AbstractAuthors: Åsa Höjer, Karl WijkmarkTitle: The intercultural communicator. A study of cultures? influence on communication.Level: BA Thesis in Media and Communication StudiesLocation: University on KalmarLanguage: SwedishNumber of pages: 67Date of seminar: 2009-01-15Advisor: Jens CavallinKey words: Intercultural communication, culture, Hofstede´s cultural dimensions, anxiety and uncertainty, self-confidence, high and low context, verbal and nonverbal communication, Telenor, Pakistan, Scandinavia.Case company: TelenorPurpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate what cultural differences, regarding communication, that are present between Scandinavia and Pakistan. Furthermore the purpose is to illustrate which factors that are important for personnel working for Telenor, that are about to work in a foreign culture, in order to create effective Intercultural communication.Methodology: The following study is a case study that has used a qualitative methodology with interviews conducted via e-mail. To be able to interpret and understand human experiences and situations a hermeneutical approach has been taken.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the communication between exchange students and their host student trough Facebook. The study shows the importance of social cues and self-disclosure to maintain a relationship. The students? everyday use of Facebook helps them to remain connected to their social life locally and create new friendships. Cultural differences were shown in the way the students formed their expressions trough their messages to each other.

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.

The world becomes more globalized for each year that passes by due to economical, political and technological processes. The globalization process leads to increased contacts with people from different cultures and therefore Intercultural communication occurs.Intercultural and strategic communication is significant to accomplish successful establishments and effective communication for companies. The export from Sweden abroad increases every single year and today there are about 1500 Swedish companies around the world and 350 established in Russia. The purpose of this study has therefore been to analyze the factors that affect the establishments of Swedish companies in Russia.Material to our study has been collected through qualitative interviews and a seminar focusing on these questions. Our interviewees all have experiences on working with Russia, as most of the interviewees work for Swedish companies in Russia or are consults that help companies to succeed with their establishment.The material has been evaluated and analyzed in relation to our main theories in intercultural- and strategic communication using theorists and theories such as Hofstede and his five cultural dimensions, Goffman?s staging and Habermas communicative action theory.Our theories have been put in relation to our collected information and complemented by earlier research and the result indicates that you need intercultural competence to manage an establishment of a Swedish company and the strategic communication in Russia because of the intercultural differences that the respondents experience..

The Swedish school is today a meeting place for many people with different cultures. The teacher education at Södertörn University have since 2002 been influenced by an intercultural profile. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the intercultural profile of Södertörn University is expressed in preschool- teachers/ teachers work. Is an intercultural approach requested in schools and is intercultural approach useful and applicable in the teaching profession? The report is based on a qualitative study of what intercultural competence means for five preschool- teachers/ teachers who have graduated from Södertörn University.

The purpose of this study is through a teacher perspective gain insight to the knowledge former Sodertorn teacher students possess of intercultural pedagogy and if they use it at work. The studies main perspective is the intercultural perspective, which has been the study's lead perspective. This study also made use out of a sociocultural perspective as it fits with the intercultural perspective and puts its mark in the study.This study has used interviews for data collection. Five former Sodertorn teacher students were interviewed, the interview participants work as teachers. These five teachers? experiences and statements were the focus of this study, the teachers had to demonstrate their intercultural skills and how they use these skills in their classroom.

My study is focused on one organization with is Unicef, the organization that is workning on a UN mission. The mission is about children's rights and Unicef has brought children's actions since 1946.The purpose of this essay was to research whether the images can be used alone or as a complement to the text that the communication organizations use. By examining the way images are used, I hoped to be able to deduce the results of image use. I study if the effect out messages with only pictures will be more effective than the message in which the verbal mixed with the non-verbal.Theoretical part of this essay has a communication perspective. The essay is structure by tree elements, non-verbal communication, mass communication and Intercultural communication.

Increasing immigration to Sweden has transformed a culturally homogeneous society into a more heterogeneous one. As a consequence Intercultural communication and interaction have been increasing. Child health care agencies have encountered these increases. The aim of this study was to examine what the health care professionals experienced and communicated in these intercultural environments. Eight interviews with child health care nurses were carried through at four child health care centers in the south of Sweden.

The aim of this essay is to describe the historical development of the intercultural teacher training program at Södertörn University in Stockholm. I have also examined how the intercultural teacher training program was started, how and why it became intercultural and how the people in charge of the development of the teacher training program discussed intercultural science. The teacher training program has been an active part of Södertörn University since 1998, but it became intercultural in 2002. I have studied these questions through documents from the Södertörn University archives and literature by the funders of the education. The study shows that the university profile, ambitions and motives have been a key factor in the decision to make the teacher training program at Södertörn a multi-cultural one..

The area of Järvafältet in the northern parts of Stockholm is one of the many large-scale investments into Swedish residency executed in the 60?s and 70?s, and which got the name Miljonprogrammet. Not until today these buildings have been restored, and frustration has been brewing in these areas for some time. Järvadialogen is the name of a communication program connected to the housing restoration in the area of Husby, which is a part of Järvafältet, and functions as a promotional and informational dialogue between residents in the area and those responsible for the communication program. The cultural diversity in the area of Husby is significant, and with theories on Intercultural communication, change communication and power we study the performed communicative process and the manner in which it is received.

The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers and parents are communicating with each other in a foreign area. In case of obstacles in the communication, this study will examine how the preschools create opportunities to solve the problem. This study will also look closely at this relationship from an Intercultural communication.This study is based on interviews. My informants are four teachers and four parents, one of the parents is Swedish and the other three have different ethnic and culture backgrounds.This study has reached to several results. The interviews with the teachers have shown that they are unsatisfied with their relationship with the parents because there are two factors that result to their communication difficulties.

The aim with this essay is to emphasize the problems that ethnical belonging causes at schools today. We have chosen to examine and compare two schools with each other, one school is called ?the new school? situated in Stockholms kommun and the other school is called ?the old school? belonging to Huddinge kommun. We have had contact with these two schools for a longer period as substitutes and students. This essay is based on how these two schools prominently differ from each other.

Our study is focused on how the public sector can collaborate with the private sector on a certain issue. The public sector wanted to create a project to increase bicycling in the municipality of Kalmar. Our problem was to develop a sustainable way to collaborate between the two parties. We managed to present a suggestion on how the public sector with communication could improve their Public Relations with the private sector and therefore letting the parties benefit from their differences, thus making it possible to release synergy.Using semi-structured interviews and a workshop, we could clarify the values and attitudes of the parties to bring forth the core values to develop a shared vision. Where the identified differences were found, we used a dialog strategy based on intercultural conflict management as a communication tool.

Since a decade back in time, Sweden is officially recognised as a multicultural society. Different cultures exist side by side and the city of Malmo is one of the clearest examples of this setting. In multicultural societies, the dichotomy of ?us? versus ?them? is common, which leads to segregation and asymmetrical relations of power. The concept of intercultural education is in theory known to be able to create a position of ?us? where every culture is equally recognized and reinterpreted and thus become an alternative to the dichotomy.

This paper is intending to examine the intercultural aspects of two teaching aids used in Swedish schools today. How does the material take the students prerequisite in consideration? Is every student included in the material in order with the standpoint and laws in the Swedish school system? And if they are not, who is the outsider in this occasion? With intercultural pedagogy lies the idea that everyone is unique and that teachers has an opportunity to develop and make student grow mentally. Intercultural endeavor is to learn to accept our differences and see them as assets instead. The theory?s used in this paper in mostly the postcolonial theory with its dividing between "us" and "the others"..