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Seattle's Seafaring Siren: A Cultural Approach To The Branding Of Starbucks, Briana Kauffman Apr 2013

Seattle's Seafaring Siren: A Cultural Approach To The Branding Of Starbucks, Briana Kauffman

Masters Theses

Many corporate brands tend to be built on a strong foundation of culture, but very minimal research seems to indicate a thorough analysis of the role of an organizational's culture in its entirety pertaining to large corporations. This study analyzed various facets of Starbucks Coffee Company through use of the cultural approach to organizations theory in order to determine if the founding principles of Starbucks are evident in their organizational culture. Howard Schultz' book "Onward" was analyzed and documented as the key textual artifact in which these principles originated. Along with these principles, Starbucks' Website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube page …


From A Northern Home To A Southern School: Cultural Imperialists Or Just Stubborn Yankees, Janel Janiczek Smith Apr 2013

From A Northern Home To A Southern School: Cultural Imperialists Or Just Stubborn Yankees, Janel Janiczek Smith

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the cultural influences on the lives of northern teachers in southern schools. During the 1860s, white, northern, middle-class women traveled to southern homes to begin and maintain schools for the recently freed slaves. Each woman carried with her an independent set of cultural systems that predetermined her perspective for educating the African American students. Furthermore, the northern relief agencies, Freedmen's Bureau agents, southern white citizens, and southern freedmen all had their own opinions for the education of the students. Although much time has elapsed between the 1860s and 2013, the same topics …


When Pregnancy Is An Injury: Rape, Law, And Culture, Khiara M. Bridges Mar 2013

When Pregnancy Is An Injury: Rape, Law, And Culture, Khiara M. Bridges

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines criminal statutes that grade more severely sexual assaults that result in pregnancy. These laws, which define pregnancy as a “substantial bodily injury,” run directly counter to positive constructions of pregnancy within culture. The fact that the criminal law, in this instance, reflects this negative, subversive understanding of pregnancy creates the possibility that this idea may be received within culture as a construction of pregnancy that is as legitimate as positive understandings. In this way, these laws create possibilities for the reimagining of pregnancy within law and society. Moreover, these laws recall the argumentation that proponents of abortion …


Artistic Representations Of The Sea And Coast: Implications For Sustainability, Laura Stocker, Deborah Kennedy Feb 2013

Artistic Representations Of The Sea And Coast: Implications For Sustainability, Laura Stocker, Deborah Kennedy

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

This article explores artistic representations of Australian seas and coasts, and the power of art to sustain seas and coasts. Research into artworks at the National Gallery of Australia was supplemented with a study of other local public and private works. A number of substantive themes emerged in viewing the paintings; the sea and coast has been represented as: sea country, sovereign territory, sublime spaces, a Romantic space of yearning, a psychological journey, a literal journey, a site of social and political comment, social places, ecological places and a site for industry. We discuss these themes, reflecting on the various …


Same Fight, Different Player: An Insight Into Culture, Information Sharing, And Team Performance, Cecily Mccoy-Fisher Jan 2013

Same Fight, Different Player: An Insight Into Culture, Information Sharing, And Team Performance, Cecily Mccoy-Fisher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among culture, information sharing, and performance among culturally-homogeneous NATO Officer teams. Forty-eight teams participated from five countries, namely, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and USA. Teams of four participants were randomly assigned to a role and the task was an interdependent computer-based mission using an adapted version of Neverwinter Nights™ (Bioware, 2003), where they had to communicate among teammates and with non-human players to find weapons caches and other mission objectives. Not one individual had all of the information needed to perform the tasks; thus, they needed to share information with …


Human Factors And Cultural Influences In Implementing Agile Philosophy And Agility In Global Software Development, Anuradha Sutharshan Jan 2013

Human Factors And Cultural Influences In Implementing Agile Philosophy And Agility In Global Software Development, Anuradha Sutharshan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

As software becomes increasingly important to all aspects of industry, developers should be encouraged to adopt best practice and hence improve the quality of the processes used, and achieve targets relating to time, budget and quality. In the software industry, several software methodologies have been used to address software development problems; however some of these processes may be too bureaucratic. The Agile Alliance formed in 2001, sought to address this problem; accordingly, they developed a manifesto and twelve principles, to which all agile software methods adhere. The purpose of the manifesto and its principles is to uncover better ways of …


