Vi strävar alltid efter att förstå det som sker i den värld vi lever i. Till vår hjälp har vi olika referenser och kunskaper som vi har lärt oss under våra liv. Dessa referenser och kunskaper förenklar och förklarar våra upplevelser och sätter in dem i ett sammanhang. Utan detta sammanhang blir enskilda händelser omöjliga att förstå och vi tvingas navigera oss fram med förbundna ögon. Kultur är ett av de verktyg vi människor använder för att förklara den verklighet vi lever i.

Several studies have shown that the Swedish labour market for different reasons is characterized by ethnical discrimination and that people who have another cultural background than Swedish are being excluded. Most studies done within this area have been focused on why it is harder for immigrants to enter the labour market and identifying the contributing mechanisms for this phenomenon. Instead the aim of this study was to see how the immigrants view their own cultural identity and background and how they perceive that their cultural competences are being valued when they apply for a job. To examine this, the following problematic was used: How does a person who has been brought up with both the Swedish culture and another culture look at using this as a cultural competence when they apply for a job. Two different theories were then applied to analyze the problematic, Erving Goffman´s theory about Stigma and Norbert Elias theory about the Established and the Outsiders.

Can the lack of functional cross-cultural communication among individuals within an international organization be the reason for cultural clashes to occur, and lead to conflict between two cultures within the same organization?Our aim is to try to create a potential model of how cross-cultural problems can be studied, in order to contribute to the solution of the problem. And to examine whether the theories, which form the basis of our model can be applied in reality.The research have assumed from the hermeneutical approach for a holistic view of the problem area. The deductive approach has been used in order to distinguish whether the theories can be applied to reality, and qualitative research method for collecting data.The focus lies within cross-cultural communications, which defines the various cultural factors that can affect organizational culture. Hofstede dimensions and the social structure are mentioned and cultural factors as language and religion.

The purpose of this study was to look at the experiences of midwives in maternalhealth care encounters with non-european-born women and men, and to determine ifmidwives deem any special competence necessary to handle these encounters well.We gathered information by means of qualitative interviews and semi structuredquestions with eight midwives all of whom matched the inclusion criterias and gavetheir personal consent. Midwives from four district health care centers in Uppsalawere included. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by means of qualitativecontent analysis.The results reveal the experiences from encounters with non-european patients to betwofold. On one hand the encounter is a positive, exiting experience with anopportunity to learn more about a foreign culture and exchange experiences. On theother hand complications can occur as patients may have unexpected expectationsregarding the health care, have great difficulties with the language or haveexperienced traumatizing incidents, all on top of coming to Sweden alone withoutrelatives.In the encounter with non-european-born patients the midwives consider it importantto have special competence in form of knowledge of other cultures and religions asthis provides a greater understanding of the reasoning behind the patients? decisions.Cultural competence is also important as it helps avoid inadvertently insulting thepatient during the encounter.The special competence held by the midwives has been attained from their basic andspecialist education as well as from self acquired experiences and interests.

This dissertation examines how creativity can be of benefit for the school. It discusses if there is a need or demand for it and how the present situation is in Swedish schools. Defining creativity accurately is difficult but it is relevant to look at the environments that use creativity. There is a vast amount of literature that uses creativity and it varies to some extent. Creativity originates from meetings and combinations, both within and outside of the individual.

The study?s purpose is to find out how important cultural competence is for the guidance of people with multicultural backgrounds. I also want to illustrate that what is seen as normal in one culture may mean something different in another culture. The study will also in some extent explore culture clashes and its problems in the guidance context. The method used in the study is qualitative and the five respondents were all practicing Muslims.

In the 10th of April 2010 the Polish Presidential plane crashed outside of Smolensk in today?s Russia. 88 passengers and 6 crewmen died a tragic death, among them the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczy?ski. A national week of sorrow was proclaimed and citizens all over Poland went out on streets and markets to honor the newly deceased President.

