In this study, the subject matter evaluated is the difference between the United States and Latin America concerning the practice and acceptance of servant leadership. This research compares the practice and the acceptance of servant leadership between the United States of America and Latin America. In order to do this, a cross-cultural comparison was conducted between these two groups. The objective was to find the differences in the leadership styles of these two groups and subsequently analyze the results. The Hofstede’s cultural dimensions were used to be able to compare cultural differences, and understand why these differences appear in the societies of the two groups studied. A survey was conducted in order to gather different feedback from individuals of the U.S. as well as from Latin America. The approach for this research started by analyzing the results of the survey and dividing it into the two cultural groups. The results were tested using a one tailed t-test for the mean difference of independent samples. This research provides information on how and why leadership styles differ between the two groups studied and what are the characteristics that people seek in leaders of these two groups when testing servant leadership between the U.S. and Latin American samples.

Due to the nature of globalization, new strategies have been designed to break into new markets. Joint Venture is a common strategy to enter new markets and by using a Joint Venture, companies share risks and establish new contacts with local knowledge. Brazil is a market where foreign investors gain more and more interest. Brazil's economy is growing fast and made well during the global financial crisis. The middle class in Brazil is constantly growing and for the first time, poverty is not a majority in Brazil.In an International Joint Venture (IJV), it is usually a foreign company establishing a partnership with a local company. Often, IJVs fail because companies have problems collaborating, depending on different variables. In this thesis, we chose to analyze the cultural barriers in a Brazilian-Swedish IJV on the Brazilian market. The purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding and describe cultural barriers in an IJV partnership, and high-light those to increase the chances for successful IJVs between Brazilian and Swedish companies in the future.This thesis is qualitative, with an abductive approach, in order to gain a deeper and better understanding of experienced barriers. We have chosen to see culture from both a national and an organizational perspective as earlier research has showed that national culture affects the organizational culture within an IJV. Using Hofstede's (1991) four dimensions of national culture as a supplement to Wilson’s (2001) four factors influencing the organizational culture, we have conducted four interviews in two Swedish-Brazilian IJV companies located in São Paulo, Brazil. The companies we have chosen to interview have been small or medium-sized manufacturing. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in a comfortable environment for all respondents. In our analysis, we used matrices to make it easier to see what differences and/or similarities there are between the case-companies.Results of this study, demonstrate that the experiences from the two case-studies are well in line with each other. The organizational structure in Brazil has been perceived as more hierarchical than the Swedish vertical and more open structure. This in turn, has strengthened the differences in communication between managers and employees, which been perceived as more top-down in Brazil than in Sweden. Our conclusion is that cultural barriers have been perceived, in the perception of the leaders’ expected behavior, language barriers, differences in planning and management of uncertain situations, Brazil's more family-oriented society and close relationship between private life and work in the Brazilian market.Several of these barriers have been experienced during the early start-up of an IJV, something we believe increases the importance of being well prepared for cultural barriers that may arise. The importance of an agreement upon the structure and policies at the company at an early stage is crucial, to reduce future possible conflicts. Show mutual respect and understanding for one's partners’ culture and experienced cultural barriers, use these to avoid any negative effects, and instead create a positive impact for the IJV. / Minor Field Study

