Group composition at companies

How should multinational companies group employees for internal courses?

Hanna Jonsson & Alexander Wahrgren

Master thesis in Technology and Learning, degree project for

the study program Master of Science in Engineering and of

Education

Stockholm, 2016-10-02

Royal Institute of Technology

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Main supervisor

Lars Geschwind

Associate Professor

The School of Education and

Communication in Engineering Science, ECE

Assistant supervisor

Lena Geijer

Ph.D. University lecturer

Institution for pedagogy and didactics,

Stockholm University

External supervisor

Robert Stribeck

International Marketer, Atlas Copco

Examiner

Maria Weurlander

Ph.D. Educational developer

The School of Education and

Communication in Engineering Science, ECE

2

Abstract

Group composition is common in education and is fairly well examined at a school level but

not within competence development in a working environment. How should a group of

coworkers be grouped when attending a course? This can be a complicated question,

especially at a big company such as Atlas Copco which has employees from all over the

world.

The main object with this report is to find which aspects has to be taken into account when

putting people together in groups at a multinational company and secondly give a proposal to

Atlas Copco for how the groups should be constructed in the company.

The data collected for this report was gathered mostly during the two focus group discussions

that were held by the researchers. This material was complemented with interviews held

before and after the focus groups meetings, to get a more profound picture of the company.

The outcome of the interviews and discussions were then compared with relevant literature on

the subject, to be able to make an analysis on the important factors.

Findings from the analysis shows that language and previous knowledge are limiting factors

and should therefore determine if a person is allowed to attend a certain course. The more

knowledge the course participants have in the subject and how well the participants

understand the spoken language, the more information exchange will occur between the

teacher and course participants. Geographical cultural differences were found to have a slight

importance when designing groups but not so significant that special action has to be taken.

Combining or keeping separate departments apart during a course were found to be a question

on whether or not the different subcultures at the company could be mixed or not. In this case

the informants in the research believed it was more beneficial for the company to mix, to

prevent the subcultures to grow in separate ways.

The conclusion is that the most important aspect of a group constellation are the language and

previous knowledge in the subject of the course. This must therefore be taken in consideration

when designing a group in a multinational company, if the goal of the course is to efficiently

spread information to and among the participants. If an additional aim with the course is to

make the participants learn to know other departments’ way of working it should be

considered to have quotas for different departments to make the group heterogeneous in this

way to enable for the participants to learn from each other.

Keywords:

Group composition, Heterogeneous, Homogeneous, Multinational company, Workplace

competence development.

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Sammanfattning

Gruppsammansättningens betydelse är en omdiskuterad företeelse som är vanligt

förekommande i utbildningssammanhang och är relativt väl utforskat på skolnivå men inte när

det gäller kompetensutveckling inom arbetslivet. Hur ska en gruppsammansättning av

arbetskamrater se ut vid ett kurstillfälle? Det kan vara en komplicerad fråga, speciellt på ett

stort företag som Atlas Copco vilka har anställda över hela världen.

Huvudsyftet med denna rapport är att finna vilka aspekter som behöver tas hänsyn till när folk

blir sammansatta i grupper i multinationella företag och ge förslag till Atlas Copco hur

grupperingen ska genomföras inom företaget.

Data för denna rapport insamlades mestadels under två fokusgruppsdiskussioner som hölls av

forskarna. Som komplement till detta material hölls intervjuer både före och efter

fokusgruppsmötena för att få en bredare inblick i företaget. Resultatet från intervjuerna och

diskussionerna jämfördes sedan med relevant litteratur för att analysera de viktiga faktorerna.

Resultat av analysen visar att språkkunskaper och tidigare kunskap i ämnet behöver vara

begränsande faktorer vid bestämmandet om en person tillåts närvara vid specifika kurser. Om

en person inte har tillräcklig kunskap i språket kursen hålls i, sker inget lyckat

informationsutbyte mellan lärare och kursdeltagare och samma gäller aspekten med tidigare

kunskap. Geografiskt kulturella skillnader visades vara av ringa betydelse vid designande av

grupper men inte så viktiga att det behövs vidtas speciella åtgärder. Huruvida olika

avdelningar ska blandas vid kurstillfället visade sig vara en fråga ifall olika subkulturer inom

företaget kan blandas. I det här fallet tyckte informanterna det var fördelaktigt för företaget att

blanda subkulturer som förhinder mot att de växer ifrån varandra i olika riktningar.

Slutsatsen visar att om målet för en kurs inom kompetensutveckling på ett multinationellt

företag är att sprida information till och mellan deltagarna så är de viktigaste aspekterna vid

formande av grupper, språk och tidigare kunskap. Om ett ytterligare mål är att deltagarna ska

lära sig om olika avdelningar och hur de arbetar är det möjligt att sätta kvoter för de olika

deltagande avdelningarna för att kursen ska genomföras och säkerställa en heterogenitet i

detta avseende för att deltagarna ska ges bästa möjlighet att lära av varandra.

Nyckelord:

Gruppsammansättning, Heterogen, Homogen, Multinationellt företag, Arbetsplats

kompetensutveckling.

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Preface After a long time of studies this report will be the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. The

interest in education and technology will lead the path in our future careers and with the help

of the wings that KTH and SU has built up for us during the years the future looks bright.

The work with the master thesis has been an extraordinary journey from the beginning to the

end with a lot of people involved whom all have been excited and eager to help in the best

way possible. We would like to thank Atlas Copco for giving us the opportunity to write this

thesis at the head office, hopefully some of the findings will come to use in the future work

for Atlas Copco.

We have developed as people and learned a lot these past months, some lessons harder than

others.

A special thank you to our supervisors Lena Geijer and Lars Geschwind for all inspirational

conversations and ideas.

And a very warm thank you to Robert Stribeck who has been a big support on Atlas Copco

and provided us with contacts and helped us find new ways when we have felt lost and

stumbled in the dark.

Hanna Jonsson Alexander Wahrgren

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Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2

Keywords: ............................................................................................................................... 2

Sammanfattning ......................................................................................................................... 3

Nyckelord: .............................................................................................................................. 3

Preface ........................................................................................................................................ 4

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 8

1.1. Short introduction ........................................................................................................ 8

1.2. The grouping phenomena ............................................................................................ 8

1.2.1. The history of age and ability grouping ............................................................... 8

1.2.2. Cultural differences .............................................................................................. 9

1.3. Purpose ........................................................................................................................ 9

1.3.1. Research questions ............................................................................................. 10

2. Background ....................................................................................................................... 11

2.1. The Atlas Copco company ........................................................................................ 11

2.1.1. The final assembly process ................................................................................ 11

2.1.2. The aim of Atlas Copco ..................................................................................... 12

2.1.3. Previous courses ................................................................................................. 13

2.1.4. The training ........................................................................................................ 13

2.2. Limitations ................................................................................................................. 13

3. Theoretical framework ...................................................................................................... 14

3.1. Vygotsky’s theory of learning ................................................................................... 14

3.1.1. Zone of Proximal Development ......................................................................... 14

3.2. Schein’s definition of organizational culture ............................................................. 15

3.2.1. Artifacts and creations ........................................................................................ 16

3.2.2. Values ................................................................................................................. 16

3.2.3. Basic assumptions .............................................................................................. 16

4. Previous research .............................................................................................................. 18

4.1. Heterogeneous and homogeneous groups ................................................................. 18

4.2. Cultural and language barriers ................................................................................... 18

4.3. Organizational culture ............................................................................................... 19

4.4. T-shapes ..................................................................................................................... 19

4.5. The big-fish-little-pond effect ................................................................................... 20

4.6. Knowledge ................................................................................................................. 20

5. Method .............................................................................................................................. 22

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5.1. Qualitative and quantitative ....................................................................................... 22

5.2. Literature study .......................................................................................................... 22

5.2.1. Execution ............................................................................................................ 22

5.3. Informants .................................................................................................................. 23

5.4. Interview .................................................................................................................... 23

5.4.1. Preparation ......................................................................................................... 24

5.4.2. Execution ............................................................................................................ 24

5.4.3. Probing interviews .............................................................................................. 25

5.4.4. In-depth interview .............................................................................................. 25

5.4.5. Informal interviews ............................................................................................ 25

5.5. Focus groups .............................................................................................................. 25

5.5.1. Preparation ......................................................................................................... 26

5.5.2. Execution ............................................................................................................ 27

5.6. Processing .................................................................................................................. 27

5.6.1. Transcription ...................................................................................................... 28

5.6.2. Analysis .............................................................................................................. 28

5.7. Ethical considerations ................................................................................................ 28

5.8. Reliability .................................................................................................................. 29

6. Result and analysis ............................................................................................................ 30

6.1. Result ......................................................................................................................... 30

6.1.1. Probing interviews .............................................................................................. 30

6.1.2. In-depth interview .............................................................................................. 30

6.1.3. Focus groups ...................................................................................................... 30

6.2. Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 31

6.2.1. Language ............................................................................................................ 31

6.2.2. Culture ................................................................................................................ 33

6.2.3. Knowledge ......................................................................................................... 34

6.2.4. Departments ....................................................................................................... 37

7. Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 39

7.1. Language ................................................................................................................... 39

7.2. Culture ....................................................................................................................... 39

7.3. Knowledge ................................................................................................................. 40

7.4. Departments ............................................................................................................... 41

7.5. Validity and reliability in the results ......................................................................... 41

7.6. Summary .................................................................................................................... 42

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8. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 43

8.1. Further research ......................................................................................................... 43

8.2. Proposal for Atlas Copco ........................................................................................... 44

9. References ......................................................................................................................... 45

9.1. Printed ........................................................................................................................ 45

9.2. Electronic ................................................................................................................... 46

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1. Introduction

This chapter aims to give the reader an insight into why this project has taken place and to

give a solid background to the subject examined. The research questions together with the

outline for the study are also presented.

