International Teamwork and Communication

Content:
This course is intended to provide an introduction to a wide range of issues concerning teamwork
and communication in an international and intercultural environment. Topics to be discussed in
course sessions will include:
- Icebreaking activity
- What is a team and why do we have teams?
- What are the challenges and opportunities in multicultural teams?
- Elements of culture and layers of diversity
- From ethnocentric to ethnorelative (Milton Bennett)
- Diversity and inclusion as a leverage for diverse teams
- Building trust in international teams
- Team selection, management and leadership. The specificities of international teams
- Team roles and team models (Belbin, Tuckman)
- The role of values in team building
- The particular challenges of virtual teams
- Teams and corporate culture
- Trompenaar’s 4-R model: reconciling differences and building a team culture 
- Molinsky’s Global Dexterity model: diagnosis of differences and customization of behavior
(stretching your comfort zone)
- Conflict management in teams
- The influence of communication styles in teams
- Diverse teams at work: The model of Gardenschwartz and Rowe
- Elements of negotiation techniques that influence cross-cultural teams
- Elements of management and leadership in an international setting
- Combination of interactive workshops, collaborative team activities, self-discovery tools and
research
- Presentations and evaluation

 

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course, the students should be able to:
- recognize the different elements that make up culture
- demonstrate the role culture plays on general and professional communication and behaviour
- suggest ways to respect and reconcile the cultural characteristics that make a difference
- analyze the cultural elements inherent in different situations
- evaluate the relative importance of different cultural elements in different communication
situations
- apply different cultural orientations to correctly analyse different situations
- understand their strengths, weaknesses and preferred role as team players
- interact more sensitively within international teams
- develop a capacity for culturally sensitive critical analysis
- interpret skillfully different elements of verbal and non-verbal communication and adapt
communication styles
- analyze critical incidents and provide solutions
- be able to integrate a new team showing flexible and inclusive behavior
- apply principles of team management in a diverse team