UNIVERSITY OF VAASA FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY Mohammad Rony The Challenges of Cultural Diversity in Hybrid Organization: The Case Study of University of Vaasa Master Thesis In Public Management VAASA 2017 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURE AND TABLE 2 1 INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 Background 5 1.2 Research question 6 1.3 Planned contributions 7 1.4 Structure of the thesis 8 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 10 2.1 Definition of the organization 10 2.1.1 Types of organizations 11 2.1.2 Hybrid organization 13 2.1.3 Organizational challenges in Hybrid organization 16 2.2 Culture and organization 18 2.2.1 Culture 18 2.2.2 Culture and globalization 20 2.2.3 Organizational culture and organizational goal 22 2.2.3 Cultural dimensions and its features 28 2.3 Diversity management 32 2.4 Synthesis of theoretical arguments 36 3 METHODOLOGY 41 3.1 Qualitative research method and justification of the method 42 3.2 Data collection 43 3.3 Semi structured interview 45 3.4 Brief history of University of Vaasa 47 4 DATA ANALYSIS 51 4.1 University of Vaasa as a hybrid organization with international researchers 51 4.2 Cultural integration of the international researchers 53 4.3 Power distance and organizational structure of University of Vaasa 57 4.4 Uncertainty avoidance among the International researchers 59 4.5 Equality and diversity management for the international researchers: 63 5 RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION 69 5.1 Main findings 70 5.2 Limitations and future research 76 REFERENCES 78 APPENDIX 1 89 APPENDIX 2 92 2 LIST OF FIGURE AND TABLE Figure 1. University of Vaasa Organizational structure 49 Figure 2. University of Vaasa fact about students and employees 50 Table1. Public, private and hybrid organization 38 Table 2. List of interviewees 45 Table 3. Main outcomes of the research paper 76 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNIVERSITY OF VAASA Faculty of Philosophy Author: Mohammad Rony Master’s Thesis: The Challenges of Cultural Diversity in Hybrid Organization: The case of University of Vaasa Degree: Master of Administrative Sciences Major Subject: Public Management Supervisor: Omoregie Charles Osifo Year of Graduation: 2017 Number of pages: 94 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT: Hybrid organizations often have to deal with the issues of cultural diversity. Cultural diversity became a topic of discussion in 21st century. Due to that this study focuses on the cultural cooperation, conflicts, impact of cultural diversity in hybrid organization. Proper management of diversity can be beneficial for the organization. In this globalized world there is the frequent chance of having a diverse working environment. This diversity can be in categories like gender, race, national origin, religion, age cohort and work specialization and so on. In an organization diversity can play a vital role regarding the success or failure in reaching organizational goal. Diversity can bring innovative ideas for the organization. On the other hand diversity can also be destructive for the organization. This can happen because diversity brings different cultures together which often makes miscommunication, discrimination, conflicts, and so forth other negative effects for the organization. The aim of this study is to find out how cultural diversity collides among the international employees of the University of Vaasa. Moreover, an intention of the study is to identify the causes of international employees’ effectiveness. It also shows in this study what kind of impact diversity management is having among the international employees. This research paper is based on a qualitative research that adopts semi structure interview analysis. Semi structured interviews were conducted among the international researchers of the University of Vaasa. The finding shows that, there were evidences of strong cultural barriers which reduce the international employees’ efficiency at the beginning. This study also finds that diversity management of the university needs to be emphasized more in order for it to improve. This can be done by providing diversity training, intercultural training etc. To identify international employees’ effectiveness this study found that uncertainty avoidance is weak among them and this is causing them to be less efficient. This study has some limitation for example interviews are strongly biased regionally and faculty wise. This might not show the proper situation of international employees. Finally it can be said that cultural diversity is an important aspect of the University of Vaasa since university’s vision is to be international and it is important to utilize international employees in more effective way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEYWORDS: Diversity Management, Cultural Diversity, Hybrid Organization, University of Vaasa. 4 5 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The intention to avoid conflicts and improve organizational performance has made diversity management a relevant topic. In a cultural group, there is often a shared common assumption, these common assumptions are based on the values of beliefs of the certain group of people. Culture can be formed in any group of people who have some similarities among them such as teams, generations, organizations, inhabitants of certain area, nations. In this way, we can see that culture can form in any situation where there is a common assumption among the people. This is how in organizations form their own culture and people can also form different culture there (Mathews and Ueno, 2001: 693). Besides that Mathews and Ueno’s (2001:696) research on Finland, suggests that according to the Hofstede (1991) cultural dimensions Finnish national culture is shown as small power distance and small uncertainty avoidance. People of an organization while working together, must share knowledge of the word in order to perform their duty. When there is sharing of knowledge between culturally diverse people of an organization there is also interethnic and intercultural communication (Koole and Thije 2001:584). According to Koole and Thije (2001) this kind of intercultural communication often leads to misunderstandings between them. Moreover, this kind of intercultural communication sometimes interferes with different dimension of communication, where one culture among them moves to dominant culture (Koole and Thije 2001:584). For instance, we can say that the University of Vaasa is run by the Finnish people, but there are also foreigners working. In that kind of situation Finnish culture among them can be the dominant culture for the foreign workers. Public Administration often has to deal with cultural diversity while people with different cultural backgrounds work together in an organization. The issue of this cultural diversity is emerging gradually in this 21st century globalized world, especially from the 6 perspective of multi-cultural environment of working. This study focuses on the cultural cooperation, conflicts and the impact of cultural diversity in public administration. The field of public administration can be benefited by incorporating the cultural diversity in working places. Diversity management has been an important issue for the organizations. In this globalized world there are frequent chances of having a diverse working environment. This diversity can be in categories like gender, race, national origin, religion, age cohort and work specialization and so on. In an organization diversity can play as a vital role of success or failure in reaching organizational goals. Diversity can bring innovative ideas for the organization and this kind of diversity makes the organization beneficial (Ashikali and Groeneveld 2013; Cox 1993; Hatvey, White and Mitchell Rice 2010; Watson, Kumar, and Michaelson1993). On the other hand some of the researchers argue that diversity can as well be destructive for the organization. This can happen because diversity brings different cultures together which often causes miscommunication, discrimination, conflicts, and other negative effects for the organization (Choi & Rainey 2013; Jehn, Northcraft, and Neale 1999; Kellogh and Naff, 2004; Milliken & Martins, 1996; Wise & Tschirhart, 2000; Tsui, Egan, and Xin 1995). Besides that some researchers suggest that diversity can be beneficial for an organization if it is managed and given importance (Brenda Marina 2010; Popescu and Rusko 2012). 1.2 Research question Working together requires all employee to have a common ground to make successful communication. Intercultural communication demands a common ground to make a successful communication. “Intercultural communication, as any type of communication, is only possible when interactants construct a common ground of meanings and practices that are oriented to 7 as shared, and which we have called ‘intercultural discourse.” (Koole and Thije, 2011:571.) There are some variables to create this common ground at work such as Nationality, Stereotype, Language, Attitude, Implication etc. I would like to sort out these variables among the hosting people and visiting people of the organization. Based on this I will try to answer my research questions; I. How cultural diversity is an issue for international researchers in hybrid organization? II. What is the nature of Diversity Management at the University of Vaasa? III. What solutions exist in addressing cultural diversity at the University of Vaasa? In the last few decades, economic evolution and globalization have made an immense transformation in the international working environment and cross-cultural communications. This has had a great influence among the international enterprises to establish business in other countries and these things attract great interest in cross-cultural studies (Hofstede, 1982). 1.3 Planned contributions I hope this research paper will be beneficial not only for University of Vaasa, but also for other universities that have especially international working environment. Diversity management is a vital issue in this globalized world. In Finnish universities there is high quality education, but still there is always chance to improve. Even though this research has been done from a narrow perspective it might still be beneficial for future researchers to develop this idea. 8 1.4 Structure of the thesis In this paper the intent is to go through culture, diversity, organization and organizational culture and diversity management to find the answers for the research questions. Research paper is focused on the semi structured interview on doctoral students of University of Vaasa, which is quite diverse. A qualitative analysis and discussion has been followed in order to find the research questions. Data analysis has been done through the cultural dimensions model of Hofstede. Chapter 2 explain the theoretical frame which starts with the explanations of organization and different kinds of organization. However there are more emphasis on hybrid organization since this research paper case study is about University of Vaasa as a hybrid organization. Organizational culture, goals, challenges has been explained after that. Later culture has been defined and explained from the perspective of organization. One of the most important component of this research paper which is Hofstede’ cultural dimensions have been also presented also. Following this there is arguments about diversity management. Finally at the end of chapter 2 there is a brief summary of the entire chapter. Chapter 3 is about the methodology where qualitative research method has been defined since the method of this research paper is qualitative. Following this semi structure interview has been explained from the perspective of this research paper. Besides that there is explanation about the process of data collection. Chapter 4 is about the data analysis based on the theoretical frame work of this study and date collected from semi structure interviews. At the beginning of the chapter there is presentation about the brief history about University of Vaasa and its international researchers. Later on Hofestede’s cultural dimensions has been tested to identify the international employees’ efficiency. Finally in chapter 5 research finding has been 9 discussed based on the research questions. However there are some limitations of this study which is also mentioned at the end of the study. 10 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK To understand the basic idea of this research conceptualization and theoretical analysis are necessary. In order to do that this research paper will define some key aspect like organization, different types of organization, hybrid organization and organizational challenges in hybrid organization. After these organizational sections this study will define culture from organizational perspective in section 2.2. Besides that there will another important tools of this research paper Hofstede’s cultural dimension will also be presented. In the section 2.3 diversity management will be defined from its advantages or disadvantages perspective. Finally at the end of theoretical chapter there is a summary of the arguments. 2.1 Definition of the organization This research paper is focused on a hybrid organization (University of Vaasa) however it is also necessary here to discuss about organizations and the different kinds of organizations. To define organizations Osifo (2012: 7) points out, “Organization can be defined as a social entity, where people are systematically structured and managed to meet a set target on an endless basis. Organizations can possess public or private outlook; organization can be driven by profit making or humanitarian interest.” According to the definition, we can see that an organization meets the interests of both the public and the private which suggests that organizations has both external and internal complexities. Whereas, internal complexity of the organization is related to management, employee, tools, structure and external complexity of the organization is related to environment, culture, competitors and so on (Osifo 2012:13). Another important element of organization is coordination which leads the organization to deal with the complexity successfully. Besides that, Osifo (2012:13) also claims that trust is the foundation of the organizational coordination. 11 Moreover, according to Boella and Torre (2006:6) an organization is typically formed in a group of people where there might be a single goal or several goals. The goal of the organization is to provide services or to produce goods or to bring effects in the society. In terms of services or goods it suggests factories, enterprises, to bring changes in the society or bringing effects in the society it suggests trade unions, police, political parties and so on. This suggests that in the society schools, hospitals, government offices, police etc., all these can be considered as organizations. 2.1.1 Types of organizations In the previous discussion about organizations there were two kinds of distinctive organizations as public and private organization. However, there are another kind of organization known as “Hybrid Organization” and in this research paper there will be detailed discussions about this kind of organizations. Rainey (1992:7) points out that the difference between public and private organizations have the tendency to be blurred because they have many similarities and interrelations. Following this there are many organizations which have the characteristics of both public and private organizations and they are known as hybrid organization. An organization can be identified from different point of view whether it is private, public or hybrid organization. A typical way to identify an organization is from its ownership perspective. There are many organizations funded by government that can be identified as public organizations. On the other hand some organizations are owned privately or work with private donation or funded through market sales is known as private organization (Rainey, 1992:7—8). On the other hand, if the organizations have both features like government funding and they’re owned privately then they’re known as hybrid organizations. We can see that hybrid organization can be owned by both government and privately, which makes the organization to deliver quasi-public goods. 