1.1. Short introduction

Education and technology is of great interest for the researchers and they have therefore

chosen to conduct this thesis project at a big technological company where both of these fields

could be combined. Atlas Copco was seen as a potential candidate to widen the horizons for

the researchers and provide expertise for the company in this matter.

The marketing division of the Motor Vehicle Industry (MVI) within the Atlas Copco group

has experienced a need to increase the company’s competence in specific areas. Lacking vital

information within the organization suitable to support the customers’ needs is the incentive

to develop a course regarding the matter. The idea is to examine the need for this type of

course and to develop a course plan, an outline of how the course can be formed. The purpose

of this thesis will be to determine whether the course will require heterogeneous or

homogeneous group composition to make sure the course participants get the most out of the

participation. What will benefit the company most? To make sure departments get a specially

designed course without interaction between departments or combining departments to make

it possible to learn from other areas within the organization. A company of this magnitude

also faces challenges of cultural aspects and language differences when communicating

internally which also may affect the way the groups attending the course should be formed.

The main focus of this thesis is to determine in which ways the attendees at Atlas Copco

should be grouped to make everybody benefit the most.

1.2. The grouping phenomena

Since the founding of schools and group education there has been the possibility to shape

groups differently by putting people of the same age, knowledge or skin color together when

learning. This has sometimes been for practical reasons and sometimes purely based on

prejudice. The question is which group composition suits the learner the best and will

maximize the learning outcome. Like all other learning, this will be up to the situation (Illeris

& Andersson, 2007) but the question is if there is a way that is more suitable in a certain

situation.

1.2.1. The history of age and ability grouping

The most classical way of forming groups in education is age and ability grouping. This is a

very practical approach to determine which group a certain individual should attend. Whether

or not this is the correct way to do it is open for debate. Research on this matter has been

conducted for a long time and accordingly there is no best practice, it always depends on the

circumstances (Esposito, 1973).

In terms of ability grouping in schools and the aspect of how students learn, multiple studies

have come to the conclusion that heterogeneous groups are more beneficial (Alpert and

Bechar, 2008; Ireson et al., 2001). This because the low-performing students have somebody

to look up to and learn from and the high-performing students learn when they put their

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knowledge into action by teaching. Doing this prevents the homogeneous group of low-

performing students from ending up in a negative loop where motivation cannot be found. A

lot of schools in Sweden are still practicing ability grouping since it is more convenient for

the teachers to plan a lesson for a knowledge homogenous group of students (Ramberg,

2014).

Grouping according to age may be practical in schools but in a working environment it is not

that simple. People may have joined the same workplace during different stages in their career

and regardless need to take the same course to be able to perform in their new position.

Research has been conducted in the area of grouping people in more workplace-like

environments and for courses given for adults (Roberson et al., 2001), (Mulcahy, 2012).

However, most of the other research concerns children. None of the articles found has been

conducted at such a big multinational company nor taken into account the many aspects

necessary when forming education at large companies. Thus, this thesis will examine what is

required to be accounted for when forming groups at a big company.

1.2.2. Cultural differences

If the group of learners is heterogeneous in more than one way, the learning situation can be

even more complicated. The way a person acts in a learning situation can differ a lot

depending on the culture and social context in which that person grew up. When people from

different cultures are combined, friction is expected and therefore it might not be so

convenient to combine people with different learning traditions.

Culture can both be something a person has learned from home, in school or a working

environment. All these places also have subcultures that influence the persons’ way of acting

in different situations. Culture can differ a lot within a small distance but also be very similar

on different sides of the earth. To manage these differences in culture, people act different in

every situation but sometimes when encountering a new situation complication occurs. The

difficulty is to predict how somebody will react in a certain learning situation, thus the

cultural aspect of grouping is of great importance (Hofstede, 2005).

Language is a cultural factor that can cause much trouble when communicating. If somebody

does not understand the person they are talking to it makes it hard to agree on almost

anything. Even though a lot can be communicated through body language this is still

something that needs to be considered when forming groups.

1.3. Purpose

The aim of this thesis project is to analyze the impact of grouping participants in

homogeneous or heterogeneous designed groups concerning a course within the Atlas Copco

company. Furthermore, the aim is to compare the outcome of research on the field of

grouping with the results from this study and present a suggestion to Atlas Copco how to

combine participants during courses.

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1.3.1. Research questions

What should a multinational company take into account when forming groups for a course,

given internally, to increase the competence of the employees?

To what extent must language skills be considered when participants are chosen?

In what way should cultural aspects be taken into account when designing the groups?

How should the aspect of different levels of prior knowledge be considered?

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2. Background

The history of Atlas Copco will, in this chapter, be presented together with information about

previous courses given internally, as well as the reason this thesis project was conducted

there. Last in this chapter the limitations for the project will be presented.

2.1. The Atlas Copco company

Atlas Copco is today a world leading company within their branch by providing tools for

many types of industries. Four large segments exist within the company: mining,

compressors, construction technique and one addressed to industrial technique. There are

several different divisions under industrial technique, for example MVI and General Industry

(GI). The industrial technique segment, moreover the MVI-division, is where this thesis will

be conducted. The MVI-division have customers all over the world and almost every well-

known western car producing company is a customer of Atlas Copco.

The Atlas Copco group has approximately 44 000 employees and is a global company with

business in more than 180 countries. Their slogan is “Committed to sustainable productivity”

and the company is highly ranked in international comparisons of how sustainably a company

is working (Atlas Copco, 2015).

Atlas Copco has a vision to always be “First in Mind – First in Choice®” for the customer

and therefore continuous improvement of products and ways of meeting the customers’ needs

are necessary. To present solutions to the market before the customers ask for it is important.

By continuously innovating products and services Atlas Copco wants to be the world leading

company within their sectors when it comes to industrial solutions (Atlas Copco, 2015).

The Industrial technique segment has customers in many industries around the world and

many of them are dependent on assembling parts together. Atlas Copco’s most sold products

within this segment are tightening tools. Today the industry is more and more dependent upon

the fact that screws and bolts are fixed in the exact right position with the right torque for

safety and quality reasons when something is being assembled.

The MVI division’s main customers are car producers and a significant part of the process of

manufacturing a car is the final assembly process of which the prospective course is going to

address. Due to the fact that the final assembly products are developed for cars and reworked

to suit the other vehicles the focus of the course will be on the final assembly process for cars.

Henceforth when the final assembly process is mentioned it refers to the car industries’ final

assembly process.

2.1.1. The final assembly process

The car factory receives assembled parts from other factories or other areas inside the car

factory and the process of connecting these different parts together to a finished car is called

final assembly. The processes of connecting different parts are called applications, some more

complex than others. This is the subject which the course will be centered around.

During final assembly, many companies apply the LEAN concept where operations that are

not necessary to production are eliminated. Atlas Copco works hard to make solutions that are

smart, time efficient and ergonomic with good service to fulfill the customer’s needs. A

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course about LEAN has also been designed with much hands-on work and the company hopes

that this final assembly course will contain just as much hands-on and be appreciated among

the employees as the LEAN training.

2.1.2. The aim of Atlas Copco

The overall purpose of the course is for the employees involved in the final assembly process

to get a better understanding of the customer, and to get a deeper understanding of how

different departments within Atlas Copco function.

The company aims to have a close relationship with the customers and to offer both products

and support services. Atlas Copco is aware that their products are more expensive compared

to competitors and therefore they need to be better at other aspects valued higher by

customers. To achieve this a lot of departments at Atlas Copco must work together.

The biggest possibility to reach this goal is to have a really good salesforce. Sales have

continuous contact with the customers and are in the best position in the company to put Atlas

Copco on good terms with the customers. By getting to know the customers better and to have

extensive knowledge about how factories function and the different departments’ interests the

sales force has a great opportunity to develop into a superior sales force. This together with

their influence on the customer relation makes the sales force the main target group for the

course. After the course the sales force is meant to be able to feel confident in their work of

presenting solutions and answers to the car factories’ departments before being asked for it. If

the sales person knows the stakeholders’ interests and problem areas before meeting, the sales

person can have a solution for that problem before it arises. To fulfill the aim of the course

other departments are planned to attend as well.

Research and development (R&D) is another department with a lot of influence on the final

assembly customers since R&D is designing the products presented to the market. Because

most customers are located far from the main office, therefore R&D does not visit factories as

often as sales people. Hence R&D lack a lot of knowledge about the customers, what the car

factory environment look like and how the assembly process takes place. With this knowledge

the management at Atlas Copco thinks that R&D could do a better work with researching

more custom fitted products for the market and not waste time on products that gives low or

no value to the customer.

The marketing department is often made up of people recruited from within the company who

mostly has good knowledge about most things that they will encounter in their daily work.

Their goal is to know as much of the business as possible and being able to present the Atlas

Copco products in the best way to the market.

As seen above the different target groups have different goals with their attendance in the

training. This leads to the question whether it is more appropriate to adjust the course to be

more focused on the attendants’ needs or if it is better to have participants from different

departments attending the training and hope they can take advantage of each other’s

experiences.

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2.1.3. Previous courses

During previous courses held by the MVI division there has not been any special

requirements concerning the participants. Of course they have completed pre-studies on the

internet but no special requirements on the composition of the group has existed. All the

courses have suggested target groups but there are no explicit requirements to participate.

Atlas Copco has made sure that all employees are free to show interest in which courses they

want to attend. This strategy has been sufficient in the past but now Atlas Copco is wondering

if the final assembly course needs to have requirements both on the level of experience and

which department the participants come from. All for the greater purpose to make an excellent

course which will make use of the attendants’ previous experience and knowledge from other

courses.

2.1.4. The training

As of now the form of training is not finally determined but the plan is to have a three-day

course with a lot of hands-on activities and other exercises that keep the participants active.

This, together with a pre-study such as an e-learning, will make the attendants feel like the

training is something more than just an ordinary course. Furthermore, a follow-up meeting on

the training to make sure the participants take time to reflect on how to make use of the

knowledge taught during the training will be conducted after a couple of months after the

course.

