MGT3146 Coursework 1 Cross Cultural Consultancy for Finance

Assignment Brief MGT3146 2016/17 CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT Comparison exercise exploring theory and empirical evidence and relating this to a practical critical incidents in cross-cultural settings.

This assignment is worth 30% of the overall unit mark

THE BRIEF Scenario You work for an international consulting company, called GPi http://www.gpionline.com/, which provides management advice to a number of multinational organisations. Your company delivers leadership training to a major new client operating in international finance called Vocalink https://www.vocalink.com/ . The client is expanding its international activities and some interesting challenges have come up. The executive team now consists of people from Saudi Arabia, Singapore, USA and Sweden. The team wants to communicate effectively because this has a direct impact on the negotiation process and decision making. GPi has been commissioned to write a cross-cultural briefing report. Your managers have asked you to write the report. The report should include the following sections but make sure you guide the reader and link (sub)sections through an organised structure. You MUST make reference to the finance industry. Report must contain: 1. An introduction of the current state of globalisation relevant to an executive in the finance industry. Give a practical example of the current challenges (use newspapers like FT.com) and mention the aim of the report as per brief above and how you will structure the report. 2. A short comparison using Hofstede’s work https://geerthofstede.com/countries.html choosing two countries from the 4 mentioned above. You should also include a graph as shown in class and ensure that you make the analysis relevant to the finance industry. 3. As a GPi consultant you will include an analysis of the business and management challenges for the international team, using the reading from this module, integrating appropriate cross-cultural theory and evaluating the challenges these managers are likely to face. For example: “As an international team, regardless of where one lives or works, it is useful to be aware that decision making is based on XXXX theory (Bloggs, 2013) and cultural variations exist in terms of A, B and C.” You CANNOT use Wikipedia and other non-academic sources, unless they are anecdotal or current affairs. You may also use your practical

experience but keep it professional – i.e., frame these into practical anecdotes, not a diary. Your analysis must relate to seminar topics and include reading from the reading list.  Decision Making  Negotiation & Communication  Leadership & Cultural Intelligence 4. a conclusion evaluating the information presented and three key points of advice presented with bullet points. Professional delivery Max word count 2000. Over or under 10% allowed. More than that, you are subject to the critique that you cannot focus (over) or read to little (under) and this will affect your grade. Ensure you do a grammar & spell check, use a professional lay out with subheadings, include an accurate reference list incl. at least 6 articles from the reading list. Marking Criteria Evidence that you have systematically researched the assignment and covered required areas to the expected standard. Comprehensiveness (breadth and depth) of information. Evidence that you have understood key issues and been able to effectively integrate theory and practice. Relevance and balance of contents. Integration and coherence of component parts. Evidence of effective use of a range of relevant resources. Coherence, synthesis and integration of contents. Creativity and innovation. Further information on the assignment and marking criteria are provided in the Module Handbook, will be given periodically in class and via MyUniHub. SUBMISSION DETAILS Online via Turn It In. Date: 13th January 2016 ONLINE ONLY