Curricula

Objectives

This course is designed to:
1. Increase your understanding of the concept of culture and its effects on work relationships.
2. Increase your understanding of the role and the effects of culture and diversity in working environments, dealing with cross-cultural diversity in a management framework as opposed to a purely communicative perspective.
3. Increase your self-awareness of cultural assumptions, and apply these to problem-solving.
4. Develop insights that will help to facilitate the competences of internationality and multiculturalism, operating in a work place, and sustainable global business management.

During this course, you will develop the following competences.

Internationality and multiculturalism:
You operate effectively in international and multicultural work environments.

Operating in a workplace:
You interact constructively in teamwork and promote the team’s well-being. You take initiative and lead development projects.

Sustainable global business management:
You apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge to analyze global business challenges and propose sustainable business solutions to grow new ventures in global markets.

Content

You will be asked to bring in examples of diversity / international cultural problems that you have experienced in the workplace. You will decide on specific topics that you will present in teams. In order for you to be able to be more self-critical and objective about your experiences, we will discuss how the breadth and complexity of the topic can be understood and analyzed. The various definitions of culture show how so many perspectives can create a conflict of understanding, but also give possibilities to for understanding contexts for cultural conflicts. You will learn to understand how various cultures think differently both in various countries and over time, and how “culture” is inseparable from history, politics, societal issues, and even geography and technology. The goal is for you to understand that culture is fluid and changing, calling into question existing assumptions of rigid cultural frameworks. The outcome of this part is a critical thinking of cultural assumptions/behavior as well as a self-assessment of personal cultural contexts. We will also focus on theoretical inputs dealing with diversity / cultural issues in the workplace, and a management framework that is needed to create a context for managing cultural diversity. We will discuss various kinds of work groups, international and individual impacts on teamwork, various diversity issues (e.g. age, gender, homogeneity / heterogeneity) that impact the workgroups, as well as a company’s responsibility in creating the framework for workgroups. The goal here is for the students to understand that cultural openness and diversity in a company requires a conscious framework. At the end of this course, you will be asked to apply learning from the theoretical inputs to personal experiences. Critical thinking and self-assessment as well as the definitions and framework topics from the previous lectures will be applied to your diversity / international cultural management working experiences introduced in the beginning. In groups, you will apply course learning and present your analyses of a select number of experiences introduced in the first part. You will need to explain the reasons these problems have occurred within an international socio-historical-cultural context. You will analyze the company’s and employees’ roles and responsibilities for the cause. And finally, you will recommend steps for improvement or frameworks for solutions. The goal behind this is to show how solutions or improvements can be created by the application of theoretical frameworks and changes in cultural thinking.

Time and location

The course will be implemented during 13.01.2025-19.05.2025.

Please notice, that there will be no streaming from the sessions.

Learning materials and recommended literature

Browaeys, Marie-Joelle and Price, Roger. Understanding Cross-Cultural Management. 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall: 2011.

French, Ray. Cross-Cultural Management in Work Organisations, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development: London, 2007.

Teaching methods

Contact meetings
Flipped learning
Independent studying and learning assignments
Group work and workshops
Group discussions and peer learning
Self-reflection

Guidance will be available during the course as follows:
Introduction and guidance to course themes and assignments
Guidance of group work and group discussions
Group specific feedback
Peer guidance
Personal guidance and feedback on the individual assignment

Student workload

Lectures 22h
Assignments and independent study 113h
Total 135h
(one credit equals 27 hours of student work)

Content scheduling

Independent orientation work
Contact sessions with flipped learning and group work
Individual assignment

Evaluation scale

0-5

Evaluation criteria, satisfactory (1-2)

Sufficient (1):
You show only a sufficient knowledge of the material and concepts but fail to show a convincing ability to apply the knowledge to real-life situations or to communicate the concepts in an effective manner. There are challenges in complying with JAMK reporting instructions.

Satisfactory (2):
You show satisfactory knowledge of the material and concepts and attempt to apply the knowledge to real-life situations. You can communicate the concepts responsibly. There are some issues in complying with JAMK reporting instructions.

Evaluation criteria, good (3-4)

Good (3):
You show good knowledge of material and concepts and are able to apply it well to real-life situations. You can communicate it responsibly in an effective way. There are minor issues in complying with JAMK reporting instructions.

Very good (4):
You show very good knowledge of material and concepts and are able to apply them insightfully to real-life situations. You can communicate it responsibly in an effective way, complying with JAMK reporting instructions.

Evaluation criteria, excellent (5)

You show exceptional knowledge of the subject material. You demonstrate the ability to apply the material to real-life situations and challenges in a critical and insightful manner with superior communication skills, complying fully with JAMK reporting instructions.