2.2. Limitations

This thesis will be limited to examine what will be most beneficial to Atlas Copco’s

employees within the MVI division concerning homogenous or heterogeneous grouping when

attending the final assembly course. Thus the findings will be limited to be valid in the final

assembly course and very similar settings. The age aspect of the attendees will not be taken

into account when viewing homogenous grouping since the experience and cultural aspects

are found more interesting.

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3. Theoretical framework

Recognized theories about learning and culture that is necessary to understand and answer

the research questions will be presented. Vygotsky’s theory about learning and Schein’s

theory about cultural impact in working environment is in line with the phenomena of group

composition and were therefore found essential for this project.

3.1. Vygotsky’s theory of learning

Lev Vygotsky was a psychologist in the Soviet Union in the early 20th century. He died at a

relatively young age but during his life he contributed greatly to the psychological field with

his ideas about learning and the cultural impact of it.

Cultural-historical psychology is a psychological theory that Vygotsky never spoke of in his

own work but he is now seen as one of its founders. The theory is about mapping mind, brain

and culture together in a socio-historical environment. It is founded on the assumption that

individuals learn in their social context. To be able to integrate new knowledge people need

help from someone who has access to that knowledge and can explain it to the learner

(Vygotskij, 2001).

3.1.1. Zone of Proximal Development

One of the central parts of Vygotsky’s contribution to the theories of learning and education is

the model of zone of proximal development (ZPD) which can be described by a picture with

three circles on top of each other where they become bigger and bigger.

In picture 1 below, the inner circle represents what people can handle on their own. By using

the knowledge a person already possesses, problems that fall into this first zone can be solved.

The middle circle is the knowledge and problems that a learner can reach with the help of

others, for example with the guidance of a teacher or a peer instructor. The third circle

represents the knowledge that the individual does not yet have an accessible way to reach.

There is no path that can lead an individual to the third circle without extending the second

circle to include the desirable knowledge (Vygotskij, 2001).

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Picture 1. Zone of proximal development, diagram (Cuppacocoa, 2014).

This is a very schematic but realistic picture of what Vygotsky tried to explain about what

happens when someone learns something and what a teacher should have in mind when

planning education.

By this theory the purpose of education is to always keep the content of the education fitted

within the ZPD of the learners. If the learner has no way of easily integrating the new

knowledge with the previous one the teacher is making unnecessary efforts.

Vygotsky’s theories might seem very simple, that as long as a more capable person is

educating someone the student will be able to learn whatever is being taught, but it is more

complex. The theory sets demands on both the educator and the learner. However, the really

interesting part takes place between them in a social situation. It is in that social context the

learner has an opportunity to learn something.

Vygotsky’s thoughts and theories were later further developed by Jean Piaget and many

others. Piaget’s theories of the child’s development were those that became most widely

spread and have today set a big mark in the understanding of learning and teaching

(Vygotskij, 2001).

3.2. Schein’s definition of organizational culture

Edgar Schein is a psychologist that during his active years at MIT in the US developed an

important theory about organizational culture and other related organizational theories.

16

The greatest contribution to the cultural field is how to identify different features that exists in

a culture and on what level they belong. The model created for this is represented in picture 2.

Picture 2. The level of culture and their interaction (Schein, 2009). To the right in the picture are the things that

can be identified in a culture and to the left is the level in which it links to and the arrows represents how they

interact with each other.

3.2.1. Artifacts and creations

These are the things visible to the eye that can be interpreted as cultural expressions. Things

such as clothes and how people move and talk can often easily be observed by people not part

of the culture. Artifacts and creations can be divided into three categories: physical,

behavioral and verbal expressions (Blom et al., 2009). Physical expressions are things that can

be seen such as the clothes people are wearing. Behavioral are the way people act against each

other. Verbal expressions are things that people say to each other.

3.2.2. Values

To find out why a group of people behaves in certain ways the values within that group need

to be examined. This can be done by interviewing important people in the organization and

examining documents or similar material that can be found among the artifacts. The values

found are the ones expressed within the culture but they are not necessarily the reason for a

certain behavior. The reason for certain behaviors is something unconscious in each

individual (Schein, 2009).

3.2.3. Basic assumptions

Values of an organization that have become taken for granted and are no longer possible to be

questioned are defined as basic assumptions. They are said to be the essence of the culture and

are the real reasons for why an organization functions the way it does. It is also hard to see

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these basic assumptions from inside the organization since they are underlying and often

unconscious reasons for behavior (Schein, 2009).

If an organization shows all three levels of cultural expressions it is considered to have an

organizational culture in Schein’s definition.

Further Schein has written that “If a stable group has had a long, varied, intense history (i.e.,

if it has had to cope with many difficult survival problems and has succeeded), it will have a

strong and highly differentiated culture.” (Schein, 2009, p. 75). Many large old companies

can be considered to fall under the citation but they do not necessarily have a strong culture.

A strong organizational culture is not equivalent with an effective organization but it is

desirable if effectiveness is a goal since they feel a stronger connection to the group and the

fact that they all work towards the same goal.

Schein also makes a mark on the thoughts of the existence of subgroups within a company

and the fact that the subgroups can have different cultures. “If a total corporation consists of

stable functional, divisional, geographic, or rank-based subgroups, then that corporation will

have multiple cultures within it.” (Schein, 2009, p. 75). This might very well be the case at

different departments at a company or between offices sited around the world. Depending on

the background of the members of a department they can develop an engineering culture in

one site and a labor culture at another. This makes it possible for an organization to have a

core in their culture that all employees share and the possibility that all the branches in the

company develop their own culture on top of that (Schein, 2009).

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4. Previous research

In this chapter articles and literature with results regarding aspects that concern the research

questions will be presented. Only articles covering one aspect were found and therefore the

articles are presented in themes regarding what aspect they cover.

4.1. Heterogeneous and homogeneous groups

Homogeneous grouping is when people are grouped together due to their similarity in one or

many fields.

“Homogeneous grouping refers to the organization of instructional classes on the basis of

students’ similarity on one or more specific characteristics. The criterion for this classification

may be age, sex, social maturity, I.Q., achievement, learning style, or a combination of these or

other variables.” (Esposito, 1973, p. 165).

The heterogeneous grouping on the other hand is a mixture between people with differences

in one or many fields (Mulcahy, 2012). It is therefore possible to make a group homogeneous

in one aspect and heterogeneous in others, all according to the originator.

According to Esposito (1973), it is easier to educate a homogeneous group because the

participants are more alike than in a heterogeneous group. This makes it possible to have a

narrower course content since the group has similar previous experiences and knowledge due

to specific factors.

Individuals having experience of training with mixed groups in regard to nationality and

ethnicity perform better when they are in homogeneous groups regarding nationality and

ethnicity. People that do not have experience with heterogeneous groups in regard to

nationality and ethnicity perform equally well whether or not they are in homogeneous or

heterogeneous groups. Sometimes when having mixed groups, people from different

nationalities have a tendency to fall into the stereotypical roll of their origin within the new

group (Roberson et al., 2001).

4.2. Cultural and language barriers

According to Hofstede (2005), most of a person’s cultural belonging is formed early in its life

through social interaction with family and society. A person’s personality depends on in

which culture the person is grown up. Hofstede (2011) further explains a six dimensional

model for how to categorize different cultures: power distance, uncertainty avoidance,

individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, long term versus short term

orientation and indulgence versus restraint. The different categories receive ratings which

combined describes a culture. Culture shock can occur when a person enters a new culture

where there is a different societal structure. Hofstede (2005) argues that cultural shock is a

part of acculturation which is when a person arrives and has to learn basic values of the new

culture. The acculturation process is divided into four phases. A short period after arriving the

first phase, which is the joyful honeymoon phase, turns into a second more negative phase of

realization where the person can feel discomfort, this second phase is called cultural shock.

The third acculturation phase is when the person has begun to adapt the new culture and

becomes integrated into society. Lastly this turns into the stable phase which is when the

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person has adapted the new way of living. The length of this process is individual and

depends on multiple factors.

In Japan it is not considered nice to speak up or speak spontaneously, this is part of the

Japanese culture and as a Japanese proverb says: “the mouth is a source of trouble” (Hilton,

1991, p. 5). The language is not suited for debate, discussions and arguments in contrast to

many other languages which are. In general, Japanese people do not speak good English even

though being taught English in school. The type of English taught in school is not focused on

actual communication and even though the students might have good grades they still lack the

ability to communicate properly (Hilton, 1991).

Language is crucial for communication and it is important to not only speak the same

language but also to have the same technical words to be able to understand each other. A

native English speaker has an upper hand because of the ability to formulate sentences. This

can cause a non-native speaker to feel intimidated which in turn can cause this person to be

afraid to speak up (Louhiala-Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2012).

Working in a multinational company can sometimes cause people to start speaking English

that is not grammatically correct. People from different nations has their own version of

English, which sometimes makes it difficult to communicate within a multinational company.

The emphasis is not on formulating correct English, but to get the right message through. This

is known as BELF, English as Business Lingua Franca and is a simpler version of English

(Louhiala-Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2012).

4.3. Organizational culture

To be a learning organization and to have a continuous improvement in the company there are

a couple of attitudes and concepts that need to exist within the organization. One of these

things is the organizational culture. “Organizations need to be flexible, adaptive and

innovative to survive in the changing environment.” (Rijal, 2016, p. 18).

There has been a study conducted at Atlas Copco Craelius investigating the organizational

culture at their work place and within the company. The findings of the study show that the

employees at Atlas Copco take much pride in their company and feel a lot of responsibility

for their work. Within the company there are several subcultures mostly distinguished by

departments. The study was made at a different part within the Atlas Copco organization

compared to this project but an assumption was made that the greater concepts found are

generalizable for the whole Atlas Copco company (Blom et al., 2009).

