OBJECTIVE

• To provide students with theoretical and practical tools in order to improve their effectiveness in international activities.

• To make students more aware of the impact of national cultures on business.

• To give students a sound knowledge of the most significant cultural dimensions.

• To analyze the consequences of each cultural dimension on key management functions.

• To make students aware of their own cultural preferences and to give them the opportunity to compare them with those of major economies.

CONTENT

1. Culture

1.1 What is it?

1.2 What is the use?

1.3 Why are there cultural differences?

1.4 A lasting source of problems and opportunities.

2. Individualism vs. Collectivism

2.1 What must prevail: the individual or the groups?

2.2 Competition or cooperation?

2.3 Majority or consensus?

2.4 HR: hiring, motivation, evaluation, promotion …

2.5 Communication patterns

3. Inner-directed or outer-directed?

3.1 Is it worth trying to control the environment or is it better to adapt to changing circumstances?

4. Universalism vs. Particularism

4.1 What must prevail: the rules or the personal relationship?

4.2 A "One best way" or many ways?

4.3 A business contract: definitive or starting point?

4.4 Marketing: standardization or adaptation.

4.5 International organization: global, multinational, transnational?

5. Time

5.1 Linear or circular?

5.2 A scarce or unlimited resource?

5.3 One thing at the same time ("monochronism") or many things at the same time ("polychronism")?

5.4 What prevails: the schedule or the relationship?

5.5 Time orientation: Is the focus on the past, on the present or on the future?

5.6 Short term or long term?

6. Trust

6.1 Can we trust most people?

7. Specificity vs. Diffuseness

7.1 Do people engage others in specific areas or diffusely in multiple areas of their lives?

7.2 Is there a clear division between the work life and the private life?

7.3 With a prospective new partner do people usually go straight to the point or do they try to build first a good personal relationship?

8. Emotions

8.1 The degree to which showing one’s emotions is tolerated.

9. Uncertainty Avoidance

9.1 Do people feel threatened by uncertainty or do they accept it easily?

9.2 Attitudes towards risk and change.

9.3 Do people build their thinking from ideologies ("deductive") or from the facts ("inductive")?

10. Status

10.1 How is status accorded? What are the criteria: the personal achievements or the family, the relationships, the university, the age?...

10.2 Leader’s profile.

11. Power

11.1 How is power distributed?

11.2 Leadership styles.

12. Masculinity vs. Femininity

12.1 Does this culture emphasize assertiveness and materialism ("masculinity") or concern for others and quality of life ("femininity")?