Untangling Cultural Differences In Behavioral, Physiological, And Psychological Symptoms Of Dementia And Alzheimer’S Disease, John S. Avant Jan 2013

Untangling Cultural Differences In Behavioral, Physiological, And Psychological Symptoms Of Dementia And Alzheimer’S Disease, John S. Avant

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR; 4th ed. Revised; American Psychiatric Association) and (BPSD) there are many behavioral, physiological, and psychological issues that have been correlated with the progression of the Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Examples of these issues include; emotional regulation problems, variations in eating behavior, and an advancing decline in memory. Though certain symptoms of the disease seem to be widely universal, current literature shows that a number of disparities do exist. There are several differences between and within populations suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia that are influenced by various …


Technology Use In A Virtual World To Build Organizational Culture And Identity, Tim Carroll Jan 2013

Technology Use In A Virtual World To Build Organizational Culture And Identity, Tim Carroll

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Organizations are embracing agile work environments for their employees more and more every day. This thesis explores the ability to create and maintain organizational culture in a virtual world through technology use. As more of these organizations move to a virtual workplace it is becoming more imperative to find ways to connect these virtual employees together as peers and to the organization as a whole. This communication audit is formed using the cultural approach to organizational theory, by Geertz and Pacanowsky, and uses surveys as well as interviews to assess how effectively organizational culture is expressed and maintained through the …


Evaluation Of An Expatriate Program At A Us-Based Multinational Corporation, Victoria J. Hurlock Jan 2013

Evaluation Of An Expatriate Program At A Us-Based Multinational Corporation, Victoria J. Hurlock

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the expatriate program at one multinational manufacturing and aerospace organization. Eleven expatriates were interviewed. Study findings provided insights about participants' experiences during each phase of their expatriate assignment, including selection, preparation, arrival, adaptation, and repatriation. Participants were mixed in their evaluation of the company's expatriate program, with some believing it worked well and others believing it needed improvement. Participants offered six recommendations to the organization: (a) pick qualified individuals for assignment, (b) help them take care of the details, (c) provide them with adequate training and information, (d) involve knowledgeable others in the process, (e) plan for …


Voicing Across Cultures: The Role Of Communication Style And Relationships In Employee Voice And Subsequent Influence, Anna-Katherine Ward Jan 2013

Voicing Across Cultures: The Role Of Communication Style And Relationships In Employee Voice And Subsequent Influence, Anna-Katherine Ward

Theses and Dissertations

Constructive input from a diverse workforce can enhance firm performance. However, cultural norms and differences in communication behavior expectations may prevent concerns and suggestions from being expressed, or from being implemented when they are expressed. The purpose of the current study is to bridge the Human Resources, Organizational Behavior, Communications, and International Management literatures in an attempt to understand how subordinates with different communicaton norms voice and how (or whether) managers use the content of the voiced messages. Two models are presented examining prohibitive and promotive voice as central variables in the relationship between subordinate communication style and subordinate influence …


Theorizing The Effects Of Color, Environmental Space, Culture And Gender On Communication, David A. Brucker Jan 2013

Theorizing The Effects Of Color, Environmental Space, Culture And Gender On Communication, David A. Brucker

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Extant literature indicates it is our physical, psychological interactions, and perceptions with certain colors and space and our culture and gender influence the way we verbally and nonverbally communicate. I discuss how the meanings of different colors have been depicted throughout history. Summarize my research on the physiological and psychological effects on individuals and show how certain colors are used. Describe environmental space in terms of natural, acute, chronic space and the psychological effects of different spaces. Describe how the perception and use of space affects how we feel. Explore how culture strongly influences the "windows" of the world we …


Gender Dynamics From The Arab World: An Intercultural Service Encounter, Marryam Khan Jan 2013

Gender Dynamics From The Arab World: An Intercultural Service Encounter, Marryam Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arab countries strive toward the modernization and feminization of the Arab culture; however, some of these countries (i.e., Saudi Arabia) are culturally and legally governed by "sharia law", and have maintained cultural norms regarding segregation of the sexes. In order to have a better understanding of the Arab travelers to the U.S., this research focuses on the gender dynamics between the service providers and Arab customers during a service encounter. Specifically, this research examines how the same and opposite genders of service-provider and customer influence Arab customers’ emotional response (comfort), consequently their service encounter evaluation (satisfaction), and behavioral intentions (feedback …


