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the attendance
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the class starts

Please switch off and store away your

electronic devices otherwise you’ll be
excused from the class and your
mobiles will be confiscated
CROSS-CULTURAL
MANAGEMENT

Dr. Marina Apaydin

MSEE, MBA, MA, PhD

Spring 2020
Today’s Class in Questions & Answers

• Who are we? • Introductions

• Why are we here? • Our goals
• What will we do? • Course overview
• How will we do it? • Course methods
• When will things • Course schedule
happen?
• Where will we end up? • Evaluation
• What is culture? • Discussion
INTRODUCTIONS

Who are we?

OUR GOALS

Why are we here?

Top reasons to get a
business degree

•#3 Learn something

•#2 Improve your career
•#1 Establish a network
Our goals

•Content learning goals

•Skills learning goals
•Self-development goals
•Networking goals
COURSE OVERVIEW

What will we do?

Content learning goals
• Different conceptualizations of
culture and their impact on business
• Cultural competence and its
importance in the global economy
▫ Construct a personal plan for developing
cultural competence
• Learn to work in a cross-cultural team
• Learn to give and receive feedback
with grace, honesty and effectiveness
Skills learning goals
• Communication – number 1 skill for leaders
▫ “Smart people are a dime a dozen but good communicators
are extraordinarily rare, even though business is nothing
but communication whether you’re persuading your own
workforce, selling a product or bringing partners along in a
deal.” Michael Phelps, WestcoastEnergy, Inc
▫ 96% of 1400 CFO’s believe communication abilities are a
key success factor for accountants. In other words, if you’re
a genius but can’t communicate your knowledge and work
well with others, why would anyone hire you?” Top Secret
Executive Resumes
• Listening skills
• Diligence – number 1 skill for professionals
• Teamwork - number 1 skill for networking
• Critical thinking – number 1 skill for self-development
Definitions

Is it a difficult course?
An effort-based course

• Rule 1
▫ There are no stupid questions
▫ But there are lazy questions
• Rule 2
▫ There are no stupid answers
▫ But there are unprepared answers
• Rule 3
▫ Everyone starts with an A
▫ Without an effort, it can become an F
Simple truth
Maslow hierarchy of needs
Self-actualization goals
• Develop self-awareness and reflexivity
• Learn to discern and question the
assumptions: yours and others
• Try to take multiple perspectives:
those of your peers, customers,
employees, bosses, competitors and
adversaries
• Practice suspending value judgment
until all opinions are heard
COURSE METHODS

How will we do it?

We remember…
20

• 10% of what we read

• 20% of what we hear
• 30% of what we see
• 50% of what we see and hear
• 70% of what we discuss with others
• 80% of what we experience
• 95% of what we teach each other

Glasser (1986)
 21

Interactive learning

What I hear, I forget

what I see, I remember
what I do, I understand

Chinese proverb
Integrated learning

Inkpen and Crossan (1995)

Apaydin’s 3A Approach

•Awareness
•Analysis
•Action
Awareness
 Apaydin’s 3A Approach

•Awareness (read!)
•Analysis (think!)
•Action (do it!)

“I don’t know what I think until I see what I say” – Karl Weick
Virtual exchange
COURSE PRINCIPLES
• Combining usefulness and fun
• Preparedness
• Clarity
• 360 degree feedback
• Orchestrated improvisation
Practicing improvisation
• What is an improvisation?
• What is the main
prerequisite of a good
improvisation?
• Give an example of
improvisation
• Main rules of
improvisation:
• Be prepared
• “Yes, and..”
• not “Yes, but…
• Speak in turns
Trust & Discipline: ‫نظام رويس‬
 Mont Dat Sessio
Session type
h e n Topic Cases

SCHEDULE 22 1 Regular Introduction (Drop-&-add)

Jan.
29 2 Regular Cultural theories

Visual Irbit Motorcycle

5 3 Introduction of virtual exchange
Exchange Factory
Visual
12 4 My culture presentation – USA
Exchange

February
& Libya
Visual
19 5 My culture presentation – Egypt
Exchange
& Lebanon
Lebanon & Egypt- political &
Visual
26 6 legal environment
Exchange
(Houssam Chamseddine)

Connection with MNGT 230

Regular
4 7 (Ramzi Fathallah)
Visual USA & Libya – economic
11 8 Exchange environment
March

Visual Ixsir Winery

Market entry strategies
18 9 Exchange (Lebanon)
Annunciatio
n Internationalization strategy: Azza Fahmy
25 10 Day/Makeup France, Spain, and Turkey (Egypt)

Visual Standardization versus Azza Fahmy,

1 11 Exchange customization continued
Visual Managing multicultural teams
8 12 Exchange (TBD)
April

