The purpose of this module is provide students with an understanding of the issues entailed in managing in diverse environments. Students will be exposed to different theories of management and cultural difference, as well as case studies of how issues arise and are addressed on a practical basis.

To an increasing extent, managers are responsible for ensuring positive and productive work environments which are extremely diverse in terms of the backgrounds and expectations of staff. Research evidence shows that these environments tend to either perform well through leveraging the diverse skills and knowledge, or poorly because of conflicts and misunderstandings. The module will assist student to understand the techniques that can be used to move diverse teams to the high-functioning track.

 The module will be of direct and short-term benefit to students through teaching and reinforcing the basic skills necessary for a successful undergraduate career. The module will enable students to understand differences in cultures within both academic and social environments, and to explore the implications this will have on working and studying abroad.

A.   Knowledge and Understanding:

• Understand some of the key issues in this field including:
• Different types of culture
• Different forms of communication
• Verbal codes
• National differences in communication styles
• Cultural groupings
• Cultural Intelligence
• Working in cross-cultural teams
• Culture and strategy
• Economic cultures
• Thinking ‘out of the box’: new thinking on culture and identity

B.   Intellectual Skills:

• Analyze and find solutions to issues in an international context relating to cultural differences and similarities
• Understand and address issues regarding cultural dilemmas, and develop the ability to exercise powers of enquiry, logic and critical analysis.

C.   Discipline Specific Skills:

• Students taking this module will strengthen effective oral and written communication skills.

D.   Transferable Skills:

• Continue developing mastery of the essay form, including layout, presentation, structure, expression and argument
• Students will work in groups during tutorials and in preparation for the group assignment which will enhance team working skills.
• Tutorials will also prepare students for working and studying in a cross cultural context

There will be 22 contact hours, 16 hours of lectures and 6 hours of tutorials

Indicative study hours:   100

The module is structured around two themes:

1. Different forms of communication (Lasserre)
   • Basic assumptions and meaning
   • Values, beliefs, preferences
   • Behaviour (overt)
2. Verbal codes (Neiliep)
   • Relationship between language and culture
   • Structure of human language
   • Universal aspects of language / variations in language
   • Crosscultural communication styles
   • Personal and contextual styles
   •  
3. National differences in communication styles:

• Four main streams of research into cultural difference:
  • Ethnological research, eg silent language differences
  • Management values and assumptions: differ over  works values eg hierarchy etc
  • Country clusters: grouping nations according to cultural characteristics, eg Huntington
  • Economic culture differences: varieties of capitalism

       4.  Cu   ltural groupings

• Hofstede’s research
  • Power distance
  • Individualism
  • Masculinity
  • Uncertainty avoidance
  • Long vs. short term orientation (Michael Harris Bond)
• Huntingdon and Hofstede’s groupings
• McSweeney’s critique; Hofstede typology implausible

      5.   Working in cross-cultural teams (Maznewski)

• Groups with high integration perform better than groups with low integration on complex decision-making tasks.
• Groups with high diversity and high integration perform better than groups with low diversity,
• But groups with high diversity and low integration perform worse than groups with low diversity.

      6.   Cultural Intelligence (Early and Mozakowski)

• “Cultural intelligence: an outsider's seemingly natural ability to interpret someone's unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures the way that person's compatriots would”.
• Ability to cope with different national, corporate and vocational cultures
• Three elements: the cognitive, the physical, and the emotional/motivational.
• Six steps to cultural intelligence

      7.   Culture and strategy

• Western rational-analytic approach and strategy – emphasis on
• Alternative approaches -
• Long-term perspective
• Peripheral vision
• Bottom-up strategy
• Strategy as pattern
• Spontaneous strategy

      8.   Economic cultures

• Rationale… societal objectives
• Institutional fabric
• Business system

      9.   Thinking ‘out of the box’: new thinking on culture and identity

• Benedict Anderson and imagined communities
• Arjun Appadurai and post-national identities

Schneider, S. et al. 2014. Managing across cultures. 3^rd ed.  New York: Pearson. Available at: http://bit.ly/28P276U

Steers, R. et al. 2013. Management across cultures: developing global competencies. 2^nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at Aberconway library.

Thomas, D. 2015. Cross cultural management: essential concepts. 3^rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Available at Aberconway library.