Relationships Among Self-Construal, Goal Motives, And Goal Outcomes And The Moderating Effects Of Culture, Tao Jiang Jan 2013

Relationships Among Self-Construal, Goal Motives, And Goal Outcomes And The Moderating Effects Of Culture, Tao Jiang

Online Theses and Dissertations

The current study intended to test a model which integrated different self-construal types, goal motivation types, and goal outcomes, and also to test the moderating effects of culture on the model. Based on previous literature, a hypothesized model was proposed. 250 American university students and 246 Chinese university students were recruited to test this model. All the participants completed several scales that measured the levels of three types of self-construal, four types of goal motive, goal-direct effort and progress, and two components of well-being. Based on the preliminary analyses, an adjusted model was generated. The results of the adjusted model …


Introduction Jan 2013

Introduction

Russian Language Journal

On behalf of the editorial team of the Russian Language Journal, it is with great pleasure that we present Volume 63. The current issue of RLJ sees a number of changes to the editorial team as well as an expansion of the kinds of materials we publish; we hope that these changes serve both the profession and our readers. Starting with this issue, we will include review articles, as well as a section of shorter book reviews. Michael Gorham, our Associate Editor, leads this effort for the RLJ. As well, there are two new appointments to the Editorial Team: Dr. …


Review: Сетевые Разговоры: Культурные Коммуникации В Рунете, Thomas J. Garza Jan 2013

Review: Сетевые Разговоры: Культурные Коммуникации В Рунете, Thomas J. Garza

Russian Language Journal

For any reader interested in the linguistic and cultural shifts that have occurred in the Russian language as a result of the explosion of Internet use in the russophone world, Zvereva’s work, Сетевые разговоры, is especially apt. In this timely and insightful work, Zvereva employs both discourse analysis as well as rigorous commentary from the corpus of work in media and cultural studies to fashion a critical review of current trends and innovations in the use of Internet-based media―predominately via RuNet (.ru)― as a means of initiating and developing communication. Emphasizing its broad appeal, Zvereva points to the relevance of …


Culture And Online Distance Learning, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena Jan 2013

Culture And Online Distance Learning, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Online distance learning (ODL) has become a global phenomenon transcending national, political, and geographical boundaries challenging distance educators to re-examine notions of teaching and learning and issues of culture inherent in cross-border delivery of online courses and programs. Rogers, Graham and Mayes (2007) note that the sheer amount of learning content being developed in the West (defined for this chapter as Eurocentric, North American, Australasian) and exported via the Internet to other countries, highlights the crucial need to explore questions of culture more thoroughly in our online course designs to provide a more equitable learning experience for all. Global universities …


The Experiences Of Hispanic International Students As Interviewees In A Cross-Cultural Interview Project, Ren S. Carbutt Dec 2012

The Experiences Of Hispanic International Students As Interviewees In A Cross-Cultural Interview Project, Ren S. Carbutt

Theses and Dissertations

In the field of world language education, it has long been affirmed that language and culture are inseparable. It has also often been asked how teaching language and culture in an inseparable way is to be accomplished. One solution that has been proposed is ethnographic interviews. Other studies have demonstrated that interviewing native cultural informants is beneficial for language students. This study examined whether such interviews are also beneficial to the native informants. The participants in this project, sixteen native speakers of Spanish, were each interviewed three times by a pair of Spanish students who employed ethnographic techniques as a …


Promoting Blogging To Improve Interpersonal And Presentational Writing Skills While Increasing Cultural Competency In An English Language Learning Setting, Terese Cox Jul 2012

Promoting Blogging To Improve Interpersonal And Presentational Writing Skills While Increasing Cultural Competency In An English Language Learning Setting, Terese Cox

Theses and Dissertations

Instructors of English Language Learners (ELLs) often focus on writing as one of the primary skills acquired in the university second language classroom. This thesis examines the role of blogging in improving interpersonal and presentational writing while also increasing students' cultural competency. It describes how to create and use a web source to promote blogging in the classroom. A classroom web source to accompany Interchange 3 as well as sixteen lessons with accompanying materials and rubrics comprise a substantial portion of this thesis to practically show how blogging might be incorporated into an ESL classroom. Each lesson enforces and highlights …


World Percussion Approaches In Collegiate Percussion Programs: A Mixed-Methods Study, Patrick Michael Hernly Jul 2012