15 13 Regular Professional skills development

Social media strategy Azza Fahmy:
Regular
22 14 (Leila Khauli) Social media
29 15 Regular Conclusion
May 6 Reading period
EVALUATION
 Course evaluation
Evaluation Factor Weight
1- Self-reflection journal Individual 20%
2- Cross-cultural business forum Individual 10 %
3- Armchair anthropologist exercise Individual 10%
4- My culture presentation Group 5%
5- Case analysis Group 15%
6- Internationalization consulting project Group 20%
7- Teamwork Individual 5%
8- Class contribution (10%) & attendance (5%) Individual 15%
 Self-reflection journal (20%)
• After each class write your
own journal – 1 hour
• See Appendix 1 for more
details and grading
• Will be used in the
following class exercise
• Nourhane will be
checking your entries
• Final submission is 5 page
memo single spaced with
attachments
Cross-cultural discussion forum on FB
(10%)
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessandculture1
• 6 discussion topics
• One week per topic
• You must add at least one original post
• You must respond to at least one post
• Requirements and grading is in Appendix 2
• All 4 countries talking together
Armchair anthropologist (10%)
• Identify a business activity in another country
• Conduct research (from your armchair)—interview
classmates, research on the web, etc.
• Explain the business activity (from a cultural
perspective)
• Consider the impact of the business activity. Did it
work? Why or why not? Are there other alternatives?
• Draw some conclusions, some key insights, some
broader implications
• 3 page single spaced
• Requirements and grading is in Appendix 3
Group work and teamwork (5%)

• Cases (15%)
▫ Irbit motocycles (done in class)
▫ Ixsir Winery (Lebanon)
▫ Azza Fahmy Jewelry (Egypt)
▫ Azza Fahmy social media strategy
• My Culture presentation – Lebanon (5%)
• Internationalization Consulting Project -cross-
teams (20%)
Types of class contributions
Each class 2 3
you can get a
maximum of 3
points

No 2
participation
= 0 points
1 Often
2

You can discuss your contribution grade with me at any time

Send in your contributions….
 Attendance grading
• Attendance of 1 class is 1 point
• Attendance will be self-recorded before the class starts and
stops sharply at the beginning of each class
• Being late for the class (no matter how much late) is
considered as missing 0.5 of a class
• Late attendance will be recorded after the class ends
• Students missing more than 5 classes may be
dropped without notice
• Students missing more than 2 virtual sessions will
be dropped as per sponsor requirement
• You can prevent all this by sending me a message in
advance of your lateness
• Perfect attendance (5%) includes not being late
How do I get a good grade?

Learn and contribute to

others’ learning!
Besides grades, why participate?
• Self-awareness:
▫ “You only know what you think when you see what
you say” – Karl Weick
• Learning by doing:
▫ The one who doesn’t make mistakes, doesn’t learn
• Developing communication skills:
▫ Listen to others, suspend judgment and build an
argument
• Safe environment to practice:
▫ Conquer the fear of public speaking
Take notes
after the
class
Culture
the specific learned norms of a
society that reflect attitudes,
values, and beliefs
Embracing difficult tasks is easier than acquiring
new norms
Abu Al Hassan Hilal Ibn Al Muhassin Al Sabi
 Norms
(society)

BRAIN

Values Attitudes Intentions Behavior

Beliefs

Norms – what is typical of a group or a class of people

Values – the relative importance of certain things in an individual life
Attitudes – an individual's tendency to like or dislike for an item
Intentions – a determination to act in a certain way
Behavior - observable manner of conducting one self
Beliefs – mental conviction that something is true without a positive evidence
Fact – something that actually exists
How values shape behavior
Value Attitude Behavior

Honesty Telling lies is wrong Not lying

Family Family events come first Choosing to attend a family
party rather than to go with
friends
Status High status means one has Dressing expensively to show
better control over events status
and people
Achievement Achievement deserves Giving recognition for an
praise accomplishment
Harmony Dissent causes disruption in Refraining from disagreeing
groups

Beamer and Varner (2008)

Individuals in a culture
Today’s readings
• Distance still matters
• Cultural theories
• Convergence vs divergence
• Who read the readings?
• What is your favorite reading and why?
• What thoughts you had about it?
• Why does distance matter and in which
way?
• Why do we need so many theories?
• Do cultures converge?
Hofstede’s cultural distance
GLOBE project

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090951612000065
Other
models…
Meet your GA

• Nourhane Hamadeh
• nnh18@mail.aub.edu
• (70 851 113)
To do for the next class
• Organize your weekly schedule
• Start self-reflective journal
• Read articles in Topics 2 & 3 and develop your own
definition of culture and methods to understand it
• Watch the following videos:
▫ Everything You Always Wanted to Know About
Culture
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaOJ71czAGQ)
▫ How Language Shapes the Way We Think
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k
)
▫ Understanding Cultural Metaphors
(http://online.fliphtml5.com/mypc/qcxh/#p=1)