Experiences of teachers in SFI, Swedish for (adult) Immigrants, indicate that during their schooling earlier in life, SFI students have developed skills, abilities, values, ideas and expectations about teaching and learning that differ somewhat from the prevailing communicative oriented theory of second language teaching which is emphasized in SFI. In the thesis these aspects are referred to as different school cultural frames of reference. The aim of the thesis is to generate knowledge about SFI-students’ school cultural frames of reference of relevance for SFI teaching. The considerable number of immigrants from Iraqi Kurdistan during the 1990s has led to an empirical focus related to this geographical area. From a critical perspective, in some respects a research interest of this kind can be seen as contributing to a division between ‘us’ and ‘them’, in a wider sense a part of exclusion and a maintenance of the segregated Swedish society. In a special section is given an account of this research ethic question, together with arguments from intercultural pedagogy that support a focus on school cultural frames of reference. The theoretical platform for the thesis is sociocultural theory. The concepts of social representations, pedagogical code, classification, framing, power distance, diaspora and distinctions of knowledge also are used. The thesis is based on two data materials. The first consists of data from interviews and talks with students and teachers in SFI, all from Iraqi Kurdistan. The second consists of data gathered through observations, classroom observations, interviews and talks during two visits in the KDP-administrated region of Iraqi Kurdistan, each visit being for a period of about one month. This data material also includes text materials, mainly textbooks in EFL for grade five and six, and course books about EFL teaching used in teacher education. The thesis illuminates several aspects that provide an understanding as to why SFI students from Iraqi Kurdistan can have certain abilities, values, ideas and expectations about teaching, learning materials, learning, teacher and student roles that differ from the communicative oriented second language teaching emphasized in SFI. However, results from the study also underline the importance of a ‘weak’ use of this understanding in a SFI teaching context.

Submitted by ALBERTO PINHEIRO NETO (apinheironeto@hotmail.com) on 2014-01-28T22:26:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação PINHEIRO NETO.pdf: 978939 bytes, checksum: d00adb91c3b41d1aa15b345104aa4a04 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2014-02-03T12:43:20Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação PINHEIRO NETO.pdf: 978939 bytes, checksum: d00adb91c3b41d1aa15b345104aa4a04 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2014-02-11T12:07:46Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação PINHEIRO NETO.pdf: 978939 bytes, checksum: d00adb91c3b41d1aa15b345104aa4a04 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-02-11T12:08:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação PINHEIRO NETO.pdf: 978939 bytes, checksum: d00adb91c3b41d1aa15b345104aa4a04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-17 / Este trabalho de pesquisa tem como objetivo identificar os fatores críticos determinantes para a construção da competência essencial do BOPE, o Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais da Polícia Militar do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, uma equipe de alto desempenho com forte autonomia atuando em cenários de alta incerteza. Apresentamos os resultados de um estudo realizado nesta unidade. Conduzimos a pesquisa utilizando métodos qualitativos, com historiografia oral, através de entrevistas em profundidade. Nossos resultados apontam para fatores como liderança, seleção, treinamento, confiança mútua e baixo distanciamento de poder, como críticos e explicativos na construção da competência essencial do BOPE. / This research aims to identify the critical factors determining the construction of the core competence of the BOPE, the Special Police Operations Battalion of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro, a team of high performance and strong autonomy and acting in complex scenarios unpredictable. We present the results of a study conducted in BOPE. Conduct research using qualitative methods, with oral history through interviews. Our findings point to factors such as leadership, selection, training, mutual trust and low power distance, as critics and explaining the construction of the core competence of the BOPE.

