Faculty
Lisbeth Clausen, Company speakers.

Course Coordinator
Lisbeth Clausen

The aim of the course is to provide students with knowledge of organisation and communication challenges for international managers in their business operations in Japan and China. During the course students will become familiar with different theories and methods of analysing intercultural organisation and communication in companies doing business in Japan and China. Students will be challenged to apply personal world-views and knowledge about intercultural differences/similarities to the theories presented. They will also be challenged to describe and apply the theoretical models of communication and organisation in relation to practical issues.

In completing the course the students will be able to:

Oral group examination based on mini-project. Please see Appendix in the Programme Regulations in the Study Handbook for further details.

In addition to the final examination, students must submit one five page assignment (this assignment must be approved by the teacher before the final examination – the deadline will be announced in class). In the assignment the student must display knowledge about organisation and communication theories and models studied in the course. The student must define a research question/problem/issue and demonstrate ability to select and apply appropriate theories and models for a discussion of the question. The material of analysis should be related to Japan/China.

The course will be a combination of classroom teaching and discussions based on the textbook and the compendium material. Workshops, case studies, guest speakers and student presentations are planned to engage and exchange information between teacher, students and practitioners in the field. Students are expected to contribute creatively and actively in the classroom and to present theoretical models when called upon. They are responsible for presenting the company speakers and will in turn present the articles in the compendium for discussion in the class. Two mandatory assignments challenge students to present empirical examples of intercultural organisation and communication from corporations. In these assignments students must display their ability to apply communication and organisation models to company specific problems.

A line of speakers have been invited to talk about Intercultural Communication and Organisation ’in action’ this is to present students with a balance between theory and practice. The speakers represent Danish national and international corporations and share their professional practices and strategies in dealing with markets, consumers, alliances, subsidiaries in China and Japan.

Students will be divided into working groups during the introductory lecture. Here they will also be assigned an international ‘study-buddy’ a class mate partner with whom they can share information concerning assignments, preparation for class, site-scape use, exams etc.

Suggested readings: