International Management & Leadership

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 1	Natalia Lorinkova	Dirección de Personas y Organización	ENG

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM

The course covers both core and advanced topics in international management with a special emphasis on the leadership skills needed by global managers. Therefore, students are expected to have a sound knowledge of the basic theories and tools of global strategy, international management, as well as modern approaches to leadership.
The course adopts the view that global managers come in all shapes and sizes: the major focus of the course is the global manager, or in other words, the leader of a multinational company. In fact, in today's global economy, almost all managers are involved in one form or another with international interactions. As a starting point, we can define "a global manager as someone who works with or through people across national and cultural boundaries to accomplish global corporate objectives? (Steers & Osland, 2020).
The fact that global managers work with people from differing cultural backgrounds implies that they must somehow respond or accommodate to these differences. Moreover, their activities and responsibilities (and skills needed) will vary according to the degree of complexity and interconnectedness demanded by their jobs (e.g., country managers, global business managers, global functional or corporate managers).
The course is structured in two blocks. The first block (sessions 1 to 3) focuses on leadership and the leadership challenges of implementing global strategy from the perspective of a country manager, a global business manager, and headquarter managers. The second block (sessions 4 to 5) focuses on the challenges of leading in a global environment and presents students with a framework that helps the management of global teams.

Course Learning Objectives

The course's overall objective is to develop students' ability to identify the main challenges and courses of action for implementing global strategy as well as equip students with skills for leading in the diverse and multicultural context of contemporary multinational companies (MNCs).
Regarding specific intended learning outcomes, students at the end of the course should:
- Be knowledgeable and able to apply the most relevant frameworks and tools that support top managers in implementing global strategy.
- Understand the main characteristics of the different types of global managers (their roles and the skills needed).
- Understand how cultural diversity may affect leadership approaches as well as being more aware of the impact of own culture and the importance of understanding other people's cultures (national and corporate ones).
- Understand the challenges of fostering collaboration among units and leading culturally diverse teams in a MNC environment characterized by distance-based interactions.
- Have developed a deeper sense of the different avenues to pursue a global management career.

The course aims at contributing to the five MBA program Learning Outcomes, namely, #1 Diversity #2 Business embeddedness, #3 Responsible citizenship, #4 Reflective critical thinking, and #5 Cooperative Leadership.

Methodology

The course offers an applied, case-based approach to global strategy implementation with a special emphasis on the leadership skills needed, complemented by relevant conceptual frameworks. Thus, it relies on various methods for individual and group learning:

Case Studies. Typically, significant time will be devoted to the analysis and discussion of cases. The case method is one of the most effective pedagogical tools to sharpen your analytical, decision-making, and communication skills. Moreover, the case method provides a vehicle by which to apply concepts and frameworks that we will discuss in class or which you will find in the assigned readings. Finally, the discussion of cases with a significant cross-cultural element constitutes an opportunity to be aware of your own assumptions and to learn from others by listening to their comments and counterarguments in a safe, collegial learning environment.
You should come to class thoroughly prepared to answer questions and to start the discussion. I expect from each student to be able to share his or her individual analysis and perspective with the class. In our case discussions, I will act as a facilitator. Be aware that the direction and quality of discussions, and thus your learning, are influenced by each one of you and by the interactions of the group as a whole, not solely by the course instructor.
In most case discussions, there are several viable alternatives that will be developed and supported by students. Please, do not make the mistake of attempting to find out what happened to the company as a basis for your analysis and recommendations. This "spoils? the whole purpose of the case method and dramatically reduces your learning.
Team assignments. One of the best ways to learn is through teaching someone else. During this course each of you will be assigned to a team and will have a chance to investigate and discuss in writing a specific topic on international management and leadership. This assignment plays a significant role in both yours' and, importantly, your colleagues' in- class learning experience. Do keep in mind that your classmates' learning is a function of the quality of your teamwork.
Interactive lectures. Lectures by the course instructor will be centered around the case and readings assigned to each session. I will introduce topics for class discussion. focusing on the managerial relevance as well as limitations of the different theoretical and analytical frameworks. The approach is interactive.
Required readings. I have tried to balance the amount of reading you need to do with the expected student workload corresponding to a 7 ECTS course. The chosen articles and book chapters are essential readings that provide the conceptual and analytical foundations for implementing global strategy and cross-cultural management. Given the learning approach and intensive format of the course, we strongly recommend you prepare all required readings for each session in advance. I also recommend going through the sequence of readings stated in the syllabus, it would help you to better assimilate the course concepts and tools and grasp how they relate to each other. All required readings are available in the course's learning area in the Intranet (Moodle).

Type:	OBL	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	2 ECTS

International Management & Leadership (2235.YR.013157.1)

General information

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COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM

Course Learning Objectives

Methodology

Timetable and sections

Timetable Year 1