We started out the study with a preconception of culture as something that creates difference between groups of people, which had been verified by our prior research. We also had a sense of culture as a polysemous term. Our assumption is also that there is an opinion within social work practice that Swedish social workers are faced with a cultural barrier when encountering immigrant clients.In this study our aim is to examine constructions of the terms cultural competence and culture. Constructions of the terms ethnicity and ethnic diversity are also observed, although the main reason for this is to show what relation these terms have to the terms cultural competence and culture, and how they may give each other meaning, according to the theory of social construction. In addition to constructions, we also aim to bring out discourses around the terms, upon which we will create a discussion about power and dominance informed by post-colonial theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA).

ABSTRACTWe have chosen to write an essay about competence because we think that it is an important and a current subject of interest, both to us as future team leaders, but also to all activities within the community. We have a background working with eldercare and we have noticed that there are continued changes going on. This made us want to study what team leaders and their staff think about competence and the development of competence. The purpose of this study is to analyse how team leaders work to develop competence with their personnel working in home care. We also want to analyse how the personnel experience their competence and their need for development of competence.

The aim of the study was to examine which approach future social workers have regarding specific competence in the meeting with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer clients. Previous research shows that LGBTQ people have a low confidence towards social services, police and courts and say they face discrimination and degrading treatment to a greater extent than the heterosexual population. Research shows that education and better skills of LGBTQ culture among professionals can change the situation.The essay is based on a model of cultural competence in working with sexual minorities and people with a transgender expression. The model defines the meaning of an LGBTQ perspective and is designed to improve social work with LGBTQ clients.The study is quantitative and empirical data consists of 203 survey responses from students with a long experience of the social work education. The analysis of the results is based on the cultural competence three principles; attitudes, knowledge and skills.

The purpose with this essay is to contribute with knowledge on how pedagogues in Swedish schools can prevent cultural clashes between themselves and their pupils and between pupils from different cultural backgrounds.The survey is done with qualitative interviews with three pedagogues.The result shows the importance that the pedagogues are positive to cultural meetings and that they acquire intercultural competence. The result also shows that the interviewed pedagogues acquired competences through direct meeting with students and their parents, courses, lectures and literature.The conclusion of this essay is that if pedagogues obtain more knowledge about their own and other`s culture, it would prevent cultural clashes in school.I believe that if the pedagogue teaches his/her students that there are different ways to think in the world, fewer cultural clashes would occur between the students.Key words: culture clash, education, communication.

Det finns många olika motiv för företag att sponsra kultur men kulturinstitutioner har dåligt utvecklade erbjudandestrategier för att framhäva hur företag gagnas av samarbetet. Mellanhänder med nisch mot kultursponsring kan etableras för att marknadsföra kulturinstitutioner mot potentiella sponsorer. En ändrad lagstiftning tycks öka intresset för företag att sponsra kultur. För att maximera nyttan av sponsringssamarbetet krävs en utvecklad sponsringsrelation som är ömsesidigt värdeskapande och där parterna uppfyller alla nivåer av kunskapsutbyte. Relationerna inom kultursponsring påverkas mer av kulturinstitutioners storlek än av företags..

This essay contains material of how the competence maintenance works on a chosen company and how a web based tool developed for its use can help companies with competence insur-ance. As competence maintenance is a major factor to have a long term profit it´s necessary to be aware of the company?s future needs in the competence sector. This essay describes the company?s competence maintenance occupation needs taken from internal documents; it also identifies the need for competence maintenance and presents multiple areas of possible im-provements.

The profit a company makes is dependant of its employees which means that their competence is important for the company to perform well. The middle manager has a central position in the organization and is expected to take on different roles. This probably puts a lot of demands on the middle managers and their competence. We want to contribute with a comprehension of how learning, competence and needs for competence can look at a middle management level. Furthermore we also want to find out what kind of strategy for competence development the middle managers want the company to use so their competence development can be facilitated.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the implications and challenges of intercultural communication. An in-depth study was performed of the perspectives from people who work within an international organization. How they experience cultural differences and how they handle them, in particular when it comes to communication. Also, their perceptions of communicative competence were explored. The study was carried out at Svalorna India Bangladesh, at the Swedish office in Lund.