12 According to Rainey (2000:451) Public and private organizations are differentiated by some patterns like; goals, structure, motivation and so on. Public organizations have more goal complexity and ambiguity than the private organizations. Organizational structure is much more formalized and red taped in public organization. This is why personnel and purchasing process is more complex in public organizations for its complex structure and formalization. Since personnel process is complex it leads to lower work efficiency and lower work satisfaction in public organization. On the other hand, private organization is profit oriented and they focus on efficiency which leads the organization to less organizational complexity. Besides that, public organization value higher public service rather than profit (Rainey2000:450—461). However Choi & Hooijberg (2001:404—405) point out that there is difficulty to recognize the difference between public and private organizations. Regarding this identifying issue among public and private organizations Choi & Hoojiberg (2001) point out many fundamental differences. Among these found differences Baldwin’s (1987) three major differences were stressed by them. In order to identify public and private organization they can be differentiated from three different perspectives as goals, leadership turnover and job security (Baldwin 1987:181—183). Goals can be a vital variable to differentiate public and private organizations. Baldwin (1987:182) argues that the goals in a public organization can be ambiguous, multipurpose and they can also be conflicting with each other. On the other hand in private organization goals are fewer and specified for the profit of the organization. In this way private organizations stay in the competitive market for profit whereas, public organizations do not represent themselves for competitive market (Baldwin 1987:181—182). Another variable to differentiate private and public organization is leadership turnover. Baldwin (1987:182) points out that public organization leadership is highly influenced politically. Usually when a certain political party takes over the government then that government takes over the leadership of the public organization for the amount of time that government exist. On the other hand private organization leadership works in a 13 different way, where the profit is the main factor. If the private organization is having satisfactory amount of profit for the organization then usually the leadership exists until they retire (Baldwin 1987:182). Moreover, job security plays a vital role to differentiate among private and public organizations. According to (Baldwin 1987:182—183) job security is higher in public organizations than in the private organizations. Employees have greater job security in public organizations for reasons such as; they are far from abuse or arbitrary actions, disciplinary actions are lengthy and so on (Baldwin 1987:181—182). In the previous discussion about organization leads to organizational types where there has been brief discussion about public, private and hybrid organization. Since this research paper focus about the University of Vaasa which is hybrid organization, in the next section 2.1.2 there will be elaborate discussion about hybrid organizations. 2.1.2 Hybrid organization In this study section, there will be an explanation of hybrid organization from diversity or more specifically cultural perspective. In order to do that there will be the definitions of hybrid organization and its positive and negative aspects on the organization. Besides that, it will be shown from the perspective of cultural diversity in a hybrid organization. Earlier in this study paper there was discussion about culture, culture and globalization, organizational culture and organizational goal, cultural dimensions and its features and diversity management. The aim of this section is to relate hybrid organization according to those topics. 14 Walter Kicket (2001: 148) has described Hybrid organization as “hybrid organizations are situated between the public and private spheres. On one hand they are supposed to function like customer oriented and efficient firms. On the other hand, they carry out intrinsically public tasks”. In a simple way, to define hybrid organization we can say that, a hybrid organization is which combines the features of public and private organization and it can be profit or non-profit organization (Hyyryläinen and Viinamäki, 2011:17). As we know that public and private organizations are different from each other and here hybrid organization can be identified as a third kind of organization. Oliver Williamson (1991) used the word “Hybrid” in a governance model even though it was not used broadly that time. Moreover, Hyyryläinen and Viinimäki (2011:19) point out that Williamson’s hybrid organization refers to some sort of alignment of organizational transactions with certain government structure. On the other hand, hybrids are these days related as an indication of post- new public management governance discourse (Hyyryläinen and Vinamäki, 2011:20). Hybridity can also be considered as the outcome of new organizations which can combine their paths to organize tradition and divergent institutional fields (Bishop and Waring 2016:1938). According to these it suggests that hybrid organization is a combination of the tradition and diversity of the organization. This is how we can see that diversity at the organization has become an essential component of the hybrid organization. However, hybrid organization can be defined as many other ways which may lead to confusion. Most importantly, Hyyryläinen and Viinimäki (2011:21) claim that the best way to clarify hybrid organization can be done through the multidimensional model of Philimp Marcel Karre (2011a, 2011b). According to Karre (2011a: 28—43; 2011b:3—5) this model can be presented in three groups in several dimensions. Structure and activities as first group describes hybrid organization in five dimensions: 15 - Legal form: can identify if the hybrid organization is run by private or public law. - Ownership: shows that if the hybrid organization is owned by government or private owners - Activities: show if the hybrid organization is working for commercial activities or social benefits. - Funding: identify if the hybrid organization is self-funded or government funded. Market environment:if the hybrid organization is working in an open competitive or in a monopoly environment. Strategy and culture as the second group describes in two dimensions: - Strategic orientation: shows if the hybrid organization strategy is private or public interest. - Value orientation: shows if the hybrid organization carry public or commercial values. Governance and politics as the third group has three dimensions: - Relationship with political principal: identify if the hybrid organization is run by politicians or professionals. - Managerial autonomy: represents if the hybrid organization has freedom to choose political or market oriented decision - Executive autonomy: represents if the hybrid organization has more or less autonomy to decide how they take care of their duties. Since a hybrid organization combines the features of public and private organization, this way the hybrid organization adopts the advantages from public and private organization. However, a hybrid organization will be successful if it is able to adopt to the changing environment. Benefits of hybridity can be described from many different perspectives. According to Hyyryläinen and Viinimäki (2011:22—28) a hybrid organization can be benefited in many ways like; market-related benefits, performance-related benefits, culture-related benefits, governance-related benefits. For example, University of Vaasa is a hybrid organization as it is no longer funded by the Finnish Government and the 16 university has to arrange its economical facts by exploring to the new markets. In this way we can say that the university will be economically benefited if it can adopt to the organizational changing environment successfully. From the perspective of cultural point of view a hybrid organization can be benefited because, “…established hybrid organization is more open to new culture and practices, and it does not merely share the history of the agency-model…the hybrid organization can be more open to confluence diverse organizational cultures, and thereby take the advantages of different cultures.” (Hyyryläinen and Viinimäki, 2011: 27). Agreeing with this we can say that if the organization is culturally diverse and different background people are working then it should be beneficial for the organization. This is how we can say that in a diverse organizational culture hybridity can work effectively. Moreover, we know diversity is an asset for the organization especially if it is hybrid organization. 2.1.3 Organizational challenges in Hybrid organization Hybridity is not free from its challenges as well, there are many kinds of key challenges about hybrids. According to Kickert (2001:144) as a hybrid organization is in between public and private organization, then both different kind of organizational cultures, values, and norms may collude. Because of this possible collusion there is always concern about hybrid organization that it may fail to establish a solid value-based integrity. Besides that, in this study paper it has been discussed earlier that success of diversity management is also depending on equal treatment. Regarding this Hyyryläinen and Viinamäki (2011:30) point out that equal treatment becomes much more complex in a hybrid organization. On the other hand, goals and strategy are not often clear in hybrid organization because of the complexity of the organizational type. 17 According to Hyyryläinen and Viinimäki (2011:29—33) hybridity is challenged in many ways like; unambiguity in value-base, absence of clear goals, difficulties to use rewards, difficulties in establishing a new identity. On the other hand, to have a successful hybrid organization we have to focus that management should have clear objectives and goals for the organization (Hyyryläinen and Viinimäki 2011:33). However, to be a successful hybrid organization there is high importance to have clear goals and objectives of the organization. 18 2.2 Culture and organization In this section of this study culture will be explained from organization perspective. The aim of this research paper is to identify culture in hybrid organization. Previously discussed organizations will be attempted to follow up here. In order to clarify the culture there will be an explanation of culture, culture and globalization, organizational culture and goal and finally cultural dimensions and its features. 2.2.1 Culture In this writing one of the main concerns is cultural diversity which has been a vital issue in hybrid organizations. This is why I would like to define culture here from different point of view especially from Public Management point of view. At the beginning if we look from anthropological point of view culture can be defined from four different point of view as hunting and gathering, herding livestock, village farming and modern civilization nature or law of the earth (Lawlor, 1991:142). Ever since the primitive age humans are social beings and they like to do things as a group. On the other hand, if we ask what culture consists basically? Then we can recite the definition of culture by Adler. “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs and any capabilities and habits acquired by a man as a member of society”, or “a way of life of a group of people, the configuration of all of the more or less stereotyped patterns of learned behavior, which are handed down from one generation to the next through the means of language and imitation.” (Adler, 1993:29.) Here we can see that Adler (1993) describes culture as a complex whole, from this perspective it suggests that we humans are social and culture is created in the society. 19 There are some different aspects to define culture as well. Culture can be defined from focus-defined, locus-defined, macro level, meso level, nano level and so on. All these different point of views about culture suggest that different people react, play action role, bureaucratic role in a different way because of their different cultural background. Administrative behavior of public organization tries to mold their personality according to organization rules. However this cultural diversity makes decision makers to think of it also. Following up the meaning of culture as human group, one of the most comprehensive and generally accepted definition is provided by Kroeber and Kluckhohn: “Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbol, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture system may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other as conditioning elements of future action.” (Adler 1993:29; Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck 1961.) According to this definition of culture we can see here that culture is a pattern which is grown by the human beings throughout the journey of tradition, symbols, actions and so on. From this we can see that culture is not an element which can be developed alone and in a short period of time. Culture is rather a matter of interactions and developed more we spend time in a certain pattern in human groups. Moreover, according to Valentini (2005:10) culture consists of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, timing, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and these are developed by also human groups in terms of generations as well. However it does not ensure here that all other cultures follow up the same pattern and this is why all other cultures might have a lot or quite less similarities. This is because other different researchers have pointed out that 20 each culture has its own unique “word view” or means for making sense of the world (Zaharna 2000: 87). Valentini (2007:124) also mentioned that variables of culture (Ihator 2000) are influenced historically, economically and politically. Valentini (2007:124) also added that Ihator (2000) identified the four variables in culture which can affect our practice of public relationship. These four variables are individualism versus collectivism; high context versus low context communication styles; degree of media independence and the impact of culture on media content and channels; and orientation to time. We can see here that even though we can classify culture in different categories still these categories or variables might change. According to Valentini (2007) a cultural approach provides better interpretations of human behavior in different national contexts and thus better understanding of organizations’ employees (Valentini, 2007:117). Valentini (2007) also points out that cultural approach can be more effective in establishing good relationships between the different national cultural contexts. One of the core components of culture is “shared meanings” which is man-made and it is incorporated among the people of a certain culture (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner 1993:27). This shared meaning is interpreted by humans in different ways from different perspectives or cultural groups. In a certain group of culture this kind of shared meanings are open to change and accepted as effective solutions to conflicts (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner 1993:27). 2.2.2 Culture and globalization In globalization, it is essential to transform the idea about the role and tools of human resource management in the public sector. This is because globalization implies the 21 cultural diversity in management composition and management style to contribute to the competitive advantage of the global agency (Kim 1999:227–240). Globalization makes these more competitive like global mindset, which is the key aspect ability to cope with cultural relativity for the managers. Nowadays in international corporations, multinational companies, global companies all of them succeed with the efficiency of the managers. This is because they appoint managers from different areas according to their different cultural ethnicity. They can acculturate with their own culture and with the organizations culture. According to Kim (1999:227–240) public administration should get new shape with globalization. He suggests some key characteristics of the globalized public administration school like; cultural exposure, comparative, problem-centered, flexibility in timing, multilingual, team building, faculty development & exchange and textbook and case study development. Kim (1999:227–240) suggests all these factors to be included in studying public administration in the world of globalization. According to many intercultural scholars, every culture has its own unique “world view” or means for making sense of the world (Zaharna 2000). For this reason from different cultural background one context can be different according to the culture. According to Sriramesh and White (1992) culture is communication and communication is a public relation. In this way it can be said that practice of public relations can influence the economy and history of a nation while communicating. There are still many cultural studies from different approach. For instance, Schein (1985) describes culture as an iceberg format. There are three levels in his culture format: visible, consciously and unconsciously. Visible part of the iceberg is the cultural artifacts which are presented in daily interaction with environment, such as language, manners, way of dressing etc. Middle level is the conscious part which is under the surface but directly applies to observing the artifacts level, such as values and norms. Deep under the water is the part which is the source of values and behaviors that are unconsciously agreed and accepted by cultural group. They are feelings, thoughts, beliefs which can easily be overlooked because of their unconsciousness. 