Bücher von Alexandra Mietusch

Master's Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Communications - Intercultural Communication, grade: 1,3, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) (Faculty of Cultural Studies), course: Master Intercultural Communication Studies, language: English, abstract: Humour accompanies one daily: It is widely used in movies, and it is intentionally used in everyday life. One can recognize that humour makes one feel good, relieves tensions (created by inter- and intrapersonal conflicts) and its charming character connects, bonds and unites us with the people surrounding us. Further, scientific therapeutic discourses identified humour and its popular response laughter benefits mental health and social contacts and therefore should be used in therapeutic practices. Hence, it is suggested to rethink humour not only as a therapeutic instrument, but also as a usefultool in counselling settings like Intercultural Coaching and Training.For now, one only knows that in intercultural settings the practice of humour is delicate due to cultural differences. But is there a humour that works beyond cultures? Why is it possible that for example a Brazilian and a Chinese person could laugh (as a response to a humorous message) together about the same humorous interaction? From a transcultural research angle the question of how to use a transcultural humour in intercultural coaching and training settings becomes relevant. Thus, the presentstudy will examine the application and practice of humour by intercultural training and coaching experts for the first time. Their experiences in terms of its functions, its implementation and potential criteria of transcultural humour will be explored.The present thesis refers to theoretical concepts in humour research based on findings in social, communication and therapeutic psychology and introduces a scientifically new - currently disregarded - concept and definition of transcultural humour, based on findings of problem-centred expert interviews from intercultuarl coaches and trainers from around the world. Moreover the present study provides primary information on how a transcultural humour can work (assessing criteria, topics, functions, styles) and why it is recommended to make use of humour in Intercultural Coaching and Training.

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Psychology - Work, Business, Organisation, grade: 1,0, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) (Intercultural Communication Studies), course: Intercultural Management, language: English, abstract: As team building is in fashion and the market of team building interventions is huge, the demand of international growing organisations and the evolving cross-cultural element is rising. Thus, we have to pay extraordinary attention to intercultural teams with the help of team building. Do we? The following article will examine the definition of teams ¿ what they are and what they are not, how they could differ and which differences need to be taken into account on multi-cultural team building processes. This paper is an approach to explore its fundamentals, practices and its reliability. In chapter one the fundamentals of teams, team dynamics and multicultural teams will be discussed in detail. The second chapter highlights the cross-cultural team stages, the team building process and its interventions to understand how to move from a multicultural to a cross-cultural team. Therefore, it will examine an overview of cross-cultural team building measures in its vast scope of team building providers in chapter two. Moreover, chapter three should discuss research and results on the effectiveness of team building measures and possibly necessary methods to maintain the effects of team building events. It will be discussed what has to be taken into account to create team building programs as well as advantages and disadvantages and results on the effectiveness of team building programs.As the terms cross-cultural, intercultural and multicultural are relevant to the understanding and not randomly utilised, this distinction has to be defined more precisely: multicultural can be understood as a team including several cultures. The term cross-cultural refers to an involving or bridging of differences between cultures that focuses on the process, like teambuilding does. In addition, intercultural means the consistence of or the involving or representing of different cultures in a team. Where the term cross-cultural refers to the interaction between individuals from different cultures the term multi-cultural refers more or less only to the cultural diversity. Based on this definition cross-cultural team building is used in multi-cultural teams to build intercultural teams.