Context: Agile methodologies are widely recognized in western countries. From past few years, its practices are being successfully adopted in global settings especially in eastern countries. Across the world, teams are following its values and principles. Are all the teams behaving in the same way? Potential difficulties related to culture arise while implementing agile practices. Due to variance in backgrounds and behaviors, social cliques and issues are likely to be formed between the team mates which become a hurdle. Objectives: The study unravels the list of relationships between the agile team behavioral characteristics and Hofstede cultural dimensions. It also explores whether Indian employees working in an agile environment possess the required behavioral characteristics which are useful for the effective functioning of a team. The other objective of this study reveals the influence of the years of experience of the agile employees on behavioral characteristics. Methods: Data collection processes include a literature review and a web survey. First, in the literature review analysis of the empirical studies from year 1999-2011 was done. The review approach helped in collecting and summarizing the data. The studies were identified from the most reliable and authentic databases that are scientifically and technically peer reviewed such as Engineering village, IEEE Xplore, ACM digital library, Springer Link and Google Scholar. A survey was conducted with 33 practitioners from various multinational organizations in India. Statistical analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions had noticeable influence on agile team behavioral characteristics. Although, all the enabler characteristics were not seen in Indian culture, the results clearly show that some of the cultural dimensions are enabling factors to function well in an agile team and some hinder the team effectiveness. The result from the literature review shows the list of relationships between Hofstede cultural dimensions and agile team behavioral characteristics. All team behavioral characteristics were to a certain extent demonstrated by Indian agile employees, which can be known from the survey results. It is also seen from the survey results that, team behavioral characteristics can be demonstrated more effectively by the experienced agile employees. Conclusion: From this study, we have found the relationships between Hofstede cultural dimensions and agile team behavioral characteristics. List of agile team behavioral characteristics which were followed by Indian agile employees were obtained from the survey. We conclude that Indian agile employees were able to demonstrate all the agile team behavior characteristics required for an effective functioning of a team. One more interesting thing which came into our attention, after analyzing the survey was that years of experience of agile employees do have an effect on the employees which influences the demonstration of team behavior characteristics. It was clear that demonstration of these characteristics were not only dependent on individual’s nature but also on the years of experience in agile environment. The absence of relationships which were not found through literature needs to be focused. Hence we conclude that there is a need for conducting even more in-depth surveys and reviews to investigate the unfound relationships.

本研究旨在探討不當督導、上下級關係及非志願性公民行為之關係，並探究上下級關係在不當督導與非志願性公民行為之間是否具有中介效果以及權力距離、組織政治知覺在不當督導與非志願性公民行為、上下級關係與非志願性公民行為之間是否具有調節效果。 本研究採用問卷調查法，以全國507所高中職教師為樣本母群體，採分層隨機抽樣，抽出600位受試者邀請填寫網路問卷，回收有效問卷375份，所得資料分別以描述性統計、t考驗、單因子變異數分析及迴歸分析等統計方法進行資料的分析與處理，以瞭解高中職教師知覺校長不當督導與上下級關係、非志願性公民行為之現況、差異情形及上下級關係、權力距離、組織政治知覺的中介、調節效果，研究結論如下： 一、高中職教師對校長不當督導之知覺現況屬低度。 二、高中職教師上下級關係之表現程度屬中低程度。 三、高中職教師非志願性公民行為之表現程度屬中低程度。 四、學校規模等背景變項在不當督導有顯著差異，24班以下高於50班以上。 五、性別、年齡、職務及學校公私立屬性等背景變項在上下級關係上有顯著差異，男性、兼任主任的教師情感型關係顯著較高；男性、35歲以下、私立學校教師的工具型關係顯著較高。 六、本校服務年資、職務在非志願性公民行為有顯著差異，組長高於專任、服務年資6-15年高於5年以下。此外，服務總年資、學歷等二個背景變項在不當督導、上下級關係、非志願性公民行為上皆無顯著差異。 七、上下級關係在不當督導與非志願性公民行為間有部分中介效果。 八、權力距離在「不當督導」、「工具型關係」與非志願性公民行為間具有調節效果。 九、組織政治知覺只在工具型關係與非志願性公民行為間具有調節效果。 最後依據研究結果與結論，提出具體建議，以作為高中職校長以及未來研究的參考。 / The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among principal’s Abusive Supervision (AS) and Supervisor-Subordinate GuanXi (SSG) and Compulsory Citizenship Behavior (CCB) of senior high school teachers. Furthermore, the mediating effect of SSG between AS and CCB is analyzed, And the moderating effects of Power Distance (PD) and Organizational Politics (OP) between AS and CCB, between SSG and CCB are explored in the study. A survey research was conducted using a sample of senior high school teachers in Taiwan, excluding the complete schools. 600 teachers from 570 schools were selected by stratified random sampling. 375 valid sample data collected was analyzed and processed with the methods of descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, multiple-regression analysis. Based on 6-point Likert Scale, the major findings of this study are as follows: 1. Teachers’ perception of principal’s abusive supervision is below average. 2. Teachers’ perception of Supervisor-Subordinate GuanXi is below average. 3. Teachers’ Compulsory Citizenship Behavior is below average. 4. One demographic variable, school size, show significant differences in AS. Teachers who work at schools with less than 24 classes show higher perceptions of AS. 5. Four demographic variables, including gender, age, position, school type, show significant differences in SSG. Teachers who are male, younger than 35, work as the director of the department, or work in private schools show higher perceptions of SSG, especially instrumental ties. 6. Two demographic variables, tenure at the present school and position, show significant differences in CCB. Teachers whose tenure at the present school is longer, who work as the chief, show higher perceptions of CCB. Furthermore, two demographic variables, tenure and education, show no significant differences in AS, SSG and CCB. 7. AS is positively related to SSG and CCB. In addition, AS has a positive direct effect on CCB, SSG has a positive direct effect on CCB. AS has a positive direct effect on SSG. SSG does have mediating effects between AS and CCB. 8. Power Distance has moderating effects between AS and CCB, between SSG and CCB. 9. Organizational Politics has moderating effects only between SSG and CCB. Based on the results of the research, suggestions for principals and future related study are proposed.