22 In the communication in organization conflict management is a vast problem. As it is said before that culture is related to communication and communication is also a part of management that has conflicts. According to Deutsch (1973) conflict management is not a resolution, it is a means taken to contain the variances when a resolution is completely impossible. According to Miall (2004: 3), “conflict management is the art of designing appropriate institution to guide the inevitable conflict in to appropriate channel”. The goal is to make the conflict beneficial and less destructive for all sides (Deutsch, 1973). Bloom field and Railly (1998) have said the following about the conflict management: “[….] Conflict management is the positive and constructive handling of differences and divergences. Rather than advocating methods for removing conflicts….addresses the more realistic questions of conflict management: how to deal with it in constructive way, how to bring in opposing sides together in a cooperative process, how to design a practical, achievable cooperative system for the constructive management of difference.” (Bloomfield and Reilly 1998:18.) The person may easily give up his interest just for the sake of others to fulfill the other’s need. Avoiding is the opposite of the integrating approach in conflict management strategies where a person neither gives concern for self nor for the others. Finally it can be summed up here that like Hofstede’s dimensions, culture and globalization all have certain affect in public administration. Which shows here that for the reason of globalization nowadays different cultural people working as a team in an organization. Because of having different cultural background there are problems in decision making, managerial aspects, and cooperation. Most importantly to achieve the goal of the company these factors play an important role here. 2.2.3 Organizational culture and organizational goal 23 The purpose of this section is to analyze organizational culture notion from different researchers’ point of view. This will lead us here from culture to diversity and from cultural diversity to cultural diversity management and to organizational culture. The idea is to make here a clear framework for this research paper which has a focus in finding out the cultural diversity in hybrid organization and its challenge of effectiveness. According to O’Reilly et al. (1996) defined organizational culture by the use of Q-sort method and according to this method organizational culture has been identified as seven dimensions of organizational culture; innovation, outcome orientation and respect for the people, team orientation, stability, aggressiveness and attention to detail. Besides that Denison and Mishra (1995) mentioned three dimensions of culture as Adaptability of the organization, mission/goal orientation and employee involvement and participation. In addition, Hofstede (1998) mentioned six dimensions; process oriented Vs results oriented, employee oriented Vs job oriented, parochial Vs professional, open system Vs closed system, lose control Vs tight control and normative Vs pragmatic. Cheng (1990) also identified organizational culture from Taiwanese perspective as; uprightness and honesty, social responsibility, performance orientation and neighborhood harmony. On the other hand Schein (1992) defined organizational culture as “A pattern of basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered solid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.” (Vargas-Hernandez and Noruzi, 2009:183.) Conflict and organization are closely related. Vargas-Hernandez and Noruzi (2009) mentioned that conflict is a fundamental characteristics of an organization but sometimes conflicts can risk the core organizational process. According to them conflict culture in the organization can go through both top-down process such as leadership and organizational structure and bottom-up processes such as the role of individual level 24 attributes according to personality, demographics and values (Vargas-Hernandez and Noruzi, 2009:185). Organizational culture is an important topic for the studies of organization as well as it is important for this research to understand cultural diversity from organizational perspective. Organizational cultures also set the culture of conflict in an organization (Di Pietro and Di Virgilio, 2013:912). This suggests that conflicts depend on the organization’s work type, ideas, values and behavior of the people in the organization. Besides that Lewis et al. (1997) point out that conflict in the organization turns institutionalized because of common attitudes, values and rituals. This is how conflict becomes a part of the organization. In order to develop organizational culture Di Pietro and Di Virgilio (2013) point out other researchers’ argument as a sense of identity, commitment to something larger, social system stability and sense making device with which members shape behaviors in the organization. Another important aspect is that the informal conflict management will be strongly influenced by organizational culture this is because organizational culture controls behavioral norms (Di Pietro and Di Virgilio, 2013:912). To understand conflict from organizational conflict culture, it can be divided in two categories as interpersonal conflict and organizational conflict (Donais, 2006). Here interpersonal conflict suggests harassment, discrimination and so on. On the other hand organizational conflict is suggested as a hierarchical conflict among managers, among employees and among managers and employees. According to this categorization we can see that organizational conflict is different from other conflicts, however organizational conflict may be related to interpersonal conflicts. Di Pietro and Di Virgilio (2013) suggest that according to findings of their research organizational conflict can be managed through informal conflict management because organization has its own norms which can be an obstacle to resolving conflict in a formal way. However, strong culture of sociability has an impact on informal conflict management here. 25 On the other hand, to understand the organization culture we can look at it from McGregor’s point of view. Douglas McGregor’s (1960) Theory X and Y has played an important role in this research. According to McGregor Theory X is for the “authoritarian people management” on the other hand Y is for “Human Relation”. Hierarchy of needs by Abraham Maslow is used in McGregor’s theory. He specified lower order which stands for theory X and higher order that stands for theory X. Employees can obtain higher needs in work which can be done by the type Y. This is because type Y has a high self-esteem and he takes benefit in the hierarchical status he has achieved. In contrast type X employees fail to meet the needs at work. Following this at work the type X employees can have only the lower needs fulfilled but higher needs fail to fulfill. The type X employees meet the lowest two level of these needs fulfilled in his work. So the duties are done by the employees only to fulfill the duties definitely not the satisfaction. Moreover higher need only ensures the satisfaction for the employee. Besides type Y employees can have their higher needs at work which ensures their appreciation. This is why these employees are confident of being part of the place where they work (McGregor 1960: 33–57). Therefore the type Y employees are naturally demotivated at work and they depend on supervision of the management; even if it is for the small tasks. Management’s role is to control these employees always. Managers are kind of strict in these cases and always to blame for the failure of work to his subordinate and the he does not even consider the other possible reasons that could cause the mistakes that are not related to the work that the subordinate does. (McGregor 1960: 33–43) The main features of theory X can be mentioned here on the assumption about the workers (McGregor 1960: 33–43): - The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he or she can. - Because of this human characteristic of dislike of work, most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of organizational objectives. 26 - The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, and wants security above all. Relying on these factors Theory X assumptions, an approach to management has developed that relies on rewards and punishments, incentives, threats, coercion and control (McGregor 1960, Denhardt 2004). On the other hand the assumption of theory Y employees are referred to (McGregor 1960:47–48): - The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest. - External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing about effort toward organizational objectives. People will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of objectives to which they are committed. - Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement. - The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but to seek responsibility. - The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributive in the population. - Under conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized. (McGregor 1960:47–48) This different situations of Theory X and Y suggest that the conflict in the organization is one of the obstacles in cooperative team work in hybrid organization. Usually organizations are goal-directed. They have particular way of work in reaching the goal. The effectiveness in pursuing the goals influences the quality of our lives and sometimes even our ability to survive. In this way when we go to different organizations we get different kind of services and attitudes because of the organization’s goals. Employees are trained to achieve the goal which affects the way the customer gets 27 services from there. This is why it is assumable that employees will perform better or provide better service if they are aware of the goals of the organizations (Rainey 2014: 147–149). However, this is not applicable in all kind of organizations. It may not applicable in the fragmented and pluralistic institutions or in the political environment of government agencies. Where there are multiple authorities they may not all agree on the goals of the organizations. Another problem is that experts in this field have not developed clear and conclusive theory to define organizational goal. Moreover, some organizations define goals as the profitability of the institutions. In that case profitability, does not apply for governmental and non-profit organizations (Rainey 2014: 149–150). Sometimes goals create complicacy in the organizations because there are many kinds of goals which can be contradictory with one another in the organization. In official goals, the focus is mainly on the general goals which present an organization’s major values and purpose. In operative goal organization focuses on operations and procedure. Sometimes giving importance to one specific goal of an organization takes away from another goal of the organization. This is because in an organization there are usually a set of goals which demand different procedures for reaching them. Goals also have hierarchies and chains which means that it’s often difficult to express the goal in a conclusive way. These complicacies make it challenging for the leaders and managers to define the goals of the organizations (Rainey 2014:150 – 151). One of the most frequent problem of the goals of hybrid organizations is that, their goals are particularly vague and intangible compared to the private business firms. Organizational structure and hierarchical delegation make it also more complicated in the hybrid organization. There are not enough clear, measurable, well-accepted performance criteria which creates the bureaucracy in hybrid organizations. Since there are no clear goals in the hybrid organizations it makes the top leaders less effective because they cannot asses the performance based on clear goals and measures. Due to this top leaders 28 also have less control over the lower level. To improve the situation managers, need to be aware of the complicacy and conflicts of the goals. Moreover, managers can focus on the concepts and models for assessing organizational effectiveness that researchers have developed (Rainey 2014:151–155). It is a must that one should determine the goals of the organization and also asses if they will achieve them. As we know organizations usually have many goals which may vary in many dimensions and sometimes they conflict with one another. Researchers also point out that goals can be examined from long and short term value. In a simple way, we can say that goal model implies a view of management as a rational and orderly process. According to Gross (1976) goal approach model has a frame work of seven different groups of goals- satisfying interests, producing output, making efficient use of inputs, investing in the organization, acquiring resources, observing codes and behaving rationally. However, researchers have found complicacy in it from the conflicting view point of subjective and objective measures. Since the researchers have not determined the specific goals of the specific organization. They insist on the criteria for the goals of the organizations, such as productivity, efficiency, flexibility and adaptability (Rainey 2014:155 – 157). 2.2.3 Cultural dimensions and its features In a group intercultural communication depends on many factors, they are not only characterized by the characteristics of each group but also related to power relationship among the groups (Koole and Thije 2001:573). In this case we can bring back Hofstede’s (1991) power distance dimension where some nations have higher power distance compared to other nations. Cultural diversity among high and low power distance will also affect in the communication according to Koole and Thije (2001). Hofstede’s cultural dimensions were primarily based on the data from 66 countries’ 88,000 IBM employees where there were 20 languages being used by the employees (Hofstede 2011; Terlutter, Deihl & Mueller 2006). 29 At the beginning Hofstede (1982) introduces to us the four main values of culture like; power distance, collectivism versus individualism, femininity versus masculinity, uncertainty avoidance. Later Hofstede introduced fifth dimension as a long term orientation and sixth dimension as indulgence versus restraint. Hofstede’s these dimensions are the essential base in social science and many researchers have done further research based on his cultural dimensions theory. The first dimension in the power distance belongs to the context where the less powerful members of the institutions and organizations within a country believe that power is distributed unequally. In a small power distance country there is limited dependency on bosses or managers when on the contrary in high power distance country there is high amount of dependency (Hofstede 2005:45–46). Besides, there are easy approach attitudes in small power distance country, whereas in high power distance approaching is not easy (Hofstede 2005:45–46). Another important way to look through this dimension, in poor countries where power distance is high is frequent occurrences of corruption (Hofstede 2005:62–63). According to his model countries like Mexico, Malaysia and Panama have large power distance when on the other hand countries like Austria, Denmark and Ireland belong to small power distance (Barak 2005:171). In the second dimension there is individualism versus collectivism, individualism is related to the society where people live an individual life and people live in strong cohesive group. In an individual culture employed persons are more likely to act according to their own interests which is why it is necessary that in individual culture organization employees’ and organizations’ interests meet together (Hofstede 2005:99). On the other hand in a collective culture organizations prefer to hire relatives, family or other known persons. This is because according to them hiring family or other known persons reduces the risk at work because they know each other (Hofstede 2005:99–100). In example high individualism countries are U.S.A., Netherlands and Australia. On the 30 other hand high collectivism countries are Venezuela, Colombia and Panama (Barak 2005:171). In the third dimension femininity versus masculinity where masculinity is where gender role is very distinct, for instance countries like Japan, Switzerland and Italy. On the other hand femininity is where gender roles are ignored equality is actively present in the organizations. Sweden, Norway and Denmark belong to this high femininity country (Barak 2005:171). In a feminine culture like in Sweden or Finland it is more preferable that conflicts are resolved by compromise and negotiation (Hofstede 2005:143). Usually boys in masculine society are bound for ambition and competition, whereas for girls in masculine society these things are more like optional. This means that if girls insist they might go for the ambition and competition (Hofstede 2005:144). The fourth dimension is avoidance of uncertainty. This is related to how much the members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations which means they need predictability. Portugal, Greece and Uruguay these countries have weak uncertainty avoidance, besides Sweden, Denmark and Singapore have strong uncertainty avoidance (Barak 2005:171). According to Hofstede (2005:182) countries with weak uncertainty avoidance have emotional culture and it is important to have comfortable structure environment in the organization. On the other hand countries with strong uncertainty avoidance have less emotion culture and therefore they do not require so strict structure in the organization, but they work more according to the necessity of the organization (Hofstede 2005:182–183). In the fifth dimension there is the long term orientation societies, which means that it is more appreciated to emphasize to the future perspective whereas in the short term orientation societies are more related to past and present perspective. Hofstede (2005:218) also mentioned that in the long term society family and work are considered together. In the short term orientation societies people are traditionalists, they give importance to their 31 past which causes that they are less innovative in the organization (Hofstede 2005:218– 219). Sixth dimension is the latest addition of Hofstede which is Indulgence versus Restraint. In this comparatively new dimension indulgence indicates the society which allows more free gratification of basic and natural human desires. And all these are to bring happiness in life. On the other hand restrain suggest to the society which controls gratification of needs and regulates for the need of strict social norms (Hofstede 2011:10—15). Nowadays in the world of globalization business is also globalized where communication is the key factor of organization in conveying message. This is because people from different cultural backgrounds are working under the same organizations. In these cases business communication messages can be interpreted in many ways according to person’s own cultural background. Hofstede’s this dimension is accelerated in organizational cultural studies for decades. For instance in masculine societies a manager usually communicates directly, assertively and even aggressively. In the feminine societies this kind of behavior may be reported as unfriendly, arrogant and even rude. According to Hofstede’s third dimension of a Swedish manager reading a help wanted advertisement for a salesperson in the U.S. might be considered by the candidate as “aggressive”. On the other hand, British managers may interpret a Japanese manager’s modesty and humility in stating his qualifications as a weakness. (Barak 2005:174–175). However Hofstede’s dimension is criticized also in many ways by scholars. One of the most striking point was against Hofstede’s overgeneralization of a a country’s culture. (McSweeny 2002; Mckenna 1998; Martin 2002; Moore 2009). Hofstede made his questionnaires only among the IBM workers in 66 countries which is questionable to McSweeny (2002:94). Because his questionnaires were only for IBM workers which is not reliable to have an idea from certain country. Here McSweeny (2002:95) demands that he should have gone to some other people of the country to make it more reliable since every occupation has its own occupational culture. If the occupation is same it 32 doesn't matter whether it is in Asia, Europe or America, the way they work is almost same as it is a same occupation. McSweeny (2002:98) tries to argue here like this Hofstede did his survey with only IBM employee so that is more with IBM culture not national culture. McSweeny argues that 'organizational Culture of Hofstede is not clear and it is problematic with the concept of "practice" and "perception of practice". Mcsweeny (2002:105) also demands that it is not connected with this contemporary society. 