complete a 10-12 page (not including references, title page, table of contents) team report
in which you design a “cultural consultant report” for a group of
coworkers who will be working in an international business context. You get to
choose the particular context and country.
In this paper you will incorporate what you learned about effective
intercultural business communication in the course through your readings, the
lectures, other course material and the online site GlobeSmart. However,
your research must extend beyond the course materials and GlobeSmart website.
You must incorporate additional sources (articles
from academic journals, popular business journals, newspapers etc).
For this paper, you are required to provide citations
to the relevant literature where appropriate and to provide a reference list of
the sources cited–at the end of the paper. Both in-text citations and
reference list citations should follow APA guidelines provided in the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed-2010). [For a free
tutorial on APA style basics, go to http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-tutorial.aspx]
When you cite Globesmart material, please be very
specific–note the website section and subsection where you found the
information.
I will submit your papers to a plagiarism-detection
software program before grading them. No late papers will be accepted.
(a) Select
a country and city/location and a type of organization on which to
focus. Here are some examples: you could
select the accounting division of a U. S. international company that sends
their personnel to check out the accounting practices in the overseas
subsidiaries in Vietnam (you would prepare cultural training information for
the accountants), or a Health Insurance company that has outsourced their
customer service to India (You would prepare training materials for a group of
managers who will go to India to work with Indians at the call center). Or a
group of managers from a large U. S. clothing manufacturer who will be spending
time at a maquiladora on the U. S.
-Mexican border working with Mexican managers on quality control (you would
prepare cultural materials for the U. S. managers). Your written report
should be addressed to the U. S. Americans who will be working in the overseas
business context you have selected.
(b) Next,
you should decide exactly how the U.S.
employees (the audience for your report) will be working with people
from the foreign country:
1) How
many (approximately) U. S. employees will be working with the foreign
personnel?
2) In
what capacity will they be working with the foreign personnel (as consultants?
supervisors? co-workers? etc)
3) For
how long? (for months? days? Indefinite? One-time? or periodic visits to the
foreign country? etc
4) Describe
exactly how the U.S. Americans will be working with the foreign
personnel and what they will be doing when they are in the foreign country.
(c) Finally,
given your target audience, you need to identify the most essential
information these employees need to know about intercultural communication, in
order to achieve cultural intelligence and be effective in their business
context. Specifically, identify three or four topics
that these employees should know about in order to develop their “cultural
intelligence” in working with people from the host culture. One of these
topics should address the potential ethical challenges that might be
involved in this intercultural business communication context.
NOTE: You should focus on
intercultural communication competence, not on general cultural knowledge.
Always cite the sources that you use, both in the text
and in the reference section – the bibliography – at the end of the report.
Cite according to the APA-style guide.
General
Format guidelines: The paper should be 10-12 pages (not including references, title page, table of contents), double-spaced with 12-point font.
REPORT FORMAT
Title page
The full title of the report (a
descriptive title)
The Team (Group) number
The names of the writers
The date of the report
The class number and title
Table of
contents
Listing all
major headings or sections of the report in order of appearance (and page #s)
Introduction
Describe the setting in which the
audience of the report will be working: Discuss why you chose this
particular business and this particular cultural context. Briefly describe
the organization, the location to which they will be assigned and exactly what
they will be doing in the foreign country and how they’ll be working with
foreign personnel. Be sure to provide an overview of the report at the end of
this section.
Main Text
(including section headings)
Here you will list and discuss the
three or four areas of cultural intelligence (with a focus on communication)
that the workers will need to know about, including the potential ethical
challenges.
What does the literature (previous
research, expert sources) say about the subject?–integrate the results of your
research into your discussion.
Based on your research, what should
the employees in these circumstances do? Provide very specific guidelines
(again, focused on communication) for the employees to follow that will help
ensure their success in their new cultural context. (Be sure to include a
Conclusion at the end of the paper, briefly summarizing the report).
Bibliography
An alphabetical list of
all sources consulted and used when creating the report (use the APA format for
citing sources–consult the APA Style Manual 6th Ed) For some help with APA
style, see http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx
or https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
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