in how this has reflected on the induction process of newly employed co-workers. This bachelor essay is examining how Handelsbanken, through their induction of their newly employed, is trying to affect these to adapt to the companies norms, values and work procedures with the intention to generate efficient co-workers in the organization. The data for this study have been gathered thru information from the organizations homepage, provided documents and by interviewing members of the organization, this information have then been interpreted and analyzed using theories about socialization and identity regulation. The conclusion is that Handelsbanken uses several different methods in their intention to socialize their newly employed into their organization as these, during the induction, gets stimulated to evolve an identity that correlates with the organizations requirements. With the help of these cultural, formal and social methods the organization is assumed to try to generate, what they within their organization refers to as, a “handelsbankare”.

Academic institutions face countless pressures within a context of ongoing globalization, societal change, and increased accountability measures. The use of organizational culture assessment can assist organizations to understand their current culture and, consequently, to inform strategies for change management. This study examined the perceptions held by administrators at four Ontario colleges with above average Student Satisfaction (KPI) about their institution’s current and preferred organizational culture and their own management competencies. A descriptive research method was employed using a modified version of Cameron and Quinn’s (2006) Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) and Management Skills Assessment Instrument (MSAI). Different culture types were found in the current state at the four colleges. Two colleges exhibited a dominant Market or ‘competing’ type culture, one a dominant Hierarchy or ‘controlling’ type culture and, one a dominant Clan or ‘collaborative’ type culture. Evidence of strength and congruence of organizational culture was found at some of the four colleges. Results from all colleges combined exhibited meaningful influence of both Clan and Hierarchy type cultures. Dominant culture type differed by gender and number of years’ experience in the job. Administrators at all four of the colleges reported use of Clan type management skills (i.e., Managing Teams, Interpersonal Relations, and Development of Others) most frequently. This was followed by Adhocracy, Hierarchy and Market type skills. Three colleges ranked Managing Competitiveness as their lowest. OCAI dominant culture type differed from MSAI dominance at three of the colleges and one exhibited the same Clan type OCAI and MSAI. Desire in the preferred state to increase collaboration was evident with dominant Clan type culture and focus on flexibility. Focus was split equally with two internal and two external, and culture strength was found at two colleges. Consistency exists between preferred dominant culture type and management skills of administrators, suggesting administrators’ skills at each of the colleges are aligned with where they desire their college’s organizational culture to be heading. This study identifies implications for leadership of college culture linked to effective performance. The results build on existing evidence that dominant type, strength and/or congruence of culture is linked with performance effectiveness.

Academic institutions face countless pressures within a context of ongoing globalization, societal change, and increased accountability measures. The use of organizational culture assessment can assist organizations to understand their current culture and, consequently, to inform strategies for change management. This study examined the perceptions held by administrators at four Ontario colleges with above average Student Satisfaction (KPI) about their institution’s current and preferred organizational culture and their own management competencies. A descriptive research method was employed using a modified version of Cameron and Quinn’s (2006) Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) and Management Skills Assessment Instrument (MSAI). Different culture types were found in the current state at the four colleges. Two colleges exhibited a dominant Market or ‘competing’ type culture, one a dominant Hierarchy or ‘controlling’ type culture and, one a dominant Clan or ‘collaborative’ type culture. Evidence of strength and congruence of organizational culture was found at some of the four colleges. Results from all colleges combined exhibited meaningful influence of both Clan and Hierarchy type cultures. Dominant culture type differed by gender and number of years’ experience in the job. Administrators at all four of the colleges reported use of Clan type management skills (i.e., Managing Teams, Interpersonal Relations, and Development of Others) most frequently. This was followed by Adhocracy, Hierarchy and Market type skills. Three colleges ranked Managing Competitiveness as their lowest. OCAI dominant culture type differed from MSAI dominance at three of the colleges and one exhibited the same Clan type OCAI and MSAI. Desire in the preferred state to increase collaboration was evident with dominant Clan type culture and focus on flexibility. Focus was split equally with two internal and two external, and culture strength was found at two colleges. Consistency exists between preferred dominant culture type and management skills of administrators, suggesting administrators’ skills at each of the colleges are aligned with where they desire their college’s organizational culture to be heading. This study identifies implications for leadership of college culture linked to effective performance. The results build on existing evidence that dominant type, strength and/or congruence of culture is linked with performance effectiveness.

Geographically dispersed organizations are becoming increasingly common, however, the organizational culture is often weaker in this type of organization due to geographical distances. One important aspect of the organizational culture is the organizational values, and if shared by all organizational members they can benefit the company on many levels, for example by increasing motivation and communication. If employees, on the other hand, fail to interpret the organizational values it may lead to decreased working moral and overall dissatisfaction. In family businesses it is the values of the family that constitute the organizational values, and these may be difficult to communicate to non-family employees, because family businesses often rely on informal communication.   The purpose of this thesis is to describe how non-family employees interpret the organizational values of a family business, as well as to increase the understanding of whether geographical distance affects their interpretation. In this thesis we have conducted a qualitative case study, in which ten semi-structured interviews were made in a geographically dispersed family business. We have assumed an employee perspective and have, thus, interviewed non-family employees on the different geographical locations of this family business.   The findings from the empirical data showed that the case studied organization does not have any formally written organizational values and the non-family employees have as a result interpreted the values slightly differently. The employees state the organizational values in general terms, which would make them applicable to any organization, or even society at large.   In the analysis we compare the theoretical framework and the empirical findings in order to present conclusions for the organization being studied. The analysis will be divided into themes; organizational structure, organizational culture and values as well as the relation between the non-family employees and the family business.   We were able to conclude that informal communication is not sufficient in order to efficiently communicate the organizational values in a geographically dispersed organization. Nevertheless, the geographical distance for each workplace respectively could not be identified as the only influencing factor that affects the employees’ interpretation of the organizational values. The organizational structure emerged as a contributing factor. The non-family employees’ interpretations were broad and general in terms of the organizational values. One of our recommendations is for the organization to write down the organizational values and distribute them throughout the organization, which will enable the organizational values to be correctly interpreted by all organizational members.

Mergers and acquisitions are a phenomenon which can occur for a variety of reasons. It may for example be that the organizations want to gain larger market shares or to complement and learn from each other and thus become more competitive. After the completion of an acquisition or merger, a process is initiated to create an affiliation between the two companies' employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is something that management can do to make the integration process as efficient as possible. The empirical research in this paper consisted of interviews and surveys with respondents from two accounting firms that recently completed a merger. To maximize the chances of a successful acquisition, management should try to influence employees through active communication, where similarities between organizational culture are addressed and stressed and thus try to contribute to the sense of belonging between the companies. A delay in moving to a single, mutual location has affected the integration process negatively.