Managing Across Cultures

COURSE SUMMARY

Our culture defines many aspects of how we think, feel, and act. It can be challenging for managers to bridge cultural differences and bring employees together into a functioning team. This course will give supervisors and managers easy-to-use techniques for communicating across cultures, building teams, promoting multiculturalism in the organization, and leveraging the global talent pool.

WHAT STUDENTS LEARN

• Define what culture is and how it shapes the workplace
• Identify how stereotypes shape our perception
• Develop useful cross-cultural attitudes
• Communicate effectively across cultures
• Effectively manage employees from different cultures
• Help teams overcome cross-cultural and virtual barriers
• Promote acceptance and awareness in your organiation to help create a multicultural environment
• Leverage the global talent pool

WHAT TOPICS ARE COVERED

• What Is Culture?
• Communicating Effectively
• Team Building Across Cultures
• Managing Across Cultures
• Building a Multicultural Organisation
• Working with the Global Talent Pool

COURSE OUTLINE

What Is  Culture?

We’ve all heard of culture but do we really know what it is? This session takes a look at defining culture and some of its various forms. The session then segues into a look at stereotypes before concluding with a discussion of individual and organisational attitudes.

Communicating Effectively

Communications can be tricky even within one’s own culture, not to mention across cultures. This session deals with communications under the lens of high and low context cultures while also tackling various forms of body language and other types of communication skills. The session wraps up with a look at handling miscommunication through a case study.

Team Building Across Cultures

The five stages of team development are covered in this mid-course session. Then the discussion veers to a look at how to handle working with virtual teams.

Managing Across Cultures

Diversity is the hallmark of working across cultures and it’s the opening of this session. Along the way the session looks at how far should you go to accommodate other cultures, dealing with culture-based conflicts and giving culturally sensitive feedback.

Building a Multicultural Organisation

This session holds forth a brainstorming session on how to build a multicultural organisation and then how to create inclusive programs for new employees.

Working with the Global Talent Pool

Today’s workforce is made up of much more than your typical 9-to-5ers from just around the neighbourhood, it is made up of the workers worldwide. This workforce offers a global talent pool for employers and it’s discussed here along with how to tap into this pool.

Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the course, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.