4.4. T-shapes

A person who has a lot of knowledge in one specific area and lack the broad communication

skill is known as an I-shaped person. The person who communicates between departments are

called dash-shaped people. This was seen as the ideal structure of employees earlier in the last

century because people worked in their specific field for a longer period of time. Nowadays

T-shaped people are seen as more beneficial because of their broad communication skills

across many areas and deep knowledge in one or a few specific fields, see picture 3. This

becomes handy due to today’s rapid development within companies. Because they partially

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know other areas than their own they can quickly change focus and become experts in other

parts of the company. It is more costly to develop T-shapes but the effects are greater than

having one I-shaped and one dash-shaped person since it is more costly to re-educate an I-

shaped person (Donofrio et al., 2009). These communication skills mixed with deep

knowledge is valued highly in companies (Allen & Rooney, 1998).

Picture 3. T-shape with the broad basic knowledge over many fields and deep expert knowledge in one or few

areas.

4.5. The big-fish-little-pond effect

Students have a tendency to compare themselves with students of equal or higher ability. If a

class is very homogeneous in regard to high achieving students, these students are going to

compare themselves with each other. Because they are all on this high level and since they are

comparing themselves with equal people they are not going to stick out as much as if they

were comparing themselves with a low achieving person and this will lead the high achieving

students to think that they are not as high achieving as they really are and it might lead to low

self-esteem. If a middle achiever is instead in a low achieving class, this person will feel

really confident. In a pond with big fish, another big fish does not stick out, but in a pond with

small fish, the big fish sticks out (Dai & Rinn, 2008).

The theory seems to lose in reliability the older the participants get and during and after high

school the effect is almost entirely absent.

“Marsh (1987) suspected that the BFLPE is more likely to occur in elementary school years than later

years, as children in that age are still in the formative years regarding self-concepts.” (Dai & Rinn,

2008, p. 287).

“/.../ these findings lend some support to the notion that the BFLPE might not exist at the university

level.” (Dai & Rinn, 2008, p. 289).“

4.6. Knowledge

According to Mulcahy (2012) there was no significant difference in performances between a

homogeneous and a heterogeneous grouping regarding previous experience in the subject

being taught. The research also looked into the participants own preferences and found that

people with experience preferred homogeneous groups in this sense. Unexperienced people

would rather be placed with experienced people in a heterogeneous group. This however was

a small investigation and performed at a small company.

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“The main results indicate that low-ability students achieve more and are more motivated to

learn in heterogeneous groups. Average-ability students perform better in homogeneous groups

whereas high-ability students show equally strong learning outcomes in homogeneous and

heterogeneous groups.” (Saleh, Lazonder, & De Jong, 2005, p. 105).

This is the conclusion of a study made on fourth-graders when they were grouped regarding to

their knowledge in biology. Mixed groups enables the possibility that lower-achieving

students can learn from higher-achieving students (Saleh et al., 2005).

Heterogeneous groups benefits more from the interaction within the groups, but too much

heterogeneity or homogeneity is bad (Wang et al., 2007).

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5. Method

The different methods used for collecting and analyzing data will be presented and explained.

How the different processes were done will also be presented. The chapter ends with a section

regarding ethical considerations during the research and the reliability of the methods.

5.1. Qualitative and quantitative

When conducting research, the most common approaches are either to perform a qualitative

or a quantitative study. Quantitative research is often about counting and comparing if there is

a majority of one or another thing. This often ends up as statistics in for example a diagram

and the reason it is a popular method of conducting research is that the conclusions are often

very generalizable. This is almost always the way research is being done in the field of natural

science (Golafshani, 2003).

The most convenient way to execute the research for this thesis would have been to make a

quantitative survey of already existing courses at Atlas Copco and look at which groups

became more satisfied with their learning, depending on the group composition. This,

however, was not possible since the most similar course was unavailable when this thesis took

place. The course was about the LEAN concept and during this thesis it was not prioritized to

hold the course since most of the intended target groups already had completed it. The other

courses given by the company have more or less predetermined participants because the

courses are more specialized and are often aimed for people from only one department.

Thus the qualitative method of performing research was the only option and for this thesis

project and its surveying purpose a group discussion was necessary to be able to gather the

complexity and experiences from different individuals. Interviews were needed primarily as

exploratory interviews where thoughts and opinions were gathered and secondly to get a

deeper understanding of experiences and topics discussed during the focus groups. By using

different methods to collect information a wider range of analyzable data could be received,

thus getting a broader point of view.

5.2. Literature study

In the beginning and throughout the study relevant literature has been read to find the

prevailing situation on the research regarding group composition. This however later became

more of an adaptive process where the results of the information collection also led to the

need for other literature.

5.2.1. Execution

The search for articles and previous research has been conducted by the researchers through

the help of the supervisors and the KTH librarians. The databases used for most of the

research are ERIC and PRIMO provided by the KTH library website. Initially the search

focus was on finding sources related to group composition and ability grouping in learning

situations. Later the search had to be expanded to look for articles concerning aspects of

people working together not only in learning situations. This way more articles could be

found regarding cultural aspects and language differences.

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5.3. Informants

The informants for this research project were almost entirely selected by the external

supervisor. Most of the participants in the focus group were people which had been

interviewed during the probing interviews or by other means involved in the project. The

three main departments where the interviewees were working during the data collection were

marketing, R&D and the learning department which has the overall responsibility for the

courses given internally. Many informants have leading positions and are in charge of other

employees.

Information about the informants and the people participating in the research are compiled in

table 1 below. To keep the informants’ confidential codes were assigned, however to

understand the background of the informants chosen information is presented.

Table 1. The informants’ positions in the company.

5.4. Interview

Interviews are a good method to ask in-depth questions which generates in-depth answers. By

asking open questions the answers often contribute to other aspects than originally thought of

(Häger, 2007). An individual interview gives the interviewee a chance to thoroughly explain

certain aspects which generates the interviewer to get a deep understanding of the subject.

What the individual interview lacks is that the outline of the interview is mostly

predetermined by the interviewer, the answers are also from one person’s perspective (Lantz,

2013).

During an interview the interviewer has to be an active listener, everything cannot be written

down due to lack of time. Therefore it is better to document too much rather than too little and

during the interviews a good method to make sure everything is obtained is to record the

interview (Lantz, 2013).

The questions asked during an interview should be in the most logical order for the person

interviewed, jumping back and forth between subjects makes the interview seem

unprofessional and unprepared. When formulating questions, possible follow-up questions

should be thought of. This way the interview can run much smoother, especially for

unexperienced interviewers. All the answers during an interview should be considered from

the respondents’ viewpoint. The way humans function is that everything in a person’s mind is

categorized into compartments. This happens automatically and is a mechanism for the brain

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to cope with the world. When the brain receives a new impression this process sorts the

impression into an already existing category. Since the experience of the interviewer and the

responder are very different during these interviews, what the responder says can easily be

misinterpreted by the interviewer (Lantz, 2013).

Different people find different things interesting and even though the frame and goal of the

interviews are all the same, personal interests might change the focus of the interviews and by

having more than one interviewer present a broader perspective of the interviewee can be

collected (Lantz, 2013).

5.4.1. Preparation

Relevant literature was read to get a good understanding of how an interview should be

conducted. By having prepared questions to follow-up the interviewees answers the

misinterpretation mentioned above could be avoided to some extent (Lantz, 2013).

The interviews conducted required some experience in the language and culture of Atlas

Copco and its customers. By having acquired knowledge about the company and the

customers the quality of the interviews were heightened. Everything in social occasions has a

connection and depending on many factors such as age, ethnicity and gender these

relationships and interactions will be affected differently. By adapting the culture of the

company before the interviews the interactions would cause less turbulence (Lantz, 2013).

5.4.2. Execution

Two interviewers and one interviewee were present during the interviews. All of the

interviews followed the same structure where the interviewee sat on one side of a table and

the interviewers on the other side. Picture 4 below describes seating arrangement for all

interviews except one where the interviewers had changed places. Before each interview the

person interviewed was asked for permission to record the audio of the interview.

Picture 4. Seating arrangement during interviews. PX describes the interviewee while I1 and I2 represents

interviewer 1 and 2.

During the first few interviews one researcher was taking notes and the other conducted the

interview, from time to time the person taking notes also asked questions. Due to inexperience

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of the interviewers the latter interviews were conducted by both of the interviewers to make

sure the interview ran smoothly and a wider range of questions were asked.

5.4.3. Probing interviews

A number of interviews were conducted as a method to collect opinions about group

compositions. These probing interviews were not solely about homogeneous or heterogeneous

groups, but the subject was discussed. The main reason for these interviews was to collect

information about how employees wanted the outline of the course Atlas Copco was

developing to look like and for the researchers to get to know the company and its culture. By

asking about group composition in an Atlas Copco training, different aspects were handled

and different opinions were being noted. This was used in preparation for the focus groups.

5.4.3.1. Preparation

The questions were prepared for the main purpose of the interviews which were to talk about

the outline of the training. Participants were not selected due to their experience in group

compositions. They were handed to the interviewers because of their experience and position

within Atlas Copco.

5.4.4. In-depth interview

One in-depth interview regarding group compositions was also conducted as a way to get

answers to questions emerged during the focus groups.

5.4.4.1. Preparation

Before the in-depth interview took place the focus group discussions regarding group

composition had been completed. During these discussions questions arose but due to the

frame of the focus groups no direct questions could be asked to the participants. A newly

employed person at Atlas Copco but with a lot of experience in producing training programs

and who had not been part of the focus groups was seen as a good candidate for an in-depth

interview regarding group composition.

5.4.4.2. Execution

During this interview the interviewee changed back and forth between Swedish and English.

This because English was the persons’ native language and the interviewee felt the need to

express thoughts in a more familiar way to get the message through.

