Assignment Brief

2013-
2014
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 GeekChic
You work for an international company, which provides management advice to a
number of multinational organisations, such as Al Jazeera, Google, Figlo and a new
App developing company called GeekChic. Your company has been invited to tender
for a contract to deliver cross-cultural training to this major new client GeekChic. The
client is expanding its international activities and needs to send a manager from a
country selected by you from Table 1 (see below) to Paris, France for a 2-year
assignment.
The manager to be transferred is female and in her mid-thirties. She joined the
company four years ago and has performed exceptionally well, earning two
promotions in that period. Company evaluations (which you have been permitted to
read) indicate that she has the right skills-set and that she would be an ideal
candidate for this assignment. However, no formal training has been carried out, and
this would be her first international work assignment. Your company has been invited
by the client to deliver a cross-cultural briefing report to this new manager from
GeekChic. The report should include the following sections:

Section A (25%)
1. a brief introduction of the aim of the report on behalf of GeekChic (I.e. NOT
your class at Middlesex University)
2. a brief overview of macro-level facts of Paris, France (e.g., climate, currency,
GDP, etc.)
3. a brief value description of the country of France based on Hofstedes work,
using a country from Table 1 as a benchmark. You could also include a graph
as shown in class.
Section B (45%)
4. an analysis of the business and management culture in France, with reference,
where appropriate, to a country selected from Table 1 below, integrating
appropriate cross-cultural theory and evaluating the challenges the manager is
likely to face in France using the materials from class. For example: As a
manager about to move to France, it is useful to be aware that decision
making is based on XXXX theory, unlike the decision making process in Saudi
Arabia, with which you are more familiar (Bloggs, 2013).
Your subheadings must relate to seminar topics (but dont use these as titles):
Values & globalization
Decision Making
Negotiation & Communication
Leadership & Cultural Intelligence

Section C (15%)
5. a conclusion and three key points of advice

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
5 articles from the reading list. (15%)

Countries
You may choose any country from Table 1 below to compare to France. Information
about these countries can be found via Summon, Google Scholar and the internet. Of
course the more culturally different from France, the more interesting information
you have to write about.
If youve chosen a country of your own nationality, you can use your own anecdotes
as examples provided that you found academic evidence first. For example, if you
chose Lebanon, you may want to make a statement about the different religions
because you know what its like to live in Beirut, but you must find academic/reliable
evidence for this too. Beware of stereotyping, nonsense advice such as In France
people only wear blue clothes (Mr Nobody, 2013), etc.

Table 1
Lebanon
Japan
Saudi Arabia
The Netherlands
United Kingdom
India
United States
Hong Kong
Tanzania
Thailand
China

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. Week 11, Friday 20
th
of December, 2013, 9pm. Feedback is
provided within 15 working days but for this course work, feedback is given after
Christmas.