Note: content and end goals are roughly identical to course EBS2066, offered as a floating skill in period 4.
Both in your career and in your studies (e.g. during an exchange period), you will have to be able to work with people from very diverse backgrounds. During your studies diversity manifests mainly in team work and in tutorial groups. During you career you will have to manage diverse groups and Organisations. Managing diversity requires effective communication skills and awareness of cultural differences, as communication styles and values vary a lot across the globe.
Intercultural skills in teamwork are used as a frame of reference in the skills training. This approach allows us to deal with virtually all relevant intercultural skills. We use teamwork in SBE as a starting point and gradually work towards translating this to the career perspective of participants. There is also scope for looking at intercultural issues in individual life experiences of participants.
You will discover how intercultural encounters are always a mixture of individual and cultural elements, how to reflect effectively on this, how to communicate about tensions you experience (and how not…), and how to talk about cultural differences in a way that is productive for everybody involved. Together, these form the building blocks of managing diversity in teams.

After an introduction to the topic you will begin with taking stock of your existing skills. In the following meetings we look at how communication styles, values and cultural identities have an impact on intercultural encounters, with special attention to intercultural team work. We will use experiential exercises, in-class discussions, and reflection on your own experiences; all in relation to an attractive textbook. Notwithstanding the use of a textbook, focus remains on skills development. Towards the end of the skills training your learning will be integrated by looking at effective intercultural conflict management.

Stella Ting-Toomey, Communicating Across Cultures. New York: The Guilford Press, 1999

The training aims at participants of all levels of intercultural experience: from very limited to very extensive. You can take it before, or after your study abroad, and as an exchange student during your stay at UM. Bicultural students and students with extensive intercultural life experience enjoy the training a lot. The skills training will turn your intercultural life experiences into a valuable asset.