2.3 Diversity management Diversity can be interpreted in many different ways. In order to define diversity we can recite Cox (1993), as “Diversity is the variation of social and cultural identities among people existing together in a defined employment or market settings.” (Cox 1993:469.) According to this definition the terms social and cultural identity relate to the personal affiliation with groups, research has shown to have significant influence on peoples’ major life experiences. This affiliation entitles with gender, race, national origin, religion, age cohort and work specialization, among others. Employment and market systems include churches, schools, factory work teams, industrial customers, end-use consumer, baseball teams, military units, and so on (Cox, 1993:469–470). Diversity can be a great asset for an organization and at the same time it can reduce the effectiveness of the organization and increase conflicts among the workers if the diversity is not well managed. Cox (1993) points out that a properly managed diversity of an organization can be benefited from improved problem solving, increased creativity and innovation, increased organizational flexibility, improvement of the quality of personnel through better recruitment and retention. Moreover a well-trained diversity management organization has better result than the organizations that have no diversity training. However Cox (1993) also points out that a diversity management effort can be 33 unsuccessful because of misdiagnosis of the problem, wrong approach, and misunderstanding of the learning curve. Usually organizations implement diversity management in order to attract, retain, and manage a diverse workforce and to enhance their performance (Ashikali and Groeneveld, 2013: 147). According to White and Rice (2010) diversity in work place not only consists of race, age, and gender but also includes socioeconomic status and cultural differences. In the research paper the main focus is on cultural differences in workforce and effectiveness in hybrid organization. Diversity in workplace enhances the decision making ability because different cultural background people have different perspective about an idea which brings different kinds of opinions in better decision making (Marina 2010:45). In this way Marina (2010) argues that if the organization manages diversity actively then the organization has better organizational effectiveness and efficiency. However, managing diversity actively is not an easy task, because managing individual attitudes and action toward diversity is not enough (Popescu and Rusko 2012: 237). They point out that diversity in an organization must be addressed at an institutional level to identify and modify practices which unwittingly exclude or marginalize minority applicants and faculty members (Popescu and Rusko 2012: 237). We can understand here that diversity of an organization must be recognized as an institutional level which means that diversity of an organization should be considered as any other important organizational facts like equity, transparency, accountability, ethics and so on. Moreover, public service system may have general guideline for diversity but every organization is unique which means every organization should have specific guideline for diversity. This is why diversity management has direct link with the changes in work practices and the acceptance of different methods to acquire organizational goals to workforce diversity (Thomas 1991). To emphasize this Meyerson and Fletcher (1999) point out that inequality is embedded in our cultural patterns which also in organizational 34 systems and this is why we need to redesign our work pattern in order to give space for diversity. Another aspect of diversity management is the affective commitment of employees’ in the organization. Ashikali & Groeneveld (2013) point out that affective commitment for the organizational goal is the outcome of diversity management (Ashikali & Groeneveld 2013:150). According to them affective commitment is produced by diversity management because diversity management focuses on successfully attracting, selecting, and retaining diverse employees, effectively managing them and on recognizing and valuing their differences. This is how it improves the commitment and belongs to the organization’s relation with the employees. However they also point out that if the diversity management affected employee outcomes positively, it would also contribute to organizational performance (Ashikali & Groeneveld 2013:163). Researchers have also pointed out that there is no common or established theory for diversity management, it is rather complex for an organization (Milliken & Martins, 1996; Pitts & Wise 2010 Wise & Tschirhart, 2000). Even though globalization, migration brings huge flow of diversity in the organizations still researchers have not established or put attention regarding diversity management in the organizations. Another perspective to analyze diversity management is in demographic diversity. Choi & Rainey (2013; 309) point out that people with different demographic characteristics may relate to high levels of relation conflicts and on the other hand same demographic characteristics tend to interact positively. This kind of demographic diversity leads to discrimination and self- segregation, conflicts and miscommunication in the organization. Importantly effectively managed demographic diversity can reduce this kind of conflicts in the organization (Choi & Rainey 2013:310). However, researchers have pointed it out that effective diversity management needs more clarification, whereas only adoption of diversity programs does not indicate the effective implementation (Kellogh and Naff, 2004). 35 In the discussion over diversity researchers have shown that diverse work force in the organization can be creative and effective, innovative and so on (Watson, Kumar, and Michaelson1993; Cox, Lobel, and McLeod 1991). On the other hand researchers have also shown that diverse work force in the organization can be conflictual, miscommunicated and so on (Jehn, Northcraft, and Neale 1999; Tsui, Egan, and Xin 1995). These positive and negative effects of diversity depend on how we deal with diversity in the organization, whereas some organizations are benefited from diversity and some organizations are suffering from diversity. Diverse group is also associated with the power differences and cultural differences. Foldy (2004) points out that more powerful members in the organization are more likely to talk more and have more influence compared to less powerful members, which is similar to dominant and dominated group in the organization. This power difference in diverse workforce in the organization makes it difficult to establish harmony in a culturally diverse group. In order to solve this Foldy (2004) points out the idea of diversity perspectives by Ely and Thomas (2001) which are: the discrimination and fairness perspective, the access and legitimacy perspective and the integration and learning perspective. Foldy (2004) emphasizes that these diversity perspectives can be the key factors between diversity and performance, which is also suggested as learning from and across difference could be one path to enhance performance. A deeper focus or examination of word diversity will reveal positive and negative aspects. Barak (2005:132) points out, “Workforce diversity refers to the division of the workforce into distinction categories that (a) have a perceived commonality within a given cultural or national context, and that (b) impact potentially harmful or beneficial employment outcomes such as job opportunities, treatment in the workplace, and promotion prospects–irrespective of job- related skills and qualifications.” (Barak 2005:132.) 36 This is how according to Barak (2005:132) we can say that diversity in workforce has common ground which I mentioned also earlier in this paper. Even though the workers in a diverse place, they come through fulfilling some requirement still it is not enough, it is a competition for the survival of the fittest in the organization. Workforce diversity makes the organization more efficient if diversity management is operated properly. However, diversity management has been also criticized widely by the researchers. According to Lorbiecki and Jack (2000) diversity management has been accused of not fighting against inequalities in work organizations and not providing essentialist and stereotypical categories of difference (Ylöstalo 2016:417). Besides that diversity management was also accused of “being too simplistic, as it emphasizes mechanistic practices such as training, communication, mentoring, and teamwork, but falls silent about structural institutional inequality based on, for example, gender, race, and class” (Kersten, 2000:243). Researches emphasizes that equality policies should be central components of diversity management, but they should not to replace it (Noon, 2007; Wrench, 2005). 2.4 Synthesis of theoretical arguments In this section of the study there will be the presentation of the summary of arguments from the discussion above. Earlier in this theoretical framework there was discussion and arguments about Culture, where culture has been discussed from the perspective of globalization, cultural diversity, organizational culture and goals and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Following this there was discussion about diversity management in organizations, where there was arguments about advantages and disadvantages of diversity management. Specifically, an effective way of diversity management has been discussed there. Finally there was discussion about hybrid organization where necessity of hybrid organization has been presented. Also problems and benefits of hybrid organization have been discussed. Throughout this theoretical framework presents 37 relationship between culture and diversity which intends to find a platform to identify the challenges of cultural diversity in hybrid organization. At the very beginning of theoretical framework there were discussions about organizations. According to that discussion about different kinds of organizations. It can be summed up in the table below. Table1. Public, private and hybrid organization Public organization Private organization Hybrid Organization Goal complexity and goal ambiguity There are more goal complexity and ambiguity There are less goal complexity and ambiguity Can be both Organizational Structure There are more formalization and red tape There are less formalization and red tape Mixture of both Formalization of personnel and purchasing processes Public Organization has highly structured personnel rules and lengthy process of purchase Private Organization has less structured personnel rules and short process of purchase Can be both Work satisfaction Low High Can be both Job Security High Low Can be both 38 Value Public organization has higher value on public service Private organization has profit value Can be social beneficial or commercial Ownership Government, taxations, Private funding, Can be both government and private funding at the very beginning of the culture section there was a very basic definition of culture. Actual intention of this was that basic idea of culture is to relate with globalization. There we can see different kind of people working in an organization. Which shows here that nowadays different cultural people work as a team in an organization and for having different cultural background they have problem in decision making, managerial aspects, cooperation and most importantly achieving the goal of the company these factors play an important role here. Organizational culture is an important topic for the studies of organization as well as it is important for this research to understand cultural diversity from organizational perspective. Moreover, McGregor Theory X and Y suggest the conflict in the organization which is one of the obstacles in cooperative team work in organizations has also been discussed. Besides that there were discussions about the effectiveness in pursuing the organizational goals influences the quality of our lives and sometimes even our ability to survive. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions is one of the most important components in this research paper for finding the answers of the research questions. This is because there are people from different cultural backgrounds working under the same organization. Cultural dimensions have been discussed previously from nations’ cultural perspective. As we have discussed already that power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance identify the national culture and it reflects on the organizational culture as well. These Hofstede’s dimensions are accelerated in organizational cultural study for decades. However, criticism about Hofstede’s cultural dimensions have been considered and 39 discussed previously and this research paper intends to work on this apart from the drawbacks of the dimensions. For example stereotyping is one of the most criticizing point and this paper focuses in the data analysis not to stereotype. Diversity management is another component of this research paper because the case study in this study paper is about University of Vaasa where the working environment is quite diverse. In the discussion over diversity researchers have shown that diverse work force in the organization can be creative and effective, innovative and so on (Watson, Kumar, and Michaelson1993; Cox, Lobel, and McLeod 1991). On the other hand researchers have also shown that diverse work force in the organization can be conflictual, miscommunicated and so on (Jehn, Northcraft, and Neale 1999; Tsui, Egan, and Xin 1995). These positive and negative effects of diversity depend on how we deal with diversity in the organization, whereas some organizations are benefited from diversity and some organizations are suffering from diversity. The idea was to present diversity management to have a look at the both sides of it and to utilize it in hybrid organization. In the last section of the theoretical part there were discussion about hybrid organization, where hybrid organization has been focused from cultural and diversity management perspective. Arguments were presented to show how hybrid organization can be benefited from cultural point of view. According to Hyyryläinen and Viinamäki (2011:22—28) a hybrid organization can be benefited in many ways like; market-related benefits, performance-related benefits, culture-related benefits, governance-related benefits. Besides that according to Hyyryläinen and Viinamäki (2011:29—33) hybridity is challenged in many ways like; unambiguity in value-base, absence of clear goals, difficulties to use rewards, difficulties in establishing a new identity. This is how hybrid organization was presented along with its advantages and disadvantages. Finally, at the end of the theoretical framework we can see a few components; culture, diversity management and hybrid organizations are aiming to find out the research questions. In order to do that in the empirical part we shall see how these components are 40 trying to answer the research questions. On the other hand it can be said that in this theoretical framework there was effort to present the component from a neutral perspective. 