World Percussion Approaches In Collegiate Percussion Programs: A Mixed-Methods Study, Patrick Michael Hernly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As world percussion has grown in popularity in American colleges and universities, two main problems have emerged. The first problem is that no known source exists detailing how percussion instructors have incorporated world percussion into their collegiate teaching. A review of the literature has highlighted four main approaches to incorporating world percussion in collegiate percussion programs: applied study, group performance, travel experiences, and guest expert visits. The second problem is that systematic research on world percussion traditions has been carried out much more often by music education researchers, anthropologists, and ethnomusicologists than by percussionist-performers, so the relationship between theory and …


Collaborating Across Cultures: Cultural Metacognition And Affect-Based Trust In Creative Collaboration, Roy Y. J. Chua, Michael W. Morris, Shira Mor Jul 2012

Collaborating Across Cultures: Cultural Metacognition And Affect-Based Trust In Creative Collaboration, Roy Y. J. Chua, Michael W. Morris, Shira Mor

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose that managers adept at thinking about their cultural assumptions (cultural metacognition) are more likely than others to develop affect-based trust in their relationships with people from different cultures, enabling creative collaboration. Study 1, a multi-rater assessment of managerial performance, found that managers higher in metacognitive cultural intelligence (CQ) were rated as more effective in intercultural creative collaboration by managers from other cultures. Study 2, a social network survey, found that managers lower in metacognitive CQ engaged in less sharing of new ideas in their intercultural ties but not intracultural ties. Study 3 required participants to work collaboratively with …


Designers Coping With Culture In An Educational Setting, Annemiek Van Boeijen, Pieter Jan Stappers Jul 2012

Designers Coping With Culture In An Educational Setting, Annemiek Van Boeijen, Pieter Jan Stappers

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study about how design students cope with culture in the i-do (international design opportunity) series of international design workshops in Hong Kong. We wanted to learn three things. (1) To what extent do the design students from different nations share common cultural values? (2) what difficulties do design students encounter in this type of workshops, and what techniques and strategies do they use to cope with (cultural) barriers? and (3) what opportunities (personal benefits) do they identify to attend this type of workshop? The results and conclusions are based on experiences of …


Negotiating Dialectic Tensions In Intercultural Marriage, William Scott Hinson May 2012

Negotiating Dialectic Tensions In Intercultural Marriage, William Scott Hinson

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis concentrates on the way in which discursive struggles are negotiated by intercultural married couples. Intercultural couples experience a unique set of challenges in maintaining a healthy relationship. I use the dialectical perspective to ground this study's approach to understanding intercultural couples. Relational dialectics states that all relationships experience conflicting and contrasting needs. These dialectical tensions make change central to relationship. To take a richer look into these relationships, I conducted a qualitative research study on five intercultural couples. I asked five married couples to talk about adjusting to married life as an international couple. This study will help …


Sex And The City: A Promotion Of Modern American Feminism, Cameron Michael Tufino May 2012

Sex And The City: A Promotion Of Modern American Feminism, Cameron Michael Tufino

Theses & Dissertations

The television series Sex and the City (SATC), has left a significant impact on American society. The show displays this revelation: American women today have many established cultures of equal worth in male dominated discourses. This thesis explains how the shows narrative represents and expands feminist ideology in America. By modernizing feminist discourses, SATC challenges televisual female representation on subject matters including motherhood, sexuality, marriage, gender identity, and family. Investigating its four protagonists - Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha - demonstrates how the narrative contributed to the social movement of feminism. Furthermore, with analyzing its construction and display since the …


They Were Framed! The Development And Validation Of Context-Specific Measures Of Individual Culture, Amber Schroeder May 2012

They Were Framed! The Development And Validation Of Context-Specific Measures Of Individual Culture, Amber Schroeder

All Dissertations

Early personality research often described behavior in terms of individual dispositions or stable behavioral tendencies (Allport, 1937; Cattell, 1957; Guilford, 1959), thus taking a context-independent view of personality. However, a recent review of thousands of empirical studies illustrated that even seemingly superficial changes to contextual variables can have a large impact on study results (Richard, Bond, & Stokes-Zoota, 2003). Yet, the use of non-contextualized measures of individual culture still remains the norm in cross-cultural research. Thus, utilizing a sample of more than 1,000 participants across two studies, work and nonwork measures of two cultural variables (i.e., individualism and collectivism) were …


