At no time in human history has the contact between individuals and organizations from different countries and cultures been greater. Today, employees at all levels work and interact with people from different cultural backgrounds. Companies have followed their customers as they respond to the pres­sures of obtaining scale in a rapidly consolidating global economy. The increase in global competition and the corresponding erosion of national boundaries has spurred an unprecedented surge in cross-border alliances, mergers, and acquisitions, allowing companies to extend their geographical reach and gain rapid access to global pools of capital, new markets, and specialized resources. Executives travel around broader regions while their jobs remain headquartered in one place. Global virtual teams are created to address important strategic challenges and to become globally competitive. Supplier and customer value chains circle the globe. As a result of these developments, the demands on global executives have increased exponentially.

Drawing on insights from diverse fields, including international business, cross-cultural management, international human resource management, organizational behavior, social psychology, and applied ethics, this course is designed to help participants develop a deeper understanding of the issues that confront global managers today and to prepare them for leadership roles in global organizations. Learning to lead requires self-awareness and self-manage­ment skills, so a particular focus will be on personal development and career management. Written and video cases, assessment tools, experiential exercises,and real-life examples from the instructor’s extensive experience as a manage­ment educator and consultant will demonstrate that effective global leadership involves a number of critical requirements and skills in three broad areas:

1. Leading a global organization

• Implementing strategy;
• Running a global business and delivering results;
• Managing cross-border alliances, mergers and acquisitions; etc.

2. Leading diverse people and teams

• Managing people across geographic and cultural boundaries;
• Leading culturally diverse and globally dispersed teams;
• Understanding ethical dilemmas and making socially responsible choices; etc.

3. Leading oneself and developing a global career

• Developing self-awareness and strategies for personal development; etc.
• Building global mindset and developing intercultural competence;
• Adapting to a new culture and successfully completing an international assignment;

• First-hand accounts of the challenges facing global corporations and managers.
• Guidelines on managing people, teams and organizations in global contexts.
• An understanding of which attributes are important for global leadership competence and culturally intelligent behavior.
• Better understanding of the career dilemmas facing global managers and how they can be resolved or managed.
• Knowledge in culture theory and better understanding of how culture affects corporate strategy, organizational structure, and management practice.

• Knowledge to manage effectively in cross-cultural and global organizational environments.
• Anawareness of the pervasive and hidden influence that culture has on organizational behavior, and increased sensitivity to important cultural differences and cultural assumptions underlying global management skills.
• The capacity to detect and analyze cultural differences in communication patterns, negoti­ation styles, and leadership behavior.
• Increased awareness of their own culture and how it influences the way they see the world.
• The capacity to develop and implement high quality solutions in a global context.

• The ability to apply knowledge of global management skills to real-world, global leadership challenges.
• The ability to analyze cases dealing with global management and cross-cultural issues and to apply the learning to practical business situations.
• Experience working in multi-cultural teams and better team work skills.
• Greater intercultural sensitivity and empathy.

The course is structured around ten 4-hour classroom sessions. Each session is a module addressing a particular leadership challenge facing execu­tives in the global arena (e.g. leading a diverse team, implementing a cross-border acquisition, adjusting to a new culture, etc.). Our modus operandi will be dialog, and the teaching approach varied, with a mix of lecture input, group discussion, case analysis, experiential exercises, and videos. Global leadership requires self-awareness and awareness of one’s own culture, so self-diagnostic tools will also be made available. Some classes will follow a learning group or L-Group format involving an input by the instructor, leading to a short period of roundtable discussion (typically taking place for about 10 minutes in buzz groups in the classroom). In addition, a one day cultural immersion experience or service learning project will provide participants with an opportunity to spend time in an unfamiliar environment and to apply some of the learnings.

If study questions or pre-class assignments are indicated as part of the preparation, participants are strongly recommended to have given them some thought. A good way of ensuring proper preparation is to meet informally in small learning groups over lunch or dinner or whenever to discuss the ques­tions or do the assignments. However, it is up to you to take the initiative to organize this. During these meetings you might discuss readings and assignments, review activities and exercises from the previous class, and challenge and support each other to maximize your learning.

The course grade will be computed as a weighted average of four elements:

• Participation (20%)

• Cultural immersion experience/service learning project (30%)
• In-class group assignment (20%)
• Team project (30%)

While evaluation is a necessary feature of this and any other course, it is not expected that participants will populate both tails of a normal distribution.

Institute for International Business, Building D1, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Wien

Phone: +43-1-31336-4434

guenter.stahl@wu.ac.at

http://www.wu.ac.at/iib/team/faculty/stahl

Office hours by appointment

Carlo Brighi

Institute for International Business, Building D1, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Wien

Phone: +43-1-31336-5708

carlo.brighi@wu.ac.at

Office hours by appointment