41 3 METHODOLOGY Before starting discussion in this methodology section it is necessary to address the understanding of the words “Methods” and “Methodology”. According to Bryman (2008: 160) “By “methods” we typically mean the techniques that researchers employ for practicing their craft. “Methods” might be instruments of data collection like questionnaires, interviews or observation.” (Bryman: 2008:160.) According to this definition of methods, in this study the method is used as an instrument of data collection as semi structured interview. Through the semi structured interview it has been an effort to explore the effects of diversity at work in University of Vaasa. Most importantly Hofstede’s cultural dimensions’ theory has been tested through the semi structured interview. In this study, it was also highlighted to efficiency of international workers from the perspective of PhD students of University of Vaasa. Besides that methodology refers to “Methodology is the study of the methods that are employed. It is concerned with uncovering the practices and assumptions of those who use methods of different kinds.” (Bryman 2008:160.) This study follows the qualitative research methodology, in this section it will be discussed about qualitative research method and justification of qualitative research for this study. In justification section it will be discussed the reason of using qualitative research. Later it will be followed up by the data collection and analysis. To have credible and recent scenario of cultural diversity in University of Vaasa there were taken fifteen semi structured interviews. All the interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed, which will be presented in data analysis section. 42 3.1 Qualitative research method and justification of the method Qualitative and quantitative are two main research methods. These methods are different from each other. We can consider qualitative research from the perspectives of words, point of views of participants, researcher close, theory emergent, process, unstructured, rich deep data, micro, meaning and natural settings. On the other hand we can examine quantitative research from the perspective of numbers, point of view of researcher, researcher distant, theory testing, static, structured, generalization, hard reliable data, macro, behavior and artificial settings (Bryman 2008:393). However there is also a combination of qualitative and quantitative method which is know as mixed methods research. This study has used qualitative method which is defined as, “Qualitative research is a research strategy that usually emphasizes words rather than quantification in the collection and analysis of data.” (Bryman 2008:366.) However qualitative data has also been widely criticized, according to Bryman (2008: 390–392) qualitative research is too subjective, it is difficult to replicate, it has problems of generalization and lack of transparency. In this study, there was intense effort to avoid these drawbacks of qualitative research. More over according to Silverman (2013:6) research method in a study can’t be justified only as right or wrong, it can be justified more as in how appropriate it is to each research case. In this study, it has been already discussed why and how qualitative research is appropriate in this study. Besides that, Silverman (2013:15) emphasizes that, “…as we noted, data collection, analysis and writing are virtually inseparable in qualitative research. Thus these categories are not intended to be treated as mutually exclusive; their main purpose is to show you the diversity of research experiences.” (Silverman 2013:15) 43 Due to agreeing to this remark of Silverman in this research paper qualitative research method has been used to explore the diversity of the research experiences. Qualitative research method is used in the research because of the aim of the study. In this study it has been given importance to how and why cultural diversity is effecting the performance of international workers at the University of Vaasa. This study does not deal with its quantitative or numeric effect. On the other hand fifteen interviews were taken in a semi structured format which is strongly related to qualitative method. For quantitative research, this study should have different research aim and surveys instead of interviews. Moreover for surveying is challenging to do only in the University of Vaasa because there are not so many international workers. 3.2 Data collection In order to get the findings of this study it was necessary to collect data and test it with Hofstede’s theory. In this study primary data were collected through the semi structured interviews. Fifteen PhD students were interviewed in a semi structured interview. All the interviews were recorded for transcription, accuracy, reliability and for ethical purposes. The duration of the interview was from 45 minutes to one hour. All the questions were designed with open ended questions so that all the interviewees can share their thoughts without any restrictions and most importantly to get the right information from the interviews. Questions were designed to match with the objective, theme, and background of this study. All the interviewees were prior appointed with email invitation, by visiting their office or by phone calls. Here is the list of the interviewees. 44 Table 2. List of interviewees No of Inter views Name Position and Faculty Country of Origin Gender 1 Inter-01 Doctoral Student Faculty of Business Studies, Marketing Bangladesh Male 2 Inter-02 Doctoral Student Faculty of Business Studies, Accounting and Finance Bangladesh Male 3 Inter-03 Project Researcher Faculty of Technology, Computer Science, Telecommunications Engineering Sudan Female 4 Inter-04 Doctoral Student Faculty of Technology, Production, Business Studies Pakistan Male 5 Inter-05 Project Researcher Faculty of Technology, Electrical Engineering and Energy Technology India Male 6 Inter-06 Doctoral Student Faculty of Technology, Electrical Engineering and Energy Technology Iran Male 7 Inter-07 Faculty of Technology, Electrical Engineering and Energy Technology India Male 8 Inter-08 Doctoral Student Faculty of Technology, Electrical Engineering and Energy Technology Pakistan Male 9 Inter-09 University Teacher Faculty of Technology, Computer Science, Telecommunications Engineering Germany Male 10 Inter-10 Project Researcher Faculty of Business Studies, Management Russia Female 45 11 Inter-11 Doctoral Student Faculty of Business Studies, Marketing India Male 12 Inter-12 Assistant Professor Faculty of Business Studies, Marketing Pakistan Male 13 Inter-13 Teknillinen tiedekunta, Teknillinen tdk. yhteiset Italy Female 14 Inter-14 Doctoral Student Faculty of Business Studies, Management India Female 15 Inter-15 Doctoral Student Faculty of Business Studies, Accounting and Finance Pakistan Male 3.3 Semi structured interview In this study empirical study is based on the data collection from semi structured interviews. All the questions were open-ended in order to explore the interviewees’ state regarding the fact cultural diversity and internationality. Besides that throughout the interviews Hofstede’s cultural dimensions such as as power distance, collectivism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance were examined. The reason of using these dimensions is to get the picture of the effect of diversity and efficiency of the international employees of the university through the view of Hofstede. Interview guide was divided into theme based presentations such as cultural diversity, organizational culture, goals of the University of International Employees, diversity management and suggestions or opinions of the interviewees. These theme based interview guides help this research paper to make sure that it reaches the objective of the study. 46 In the theme of cultural diversity, the idea was to get the interviewee’s idea about Finnish culture, adaptation, integration, difficulties and benefits of diversity. The reason of choosing this theme and ideas was to find out how comfortable they are in adapting with Finns or in the Finnish culture. According to the interviewees’ cultural background Finnish culture is quite different from their culture. Most importantly it was designed like this based on the objectives of the study to ensure the better exposure of the interviewees’ opinions. Later part was the theme was organizational culture. In this theme the aim was to get the information about their view about the organizational culture at the University of Vaasa. In order to achieve the opinion from the interviewees there has been inquiry from different perspective regarding equal opportunities, power distance with the superiors, and uncertainty avoidance about their work and so on. All these inquiries about them from different point of views were made for making sure that the information were achieved. The aim was to know about the difficulties or the factors that keep the international employees away from the effective contribution. In the theme about the goals of the employees and University’s goals for them were designed in such a way to get find about the harmonic situation of their work. In order to do that there was investigation about their opinions about the goal settings of their position, gender equality at work and challenges of diversity regarding these things. Through these themes it was necessary to know how the masculinity at work effect at the University. Besides that, it was also necessary to know if the goal settings for the international employees should be different from that of the local Finnish people. Diversity management is an essential theme of the interview guide. In this part of the interview guide interviewees were asked their opinion about the initiatives that have been taken by the University regarding the fact diversity management. Most of the researchers’ 47 responded with their vital opinions about diversity management which helped to find the answers of the research questions. 3.4 Brief history of University of Vaasa In 1966 by the decision of the Council of State a school of economics and business administration is established in Vaasa. The first students started on 1968 and in 1970 the university claims the right to award higher university degrees. In 1980’s the education in Humanities and Education in social sciences began. In the year 1988 the program of studies in the Industrial Economics begins. In 1990 the first students of Technology start in cooperation with Helsinki University of Technology. The University of Vaasa is founded in 1991 and three years after that it moves to the premises located in Palosaari. In 1996 Technobotnia, the Technology Research Centre, begins operating. In the year 2004 the University gets the right to award Master’s Degrees in Technology. The rector of the university is in charge of the university’s operations and is responsible for managing the university affairs in an efficient, result-oriented and financially resourceful way. To understand the hierarchy of the University we should look at the organizational structure of the University. 48 Figure 1. University of Vaasa Organizational structure Source: General Brochure of University of Vaasa 2015-2017. According to this organizational structure we can see that the organizational structure of the university is quite flat even though there still is some hierarchy. Besides that if we look at the fact about students and employees that contribution to the university is almost half by the internationals. 49 Figure 2. University of Vaasa fact about students and employees Source: General Brochure of University of Vaasa 2015. Finally, in this theme interviewees were asked about their opinion of how to improve the situation from their perspective and from the University’s perspective. I this section the 50 opinion of the interviewees were summarized. In this semi structured interview guide sometimes same topics were brought back in over and over from different perspective. The interview guide was structured like this in order to ensure the data which was aimed to be collected. For the more versatile collection of data these semi structured interviews were designed from different perspectives and themes. 51 4 DATA ANALYSIS This chapter focuses on the empirical analysis of the University of Vaasa as the empirical case study of this research paper. 4.1 University of Vaasa as a hybrid organization with international researchers University of Vaasa which is a hybrid organization has researchers from different countries. In order to understand the reason of having international researchers, it is necessary to present the internationality at the University of Vaasa which is a hybrid organization. Most importantly we have to figure out the reason of internationality or the vision of the university as a hybrid organization. In previous chapter 3.4, a brief history, vision and internationality of the University of Vaasa has been presented. In order to find out this information there has been some analysis from University of Vaasa website, annual reports and strategy 2017-2020. According to the annual report 2015 of University of Vaasa, “International personnel accounted for 14 per cent of all employees. One fifth of the teaching and research personnel are from other countries.” (University of Vaasa annual report 2015:27) According to the annual report in 2015 the university focus it as to business Orientation University. As a hybrid organization, according to this orientation the university aims at finding common areas for different branches of science. Since the Vaasa region is growing in terms of the field of energy the university is putting more focus on the research and education in the energy field. The strategy of 2017–2020 has as a starting point the renovation of the working field of the Finnish universities. The universities will be required to specialize; the public funding will be reduced and the societal impact of education and research will be reinforced. Also, international competition will take a clearer role in the field of research and education. 52 Due to these new requirements, the university will refocus its resources and aim at profiling itself more clearly. We can see here, in general as a hybrid Organization University of Vaasa emerges to competitive economical market. Besides that as hybrid organization adopt to the new situation rapidly. In its field, the university has internationally high level and international research. According to University of Vaasa strategy (2017-2020:4), “University of Vaasa is a business-oriented, multidisciplinary, international university. In its focus areas, the University conducts impactful research of a high international standard and educates competitive experts in various fields…The University operates in active and responsible interaction with society globally, nationally and locally.” To ensure the effectiveness of the research projects, University of Vaasa as a hybrid follows the high international standards. The university emphasizes making sure that the research quality can participate and influence not only from a local perspective but also from the international perspectives. In this way researchers from University of Vaasa reach the ability to be more effective and have improved quality. The areas in which the University of Vaasa has strong research and education of a high international standard are the fields of management and finance. While talking about the objectives of the education the strategy of the university as a hybrid organization emphasizes recruiting students from both Finland and abroad. The university will also modify the bachelor programs in order for them to be more easily profiled and more internationalized master’s programs. The university wishes to have an international campus with good chances for international mobility both for the staff and for the students. Collaboration with international partner universities will help with exporting education services. Through network collaboration with universities the quality of research will be further enhanced. Especially collaboration with the Umeå University and on the Nordic level will be on the focus. Internationalization is held up as one of the main points when it comes to enhancing the University of Vaasa as an operating environment. 53 It discusses especially the quality of the research. The points of investigation platforms, international research networks and research findings are particularly underlined. Therefore high-quality research companions, mobility of the researchers and recruiting of international high quality researchers will be developed in a long term. Furthermore, the internationalization of the staff and students is already in a good level according to the national standards. Using international learning platforms and materials of the top universities is being piloted at the moment and will be boosted. (University of Vaasa strategy 2017-2020:4—10) As a hybrid organization, according to the university’s vision, strategies and annual report it is suggested that the University of Vaasa is approaching for more global exposure. Whereas they are highlighting the progress of a certain faculty and the quality of the researchers and research work. Regarding this research paper it will focused on the international researchers. 