5.4.5. Informal interviews

During the time at Atlas Copco, many spontaneous conversations occurred regarding the topic

of this thesis. The opinions and comments that emerged during the dialogues were not

recorded and thus could not be analyzed in a systematic way but raised questions and thoughts

that were implemented into the interviews and played a big role in the result of this paper.

5.5. Focus groups

Focus groups allows researchers to collect information about people’s opinions about certain

topics. The group interaction allows for the participants to speak freely and through the group

more aspects of a problem can be raised (Geijer, 2006).

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One big advantage with focus groups is that it is possible to assemble information about

whether the participants agree with each other or not. To get the full extent of the

communication a video recorder is necessary. Not only to record verbal communication but

also to record non-verbal communication. This non-verbal communication might be important

and could say a lot about how people react to certain comments and ideas. The way

conversations during focus groups are formed is partially due to body language from the

participants, such as shaking or nodding their heads, looking away and making gestures

(Geijer, 2006).

5.5.1. Preparation

According to Wibeck (2000), the participants should be homogeneous in respect to

socioeconomic background and age. Since the culture at Atlas Copco can be considered as a

mutual factor and the informants were all of working age the participants’ socioeconomic

background nor age was checked.

To get a wider range of analyzable data and also enough for the conclusion to be reliable

(Wibeck, 2000), two focus groups were decided sufficient. The difficulty in gathering the

right people together was also a limiting factor in having more groups. Experienced people

from different departments were needed to get the conversation interesting, talking about

many different aspects and opinions. Since the participants all knew each other from before

there was a risk that they would talk about aspects not central to the topic of the focus group.

To prevent this from happening a number of topics were predetermined and the moderator

aware that the participants might deviate from the original topics.

A focus group should consist of four to twelve people. For this research and due to

inexperience in moderating it was considered better to have small groups to be able to reach

further into the problem during the discussions. The participating people in the focus group

meeting was contacted verbally at first making sure they wanted to participate. Later an e-

mail was sent out explaining the purpose and topic of the focus group, also containing two

suggested times for each of the participants to pick for themselves for the researchers to make

sure the participants were equally distributed over the two times. Ten people were contacted

which in case of sudden cancellations there would hopefully be at least four participants per

occasion (Breen, 2006).

Apart from contacting the participants, the preparations consisted of acquiring two video

cameras, an audio recorder and booking a conference room with a round table. The round

table was to make sure all participants could see each other at all times which according to

Wibeck (2000) is a desirable configuration.

Before the focus groups, as mentioned above, individual interviews were held as a means to

get opinions and thoughts. Also some of the participants from the individual interviews were

asked to participate in the focus groups due to their thoughts on the subject. The purpose was

to make sure at least some of the participants of the focus groups had different views and

opinions regarding the subject.

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5.5.2. Execution

The meetings were held and organized by the two researchers, one acted as the moderator and

the other as the moderator assistant (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2010). They were on sight a little

over half an hour before the participants’ arrival to set up all the necessary documenting

equipment which can be seen in picture 5 below. All technical apparatus was tested before the

meetings were held but unfortunately one of the video recordings on the first meeting did not

function.

Picture 5. Seating arrangement during the focus groups. I1 is the assistant, I2 is the moderator, PX represents the

participants. The door and video cameras are also marked in the picture.

The moderator presented the purpose and outlines of the focus group and let every person

share their opinion about having homogeneous or heterogeneous grouping. This was to make

everybody comfortable in the topic and the group. After everybody had finished, the

moderator presented a view point and let the conversation begin. The moderator started taking

notes to get the people in the focus groups to talk to each other and not with the moderator.

The assistant was sitting by the table without saying anything.

During the first focus group the moderator had to intervene twice to present new perspectives.

Also during the first focus group, as a way to conclude everything, the moderator asked the

assistant for a summary.

In the second focus group the moderator did not have to intervene to present new

perspectives. There was no time for a conclusion since the conversations went on and people

had a lot of input.

5.6. Processing

Processing the collected data was necessary to make a reliable analysis. Transcription was

used for the formal interviews and focus group conversations. For the informal interviews no

structured process was followed.

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5.6.1. Transcription

Transcription allows researchers to have all the raw data without any misinterpretations from

note taking. To get as much information about the communication from and amongst the

participants as possible all of the communication during the formal interviews and focus

groups was transcribed in a high level (Lantz, 2013). Talking, humming, laughing was

transcribed from the interviews and for the focus groups body language was also included. A

certain structure of the transcriptions was followed, underlining meant speaking at the same

time, bold words meant emphasizing the word and italics signified body language.

From the probing interviews only the parts where group composition was discussed was

transcribed.

Since most of the data gathering was conducted in Swedish almost all the transcribed material

was in Swedish. A translation to English of all the analyzed data was made by the researchers

and is presented in English further below.

5.6.2. Analysis

The analysis was made in a thematic way where the researchers identified several themes that

occurred in the data collection. The themes were decided upon by the researchers before the

categorizing begun but after the interviews were held. A special document describing the

categories and explaining how a quote should be categorized were attempted but later found

out too hard to finish for the researchers due to inexperience in the research field.

A color scheme was then decided and each theme was assigned a color. The transcriptions

were read and then separately the researchers connected quotes to the themes (Breen, 2006).

According to Lantz (2013), reducing excessive data is required to make a good analysis,

hence only relevant quotes were left in the transcription. All the recognized quotes from both

of the researchers were put together and sorted into the themes to get a structured analyzing

process (Breen, 2006).

5.6.2.1. Interviews

The work of transcribing the different interviews was divided so that one researcher

transcribed the probing interview and the other transcribed the in-depth interview.

5.6.2.2. Focus groups

During the focus groups the analyzing process begun when the participants started

questioning each other asking for examples and possible outcomes. This analyzing process

that the participants contribute with during a focus group does not exist in the same way

within an individual interview.

The researcher that transcribed the in-depth interview also transcribed the focus groups.

5.7. Ethical considerations

When conducting research there are ethical commitments and according to Vetenskapsrådet

(2002) there are four main demands that ought to be followed:

The participants have to be informed of the purpose of the research and that their

contribution is voluntary.

29

The participants must leave their consent to participate in the research.

Participants’ personal data are to be kept confidential.

The collected data are only to be used in research.

These have been followed throughout the entire research process and during all the

conversations, interviews and focus groups. No sensitive information was discussed. Also,

none of the participants are named in this paper and the recordings were only witnessed by the

authors. Some names are mentioned during the data collection but the researchers do not

consider them sensitive and have therefore not altered the transcriptions.

5.8. Reliability

Being as consequent throughout the data collection and analyzing part as possible would give

reliable information and outcome. Most of the transcription was made by one researcher to

keep the reliability high. There was not enough time for both of the researchers to do the

whole transcriptions separately because this is a very time consuming process. Therefore, it

was decided that one person transcribed the focus groups and the other the probing interviews.

If the different research methods show similarities in the result, it is a sign that the validity

and reliability are high. The different methods used increased the reliability and the similarity

in results increased the validity of the research (Golafshani, 2003).

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6. Result and analysis

Result from the collection of data together with the analysis will be presented in this chapter.

The quotes are grouped in the themes that were predetermined during the analysing process.

6.1. Result

A short summary on the outcome of each method used when collecting data is presented

further below.

The interviews and the discussions during the focus groups all originates from the same

perspective – a course that aim to deepen the knowledge of the final assembly customers as

well as the different departments within Atlas Copco.

All the participants in this study seem to agree on the fact that it is beneficial for the company

to mix course participants as much as possible. The participants then discussed what has to be

taken into consideration when combining people in the best way possible and in order to

prevent learning difficulties during a course.

6.1.1. Probing interviews

Eight exploratory interviews were held, but some did not contain any interesting parts for this

research and were therefore not transcribed. A few of the interviews were not recorded hence

they were excluded from the report. The parts the researchers found interesting will be

described below and quotes will be included to present the result.

During the interviews a lot of questions about courses in general were asked to the

interviewees but not many of them concerned the aspect of group composition. Some of the

interviewees talked about the topic spontaneously and some spoke freely around other topics

such as what the aim of the course should be.

The main focus of the probing interviews was on different cultures and language barriers. The

aspect of subcultures within Atlas Copco was also discussed. The interesting quotes from the

probing interviews are shown in the analysis.

6.1.2. In-depth interview

The in-depth interviewee was newly employed at Atlas Copco due to great experience in

educational questions and specialization in e-learning. Since the person lacked experience in

Atlas Copco this interview concerned more general aspects of knowledge and language

barriers connected to learning.

6.1.3. Focus groups

Two focus groups were put together and recorded according to the description in the method.

The moderation of the focus groups was limited, hence all the quotes are spontaneous

responses by the participants.

Both of the focus groups discussed language and prior knowledge and how it could affect the

outcome of a course. The first focus group also discussed cultural differences both in terms of

subcultures within the company and different cultures around the world whilst the second

focus group mostly focused on language and prior knowledge.

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6.2. Analysis

To be able to get an insight in what is analyzed in this chapter the research questions are once

again presented.

What should a multinational company take into account when forming groups for a course

given internally to increase the competence of the employees?

To what extent must language skills be considered when participants are

chosen?

In what way should cultural aspects be taken into account when designing the

groups?

How should the aspect of different levels of prior knowledge be considered?

6.2.1. Language

The result concerning the aspect of language skill was analyzed in accordance with the

studied literature.

To understand something a person need to be able to interpret it into something

understandable. This is in line with Vygotsky’s theory of ZPD. If a person tries to learn

something outside their ZPD it is impossible for them to later make use of that knowledge.

For example something not understood in a different language (Vygotskij, 2001).

To be able to understand the content of the course when presented in English, sufficient

knowledge and technical language of the subject educated is needed. The company use

English as their corporate language but still struggle due to the fact that some people still lack

basic knowledge in English.

“We do have English as a corporate language and this is really a difficulty for us, for all

international companies to develop in different languages.”

