Introduction

• How does culture influence people’s values, attitudes, and behaviors in the workplace?

• How can we harness the knowledge and skills of people from different cultural backgrounds and how can we communicate with them effectively?

• What are the key cultural competences for effectively managing people across cultures?

As the world becomes more and more internationally connected, the need to understand people from different cultures and how to interact appropriately with them also increases. Managers and leaders need to develop intercultural competences that can help them be more aware of their own culturally-based perceptions, norms, and patterns of thinking, and consequently adapt their behaviors according to specific cultural contexts.

Managing people across cultures offers participants solid theoretical frameworks and practical insights to handle the cultural challenges in managing people in a globalized workplace. The program addresses topics including cross-cultural communication and understanding at both interpersonal and inter-organizational levels, leading multicultural and global virtual teams, cross-cultural leadership, managing cross-cultural joint ventures, transferring managerial practices across cultures, and managing international assignments. Among the cultures covered are Australia, China, France, Germany, India, South Korea, Switzerland, UAE, the UK, and USA.

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Key Take-Aways

• Obtain a framework to address how cultures profoundly shape the way we see the world, and consequently our attitudes and behaviors
• Develop a deep understanding of and the necessary skills for effective crosscultural communication
• Gain an overview of the key factors in planning for and benefiting from your international career
• Learn the skills required to overcome the potential hurdles embedded in cultural differences and to leverage
• Attain the competencies to manage truly global teams
• Become a leader and motivate people at both interpersonal and organizational levels

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Program Structure

Tuesday 5, June
Framework of Culture and Managing One’s International Career
• Understanding National Culture and its Effects
What is culture? How does it influence us? We offer a clear framework toward deep-level understanding of culture.
• Making Sense of Work through the Lens of Culture
Participants will be lead through their ways of sense-making in their daily work, and raise their level of cultural sensitivity and awareness.
• Managing International Careers
Explore current challenges in the management of expatriation and discuss how participants can best integrate international and intercultural experiences into their professional careers.

Wednesday 6, June
Developing Cultural Competencies at Interpersonal Level
• Cross-Cultural Communication and Understanding
How to enhance mutual understanding in cross-cultural communication?
• Leading Multicultural Teams in Various Locations
Make teams work effectively when people of different cultural background and based in different locations are involved.
• Workshop: Solving the Cultural Puzzle
Leveraging expertise and international experiences of participants and faculty members. The workshop will address concrete cultural challenges currently faced by participants and provides valuable opportunities to apply learning to problem solving.

Thursday 7, June
Mastering the Complexity of Cultural Challenges at Organizational Level
• Managing Cultural Differences at the Organizational Level
We discuss how organizations can effectively manage in a particular culture, and maintain successful policies and practices across different cultural contexts.
• The Effects of Culture on Other Business Functions
This session offers insights on cultural issues that functional managers (e.g., finance, accounting, marketing) should pay attention to.
• Setting Up Operations in Different Cultures
What are the key challenges of setting up an operation in different cultures? As a leader, how should we build up the team and other relevant infrastructure in this process?

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Approach

Through intensive interaction with faculty members (from three very distinct cultures), lectures, case studies and a cross-cultural simulation, participants will obtain in-depth actionable knowleadge on managing people across cultures. The program will also leverage participants´ cultural experiences to create rich ans engaging cultural learning experience.

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Who Should Attend

This program is designed for leaders and managers who may need to collaborate with and manage people of different cultural backgrounds, whether these are colleagues, customers, suppliers, or competitors.

In particular, managers who wish to prepare themselves to become “global leaders” will obtain in-depth insights about other cultures and how to overcome cultural challenges in business contexts.

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Faculty

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