Portuguese cultural standards from an Austrian perspective

• Autor(a) principal: Durão, Inês Cravador
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/3799
• topic: Cultura nacional -- National culture; Padrões de cultura -- Culture patterns; Portugal; Austria; Áustria

The goal of this thesis is to identify Portuguese cultural standards from the perspective of Austrian culture. The Cultural Standards Method is based on interviews of members of one culture who have extended working experience in a different culture.This method, based on a qualitative research approach, tries to identify cultural differences at a more subtle level when compared to more traditional methods such as cultural dimensions. The research comprised three main phases: narrativeinterviews with Austrians in the sample group; content analysis of the critical incidents described during the narrative interviews and the identification of cultural standards. The finalcultural standards elected are those which were more often mentioned by the majority of the interviewees and later on confirmed through the feedback received from the intervieweestogether with a third party. The Portuguese cultural standards identified through the interviews with twenty Austrians are: Fluid Time Management, Relaxed Attitude towards Professional Performance, Importance of Social Relations, Bureaucracy and Slow Decision Making Processes, Indirect Communication Style and Flexible Planning and Organisational Skills.