4.2 Cultural integration of the international researchers In this study paper researchers were from different countries and cultures which are not similar to Finnish culture. For example, interviewees were from Bangladesh, Germany, India, Italy, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Sudan. All the interviewees were quite unfamiliar with the Finnish culture except for the interviewee from Germany had some kind of idea about it. Besides that, all the interviewees had a very basic idea about Finland. In this section, there will be shown the interviewees’ perception of the Finnish culture before they come to Finland and later how this perception has changed in Finland. Finally, there will be the discussion of their integration in the Finnish culture. In this study about the idea of Finnish culture is researched through the national culture of Hofstede (1991). According Hofstede (1991) national culture has been divided into four dimensions as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, collectivism and 54 later two other dimensions were introduced. However, in this study mostly there will be focus on power distances and uncertainty avoidance because according to Hofstede (1991:140) these two dimensions have mainly been used for the study of management. According to the interviewees Finland was mostly unknown for them. They had the basic idea about Finland identified as a geographical location, that is has a good education system, peaceful environment and that it’s different from their own country. In the interviews one thing was common according to the interviewees which was that Finland or Finnish culture is not similar to their culture or country. According to the respondant from Italy about the Finnish culture at the beginning was, “I felt strong cultural barrier” Even though the interviewee from Italy is from another European country still Finnish culture at the beginning was not easy for him. Regarding this compare to the Europeans International researchers from other continent like Asia were much more unfamiliar with the Finnish culture. According to the respondent from Pakistan, “…And I had no idea about the gender equality here. Like when I came here it was shocking for me to see women are moving very freely they are not afraid of anything. It was really shocking because the culture I am from…” The international researchers were not familiar with the Finnish culture, even though they have had positive idea about Finnish culture and this was one of the reasons why they applied in Finland for the researcher position. In the University of Vaasa, it has been mentioned earlier that one of the visions of the University is to be more international. Regarding this point researchers from different countries praise the university as international. 55 Regarding this unfamiliarity with the Finnish culture and the international researchers have changed over the time. According to the interview data it has been visible that interviewees are now much more familiar with them, some of them also claimed that they have integrated to the Finnish culture by adapting to it. In order to adapt to the Finnish culture the interviewees highlighted such factors as, language courses, spending time Finns after work, to be open towards Finnish culture, giving space to Finns and social activities. Most of the interviewees emphasize the importance of learning the language in order to be integrated with the Finnish culture. According to the interviewee from Bangladesh, “…all I have to say that the language is the first option to understand the culture. Language is 70% important even though people speak good English. Culturally language is important…” On the other hand, when it comes to the integration specifically with their Finnish workmates, it is a bit different compared to the general integration with the Finnish culture. It is seen clearly that with the Finnish workmates, they are identified more through the professional approach of work. Most of the interviewees claimed that their work is structured, it is common to use English language as common language and in email communication where there according to them are less or none such difficulties in the communication. However, some of the interviewees told that even though they use English as a medium of their work still it is not their mother tongue. This little gap of using English as a medium of their communication creates some miscommunication according to the interviewees. This is because Finnish people and the other nationals have different kind of national culture. According to the respondent from Germany, people from Finland are not straightforward in terms of problems. “As a German when it comes problem I admit the problem straight but Finnish people don’t admit it, they try to escape or walk around the problem. So this kind of communication difficult issue I face.” 56 Moreover, interviewee from India tells that he is more comfortable with his Asian colleagues. It suggests from this analysis that even though research work has a professional way of doing it and English is the medium communication of work which everybody speaks. It is visible from their discussion that language is still a concern because of national culture’s influence. On the other hand, when it comes to integrating with the supervisors’ things are different and easier going according to the interviewees. Interviewees told that compared to the work mates it was easier to integrate with the supervisors because supervisor have vast experiences to work with different kinds of people. According to the respondent from India, his/her opinion about supervisor is like, “Supervisors are really the most helpful people here I would say. They understand any problem I have. And there is no demanding pressure that I have to produce in time. They understand that research will bring something positive results and sometimes it won’t work.” On the contrary, there were few opinions about difficulties working with the supervisors which is not that much in terms with the help that the international researchers get from their supervisors. There was a small amount of problems like sometimes they are not straight forward in telling their opinions to interviewee from India and Germany. Besides another interviewee pointed out that it would be much easier if the supervisor was a little bit more open about the interviewee’s duties. According to this discussion paper we can see here clearly that, there were some difficulties of the International researchers to perform their duties. In terms of culture or national culture it was more difficult with the workmates compared with the supervisors. According to the interviewees’ opinion, they tried to overcome this kind of problems by adopting the Finnish culture, through trial and learning, by learning Finnish language, 57 being patient and avoiding conflicts. In the next chapter, this study will examine Hofstede’s Power distance and Uncertainty avoidance among the international researchers. 4.3 Power distance and organizational structure of University of Vaasa In the theory section, there has been discussion about the power distance and the effect of power distance. According to Hofstede (1997) we have learnt power distance as, “the extent to which the members of the institutions” (family, school and community) “and organizations” (places of work) “within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally” (Hofstede 1997: 28.) In this study, the aim is to examine the power distance among the international researchers and the supervisors. According to Hofstede if the power distance is high and if the dependency is high to the superior or it is low if not much dependency on the dependency. In this study, it has been examined the dependency among the researchers and the supervisors. Regarding this the study suggests that there is no such power distance. According to interviewees’ opinion they are quite independent to work from their supervisor. All the interviewees have provided similar kind of opinion that they are totally independent from their supervisors. Regarding this they mentioned that their work is independent work which is why they identified their supervisor as a guide who encourages them to work independently. According to the respondent from Iran it suggests that researchers from non-European country are enjoying this unfamiliar low power distance. 58 “…and early stage student could easily say his or her opinion about a subject to a professor who is working in that area more than 40 years without any fear. And that is something that simply doesn’t happen in my country.” Moreover, interviewees point out that they can have opinions that are contradictory with their supervisor opinion. They can have arguments with a good standing point and supervisors accept that if it is logical. This has a positive effect on the work of the international researches and brings out their efficiency. Besides that, international researchers also point out that they enjoy the fact that there is no such hierarchy at work. According to Rapert and Wren (1998:298) an organization’s improving performance depends on its structure. The more open and participative organization the more it has chances to be successful. In that case University of Vaasa organizational structure is also open which suggests ensuring better performance according to Rapert and Wren (1998). In order to explain University of Vaasa organizational structure we have to know the organizational model of the Finnish Universities. Haapakorpi (2011: 72) points out three levels in the Finnish universities, In the 1st level it is the Management of the University such as rectors and administrative structure, in the 2nd level faculty units are in charge of the departments and in the 3rd level is the departments that are in charge of for example research and education. Unlike the University of Vaasa larger universities usually have hierarchical structure with extra amount of administrative personnel (Haapakorpi 2011:78—79), whereas University of Vaasa as a small university has flat structure. . According to interviewees from Italy, Iran and Pakistan felt hierarchical obstacle to contact with their supervisors. According to the respondent from Pakistan, “…in my culture if I need to see my supervisor I would just walk in to his door. Here I have to book an appointment, I have to have my agenda of meeting this kind of thing. And supervisor is not a free person he is very busy so I understand why I have to go like this way. But if I have something very urgent I walk in to his office and he is very polite and we solve the problem. But when I come back I feel like it is not nice that went there without an appointment.” 59 In the above discussion and analysis about the power distance in the University, it is seen as a small university and a flat organizational structure provides a good working relation between international researchers and supervisors. Nevertheless there are some issues why some of the researchers felt power distance. This however needs to be analyzed more if it is because of organizational structure or cultural barrier. 4.4 Uncertainty avoidance among the International researchers As it has discussed about uncertainty avoidance in the theory section that, International researchers might be worried about the uncertain or unknown future. In order to examine the uncertainty among them several factors related to uncertainty were asked. Here first it will be discussed about those factors that are related to uncertainty. The interviewees they were found interested in this section. They participated here with great intensity, which helps this research paper to reach its goal. The factors like funding, job contract, residence permit and opportunity after their dissertation were highly related with uncertainty avoidance. This is because almost all the researchers point out that these are the factors that cause uncertainty. This uncertainty is related to their performance and it influences in their ability to reach their goal. Apart from this, research funding is an important fact for the interviewees according to the interviews. Most importantly, funding has been an issue of concern for the researchers. This is because research funding has been reduced by the government and like many other universities in Finland university of Vaasa also has to compete for European funding (University of Vaasa research news 2015: 6—7). This kind of funding difficulties effect the efficiency of the international researchers which is visible through their interview. In this study, there were fifteen interviewees and among them two of them are self-funded and another researcher has teaching job, these 60 three researchers are not influenced with the funding issue. On the other hand, rest twelve interviewees are highly depended on the funding to do their work. According to some of them funding issue reduces their efficiency which is because they point it out that besides focusing on research they always have to keep in mind the funding issue. According to the respondent from Bangladesh, funding issue has the influence as, “If I get frustrated my efficiency will go down. It depends on different unit or departments here regarding money allocation. In this case Vaasa University is 60% ok but 40% they have problems. It means 40% error here and thus 40% efficiency go down.” This is not only about the efficiency of the researchers they also point out that this issue makes them stressful, nervous and worrisome. Besides that respondents from India points out, “Funding for the universities got reduced when government reduced funding for the education sectors... So people who work here they have to constantly work for the current project and look for funding... My supervisor needs funding also, it means constantly he needs to look for funding so that we can get money for our work. So people are constantly working hard to get funding so that they have work for the next year. Everybody’s work is really stressful right now.” Most importantly some of the interviewees claim that this funding issue is deviating them from their own goal. They insisted that they are focusing more on the funding not their research goal. They are performing best to get funding not to achieve a high-quality research. One of the international (Iran) employee point it, “I will do it somehow partly this way so that I can get funding and partly I could also achieve my own interests in the subject that I was supposed to study or do research in.” This issue is seen more extreme way from another Russian interviewee’s opinion, “The problem in my department people gossip a lot and it’s not motivational at all to work. Only motivation is to get funding.” 61 According to the interviewees, regarding the uncertainty avoidance is weak, evidence from funding issue. However, two respondents from Pakistan point it out that they are more motivated to perform to get away from this funding issue. According to them, to get funding rather than being worried or stressed they see it is more like a competition to win. On the other hand, Pakistani respondent agrees that this urge to perform more is in itself a stress. Regarding the fact job contract renewal, it is seen from the interviewees’ opinion that uncertainty avoidance is weak here also. It is learnt from the interviewees’ opinion that International researchers from university of Vaasa are offered job contracts six month to a year in general. Even though a researcher’s time period to finishing is estimated as four years. According to the interviewees opinion it is clear that most of the researchers are frustrated about this strategy of the university which is influential to the performance. Researchers point out that this kind of issue deviated them from the focus of their job. They also insisted that if they have the job for four year at least then they should have the job contract until that time so that they do not worry about this and can focus on the research. One of the interviewee from Bangladesh points it out as, “It has a big influence because of this uncertainty. In Finland, we have the contract is renew on a yearly basis or even six month basis. They think that if we have four years contract right away I might be less productive. Yes, sometime I feel pressure because of the contract renewal. Each time before the contract renewal I am really nervous. When I am working if this type of pressure remain on top of me I can not concentrate properly.” Here we can see that there are two issues coming up from their opinions. First one is uncertainty in contract renewal and the second one that efficiency is reduced because of this contract renewal issue. However, this study could not reach the decision-making 62 authorities’ opinion to figure out the reason of offering short time contract. In contrast it is seen from the interviewees’ opinion that they are suggesting to follow other countries like Sweden, USA and so on which offer straight four years contract so that researchers can focus on their research without any interruption. Interviewee from Pakistan points out, “If you see USA or our nearest country Sweden, they straight away give you four years contract. And then they have very clear and strict target and you have to maintain those targets. But here if they could give us some kind of assurance then it would release a lot of pressure and it would be easier.” This job contract is seen as one of the main reason of weak uncertainty for the international researchers. According to the interviewees opinion it is also visible that they point out that university may doubt that their efficiency will decrease if they have four years straight job contract. It might be a way to keep them motivated to be efficient. Some of the interviewees agreeing this logic they confess that it motivates them to make them more efficiently because some of them believe that if they do not work efficiently enough they might lose their job. Another important reason of weak uncertainty avoidance among the international researchers is residence permit. In Finland everyone who is coming from abroad must have a residence permit for working and living and Finland. In this study paper, there are fifteen interviewees, international researchers of which many are from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran, and Sudan who are strictly maintained with a residence permit based on their work. Residence permit depends on the duration of their work contract, if they have work contract for six months they usually get a six months residence permit. This is a point of high concern for the researchers. Whenever the time comes the residence permit application causes an obstacle to perform more efficiently. According to respondent from Pakistant, 63 “You’re distracted from your research about what you’re going to do. In the time that you apply there’s new tension and stress coming up.” In this study section, it is seen that these three factors: funding, job contract and residence permit are the main reason of weak uncertainty avoidance among the international researchers of the University. This is also seen, that uncertainty is the reason of having less efficiency of the international researchers. In the next chapter, this study will examine the equality and diversity management of the university based on the international researchers’ opinion. 