Doing Business Across Cultures

General information

Type:	OPT	Curs:	2,4	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	4 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 2	Daniela Noethen	Dirección de Personas y Organización	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 4	Daniela Noethen	Dirección de Personas y Organización	ENG

Previous Knowledge

none

Workload distribution

25h in class
75h of independent study, teamwork, and preparation for final evaluation

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM

Today's business world is global and cross-cultural competence is key to having a successful business career at a personal level as well as successful international relations at a business level. While the exchange program offers students an in-depths view of one specific culture, this course raises students' awareness with regard to the spectrum of cultural variation and cultural differences and helps them increase their cross-cultural competence, finding solutions to such cross-cultural challenges.

Course Learning Objectives

The objective of the course is to increase students' awareness of cultural differences in general and cultural issues in business in particular. In order to better understand these differences and behave accordingly, students will be offered a framework for understanding cultural concepts as well as opportunities to practice the application of these concepts to inter-cultural business dynamics.
By using a large number of cases, scenarios, videos and problem solving activities we apply value dimensions, specific local knowledge of cultures and the process of experiential learning to the reality of a multi-cultural business world. We will study values and the consequent variation in - verbal and non-verbal - communication conventions across cultures as well as their impact on inter-cultural understanding.
Thus, the course aims not only at increasing students' knowledge about cultural issues in business, but also their behavioral flexibility in dealing with and adapting to them.

CONTENT

1. The concept of culture; how we think about culture
2. Emics and etics; Different etic frameworks of culture
3. Communication and attitudes to time; proxemics, paralinguistics and non-verbal communication
4. Linguistic and politeness strategies
5. Cross-cultural conflict, reconciliation, and negotiated cross-cultural response strategies
6. Culture shock - growth and adaptation
7. Cross-cultural competence - its dimensions and training opportunities

1. The concept of culture; how we think about culture

2. Emics and etics; Different etic frameworks of culture

3. Communication and attitudes to time; proxemics, paralinguistics and non-verbal communication

4. Linguistic and politeness strategies

5. Cross-cultural conflict, reconciliation, and negotiated cross-cultural response strategies

6. Culture shock - growth and adaptation

7. Cross-cultural competence - its dimensions and training opportunities

Relation between Activities and Contents

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Participation, reading, preparation and contribution during the course
Teamwork - presentations and projects along the course
Final evaluation

Methodology

This is a highly interactive course with a mix of exposition of content, case analysis, simulations, short video cases, student presentations and projects, and group as well as class discussions. Students are expected to prepare for the sessions with readings, case analysis, and occasional short assignments. In-class active participation is vital, where students are asked to critically reflect the content and frameworks presented, relate to their own experience, and draw connections to the business world. In culturally heterogeneous teams, students will get first-hand experience of potential cross-cultural challenges and their solution, working on different projects, cases, and a presentation to be held in class.
At the end of the course, students will be asked to demonstrate their learning in a final evaluation.
Moreover, students are encouraged to log their reflections regarding the course.

You will receive more detailed guidelines at the beginning of the course.

ASSESSMENT

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

Description	%
Participation, reading, preparation and contribution during the course	40
Teamwork - presentations and projects along the course	30
Final evaluation	30

Assessment criteria

40% Participation, reading, preparation, brief assignments and contribution during the course.
30% Teamwork - presentation and projects along the course
30% Final evaluation.

Assessment criteria
40% Individual contributions along the course
- Positive and appropriate class-participation during the seminar, 80% attendance is mandatory
- Quiz
- Reflection Log
30% Teamwork - report and presentation, other teamwork along the course
30% Final evaluation.
You must satisfy all 3 criteria (i.e., contribute individually and within your team as well as pass the final evaluation). An indication of your progress (in terms of participation and individual contributions) is given after Session 5.

In-class participation
This course is highly interactive and lives (and dies) with students' active participation. To get the most out of the course, we need to discuss a multitude of opinions, perspectives, doubts, and questions, for which we need everyone's input. Therefore, you are expected to closely follow class discussion and offer (relevant) input often, but without being dominant (i.e., leave room for others as well, ask them for their point of view). Your comments should be clear and succinct (i.e., think through what you want to say, state it clearly and simply). Analyze argumentations and develop a critical view. For all of this, you obviously have to come to class prepared: Download all necessary materials before class, do your readings and prepare your cases. Apply and integrate ideas from the lecture and readings to discussions, activities, presentations etc.
The classroom is a safe space. Make sure you show respect and consideration for others and their possibly differing opinion. This includes: Not interrupting others, talking loudly during their input or behaving in a disruptive way; providing constructive and developmental feed-back; and helping others to make progress, i.e., helping them to learn.
Do not use laptops unless explicitly asked to do so (for specific tasks)! All slides will be posted on Moodle after class, including photos taken of the board.

Regarding class attendance:
- Class attendance is mandatory. Students must attend a minimum of 80% of sessions.

Quiz
When we discuss different cases and scenarios, it is important that we speak "the same language" and use a common terminology regarding cultural differences. Therefore, it is paramount that you make yourself familiar with (i.e., study!) the frameworks and dimensions used to describe cultural differences that are presented in the first two sessions and the assigned readings. During the first sessions, you will be given a take-home test about the different constructs which you will be asked to submit. In a following session, we will discuss and compare your answers. You will then be asked to submit the lessons you learned from this discussion, i.e., an explanation of the mistakes you made, which dimensions you might have confused, what concepts were clarified for you during the discussion. Both submissions are counted.

Reflection log
Since an essential learning objective of this course is for you to identify the influence of your own socialization and how your own culture impacts what you think and do, reflecting on these questions on a regular basis throughout the course will boost your learning experience. The Reflection Log allows you to do so and will help you put the course content into perspective. It will prompt you to relate the course content to your own experiences and potentially see past or current interactions in a new light.

Teamwork
Teams will be assembled by the instructor to guarantee maximum cultural heterogeneity possible given the enrolled students in the course. The teamwork itself, the problems and conflicts that might arise while you work on the different tasks and how you deal with them constitutes an important part of your cross-cultural experience during the course. Make sure you pay attention to what is happening in your team, the role cultural factors may play in this, and how you can deal with them. The main task will be to write a report on and do a class presentation on findinds on a given task. Minor team tasks will be added throughout the course.

Final evaluation
The final evaluation covers all contents during the sessions. Although detailed knowledge of the cases presented in class is not expected, students should be able to give examples for certain problems or cross-cultural business issues from cases discussed during the course.

Bibliography

A few background book references:
Farrero, G: (2012) The Cultural Dimension of Business 7th ed., London, Pearson.
Hofstede, G: (2001): Culture's Consequences 2nd ed Thousand Oaks CA, Sage.
Spencer-Oatey H & Franklin P (2009) Intercultural Interaction: a multidisciplinary approach to intercultural communication, London, Palgrave Macmillan.
Primecz H, Romani L & Sackmann S (2012). Cross-cultural management in practice: culture and negotiated meanings. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Further materials are provided at the beginning of the seminar and through the web page during the seminar.

Timetable and sections

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 2	Daniela Noethen	Dirección de Personas y Organización

Timetable Year 2

From 2024/2/16 to 2024/3/22:
Each Friday from 10:45 to 13:15.

From 2024/4/12 to 2024/5/3:
Each Friday from 10:45 to 13:15.

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 4	Daniela Noethen	Dirección de Personas y Organización

Timetable Year 4