'People Want To See What Happened': Treme, Televisual Tourism, And The Racial Remapping Of Post-Katrina New Orleans, Lynnell L. Thomas May 2012

'People Want To See What Happened': Treme, Televisual Tourism, And The Racial Remapping Of Post-Katrina New Orleans, Lynnell L. Thomas

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

Occupying the space between cultural reproduction and theatrical production, the HBO series Treme offers an important vantage point from which to analyze the intersection of race, class, culture, and media representation animating New Orleans’s post-Katrina tourist identity. Treme illustrates the tension between the welcome recognition and celebration of New Orleans black expressive culture and its spectacularization and commodification. The resuscitation of tourist tropes and an emphasis on jazz and heritage music in the series often render the city’s history of racial conflict and injustice invisible or subordinate to new narratives of cross-racial unity among Katrina survivors and paternalistic actions by …


The Real Virtual World: Connectivity And Techno-Mediation In The Lives Of College Students, Alecea Standlee May 2012

The Real Virtual World: Connectivity And Techno-Mediation In The Lives Of College Students, Alecea Standlee

Sociology - Dissertations

This dissertation examines the way in which techno-mediated communication technologies, such as social media, text messaging, and virtual communities are used to negotiate, establish and maintain interpersonal relationships among college students. Using in-depth interview and online participant observation, I explore the relationship between technological communication and social behavior, interpersonal relationships and social networks. I focus on three broad questions: how do developments and structures of technological communication allow for the emergence of new social expectations and behaviors in the realm of connectivity and social interaction? How do individuals experience social pressures for connectivity and how do such pressures shape relationships? …


Cultural Competence In The Baccalaureate Degree Nursing Curriculum, Angela Elizabeth Silvestri May 2012

Cultural Competence In The Baccalaureate Degree Nursing Curriculum, Angela Elizabeth Silvestri

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Health care providers are members of a helping profession and need to provide quality care to all members of society. As a result of current and projected demographic changes within the United States (U.S.), health care professionals are faced with the challenges of providing culturally competent care and fulfilling the role as the "helping profession." In the past 10 years, minority populations have increased in the U.S. For example, the African American population experienced an approximate 12.3% increase, and the Hispanic population increased by 43%. Just as it is necessary for health care professionals to respond to the increase in …


Parent And Professional Perspectives About Autism Spectrum Disorders In South India: Beliefs, Practices, And Parent-Professional Relationships., Neeraja Ravindran Apr 2012

Parent And Professional Perspectives About Autism Spectrum Disorders In South India: Beliefs, Practices, And Parent-Professional Relationships., Neeraja Ravindran

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experience of parents and professionals living in a large metropolitan city in South India who were raising and/or working with a child with an autism spectrum disorder. The study explored the unique perspectives of parents and professionals regarding their beliefs and practices about autism, as well as the nature of the parent-professional relationship. Nineteen parents (all mothers) and 21 professionals were interviewed in person at four schools, an early intervention program, a hospital clinic, and a physician’s office. Themes were developed using qualitative software, and reliability was established through multiple …


An Analysis Of Uriay Culture And Gospel Presentation To The Uriay Tribe, Kaitlin R. Sones Apr 2012

An Analysis Of Uriay Culture And Gospel Presentation To The Uriay Tribe, Kaitlin R. Sones

Senior Honors Theses

The Uriay people group in Papua New Guinea is a remote animistic tribe that has just recently heard the Gospel. This people group is just one of the thousands of distinct cultures in this world, many of which have not yet received the good news of Jesus Christ. This thesis opens by analyzing culture and animism and culminates with an ethnographic description of the Uriay tribe based on personal observation and information collected from missionaries who have lived among the Uriay people for over ten years. The purpose of this thesis is to provide research on this remote people group …


Satire And Dissent: A Theoretical Overview, Amber Day Apr 2012

Satire And Dissent: A Theoretical Overview, Amber Day

English and Cultural Studies Journal Articles

In an age when Jon Stewart tops lists of most-trusted newscasters and Michael Moore becomes a focus of political campaign analysis, the satiric register has attained renewed and urgent prominence in political discourse. Day focuses on three central contemporary forms: the parodic news show, the satiric documentary, and ironic activism. She highlights their shared objective of circumventing the standard conduits of political information and the highly stage-managed nature of current political discourse. In so doing, she argues, they provide fans with a sense of community and purpose notably lacking from organized politics in the twenty-first century.