Due to the changing demographics of South African organisations after the 1994 elections and the subsequent sub-cultural diversification, the working environment is becoming the primary place where the different South African sub-cultural groups, with their different value systems, are in interaction with each other. The consequent lifting of sanctions exposed South African organisations to globalisation and international competition. This forced managers to improve organisational processes and operations, not only to protect their own domestic markets, but also to become internationally competitive. At the same time, they had to adhere to newly created labour legislation, which dramatically changed the face of the South African labour market. The complex combination of several sub-cultures in the South African work environment can adversely affect organisational effectiveness if not properly understood and managed by effective transformational leaders. The concept of cultural values was used to explore the differences, as well as the similarities, between the various sub-cultural groups in the South African environment. This study examined cultural differences and similarities between 477 junior and middle managers in the financial services sector, who belonged to the four South African sub-cultural groups (Black, Coloured, White, and Indian), and between South African male and female managers. It also investigated whether cultural values change indiscriminately during the acculturation process, or whether certain cultural values, labelled peripheral values, change easier or before other cultural values, labelled core values. Due to the importance of transformational leadership in the work environment, this study also explored the differences and similarities of South African managers on Bass and Avolio’s Full Range Model of Leadership. (Avolio&Bass, 1999; Bass, 1985, 1997). A moderate social constructionist theory was used as a framework for this study, to analyse and describe quantitative results obtained with the various measuring instruments. Firstly, it was found that although there were statistically significant differences between most of the cultural value dimensions of the various sub-cultural groups, not all of these differences were practically significant. Results indicated that these groups could often be clustered together on specific cultural value dimensions, sometimes consisting of a Black, White, and Coloured cluster, sometimes as a Black, Coloured, and Indian cluster, and so forth. Secondly, independent variables other than sub-cultural group, gender, and age also showed practically significant relationships with some of the cultural value dimensions. Thirdly, the results indicated that the cultural values are very stable, even in the dynamic and multi-cultural South African environment, and as such, no core or peripheral values could be identified. Finally, the results also indicated that the transformational-transactional leadership model is cross-culturally endorsed within the South African financial services sector. It pointed out that irrespective of gender, junior or middle management level, age, educational level, number of years full-time work experience, number of years as manager, or having been exposed to formal Western management training, all managers evaluated themselves as more transformational than transactional. / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

No description available.

This study examined impact of national culture on human resource management (HRM) functioning in present-day Pakistan. / No digital full text provided

This study examined impact of national culture on human resource management (HRM) functioning in present-day Pakistan.