“In my experience the language barrier concerning the Asians might be bigger than we think.

/…/ teacher held education in English /…/ but afterwards we put placed them around round

tables for conversations /…/ and then they could talk in their local language and discuss it for

example what have we done the last hour, and by doing that I think the learning level increased

/…/”

“And I usually make everybody take a break and then they can sit in smaller groups and discuss

in their local language what was important during this section /…/”

The fact that not all employees have sufficient knowledge in English have forced the

company to translate some essential courses from English into local languages. According to

Vygotskij (2001), if the participants do not know sufficient English the material taught will

not be included in their ZPD which will inhibit their learning.

Being confident in speaking English is crucial when participating in a course where sharing

experiences and roll play are essential parts of the course. Otherwise native English speakers

have a tendency to be the only ones participating in discussions and contributing to the

course. This fact was lifted in a focus group.

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“If I think about what you said about Asians and Americans, I have held the same course, which

was supposed to be a four day course, it took us exactly four days in Asia /…/ and a big

language barrier, which made us take it in several turns, while we held it in the US we were

done in 2,5 days.”

“Yes, but the language is a rather important part. And it’s as you said, we’ve seen it far too many

times when it’s three participants controlling the course and it’s Americans, Englishmen,

Australians and to some extent Canadians, they control everything if it’s a bigger group and the

others just sit there.”

“Especially if there are roleplaying and things like that, then it’s very crucial how comfortable

one is with the language.”

Not all languages are as verbal and outspoken as English. Not being verbal is a cultural

question but also connected to language skills. If the culture does not promote language, the

incentive to learn a foreign language is very low (Hilton, 1991).

Putting people with different levels of English together in a course can result in lack of

understanding between the course participants and therefore disrupt the flow in the course.

Another consequence is that people with poor English might be reluctant to speak during the

course because they can feel insecure of how to express themselves.

“And I mean it’s dangerous if you have Yanks together with Asians and the same whom are

loud and talk with heavy slang and then the Asians don’t understand a word /…/”

”/…/ when holding a course some countries have a tendency to dominate linguistically, mostly

Englishmen and Americans, compared to Asians /…/”

”/…/ we actually chose to have an Asian and one for the rest.”

According to Louhiala-Salminen and Kankaanranta (2012), language is fundamental for

communication. Sometimes a non-native speaker can feel intimidated when speaking to a

fluent person because of the upper hand and superior skills in formulating and expressing

oneself that the fluent speaker has.

During the deep interview and the focus groups it was mentioned that having a minimum

level in English for the participants is necessary. This is something that is in line with the

theory of Vygotsky’s ZPD and that everybody should have a ZPD that overlap with

somebody else’s inmost circle at the course, see picture 1. If that is not the case, the course

will be a waste of time for the participant who has no overlap since that person will not be

able to learn anything.

“The language level is the most difficult /…/ but the language level it has to be an elementary

level for the language, you can’t just go on with complicated English with different notations

that might not be the same notations used in the home country.”

“/…/ but it’s very clear that the quality of the learning is really related to the level of

understanding English.”

“/…/ to guarantee a lowest level of English on the participants, a manager sending a colleague is

going to be aware of it, you don’t want to send a coworker who’s not going to benefit from this

course /…/”

Language is the most basic level of communication. Without knowing the language,

communication on a level suitable for the course is impossible (Louhiala-Salminen &

33

Kankaanranta, 2012). The most suitable person to determine if a possible participant of the

course knows enough English is that person’s manager. According to the focus groups,

attending courses can be beneficial for the employee, people sometimes have a desire to

attend courses even though their attendance is not beneficial for the company. People

therefore want to take courses even though they do not know sufficient English to

comprehend the course.

Since many of the employees in multinational companies are not native English speakers,

they do not have the correct grammar when talking and communicating. Communication is

essential in these businesses and a certain way of speaking becomes routine, this is often an

easier and simpler English that does not emphasizes correct grammar and difficult words.

“/…/ prefer Swenglish before English. It’s easier to understand us that don’t speak fluent

English, so if there’s an American who speak very fast they don’t understand at all. /…/ And

then they use a little slang as well.”

Just like Louhiala-Salminen and Kankaanranta (2012) wrote in their research about

companies that have headquarters in non-native English speaking countries, employees at

Atlas Copco prefer to speak a different kind of English. Louhiala-Salminen and Kankaanranta

describe it as English as Business Lingua Franca (BELF) and it is possible that Atlas Copco

have made Swenglish as their own BELF within the company.

One possibility to solve the language problem is to have an interpreter that helps the teacher

to mediate the material. For participants that actually know English the interpretation is not

necessary and wastes time in the course. Having courses with too much heterogeneity might

cause an inconvenience in creating the wanted discussions whilst sharing experiences.

”I have a similar situation to Brazil where there was a local person translating. And even though

we said everything twice it went much faster because they first got to hear it in English, and

practice it, then they got to hear it in Portuguese, and then it clicked and they started working.”

“But if you can properly prepare yourself you can have the presentations in two languages so

there are Chinese signs as well.”

“/…/ very difficult with a very heterogeneous group where the rest it’s not much fun for a

Swedish group of developers that’s going to listen to and like endure that everything is

translated and I think it’ll be difficult to get the spontaneous, what we were after in the

beginning by cross-fertilizing experiences, because it’s going to be hard to get it naturally.”

Too much heterogeneity can be bad according to Wang et al. (2007). Heterogeneous groups

are considered for the better because their effective interaction but regarding language, it

might be better to have more homogeneous groups since the interaction is hindered in

heterogeneous groups.

6.2.2. Culture

Cultural aspects of the different employees around the world were also discussed and

analyzed.

Some cultures have a tendency to be noticed more than others during courses. Teachers who

are not observant enough sometimes focus too much on the participants that are loud and

therefore miss the more modest pupils.

34

“Because Yanks have a tendency to take a lot of space /…/ we block people that aren’t as pushy

/…/ It just so happens in that case that we as teachers talk to the ones that are active.”

“/…/ we had to divide it, from the beginning we had all the countries but then we had an Asian

/…/”

“/…/ cultural that you work a lot with presentations, and the verbal ability and to be seen in

those cultures in comparison to Asia, where there both is not to stick out in the same way and the

language. And the shamefulness of not make a fool out of oneself.”

“Not to lose the face.”

“/…/ cultural differences between more quiet Asians and louder westerners /…/”

Some cultures are not as verbal as others, and some cultures does not value the use of

language as much as others. As a Japanese proverb states “the mouth is a source of trouble”

(Hilton, 1991, p. 5) shows the underlying values of Japanese communication (Hilton, 1991).

People from different cultures act differently and have different views on certain aspects. As

one focus group pointed out, in some cultures a quiet approach can be the norm which does

not go well with louder cultures.

”/…/ to Asians that in our constellation are quiet /…/ probably be good to have more

homogeneous groups in that aspect. Because some doesn’t speak at all otherwise and maybe not

with a teacher neither so to speak, it’s built into the system rather than experience.”

“/…/ USA we were done in 2.5 days. Because we have coffee by the computer, we don’t take

half an hour of break where you have to gather everybody. And we sit for a long time, and

gladly interrupt and we share knowledge and it goes really fast.”

A culture forms the way a person acts. If two different cultures are combined they might not

function properly together and the culture shock that occurs can have a negative impact on the

participants of a course (Hofstede, 2005). Since there is a difference in the dimensions which

distinguish cultures what is possible in one culture might not be possible in another (Hofstede,

2011).

6.2.3. Knowledge

The knowledge aspect of the course participants is important to consider both before and

during the course.

The knowledge of the participants is important when creating courses, sometimes participants

with similar knowledge is wanted and sometimes a more varied field of knowledge is desired.

It all depends on the purpose of the course.

“/…/ for example that you have a predetermined level of knowledge /…/ so you can relate to the

things discussed /…/ we can reach further with the training, that we don’t have to go through the

basics because everybody understands it, then we can focus on raising us further /…/”

“/…/ you can imagine by a suitable preparatory exercises making the heterogeneous group

slightly more homogeneous /…/”

The participating group has to be homogeneous in some areas when they attend the course.

One of those senses is in the way that they have basic knowledge regarding the topics covered

in the course. This is in line with the results that Esposito (1973) found, a group shall not be

too heterogeneous.

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Preparation material can help in making a heterogeneous group homogeneous. If different

departments are taking a course they sometimes have very different knowledge. To make the

participants more homogeneous, specialized material can be distributed which can make the

participants actually know what others are talking about since the preparation material has

expanded the participants’ ZPD.

“But if they’re very heterogeneous from the beginning you know that there perhaps are different

knowledge differences then you can have some kind of entry requirements or, or make them

reach the same level before. /…/ So they reach the same base.”

“Then you can also discuss the preparation for the course that some of the sales people presents

certain things and some from R&D can present other things so that they have this as a

preparation exercise.”

“/…/ you could get that basic knowledge before coming to a training /…/ it would be a good

thing you can have a basis before applying the knowledge. /…/ you have to have a confirmation

of their basic knowledge /…/”

“So the projects are heterogeneous whilst the lines are homogeneous and then I think we get the

best worlds. /…/ Should they sit with their lines and be heterogeneous (the person means

homogeneous) then you get a high in-depth knowledge. Or should they sit with their release

teams that are heterogeneous groups and we have definitely switched to heterogeneous groups.”

Being prepared knowledge wise benefits a group to become more heterogeneous in other

aspects, this way the participants can learn from each other (Saleh et al., 2005). When

learning from each other it is important that the participants’ ZPDs overlap so they can

acquire the information talked about during the course (Vygotskij, 2001).

The focus groups considered heterogeneous groups more beneficial when it comes to the level

of knowledge. A beginner’s course is homogeneous in the aspect where the participants do

not know anything about the subject. They are heterogeneous in other areas and this is

unavoidable. When this heterogeneous group becomes homogeneous knowledge wise, they

can go deeper into the material.

