Influence of National culture on internal communication process. A study on universities in Bangladesh & Sweden.
2017 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how national culture influence internal communication of university.
Methodology: A qualitative approach was chosen to conduct this research. Semi structured interview were taken. Interviews were taken by face to face, skype and phone call. Ethical approach was considered while interpreting the data.
Findings:
Our study showed that high power distance has negative impact on internal communication. We found that high power distance creates block between supervisors and subordinates to share information. Thus it creates barriers for effective communication flow and hinders organizations development. Our study also found that power distance is available in both countries but the degree of power distance is varied from one to another. In our study we also found that Individualism and collectivism has effect on internal communication. Our study showed that Individualistic or collectivistic decision making process of university effect internal communication of university in both countries. Previous study suggests that high power distance country tends to be a collectivistic country. Though the result is not always true. However, we found that true in our study.
Contribution: The study adopts employee centric approach to explore the effects of culture on internal communication. This is an important contribution to previous researches that focused on internal communication from different perspectives, inclusion of cultural differences on internal communication has added value to the research field. Moreover, this paper contributes insights in cultural differences as well as employee perspective and by doing so it suggests theorist and practitioners that how internal communication can relate to employee’s engagement in different cultural perspectives.
Limitations: The major limitation of this study was that this study only focused on Hofstede’s power distance and individualism as cultural dimensions. Other dimensions were not focused. Another limitation of this study was the sample size. The sample size is too small to represent the whole population in regards to university perspective.
Suggestions for further research: Additional qualitative or quantitative methods can be required to explore the findings in different aspects. The study focuses on the educational institute. The findings may vary in accordance with the different industry and sectors. The study provides the guidelines regarding the impact of cultural differences on internal communication. Future research could consider other important factors that may have profound impact on internal communication in different settings.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2017. , p. 58
Keywords [en]
National culture, Internal communication, Power distance, Individualism, Cultural influence on communication, Hofstede’s cultural dimension
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-24709OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-24709DiVA, id: diva2:1121832
Subject / course
Business administration
Educational program
Business administration – master’s programme (one year)
Presentation
2017-06-07, Kungsbäcksvägen, 802 67 Gävle, Gävle, 09:00 (English)
Supervisors
Examiners
2017-09-202017-07-122017-09-20Bibliographically approved