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This thesis explores the impact of culture and diversity on multicultural teams and the potential benefits of adopting a transcultural approach to enhance team collaboration and effectiveness. The study highlights that cultural differences can present challenges to team collaboration and communication, but a transcultural approach can promote appreciation and understanding of these differences, leading to stronger relationships and greater success in a global business environment.
Intercultural competences, such as an open mind and flexibility, are essential for overcoming challenges arising from cultural differences in teams, and experience and training are recommended to develop these competences. Effective diversity management and developing intercultural competences are essential to thrive in a multicultural environment. Transcultural learning provides a valuable framework for understanding cultural diversity and fostering mutual understanding and respect between cultures. Adopting a transcultural approach can create commonalities and value in terms of global unity and understanding, making it an essential component of international business in today's globalized society.
Concerns about mental health and the declining rate of body satisfaction have increased interest in topics such as diversity, body positivity, and inclusion in recent years. Thus, the suggestion is that companies can communicate deep meanings through advertising images and strengthen their brand identity. This bachelor thesis proposes the application of two theoretical frameworks: Esch’s "Brand Steering Wheel" for identifying the brand identity, and the framework of “Visual Grammar” for analyzing images in advertising. The aim is to find out if diversity in advertising can improve brand identity.
Firstly, this work intends to offer an overall understanding of advertising, brand identity, and multimodality. For this, previous academic literature is used to establish a theoretical basis for understanding. Secondly, certain problems that lack inclusion in traditional advertising are analyzed. Thirdly, with the help of the theoretical framework, the brand identity is analyzed using the brand steering wheel. Additionally, Kress and van Leeuwen’s framework of visual grammar is used to examine images for their meaning.
The findings indicate that there is significant theoretical and practical evidence to suggest that the application of diversity in advertising campaigns would be an effective strategy to build a strong brand identity. The identities and relationships indicated in the photos between viewers and models represent desired attributes that may be identified with the advertiser's products. The brand may be picked if the viewers see that it is correctly represented.
Through an extensive review of the literature, a research gap was identified concerning the knowledge around diversity and its impact on personality types and their influence on group performance. Previous literature revealed that diversity is a popular determinant for group composition, since it encompasses many different meanings and interpretations. Researchers would rather focus on easily measurable elements such as age or gender, but few studies have been conducted on deep-level diversity, such as personality traits or values. The aim of this study is to answer the research questions proposed concerning the effectiveness of homogeneous versus heterogeneous groups as well as the impact communication has on their performance. Through an analysis of previous studies and literature the research questions and hypotheses were formulated, and a methodology designed to answer them. The methodology used in this research was a variation of the Marshmallow Challenge. The groups were faced with two challenges. The first one was to build a 50cm-tall structure as quickly as possible, with a limited amount of material, including raw spaghetti, tape, rope and a marshmallow to test the stability of the structure. The second challenge was presented about one week later and involved the same materials, but the participants had to reach 70cm. Four teams of three were chosen. The personality tests had four possible outcomes: red, green, yellow, or blue. Each colour had specific characteristics and adjectives associated with it. The data collected revealed that the heterogeneous groups performed better overall. A slightly significant correlation was found between how well the teams performed and the words spoken per minute for the first experiment, but not for the second. The biggest limitation that hindered this study was the time pressure and limited sample size.
Even though women and men have entered the managerial ranks of organizations
to the almost same numbers, women still remain drastically underrepresented. Of
the Fortune 500 CEO positions only 5.2% and about 21.2% (Catalyst 2018) of the
board seats are held by female leaders. For women of color the numbers are
shockingly low. These women are almost absent on most Fortune 500 companies
and only hold 3.1% of board seats in this category (Catalyst 2015). In Europe
however, the percentage of female director at STOXX 600 companies has
increased constantly over the past years and therefore resulted in slightly better
numbers. By 2015 almost 25% of directors were female and the average
percentage of female holding board seats made 2.8% (EWoB 2015). Research of
Carter, N.M. and Silva, C. (2010) shows, that even if women are graduating from
global leading business schools their career progress lags in comparison to their
male counterparts. This means that despite the organizations efforts of
implementing gender discrimination policies and focusing on gender equality, they
have not been able to fuel women´s career development (Ely et al. 2011).
But why do organizations still struggle to increase the number of female leaders
today? This report will elaborate possible factors that are causing failing attempts
of organizations in general to then conclude a strategic solution for Philips to
successfully change their people strategy towards gender equality. Research
shifted from the assumption of intentional gender discrimination within companies
towards invisible barriers that cause thriving women not to reach the top (Ely et al.
2011). Those barriers are deeply rooted assumptions about gender that have a
long history in the evolution of our society. Starting with how society is influencing
how people think about women being leaders and the assumptions they make
about the ability one being a leader based on gender (Anderson et al. 2006; Eagly,
Carli 2003). The key to success might be a shift in people´s mindset. Here fore, this report will introduce the reader to the problematic of the unconscious bias
(Cheryl Staats 2014). Speaking of invisible barriers this theory might be the most
important factor for organizations to make a difference. However, the question of
why so many women get stuck in the c-suite remains unanswered. One answer to
this question repeatedly pops up in research reports and papers which is “Glass
Ceiling” (Susan Chira 2017).
Because gender equality becomes more and more important for organizations in
order to stay competitive, Philips decided to shift its people strategy towards
“Inclusion & Diversity” in 2017 (Jong, de 2017). The reason for this shift also lies
within the innovative aspect. Diversity fosters creativity and therefor innovation
which is a differentiator for Philips. However, this report tries to answer the
question on how Philips can actually increase the number of senior female leaders.
It will identify possible barriers that need to be removed in order to support the
development of female employees to the top ranks of management.
The structure or this report is as followed. Chapter 1 will introduce the reader to the
research structure to set expectations and give an overview about how the content
has been created. Chapter 2 will introduce Philips as an organization after the split
of Philips Lighting in 2012. Showing how the function of Human Resource
Management is structured and what parts of it are directly influenced by the set
KPI. To give an overview on the literature that has been conducted and therefore
methodology, chapter 3 will offer explanation on basic concepts that have a direct
impact on women in leadership. Here the report will start to focus on gender
diversity and two major obstacles women have to overcome in today’s workplace in
order to be successful. Chapter 4 will provide a deep dive into the internal talent
management processes of Philips and identify possible improvement areas.
Chapter 5 will then analyze common concepts on how to support the development
senior female leaders and show opportunities as well as limitations for Philips.
Moreover it will be discussed how to best merge external concepts with internal processes in order to build a framework for the organization and its workforce.
Finally, the importance of engaging men into the discussion of gender diversity will
be underlined. Analyzing possible barriers men experience to determine what
prevented them in the past to join the gender discussion. Possible solutions will be
identified on how to remove those barriers. Chapter 6 will summarize the findings
of this report. It will be discussed how the new approach can be realized for Philips
as an organization.