Cross-Cultural Leadership and Management: A Critical Review

Learning outcomes:

On completion of the assignment, students should be able to demonstrate their ability to:

1. Critically evaluate and synthesis theories of cultural difference with reference to their impact on international management.
2. Critically evaluate the applicability of management theory to specific cultural contexts.
3. Critically examine and select appropriate management styles for specific cultural contexts.

The assignment for this Level 7 module tests for an advanced level of knowledge and comprehension of a range of cross cultural concepts, models and theories. It provides the opportunity for you to demonstrate your ability to appraise an organisation’s leadership and management approach through critical application of literature and the articulation of appropriate management styles for specific cultural contexts. The highest achieving students will also demonstrate competence in terms of academic practice and rigour.

To pass this module, you must achieve a final overall mark of at least 50%.  Failure to achieve a pass after the second attempt will result in the student being withdrawn from the course.

The assignment will be in essay format with full Harvard referencing, reviewing appropriate academic literature critically. The assignment will be uploaded by the student to Turnitin via Moodle to check for originality

Assignment Type:  Coursework assessment (100%) consisting of one element:

Either:

Critically review recent literature relating to leadership and management styles for your own nation or culture and other nations represented within a team in which you were a member. Relate this literature to your own experience of leading and managing the team, and being led and managed by other team members. Include in your discussion any cross-cultural issues which arose and how they were dealt with.

OR

Critically review literature relating to negotiation and conflict resolution in your own nation or culture and other nations represented within a team in which you were a member. Relate this literature to your own experience of leading and managing the team, and being led and managed by other team members. Include in your discussion any cross-cultural issues which arose and how they were dealt with.

The word limit is for your coursework assignment, and does not cover material submitted as an appendix.  Material submitted as an appendix provides background for your coursework, but it will not be marked unless specified in the brief.  Also, it is important that you cross-refer between the main text of your assignment and any appendices, in order to demonstrate the linkage, and that the appendices do not constitute additional material unrelated to that included in the body of your assignment. If you do not refer to this work in the Appendix, then this included work in the Appendices are not marked.

Your references page will not be included in the word count, but inline citations used in the main body of the assignment (e.g. Smith and Jones (2010) identified that…) will be included in the word count.

You are required to declare the number of words used in your assignment.  If you produce less than or exceed the stipulated word count by more than 10%, a deduction of the mark awarded will be made to reflect that you have not met the assessment requirements.

Your lecturer will look at only one draft version of your portfolio or part of it up to 1 week before the hand-in date. This way you can use this ‘formative’ feedback to develop your work further. This feedback does not contribute towards a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ mark. Drafts are not graded or assessed – the purpose of these is for you to gain feedback for improving your work.