“Instead of this level one level, everybody will need it when they come here. If they don’t have

it, it’s hard to understand the rest.”

”The only situation that I can think of where a homogeneous group works to look at that

perspective is for example if you are homogeneous in regards to that you are a beginner, that it’s

an introduction training.”

“/…/ if we have a heterogeneous group it’s more of an overview or not that deep. /…/ And if we

have a homogeneous, we have a narrower field but you dig deeper.”

It is easier to explain and gather material for a homogeneous group with a more individual

learning (Esposito, 1973). Moreover, it is beneficial to have a broad basic knowledge over

many different areas, this way communication between departments becomes easier. T-

shaped people are wanted because of their ability to communicate over a wide field, but they

are only partially able to go into deep discussions in fields which are not their main field. A T-

shaped group with the same in-depth knowledge are able to dig deeper into a subject than

people with different in-depth knowledge.

36

When experienced people participate in courses they usually know most of the content. By

participating in conversations and discussions with colleagues from different areas, new

viewpoints are accessed which helps participants to broaden their picture and learn new

things.

“/…/ maybe they think they know a lot but they’re going to learn new things, aspects they didn’t

know of. And maybe by explaining to others in the same group who lack that experience, they

start explaining and then realize themselves that this is new, and that is new /…/”

“/…/ then it always appear one or two bits and pieces that works like a key which unlocks so

much more /…/ they seem to appear mostly when you have these discussions that are broader

/…/”

“/.../ they can share and still have some sort of common language, common reference point, but

it can also then spread their competence and at least maybe even you know, talk about things

that other people might want to, ohh that sounds really interesting, I never thought of it like that

/…/ that’s what’s good about the blended groups /…/”

There is always a need to broaden ones’ views and basic knowledge. Even if the opinion is

that a person knows everything, this person can always benefit from broadening their basic

knowledge and thus help with the communication within the company (Donofrio et al., 2009).

If people with different knowledge participates in a course the aim of the course is usually to

share experiences with other participants.

“/…/ we made sure that more than half of everything was sharing experiences where you learned

from each other.”

“Everybody has different previous knowledge and you listen to the ones that has experienced

more /…/”

Heterogeneous groups with people from different departments and with different knowledge

creates a group full of specialists in their own area. This encourages the participants to explain

and present material within their field of expertise to other group members (Saleh et al.,

2005). When these experts leave their everyday colleagues the big-fish-little-pond effect

might kick in. The effect will be that the participants of the training will grow as they

compare their knowledge of their field to the other members of the course rather than their

colleagues in their departments (Dai & Rinn, 2008).

The group composition is not important when having courses where interactivity between

participants not is prioritized. Although the group composition becomes important as soon as

interactivity between participants is desired.

“Is it one way communication it’s not as important if the group is heterogeneous or

homogeneous in any way but as soon as you invite or, then the basic level of knowledge plays a

part for the course to be interesting for the participants but as soon you start to mix and get an

interactivity you have a totally different field to play with.”

According to Saleh et al. (2005), inexperienced participants learn better in heterogeneous

groups, average participants learn better in homogeneous groups and for experienced

participants it does not matter if the group composition is homogeneous or heterogeneous. By

37

raising all of the participants to a rather average homogeneous level with respect to

knowledge the participants will benefit from it.

6.2.4. Departments

The aspect of combining people from different departments and affiliated companies are

analyzed in this section.

Subcultures easily emerge within companies and it is not unusual that members of these

subcultures take more pride in the subculture than in the main culture.

“/…/ it was this bad attitude right from me. They said the database works and the hmit said the

hmit works, and then the customer said it doesn’t work for us. I don’t give a shit, I created the

world’s best database and the same thing here, say that you get the world’s best sales

organization if they can’t communicate with the developers if they haven’t been sitting next to

the developers and understood what a developer needs /…/ So I would strongly argue to mix the

groups to create this dialogue even during breaks and so on.”

“/…/ the respect for other competence areas, R&D now it’s relatively in Atlas Copco compared

to other de…, other companies I’ve worked on that is you have respect for other sellers and

customers and so on. But it’ll increase even more if you have a common course together with

them. /…/ role playing with a customer that’s a little bit –ah I don’t know and –have you any

suggestion. And so on. It can increase the understanding /…/”

There are subcultures within cultures, even if Atlas Copco has a specific culture these

subcultures emerge and can break free from the main culture. By combining departments in

the course these subcultures will still exist, but will remain more faithful to the main culture

(Schein, 2009).

Sharing information with colleagues helps in broadening the communication skills within a

company. Especially when the participants in a group usually do not meet each other on a

daily basis.

“/…/ mixed in those groups and instead try to have questions creating so that the ones that come

there can contribute with their competence, R&D thinks from their perspective and the sales

people from another perspective.”

“/…/ the ones that they have taken the course together with maybe physically and the ones they

have gotten a long distance connection with. Those are very important components /…/ It’s

important to have someone to juggle ideas with.”

“/…/ some doctors who already knew everything came but they took the big picture to change

experiences in forums. Precious for them, it wasn’t to learn about the knowledge, it was about

the participation and creating contact and such.”

The value of the ability to communicate within the company is increasing. By placing

different departments next to each other this cross communication opens up for more T-

shaped people within the company. By having more T-shaped employees the communication

process runs much smoother (Donofrio et al., 2009). For the communication it is important to

speak the same technical language (Louhiala-Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2012).

The person of the deep interview also spoke of the fact that Atlas Copco has an organizational

culture that unites all employees.

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“/…/ because you have a mutual culture, that’s the culture of Atlas Copco. Something to hold on

to, even though there are different places around the worlds it’s not totally different even if you

come from China or USA, it’s a community for the company /…/”

According to Roberson et al. (2001), people who have experience from groups with different

nationalities tend to react positively to homogeneous group compositions. However as a way

to make the subcultures feel part of the main culture in Atlas Copco it is important to have

heterogeneous groups in regard to cultures and countries (Schein, 2009).

It is important for departments and affiliated companies to feel part of the main company

(Schein, 2009). This was discussed during the focus groups.

“If you look from a bigger company perspective it is very good to get an insight in and contact

with other groups than you normally work with.”

“But you miss the definition that we know each other in different countries and everything in the

form of global communication. Which I think actually is a great advantage when it hits the fan.

That you have someone to talk to and such, now you don’t know each other.”

Within a company there is a culture and this culture contains subcultures, for example with

affiliated companies and even within departments and groups. For the subcultures to still feel

part of the main culture common events are needed (Schein, 2009).

The focus groups talked about how the company’s aim is to make qualitative products, and to

be able to discover new solutions departments have to collaborate.

“And the base of our entire business is making what the customer wants and then it’s exactly as

you say there has to be a close connection between R&D and market /…/”

“I think that department wise, the mix also works as networking that is important and that we

counterwork the we and them, this we here and them there. /…/ One floor between but it can be

a huge gap between sometimes.”

If a company wants the departments to work together as a team, it is important to feel part of

the main group. By having common experiences and knowing more of the other departments

the employees will feel as a part of the main group (Schein, 2009).

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7. Discussion

Findings from the result and analysis will be discussed in this chapter. The chosen method

and reliability of this work will also be discussed.

7.1. Language

The importance of employees’ language knowledge within the company and being aware of

the different levels of English cannot be underestimated. To benefit from the course material a

person must understand it. Atlas Copco is a globally active company which has employees

from all over the world, speaking many languages. Even if the company tries to make sure

everybody understands English it is an impossible task.

Regarding the fact that some people can feel intimidated in an English speaking environment

when together with native English speakers, it is still necessary to keep a high, lowest-level of

English for everybody to understand each other. The same level of English between the

participants will create a more homogenous group, language wise. Combining people with

different levels of English knowledge with quiet cultures, where people tend to not speak very

good English, is not suited for a course where discussions are essential.

To make the course more accessible for a wider range of people Atlas Copco should consider

to have parts of the course in the participants’ native language, i.e. a prepared e-learning or a

specific practical part, to make the participants feel more confident in their knowledge

gathering. If an e-learning or practical part is not possible to prepare, all the material

surrounding the course should be organized for an audience who speak English on a basic

level. The creators of the course should be aware of how lack of knowledge in English will

limit the result of the course.

Until there is a possibility to keep the course in several countries and in different languages it

is a necessity to make sure the participants in the course have an acceptable level of English.

This is an opinion that almost all the interviewed people have expressed, but no one has a

solution on how to reassure the correct English level. The lowest level of English includes

understanding complicated technical English and to be able to share experiences and

knowledge about work related issues. It is uncertain who should decide whether or not a

person possess sufficient skills in English, investigation indicates that it will be up to a

person’s manager to determine if a candidate is capable to satisfactory attend the course or

not.

The opportunity to use an interpreter in the course is suggested by several people during the

focus groups and that is of course a possibility worth mentioning. But an interpreter requires a

homogenous group regarding language and that is not desirable regarding other aspects

treated in this report and therefore this option was disregarded.

7.2. Culture

As found in the result, there are two ways of looking at culture when planning the group

composition in such a large company.

One view is the cultural aspects more bound by geography and the national borders which is

considered difficult when combining people. It can make people become invisible in a group

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or make them stand out depending on how they act. If a country has a more hierarchic

structure in the community and at the work place, the inhabitants are more likely to not defy a

teacher in a course even if they know the teacher is wrong. While people that are used to

having a lot of influence might talk a lot and have a greater impact on the course. Several

people that were spoken to in this research has pointed out that factor as a risk.

Mixing people from different cultures one should be aware of the different experiences and

ways of acting that people may have. If the knowledge exchange is considered greater than

the risk of people becoming upset with other participants during the course, then it should be

considered to have mixed groups.

This is also linked to the language, which can be seen as a part of the culture. Cultures that are

less verbal in comparison with other cultures may make the process of sharing knowledge

difficult. This can make it beneficial to have homogeneous groups in regard to cultures.

