Cultures impact upon co-workers´ perceptions and behaviour

Abstract

The overall subject for this thesis is to enlarge our understanding of co-workers' behaviour while working in a multicultural setting. An understanding of co-workers' behaviour is essential, since human resources should be regarded as competitive strengths for organisations competing in an international market. This research focuses upon how members of different cultural groups construct perceptions about themselves and others. Furthermore, why members of different cultural groups have these particular perceptions and why they behave in this particular way are discussed. The empirical study was conducted in a Swedish multinational organisation among Swedish and Danish co-workers. The study showed that thoughts about stereotyping could be used in order to explain how co-workers construct perceptions. Moreover, the membership of both national cultures and an organisational culture, could have an impact upon why co-workers have particular perceptions and why they behave in a particular way. The Danish and the Swedish culture might be regarded as similar, but this thesis emphasises that there exist some perceived differences between Danish and Swedish co-workers that could affect co-operation between co-workers.