Dr Hyun-Jung Lee NAB 4.15

This course is available on the MBA Exchange, MRes/PhD in Management (Employment Relations and Human Resources), MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (Human Resource Management/CIPD), MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (International Employment Relations and Human Resource Management), MSc in Human Resources and Organisations (Organisational Behaviour), MSc in Management (1 Year Programme) and MSc in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Some background in psychology and organisational behaviour, and/or international business is useful, but not required.

The ability to communicate cross-culturally and to understand the diverse perspectives of people from different cultures is a necessity in order to achieve a competitive advantage in the global economy. The aims of the course are to understand the impact of culture on management; to identify the areas in which cultural differences pose challenges as well as opportunities in managing people across cultures; and, to become more self-aware of our cultural conditioning, individual biases and assumptions.

Topics include i) understanding cultures and cultural conditioning, ii) analytical frameworks of cross-cultural comparisons, iii) multicultural teams, iv) managing global organisations, v) ethical dilemmas and global responsibility of multinational corporations, vi) cross-cultural communication, vii) global leadership and cultural intelligence, viii) international assignments and global careers.

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the LT.

Experiential learning is emphasised and team working is an integral part of the course. The teaching is highly participative. Students will be asked to make presentations and participate in various class exercises including role playing. The course is demanding of students and success depends partly upon student commitment and willingness to participate fully. Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the LT.

The following reading list contains some easily accessible introductory discussions. Most of the course reading is taken from journals. A full reading list will be provided in the syllabus at the start of the course.



Gehrke, B. and Claes , M-T. (eds.) (2014), Global leadership practices: A cross cultural management perspective, Palgrave Macmillan 



Steers, R.,  et al. (2016), Management across cultures (3rd ed.), Cambridge University Press



Thomas, D. D., and Peterson, M. (2014). Cross cultural management (2nd edition). London: Sage.

Essay (50%), project (40%) and class participation (10%).

The essay is completed individually, and the project is completed as part of a group.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.