The other view on culture that can be made at a big company is the company culture, which

hopefully is the same all over the world. The company culture can be an important factor to

unite the group and help people feel welcome regardless of where they are coming from.

Unfortunately, the researchers have not been able to investigate if it is the same company

culture all throughout Atlas Copco as this report only represents thoughts from people

working at the headquarter. This could be a question for further research.

Subcultures are a part of the cultural aspect but will be handled further below.

7.3. Knowledge

It is important to make sure there is a lowest level of knowledge for the participants of the

course. Otherwise the participants cannot benefit from the information given in the course,

regardless of group composition.

The challenge for a big company with many different business areas are that all employees

have different expertise and not at all the same background regarding education and

competence. This will create gaps between the participants regarding knowledge in a subject.

Facts that are obvious for some will not be for others and vice versa. In the question about

whether to combine or keep the different professions separated in the course, all interviewees

agreed that it is beneficial to mix. Combining people can enable knowledge exchange out of

the ordinary when colleagues, that usually do not see each other, meet. The hard part is to

make everybody feel that they are investing their time in something useful and not feel as they

are wasting it on repeating material they already know.

To ensure this there could be a preparing test, or something similar, to make sure the

participants have a sufficient amount of knowledge in certain areas regarding some of the

course content. This was discussed by the people taking part in the focus groups. Participants

do not necessarily lack the knowledge in the same areas and therefore it is possible that

several different pre-tests need to be constructed. Before attending the course, the suggestion

is that an e-learning designed to fit different departments will have to be taken. The largest

knowledge gap will be between departments, but it will also exist within departments and

therefor the e-learning solution will detect both of these problems.

41

For a company it is better to have T-shaped employees. A course with participants with

different experiences can help in broadening the basic knowledge that the employees need for

communication within the company. To be able to get perspective on how capable a person is,

combining employees with people from different departments will give the perspective

needed to see an employees’ true potential. These are all arguments for a heterogeneous group

where people with different expertise are combined.

7.4. Departments

The fact that all participants of the focus groups and interviews have had the same opinion

about combining departments makes it difficult to understand the impact of the possibility to

not have mixed groups regarding departments.

To prevent the subcultures going in opposite directions and not working in unison a

heterogeneous course regarding departments is better. It is good for the employees to meet

and share knowledge and experience, which will unite the company.

Since one of the aims of the course is to make the participants more familiar with each other’s

work, it is obvious that combining the departments would make a great opportunity for this to

happen.

7.5. Validity and reliability in the results

Because the research was conducted at one company the research has enabled a deeper

understanding of the company and has therefore increased the reliability. Since the

categorizing of the quotes are done by the researchers only and because the base on which the

quotes are categorized are not that well defined, it is perfectly natural to assume that a

different researcher would have found other areas and quotes interesting when examining the

material. The chance that another researcher would have come to another conclusion are

however not so likely since almost all the data seem to be pointing in the same direction.

When the data was collected a few technical mistakes were made. The mistakes resulted in

that some data were not recorded which resulted in that less data was collected than originally

intended. Another mistake was to transcribe all the gestures made during the focus groups.

Transcripts of this kind was something that the researchers felt they could not handle in the

right way to make a proper analysis due to inexperience with that kind of data. Therefore,

gestures were not taken into account when the analysis was done, it was also deleted from the

transcription. It is hard to predict the impact the mistakes had on the finished work.

As mentioned in the method, it would have been of benefit to the researchers to do a

quantitative investigation of already existing courses. This would have given great insight in

how the courses given today work regarding group composition. It would also have presented

an opportunity to compare a homogeneous group with a heterogeneous to increase reliability

of the conclusions.

The validity of the conclusions drawn from this research is not so alarming since it is a

qualitative method. The research has only collected data from one company, which must be

taken into account. There is a chance that companies with similar structure and problems are

interested in the findings.

42

The publishing dates of the articles used in the research are spread over a wide spectrum of

years. The articles about homogenous and heterogeneous ability grouping are mostly from the

publishing company Springer and can therefore be considered biased. On the other hand,

Springer is the leading publisher in that specific area of research.

Two articles used in this thesis have not been published or peer-reviewed and therefore reduce

the reliability of the report. Despite this fact the content of the articles was assessed to be

reliable and the articles were chosen to be a part of the report.

The fact that the external supervisor chose all the participants for the research can be

considered extremely biased and makes the research decrease in reliability and validity since

the supervisor work for the company that is the stakeholder for the report. But on the contrary

it gives more trustworthiness to the report because the external supervisor hopefully gave the

names of the best people fit for this subject.

7.6. Summary

Heterogeneous groups are more beneficial when it comes to sharing knowledge and

improving communication in the group. To get a robust company with experts in many fields

whom can communicate and work together as one team, a heterogeneous group in regard to

departments and culture during courses is preferred.

Cultures can also be a limiting factor, people from separate cultures act differently and have

different mentalities and sometimes when mixed together in a group, tension can arise.

Language is the most limiting factor. When it comes to group composition, almost a fully

homogeneous group is needed for the interaction between participants to work.

The different methods used to gather data have not shown any different result, because all the

people spoken to had the opinion that combining people of all aspects are beneficial to the

company.

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8. Conclusion

The conclusions from the study will be presented together with a section about further

research. Lastly a proposal for Atlas Copco of how they can benefit from this research will be

presented.

From the result, analysis and discussion the conclusions are that the aim for the company

should be to, when an internal course is given, create a heterogeneous group in terms of

experience and knowledge. All the people spoken to would prefer more heterogeneous groups

since that will increase the exchange of experiences and knowledge. It will also be to a greater

benefit for the participants, compared to not being able to get a deep understanding of the

topic with people of similar expertise.

Regarding language, a lowest level is needed. To be able to attend a course given internally in

a company in Atlas Copco’s size it should be a requirement for the participants to understand

English, when it is the corporate language. This will enable participants to take greater part in

the training and contribute to discussions during the course.

The interviewees would also like to combine people from different countries and different

cultures as much as possible, but here there might be a holdback from the requirements on the

English knowledge. Some cultures are too different and are not suited to participate together

during a course. A careful consideration has to be made to balance different cultures making

everybody benefit of the course. Even though there might be great differences in the way

people act, there is always a common ground in the Atlas Copco culture regarding values

within the company, and this hopefully provide understanding between colleagues.

In the specific case that has been studied there can be guidelines on which departments the

group should consist of and how many people from each department should attend the course

to make sure that not too homogenous groups are formed and therefore miss the opportunity

to make the most out of the course. This will limit the occasions when the course can be held,

but hopefully make it more valuable for the attendees.

The aim of the course did point in the direction to heterogeneous courses. With a different aim

the outcome of the research would probably have differed from todays’ result.

The fact that heterogeneous groups are considered beneficial from the beginning, and then

narrowed down due to some limiting factors, is problematic when it comes to the credibility

of the result. This might have made the participants forget other factors, although the

researchers have tried to think of these ahead when planning the interviews and focus groups.

Heterogeneous groups are thought to be preferred because the customer is in focus and

communication within the company is valued higher than specialized competence. By having

a unified company where employees know difficulties of different departments, problems can

easier be handled and prevented. This gives value to the company when unnecessary work is

eliminated.

8.1. Further research

As said in the method this research could have been done in a more quantified way, by having

controlled group compositions and then surveys after the course to see which group that was

44

most satisfied with the learning. This would be an excellent follow-up study to see if the result

and conclusion are correct. A recommendation is that more studies are made at similar

companies to verify if this conclusion is suitable.

There are aspects of this issue that the researchers have not thought of. Further research in the

aspects of homogenous or heterogeneous grouping would both be interesting and necessary.

For example, if age is an important aspect or not, which have not been taken into account in

this report.

To have a completely heterogeneous group requires a lot from the teacher, as some of the

participants in a focus group mentioned ”So in fact the heterogeneity gives a potential but to

be able to take advantage of it to the maximum a good teacher is needed.”. The research has

not taken into account what specific characteristics are needed to lead a heterogeneous group

of people. The requirements of the teacher to enhance the learning of a group could be an

excellent topic for further investigation.

In the report, the assumption that the company culture at Atlas Copco is the same all over the

world, or at least the same in a division, was made. This is not further investigated and a

confirmation that this is the case would bring more value to the analysis.

8.2. Proposal for Atlas Copco

For the participants to understand and communicate during the course a certain level of

English is needed. If this level of English is not fulfilled, the course becomes pointless since

the participants cannot comprehend the information given, neither are they going to be able to

share information and participate in discussions. Therefore, to be approved to attend the

course, an English test can be provided to potential attendants. Participants could also be

approved by a recommendation from their manager.

It is important to have the same level of prior knowledge to be able to understand new

information taught during the course. If a person has a lower level of prior knowledge their

ZPD does not coincide with the content of the course and they can therefore not assimilate the

new knowledge. An e-learning is a good solution for this kind of problem, where the

participant has to learn and be tested on vital information before the course starts. E-learning

can also help when setting a lowest level for the English knowledge, if the participants do not

understand the e-learning well enough they are not allowed to attend.

Participants from around the world and from different departments are wanted since this helps

preventing the formation of subcultures within the company. It has to be taken into

consideration that different cultures have different ways of communicating. Some cultures are

not suitable to participate together in a course where information sharing, communication and

discussions are central parts. People from different departments or areas might have to be

given a set quota for the course. This prevents formation of subcultures and accomplish the

purpose of the course, to learn more about other departments within the company. By using

quotas for different professions, a wider range of knowledge can be reached within the

participating group and creates an opportunity to learn more.

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9. References

9.1. Printed

Allen, R., & Rooney, P. (1998). Designing a problem-based learning environment for ESL

students in business communication. Business Communication Quarterly, 61(2), 48-56

Alpert, Bracha and Bechar, Shlomit (2008), 'School organisational efforts in search for

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