| CODE | TTC5203 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Intercultural Competencies for Management | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Tourism Management | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit intends to expose students to the main aspects of cross cultural management and look at intercultural competence as an essential requirement for today’s tourism operators/organisations. The current socioeconomic scenario has posed many issues and challenges to what was the 'traditional' forms of organisation structure and organisation culture. Organisations are required to operate in a more culturally heterogeneous environment than ever before. For example, having a multinational workforce is now somewhat common even in a small country like Malta. This is especially pertinent to the Hospitality and Events sectors for various reasons. The first is that this sector was always prone to have a more multinational/multi-regional workforce due to the nature of the sector itself. Moreover, another significant aspect is that the clientele tends to be hailing from different countries and regions. To these, one needs to add the diverse cultural beliefs and values held by the persons themselves (based upon family background, religion, etc.). It is therefore essential that today's operators are well conversed in the processes of cross cultural management, intercultural communication and negotiation (intercultural competence) as they become a determining factor in ensuring, for example that a particular event would be favourably taken up by the organisation's guests. Study-unit Aims: This study-unit aims to define culture and its determinants, and demonstrate its significance to organisations involved in Hospitality and Events management. It will do this by sensitising the students to the different cultural variables found in the workforce and organisational structure (supply side) and the source markets (demand side). The study-unit will enable students to learn how to identify the dynamics of key cultural differences and the role they play in the Hospitality and Events business environment and to be able to value diversity as a means of capacity building. Overall it provides capacity building skills for intra and inter communication across cultural zones for the creation of culturally competent Hospitality and Events organisations. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Appreciate the effect his/her personal, organisational and national culture may have on decision making. - Define and distinguish between globalisation and ‘tribalisation’ and their effects. - Develop an awareness of the various concepts and perspectives that make up cross cultural management (Hofstede, Tropenmaars, Hall, Lewis, etc.). - Be aware of the different approaches to cultural awareness resulting from the concepts outlined in the previous point. - Analyse critically the impacts of cultural diversity from the both the supply and demand side. - Appreciate that diverse cultural differences may affect the styles of communication. - Apply the principles underlying intercultural competence to address the challenges posed by cross cultural management in within hospitality-based scenarios by developing 'ad-hoc' solutions. - Recognise that the acquisition of intercultural competence is a continual, dynamic process that moves through various dimensions, (a lifelong learning process) and internalise methodologies and techniques to carry out constant learning/updating of related knowledge and skills. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Deal constructively with cultural diversity in hospitality-based environments. - Develop effective ‘cross cultural’ communication skills. - Become capable to manage conflicts as a consequence of having comprehensive cultural knowledge. - Tolerate ‘ambiguity’ and adopt behaviour that does not violate cultural values of others. - Empathise with others withholding diverse culture norms, values and forms of behaviour other than the ones upheld. (Intercultural reflection). - Apply continual, formative forms of self-evaluation of his/her level of intercultural competence, in order to constantly update knowledge and understanding in this field. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: French, R., (2010), Cross-Cultural Management in Work Organisations, (2nd Ed.). Mead, R. & Andrews, T. (2011), International Management: culture and beyond. Nakata, C. (2009), Beyond Hofstede: Cultural Frameworks for Global Marketing and Management. Supplementary Readings: Other references and case studies will be provided by the lecturer. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Seminar & Independent Study | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Marie Avellino Camille Brincat Viana Hassan |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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