4.5 Equality and diversity management for the international researchers: Earlier it has been learnt in this study that diversity is an asset for the organization if it is managed properly (Cox: 1993; Brenda Marina 2010; Popescu and Rusko 2012). Diversity can bring innovative ideas for the organization and this kind of diversity makes the organization beneficial (Ashikali and Groeneveld 2013; Cox 1993; Hatvey, White and Mitchell Rice 2010; Watson, Kumar, and Michaelson1993). On the other hand, some of the researchers argue that diversity can be destructive as well for the organization, this is because diversity brings togehter different cultures which often makes miscommunication, discrimination, conflicts, and so forth other negatives affect for the organization (Choi & Rainey 2013; Jehn, Northcraft, and Neale 1999; Kellogh and Naff, 2004; Milliken & Martins, 1996; Wise & Tschirhart, 2000; Tsui, Egan, and Xin 1995). It has been also mentioned earlier that one of the main vision of the University of Vaasa is to be international. To be more international University of Vaasa has significant number of internationals. According to the annual report of the university from the year 2015, one fifth of the teaching and research personnel are from other countries. This is how the university is having a diverse working environment and it is a vital issue for the university to be successful. According to this we can say that success of diversity of the university 64 of Vaasa depends on three major factors: equality, diversity management and diversity training for the teachers and employees. The idea of equality in this study is to examine if the international and national researchers of the university have the same kind of opportunity to progress or if there’s discrimination against the internal researchers. According to the interviewees opinion there were found mixed result about the equality. Among the fifteen interviewees, six of them emphasized that everybody has equal opportunities in their work place. They insisted that if somebody has the potential he/she will get the opportunity and it does not matter where they are from. However, also different opinions strike from the international researchers about the equal opportunity in the university. Some of them (Pakistan & Germany) point out that Finnish researchers enjoy special privilege compared to the internationals which is a clear sign of discrimination. German respondent says, “…basically for foreigners its more tough to get a position. It is hard also when it comes to payment… Because university has limited amount of budget and they want to save money. So they can’t reduce payment from Finnish people and it is easy to reduce money from foreigners.” Besides that, some other international researchers point out that equality has been violated as some of the departments are getting special privileges. This is because the university is prioritizing those departments meaning that for example the University of Vaasa is focusing more on the Business and Energy department. According to respondent who is from Iran points it out, “And then the people in the marketing studies get lots of subjects to study and lots of subjects to teach. And that is something that university of Vaasa needs to improve to get more resources to grow equality and equal opportunities in different departments.” 65 We can see here, that the university’s strategy to treat international researchers has been interpreted in a mixed way. Unfortunately, some of the researchers claimed some serious issue of discrimination against them. On the contrary other international researchers praised the university for the equality. Regarding the issue equality this study found two kinds of opinions which are opposite to each other. The researchers who identified the equal opportunity for everybody insisted that they are enjoying this opportunity. On the other hand, who thinks there is not enough equal opportunity especially not for the internationals, they are trying to be more efficient to get the opportunity along with others. These international researchers on the other hand point out that diverse working environment has been helpful for them. According to them diversity is an advantage at work in terms of different kinds of point of views and different kinds of approaches in problem solving. In order to be working with different nationalities researchers are interacting with an attitude of exchanging knowledge. They point out that the university might be small but it is international and diverse enough which helps them to be more efficient. Respondent from Pakistan, “This is a very small university but you don’t feel small. You have the opportunity to connect with the rest of the world. It’s truly international university. I never feel isolated that I am studying in a small university in a far small town. Its only because of their policies, practices and the way they are doing the education.” Which suggests that according to the interviewee’s opinion the university is working properly with diversity towards the vision. As it has mentioned earlier that diversity is an asset for the organization if it is managed properly. In the case of university of Vaasa to explore the diversity this study intends to go through some facts like synchronization of diversity and the university’s goal, synchronization of diversity and international researchers’ goal and university’s initiative to train the international researchers with diversity. 66 As it is mentioned earlier that diversity can also be destructive for the organization, this is because diversity brings different cultures which often makes miscommunication, discrimination, conflicts, and so forth other negative affects for the organization (Choi & Rainey 2013; Jehn, Northcraft, and Neale 1999; Kellogh and Naff, 2004; Milliken & Martins, 1996; Wise & Tschirhart, 2000; Tsui, Egan, and Xin 1995). Which means that diversity can be an obstacle to being efficient for the International researchers of university of Vaasa. This is why this study will examine the diversity management of the university from the interviewees’ opinion. In the University, international researchers find some difficulties while they were working with their Finnish colleagues or supervisors. Even though the interviewees insist in their opinion that their work pattern is professional and medium of work language is English and everybody is competent but still there was some miscommunication because of different cultures. Some of the interviewees’ pointed out that they prefer to communicate with email in terms of work issues and they avoid verbal communication because sometimes it is misleading to them. On the other hand, some other interviewees claimed that Finnish people are not straightforward when there is some problem at work. They claim that Finnish people try to avoid confessing the problem and the other nationalities working with them could not figure this out at the beginning and this lead them sometimes to miscommunication. The German interviewee points it out, “As a German when it comes problem I admit the problem straight but Finnish people don’t admit it, they try to escape or walk around the problem. So this kind of communication difficult issue I face.” In the same way, another interviewee from India pointed it out like this, “In certain aspect, they are not as straightforward as I thought. Sometimes it is difficult to understand sometimes what they are meaning. If I don’t understand I go back two or three times to ask what do you mean or want exactly. It’s problematic.” 67 Besides this some other interviewees point out that even though the international researchers know excellent English however it is not their native language. Following this they point out problems such as that some find that colleagues are straightforward, some find that they are not being straightforward, they say that it’s difficult to be open with Finnish cold and silent way of communication. One of the interviewee from Sudan highlighted these kinds of problems like this, “…misunderstandings happen especially when the person you’re talking with is not native in English so the communication could get a bit off point if they don’t understand exactly what I mean.” From the above analysis, it can be said that there are problems among the international researchers in the University of Vaasa. Diversity management for these international researchers has been an issue which is visible from their opinion. In this study paper, it is also necessary to look upon the synchronization of diversity keeping in mind university’s vision and researchers’ goal. In order to do that the researchers have given their opinions regarding this issue. In the previous section analysis it has been found that uncertainty avoidance is weak among the international researchers. Interviewees also mentioned there that compared to them Finnish workmates are more relax because they have family here, they do not have uncertainty, they do not have the urges to finish the research quickly and they are financially more stable. Agreeing with this opinion it was necessary to ask them if they should have different sort of goals from the university perspective. Relating this point the interviewees could not answer if that is essential for them. Instead of this most of the interviewees pointed out that they the sooner they finish their research the better. We can see from this discussion that in the University of Vaasa diversity management is not all positive there has been some issue which is decreasing the efficiency of the 68 international researchers of the university. While their efficiency goes down also achievement of the university’s goal is going down. In order to find out the initiative from university perspective regarding the diversity management. Interviewees were asked what the university did for them to cope up with diverse working environment since the aim of the University of Vaasa is to be more international. According to the interviewees opinion it is seen that the international researchers has gone through some kind of basic orientation and they claim that was the training to cope up with the diversity and the courses they participated in. Besides that, some others pointed out that collaboration with universities in abroad helped them to be competent enough to deal with the diversity. According to interviewee from Bangladesh, “Here they maintain the collaboration with other universities, many teachers from outside come here. Sometimes we go outside also. They have diversity practices here, it is 80-90% good.” Moreover, other interviewees pointed out that the university has some initiatives as international events such as seminars or conferences. On the contrary few other interviewees argue that they did not have enough training provided by the university, they also insisted that they themselves make to be more international or be more efficient in diverse environment. In the opinion of the international researchers it came out that they feel like university should provide more initiative to help them to cope up with diversity since the university vision is to be more international. They pointed out that the university should emphasize more about diversity, there should be courses to learn about Finnish culture and other cultures, integration and training about diversity not only for international researchers but also for the local employees of the university. Another important proposal from one of the German interviewee was, “I think university should have this kind of training and it is not only about how should we integrate, it should be about how should Finnish integrate also. Intercultural seminar would be really good everybody who is working here. Then we can understand each other more.” 69 5 RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION In this final chapter of this study paper there will be a discussion and answers of the research questions. This research paper’s aim is to find out those research questions to be answered. The University of Vaasa as a small university, this organization is aiming for being more international as an organization. This why there are significant international researchers working for making quality remarks in the international arena of the education sector. In this study paper in order to find out the research questions, is explained the related issues like culture, globalization in hybrid organization, organizational culture and goal, diversity management, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Throughout these explanations this study paper builds its theory to be examined in the empirical analysis. In the Methodology section, this research paper focuses on the qualitative research method and throughout this method this study intends to explore the different aspects of international researchers. In order to collect the data there were fifteen semi structured interviews conducted among the international researchers of the University of Vaasa. Data analysis was based on the semi structured interviews materials, where interview data were sampling in excel sheet and from those samplings it was explained. First, in the data analysis section this study paper analyzed the cultural integration of the international researchers. Second, the power distance among the international researchers and their superiors was examined. Besides that this study presented the organizational structure of University of Vaasa. Third, this study paper examined the factors that could reduce their effectiveness, in order to do that Hofstede’s uncertainty avoidance was applied. Finally, it was also examined how effectively diversity was managed in the university. According to the above-mentioned process this study paper tries to reach the answer of the research questions. Most importantly this research paper aimed and tried its best to contribute in the public management sector. This study paper, is highly related to globalized world where diversity is the most important asset for the organization if it is 70 managed properly. In the later section, will be shown the answers of the research question and finally the limitations of this study paper will be discussed as well. 5.1 Main findings This research paper starts with the three-research questions in order to find the challenges of international researchers in the University of Vaasa as a hybrid organization. The aim of this study is to find the challenges faced by the international researchers because of culture and diversity. This is why it was necessary to explore the situations or challenges faced by the researchers and in order to do this this study paper examines the related issues like culture, organizational culture, internationality of the University of Vaasa, diversity management of the university and so on. The first research question was related to the cultural diversity and issues of cultural diversity in hybrid organization. In order to answer this question this study intended to go deep into the international researchers’ experiences where they have given their vital opinions regarding this. In order to find this cultural collusion of international researchers and its effects , according to interview guide they shared their experience about Finnish culture and different other cultures of the internationals, what kind of difficulties they faced in terms of communication and work and what was their way of integration to solve this issue. According to interviewees opinion there were various kind of points of conflict that came out for example one interviewee from Pakistan found it shocking how independently and equally women are participating in Finland, other point out that Finnish people are fond of silence so that interviewee was always trying to fill the silence with random topics which was not necessary at the end that interviewee also point it out that, another interviewee point it out that because of nonnative use of English as the common language there were always frequent chances of misunderstanding. 