After completing this course, participants will have improved their intercultural communication skills: they will have acquired conceptual tools which help them in avoiding interpretation errors when dealing with people from a culture different from their own, in particular in a managerial context.The seminar consists of the following parts.Two basic concepts in intercultural interpretation mechanisms and their pitfalls:
1. Attribution: the functioning of the interpretation mechanisms we all use to ascribe (attribute) a meaning to what people around us say and do.
2. SRC or Self-reference criterion: the tendency to rely on one's own set of norms for interpretation, and to determine what is appropriate, rather than opening up to other cultural frameworks Awareness and knowledge.
Participants become more aware of, and understand better, intercultural differences and issues in a variety of fields such as:
1. Time: structure of a conversation/discussion (backchannelling, taking the floor), temporal structure of a negotiation (getting acquainted, initial negotiation position, negotiating styles, deciding and implementing), time orientation (relation between past, present and future), polychronic vs. monochronic organization of tasks.
2. Space: interpersonal distance, office space, physical contact.
3. Verbal communication: loudness of voice, under- and overstatements, rhetoric and exaggeration, (in)directness, use of English by non-native speakers.
4. Non-verbal communication : eye contact, gestures, facial expressions.
5. Etiquette: greetings, politeness, gift giving, wining and dining.
6. Research frameworks: Hofstede's dimensions (Power Distance, Individualism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity), and other research frameworks.
The main emphasis is not on learning data or facts, but on the acquisition of explanatory concepts and interpretative strategies which will enable the participants to cope better in real-life intercultural situations. All classes are highly interactive, including the plenary sessions. Video excerpts, photographs, other visual materials and newspaper clippings will be used extensively to illustrate various points, to exercise and to discuss things together.Skills and practical applications. We will discuss real-life intercultural situations, incidents and cases, many of them from business, thus applying the concepts which will have been covered before. Participants will also have the possibility to submit their own cases and questions for analysis and discussion.
Period
09-07-2012 - 20-07-2012 (2 weeks)
Target group
Bachelor and master students of all disciplines.
Course aim
The acquisition of explanatory concepts and interpretative strategies which will enable the participants to cope better in real-life intercultural situations.Skills and practical applications.
Credits
4.0 ECTS credits
Course fee
EUR 600: Course + course materials
EUR 700: Course + course materials + social programme
Course leader
Paul VERLUYTEN PhD, Maastricht School of Management
Scholarships
Not available.
Maastricht University + Maastricht School of Management Student Service Centre
Address: Bonnefantenstraat 2 P.O. Box 616
Postal code: 6211 KL Maastricht
City: Maastricht
Country: Netherlands
Website: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/summerschool
E-mail: summerschool@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Phone: +31433885295
Managing Cultural Diversity
