The course intends to introduce students to the core issues related to cross-cultural management, providing them with the appropriate knowledge and understanding of the impact of cultures on management and organizational behaviour. Particularly the course’s specific learning objectives are: -Developing an in-depth understanding of the role of culture and the main theories and models to analyse cultural differences -Developing an in-depth understanding of cross-cultural issues and challenges that global organizations encounter -Understanding how cultural differences may impact the management of individuals, teams, and organizations -Understanding how intercultural communication and relationship can be affected by cultural differences -Developing the ability to critically analyse and deal with intercultural management and communication situations

Knowledge and understanding: The course will offer key conceptual frameworks to (1) understand and (2) analyse cultural differences in the workplace and how these impact individual organizational behaviors. Applying knowledge and understanding: Students will be able to: • apply knowledge of cultural differences (values, practices, schemas) to multi-national and international companies, as well as to national companies employing foreign nationals (e.g., self-expatriate employees) • identify ways to maximize the benefits of cultural diversity, and minimize possible misunderstandings in work settings • diagnose the sources of possible divergencies or conflicts (interpersonal, group-based, or organizational ones) that may arise from a mis-management of cultural differences Making judgements: Students will be able to propose different solutions to managerial challenges that involve dealing with cultural diversity. They are expected to be able to critically discuss pros and cons of such solutions and evaluate their likely consequences. Communication Skills: This course will equip students with specialistic terminology in the broader field of Organizational Behavior and more specifically Cross-cultural Management, such that they will be able to effectively communicate their analyses, proposals, and critical reasoning in organizations. The Project Work will foster the acquisition of both effective public speaking as well as rigorous writing skills. Learning skills: This course will foster meta-learning by guiding students in the search and collection of information, as well as tools for analysing cultural differences. Via the extensive use of case studies and experiential activities students will be able to self-assess their knowledge, monitor their learning and hence possibly redirect efforts in their learning and studying process.

Nowadays organizations are increasingly acting within a global scenario, spreading their activities around the world and dealing with individuals (employees, customers, suppliers) from different cultural backgrounds. Effectively managing cultural diversity is a daily challenge for leaders and managers who are also asked to face new tasks related to cultural and intercultural issues. To be successful in their role they need to learn new skills and develop a global mindset. In this course students will be introduced, first, to the concept of culture, its facets and levels it operates at. Moreover, cultural dimensions in the business context will be analysed with a special focus on national culture using, as theoretical framework, models, theories and insights from the most important researches in the field of culture and management. The main part of the course is devoted to analysing the impact of culture on management and organizational behaviour, focusing on intercultural interactions and relationships. Main Course Contents: Global business environment and cross cultural management; definitions, features and functions of culture; cultural dimensions in the business context: researches and studies on cultural differences; fundamentals of cross- cultural interaction; motivation and leadership across cultures; developing intercultural competence; communicating in and between cultures; negotiating internationally; conflict resolution across cultures; multicultural work groups and teams.

Mandatory references: 1) A handbook, to choose between: - Thomas, D. C., & Peterson, M. F. (2017). Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. 4th edition, Sage Publications. Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8. And - French, R. (2015). Cross-cultural management in work organizations. 3rd Edition, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Chapters: 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9. 2) The following list of articles/chapters (all): - Browayes, M.J. and Price, R. (2015) Chapter 17 Conflicts and cultural differences, in Understanding Cross – Cultural Management, 3rd edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. - Beamer, L., & Varner, I. I. (2001). Intercultural communication in the global workplace. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. (pp. 20-29) - Bennett, M. J. (2001). Intercultural competence for global leadership. Oregon: The Intercultural Communication Institute. - Osland, J. S., & Bird, A. (2000). Beyond sophisticated stereotyping: Cultural sensemaking in context. Academy of Management Perspectives, 14(1), 65-77. - Sebenius, J. K. (2002). The hidden challenge of cross-border negotiations. Harvard Business Review, 80(3), 76-85. - - Smith, P. B. (2006). When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled: The GLOBE and Hofstede projects. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 37, No. 6, pp. 915-921. - Taras, V. et al. (2021). Research: How Cultural Differences Can Impact Global Teams. Harvard Business Review. Supplementary references: - Adair, W. L., & Brett, J. M. (2005). The negotiation dance: Time, culture, and behavioral sequences in negotiation. Organization Science, 16(1), 33-51. - Cramton, C. D., Köhler, T., & Levitt, R. E. (2020). Using scripts to address cultural and institutional challenges of global project coordination. Journal of International Business Studies, 1-22. - Crede, M., Jong, J., & Harms, P. (2019). The generalizability of transformational leadership across cultures: A meta-analysis. Journal of Managerial Psycholog, 34, 3, 139-155. - Gelfand, M. J., Raver, J. L., Nishii, L., Leslie, L. M., Lun, J., Lim, B. C., ... & Yamaguchi, S. (2011). Differences between tight and loose cultures: A 33-nation study. science, 332(6033), 1100-1104. - Gibson, C. B. (1996). Do you hear what I hear? A framework for reconciling intercultural communication difficulties arising from cognitive styles and cultural values. - Jokinen, T. (2005). Global leadership competencies: a review and discussion. Journal of European industrial training, 29(3), 199-216. - Shan, W. Keller, J. & Joseph, D. (2019). Are men better negotiators everywhere? A meta‐analysis of how gender differences in negotiation performance vary across cultures. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40, (6), 651-675. - Van Der Zee, K. & Hofhuis, J. (2017). Conflict management styles across cultures. The international encyclopedia of intercultural communication, p. 1-9.

Every week, there will be one class online and two classes on site. Theoretical content will be dominant in online classes (but not absent in on-site classes). Practical activities will be dominant in on-site classes (but not absent in online classes).

This is a course with mandatory attendance and based on continuous evaluation. Attendance will be monitored via the School’s tools. The final grade will be based on: - Individual assessment during in-class activities (20%) - Group project work that comprises both a written and an oral component (50%) - Individual final exam (30%) Note: the final evaluation may not be a rigid average in that the trend of evaluations, their evolution and improvements over time will be considered. Active participation in class, with constructive interventions will also be “qualitatively” valued and will be taken into account to determine positive adjustments (or rounding) to the final grade. Attendance is a prerequisite for this, and will not explicitly contribute to any rounding, per se. Poor level of attendance may, on the contrary, determine negative adjustments (or rounding) to the final grade. Details on the evaluation rubrics for each component will be provided ahead of the evaluations (i.e., at the beginning of the course) and will remain available in the e-learning platform. Only students authorized by the administration (for specific reasons that fall in specific categories) can be exempted from attending classes and participating in the continuous evaluation. These students, identified by the administration as “not attending students” will have to study all the bibliography (that means both the “mandatory” and the “supplementary” readings) and their final written exam will count 100% of the final grade.

The assignment of the Master Thesis is subject to the submission of a good-quality proposal. The proposal (2-3 pp.) will contain: - A research question or practical problem statement that the student wants to address - Abstract of the main contents (theoretical framework, empirical aspects such as possible case study or ideas on how/where to collect empirical data, etc.) - List of selected academic references to start with.