Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar · 2012 to 2016 · Undergraduate
How culture shapes management, taught through cases from the Gulf, China, India, the Americas, Europe, and Africa.
About 20 students in Doha and 57 in Pittsburgh
I created this course at CMU Qatar for students who expected to work in an unfamiliar country or a multicultural team, which in Doha meant nearly everyone. We used Hofstede, GLOBE, and Hall as tools, then worked through cases region by region: SickKids in Qatar, Al Jazeera's US launch, Vodafone during the Egyptian revolution, guanxi in Chinese hiring, Enron's Dabhol plant in India. Students taught each other through panels on cultures they knew, then researched and briefed the class on one they did not.
slides from the decks
I taught from
Fall 2016 (Pittsburgh) · Tuesdays and Thursdays
Scroll the schedule and the slides follow along: five from each session, picked from the decks I taught from.
What students hand in
Four papers written in groups of three, five to seven pages each: Vodafone Egypt (a PESTLE analysis, then whether to obey the government's order to shut down the network and send its SMS messages), Intel in China (Hofstede and GLOBE, face, guanxi, and managing a dual identity), Silvio Napoli at Schindler India (coaching a new expatriate general manager), and Leading Across Cultures at Michelin.
Groups of three to five presented 10 to 15 minutes at the start of class on what others should know about doing business in a culture they knew well, or one from the course cases.
Multicultural teams chose a country none of them had history with, interviewed at least one person who had lived there, and gave a polished 20 to 25 minute orientation for managers about to move there on long-term assignment: greetings, meetings, negotiation, expatriate problems, government, and management tips.
Case discussion, in-class exercises such as the Alpha Beta negotiation and Enco, and peer evaluations after group work.
What students built
Every project, by term.
Offerings
