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.

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.

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.

Pain and pain treatment constitute a huge part of the general nurses work. For that reason the nurse is required to have great knowledge about this area. The fact that our society is getting more multicultural increase the nurses demands even more, to understand and treat pain in patients of foreign cultural background. The aim of this literature review is to examine which culturally learned and trans-ferred valuations, norms and approaches that appear related to physical pain. The aim is also to examine the most appropriate ways for the nurse to show respect and to get more information about this cultural experience in the encounter with the patient.

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..

Our increasingly globalized world has contributed to that more Swedish companies has expanded their business to more distant areas. One of these Swedish companies that now stands before their first international expansion is the Swedish fast-food chain Max AB. Max has chosen to start their expansion in Saudi Arabia, a country far away from Sweden, not only in terms of geographical distance but also in cultural. The cultural differences that Max will encounter may affect the business and result in to various adaptations that must be done in order to establish successfully. The thesis investigates the existing circumstances for the fastfood business in Saudi Arabia and shows which adaptations international fast-food chains should or must do as a result of the cultural distances they encounter.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the view on the personal encounter between staff and visitors in public libraries in order to detect possible differences between the two groups in order to see if the personal encounter as such could be used in order to market libraries. We believe that social competence must interact with the initial personal encounter in order for the visitor to experience the visit as positive. We have based the theoretical framework on Erving Goffman?s theory on social interaction, as well as on Christian Grönroos? theory on quality of service and marketing. We use the following questions: How do library staff view the personal encounter? How do library visitors view the personal encounter? How does the library staff?s treatment affect the visitor?s view of the library?Are there any differences in view between visitors and staff concerning the personal encounter? If so, what kind of differences are they? Using qualitative interviews, we have interviewed nine visitors and six staff members at two public libraries.

Background:Nurses can meet women who have been victims of abuse anywhere in the healthcare. Healthcare providers have a responsibility to these women, and it requires a broad range of skills to identify the women and thus be able to help them. It is important to see all patients as unique individuals and provide good care to maintain their specific needs. This paper was done to increase the understanding of nurses' experiences in the encounter with the battered woman.Aim:The aim of this study was to illustrate how nurses experience the encounter with the battered woman.Method:Literature review with both qualitative and quantitative studies. Nine articles were chosen to be read, reviewed and analyzed.Results:Three themes and ten subthemes appeared.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to survey what personal encounter at the library can signify, and to examine Swedish public libraries? policies for personal encounter. The posed questions are: What does personal encounter at the library signify? How are users and library staff represented in the collected policies? What do the policies say about digital encounter? 290 e-mail queries were sent to Swedish public libraries in May 2010. Of 140 responses, 107 stated that they did not have a written policy on personal encounter.

This paper contains a study where we apply cross media and storytelling into the design process of a practical commercial campaign. The purpose is to learn more and deeper by using cross media and the ideal of storytelling practical. We applied a qualitative method for research of the project to provide a high-quality empirical work. The result shows that by using well-structured story early in the design process you will easily succeed with your cross media design..

Cross-suckling, i.e. when an offspring nurses a female other than their own mother, occurs in pig production systems where sows are group housed during lactation. As production systems where several sows and their litters are housed together during lactation are getting more common, the need of knowledge regarding cross-suckling increases. The overall aims with this thesis was to investigate how sow behaviour and productivity are associated with the occurrence of cross-suckling, and to investigate consistency in sow nursing behaviour related to cross-suckling. The study included information about the first 4 parities of 40 LxY sows kept in outdoor and indoor production environments. Sows were single housed the first 2 weeks after farrowing and group housed (4 or 5 sows per group) from 2 weeks after farrowing until weaning, 7 weeks after farrowing.

The idea of this study was to critically examine and account for the result found in scientific articles from databases. The aim of this literature review was to investi-gate how nurses can encounter a bereaved person in a crisis situation. Also the encounter of a person at risk of losing someone. Additionally, we investigated if the nursing staff fulfilled these needs. This literature review foremost addresses registered nurses.

The purpose of this study was to examine how some social workers in Sweden describe the social work with unaccompanied children. Emphasis was on the role of culture in social work with the unaccompanied children. I wanted to examine how the social workers describe their view on social work with unaccompanied. I also wanted to examine how the social workers describe their view at their own and the unaccompanied children?s cultural backgrounds influence on the social work with the unaccompanied.