Global Leadership

In order to be effective in the emerging global economy, managers need to be able to interact effectively across cultures. This course will provide you with critical knowledge and skills that will enable you to become an effective global leader. We will focus on how cultures vary, and how culture influences basic psychological processes, interpersonal communication, leadership, and negotiation. We will also explore culture and ethics, multicultural teams, culture and human resource management practices, and expatriate assignments. This course will use a combination of lectures, group discussion, videos, and numerous case analyses. After successfully completing this course, you will have enhanced cultural intelligence which will help you work more effectively across cultures. In particular, you will have an enhanced knowledge of: The multiple ways in which national cultures vary and factors that explain this variation. How culture affects basic psychological processes, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. How culture affects the communication process, including nonverbal and verbal communication. How culture affects leadership and followership. How culture affects the process of negotiating, and how to create win-win agreements across cultures. Ethical challenges that leaders face when doing business across cultures, and ways to deal with ethical conflicts across cultures. How culture affects the process of teamwork, and ways to build an effective global business team.The nature of human resource management practices across different cultural contexts, and the tension between standardizing HRM practices versus adapting HRM practices to the local context in multinational companies. Problems that expatriates may experience on their assignments, and ways to maximize the potential that expatriates will successfully adapt to the local context.