71 Regarding this cultural diversity issue this study paper makes it clear what this study means as cultural diversity. In order to do that there was discussion about culture, organizational culture, organizational types and hybrid organization, cultural diversity and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in the theory section. In the data analysis, this paper analyzes the internationality and diversity of the University of Vaasa. According to the university’s vision, strategies and annual report it is suggesting that University of Vaasa as a hybrid organization is approaching for more global exposure. Whereas they are highlighting the progress of certain faculty and the quality of the researchers and research work. According to fifteen interviewees from eight different nationalities, they point out conflicts. There were evidences of strong cultural barriers which reduce the interviewee’s efficiency at the beginning and later the interview also mentioned that integration to Finnish culture was a better solution. Besides that, according to Inter-14 from Germany claims that unlike Germans Finnish people do not address the problem directly which leads according to the German interviewee to work place conflicts or difficulties. Almost all the interviewees find it difficult to work effectively at the beginning, however they also claim that they try to integrate with the Finnish culture or University of Vaasa organizational culture or create a general common culture at work. Moreover, throughout the interview it is understood that the interviewees help themselves more to find a solution than the organization initiative. On the contrary some interviewees could not point out any significant amounts of conflicts or difficulties. For example, Inter-12 claimed that the work of an international researcher is a profession of work and there are clear rules and regulations to do the work and the interviewee also pointed that as researchers the work is to focus on the interviewee’s own research not that much related with other workmates. However, this study discovers that proportions of interviewees are higher with the cultural conflicts or difficulties. 72 Regarding this research question, from the interviewees’ opinion it suggests that there are some conflicts or difficulties for the international researchers. However, this study also finds that this kind of cultural diversity difficulties at work are not a significant issue according to the interviewees’ opinion whereas they claim that research work does not rely on the workmates or supervisors but instead it is more independent work. In the second research question, this study paper intends to find the diversity management of the organization which is university of Vaasa. In this research question, it intends to find out the reasons which reduce the international researchers’ effectiveness in the organization. In order to find out the effect of diversity, in the theory section it is defined the diversity management from this research perspective. Besides that, in that part of study there were discussion when diversity management is a benefit for the organization and when diversity management is a demerit also. Relying on these this study paper had the semi structure interview related with some guide lines like; if the researchers are getting equal opportunities, if they are feeling power distance with their superiors, if the goals are matched with diversity, what kind of training they are getting form the university to cope up with diversity and how helpful these are for the international researchers. Through the data analysis of the diversity management we have found that diversity management of the university needs more emphasize to improve according to interviewees’ opinion. According to them university should have some sort of better training not only for the international employees to integrate also for the local employees to integrate with the international employees. Besides that, it was also clear from the interviewees’ opinion that only orientation program for the international researchers are not sufficient. They also point out that there should be some courses to get more familiar with the Finnish culture. 73 In order to find out this Hofstede’s uncertainty avoidance has been discussed in the theory section of this paper. There it has explained the uncertainty avoidance and how it works. In the case of University of Vaasa there has been found out if the uncertainty avoidance is weak or strong, interviewees were guided through some related issue like funding for their research, job contract, residence permit. The aim was to find out how much these issues are affecting them from being effective. In this study section, it is seen that these three factors: funding, job contract and residence permit are the main reason of weak uncertainty avoidance among the international researchers of the University. This is how it can be said, that uncertainty is a reason for the international researchers to being less efficient. Finally, the last research question aims at finding out the solutions regarding those problems mentioned in the above findings. However, this research paper is limited in many ways which will be discussed in the next section. At the very beginning of this research paper it has been discussed that diversity management for an organization can be an asset if it is managed properly. In an organization diversity can play as a vital role of success or failure in reaching organizational goals. Diversity can bring innovative ideas for the organization, this kind of diversity makes the organization beneficial (Ashikali and Groeneveld 2013; Cox 1993; Hatvey, White and Mitchell Rice 2010; Watson, Kumar, and Michaelson1993). On the other hand some of the researchers argue that diversity can be destructive also as well for the organization, this is because diversity brings different culture which often makes miscommunication, discrimination, conflicts, and so forth other negatives affect for the organization (Choi & Rainey 2013; Jehn, Northcraft, and Neale 1999; Kellogh and Naff, 2004; Milliken & Martins, 1996; Wise & Tschirhart, 2000; Tsui, Egan, and Xin 1995). Besides that some researchers suggests that diversity can be beneficial for an organization if it is managed and given importance (Brenda Marina 2010; Popescu and Rusko 2012). 74 Regarding this arguments we have seen for the case of the University of Vaasa that it is not managed well enough. There has been some issues like equality, cultural integration, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and most importantly unavailability of diversity training. On the other hand we have also seen that University of Vaasa has the vision to be more international. In order to be international it is important that the University of Vaasa emphasizes the diversity management more. However, in order to attempt to find solutions regarding these issues international researchers were asked about the solutions. This paper is limited this way because it did not or could not reach the University of Vaasa authorities or more international researchers. There were opinions from the international researchers to find out the solutions. This solutions might be helpful not only for this organization also for many other organizations. To find out the solutions international researchers were asked from two different perspectives: a. What should University of Vaasa do in order to improve? b. What should International researchers do in order to improve? While they were asked about the University, there were importance on many issues. Some of them highlighted that there should be more research about it to improve and authorities should consider more the opinion of the international workers. Besides that some of them mentioned to have more equality in the organization. On the other hand some of them emphasized that the University should organize more effective courses to learn about Finnish culture and language and the local workers should have some courses about foreign cultures. There should be more importance about integration and training about diversity management. 75 Furthermore, some of the international researchers pointed out that weak uncertainty avoidance for them should be improved. They insisted that if the University could improve the uncertainty avoidance issue that would boost their effectiveness. On the other hand, there were some mentions about intercultural seminars which could be helpful not only for international worker of the university but also for the local workers of the university. On the other hand, when the international researchers were asked what they should do by themselves to improve the situations there were many kinds of self-initiatives. Most common response was to adapt to the Finnish culture and learn Finnish language. Besides that there were some mentions about cooperation that they will try to be more considerable to the Finnish culture. Main outcomes of the research paper can be summarize in the table below. Table 3. Main outcomes of the research paper. Key issues Main outcomes The outlook of cultural diversity of University of Vaasa - This research shows that University of Vaasa as a hybrid organization is approaching for more global exposure. - There are significant amount of diverse working environment and the university authorities emphasizes the diversity at work. Diversity management of University of Vaasa - This study finds diversity is not managed in best way. - There has been some issues like equality, cultural integration, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and most importantly unavailability of diversity training. - This study also discovers that most of the international researchers find that there are cultural conflicts or difficulties in the organization. 76 Effects of cultural diversity among the international researchers - International researchers find it difficult to work effectively at the beginning because of cultural barrier. - Funding, job contract and residence permit are the main reason of weak uncertainty avoidance among the international researchers of the University. - Weak uncertainty avoidance causes less efficiency for the international researchers. - However this study also finds that international researchers’ work is more independent work and this why some of them could not relate the diversity issue with their work. Solutions for the diversity issues at the university - It is visible in the study that weak uncertainty avoidance is one of the main issue for the effectiveness and it should be improved. In order to improve it the University could solve the issues like funding, job contract and residence permit. - University should organize more effective courses to learn about Finnish culture and language. - The local workers also should have some courses about foreign cultures. - There should be more importance about integration and training about diversity management. 5.2 Limitations and future research This study is limited in several ways, this study could not represent overall the university. This study can be described as strongly biased regionally because out of fifteen interviewees two are from Bangladesh, four from India, four from Pakistan and one from 77 Iran which means eleven of them are Asian. There are only two interviewees from Europe Germany and Italy. It would be better if this study could reach more interviewees from Europe and Africa. Besides that, interviewees are biased to faculty as well because most of them are from faculty of Technology and faculty of Business. Since this study could not reach all other faculties of the university this study cannot claim an overall result of the university. This way it can be said that this research paper answers the research questions for the certain part of the university regarding the people’s home regions or faculties. In future research, there should be interviewees from all the regions and faculties of the university. In order to do that quantitative method can be followed where a survey could be more reliable in order to find international researchers’ effectiveness. 78 REFERENCES Adler, N. J. (1993). Do cultures vary? In: T. D. Weinschall (Ed.), Societal culture and management (pp, 23-46). New York: Walter de Gruyter. 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Available 29.07.2017: https://issuu.com/universityofvaasa/docs/vy-yleisesite-eng- final/14?ff=true&e=5179019/3872366 University of Vaasa Research News 2015. Available 29.07.2017: https://issuu.com/universityofvaasa/docs/research_news_december_2015-issuu University of Vaasa Strategy 2017-2020 Available 29.07.2017: http://www.uva.fi/en/about/vision/strategy/uvastrategia_2017-2020_en.pdf Available 29.07.2017: http://www.uva.fi/en/research/researcher/graduate_school/admissions/ 88 Available 29.07.2017: http://www.migri.fi/working_in_finland/an_employee_and_work/researcher 89 APPENDIX 1 Interview Questions for the International employees at University of Vaasa. Introduction for the international employees of University of Vaasa: Cultural diversity is playing an important role in the field of Public Administration. In an international organization like University of Vaasa also have many international employees and students. I would like to know about your opinion about your diversity experience here. In this thesis of mine I would like to do qualitative analysis based on these interviews. I would like to ask you some questions regarding this fact and this questionnaires are divided in five sections as Cultural Diversity, Organizational Culture, Organizational Goal, Diversity Management and Suggestions. You are welcome to add more questions or refuse to answer any questions. There are around 20 Questions, it will take around 30 min to discuss about it and we can discuss further as well if you want. The aim of the questionnaires is to find out the research questions in my thesis. CULTURAL DIVERSITY When you were awarded the doctoral studies opportunity how did you accept the Finnish culture here? How good have you been integrating with your workmates or supervisors? How and why? For the diverse working environment how did you face the miscommunication? Do you think cultural diversity at work place is helpful for you? How and why? Regarding diversity did you face conflict with your working mate? 90 Finns are mostly committed to time, some other culture they often meet after the promised time do you face any problem regarding this? ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Do you think your organization has equal opportunity for everybody from different cultures? What was the main obstacles in your organization while you were approaching your working mate or supervisors or university administration? Did you change your approach to avoid miscommunication with your workmate? How and why? Do you face or feel any power distance at your work? If yes how Do you think uncertainty avoidance can affect your performance at work? How did you build up mutual understanding with your supervisor or work mate? Do you hang around with them in social events? Do you think does it play any role for building up the relation? ORGANIZATIONAL GOAL Do you think your organizational goals needs to be more customized according to your culture? If I ask you what are the main challenges to reach your goal regarding the fact diversity? Do you think gender diversity has any impact for you to achieve organizational goal? DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT Have you been through any diversity training while you start in University of Vaasa? Or was there any grooming for you arranged by university? If yes then what kind of diversity training you have been? Was it helpful? 91 If there was no training then how do you make yourself efficient for multinational working environment? Do you like to work alone or as a team? If your organization demands to do your work the other way around how do you cope up? 5. SUGGESTIONS 5.1 What do you think what are the best possible ways avoid problems in diverse workforce? 5.2 What should you do from this perspective? 5.3 What should organization do from this perspective? 92 APPENDIX 2 Dear Sir / Madam, I am a Master’s student at the University of Vaasa, I am doing my Master’s thesis about “Challenges of International Employees’ Effectiveness in Culturally Diverse Hybrid Organizations: Evidence from University of Vaasa”. Cultural diversity is playing an important role in the field of Public Administration. In an international organization like University of Vaasa also have many international employees and students. In my thesis, I would like to do qualitative analysis based on the semi structured interviews and that is also why I’m writing to you. Your participation would be highly appreciated and extremely helpful both for my thesis and for the University of Vaasa. In the interview, I’d be asking about your opinion regarding your diversity experience here. The interview takes approximately from 45 to 60 minutes. The interview guide is divided in five sections as Cultural Diversity, Organizational Culture, Goals, Diversity Management and Suggestions. It would be a great help if you can donate some time and participate in the interview. Please let me know which time would be convenient for you and I will contact you as soon as possible. Kind Regards, Mohammad Rony +358458409491 Master’s in Public Administration University of Vaasa. 93