BUU33801 Intercultural Management I 2025/26

(5 ECTS)

Lecturer:                 

Nick McIlroy                                                 

E-mail: mcilron@tcd.ie 
Office Hours: By appointment          

Available to Visiting Students                              

Module Description

This module explores how global management practices need to be modified and adjusted 
when working in a cross-cultural context. The focus of this module is on identifying cultural 
differences, understanding cultural biases, and appropriately adjusting management styles 
accordingly. The module demonstrates that a good level of cultural intelligence (CQ) is required 
to operate effectively around the globe. Learners gain the knowledge and understanding of 
various cultures in business to improve CQ. 

Managers with cultural intelligence (CQ) ensure: 

• better communications among and between managers and teams 
• drive better solutions for innovation 
• facilitate high performance management in a global setting

Learning & Teaching Approach

This class will be conducted face-to-face with some hybrid elements on Blackboard for you to 
complete. You are required to take accountability for your study and timely progress throughout 
the class. You are also responsible to check Blackboard at least twice a week to ensure that you 
stay informed on due dates or changes that may occur. The module maintains a strong applied 
approach to learning with the inclusion of a team-based cultural research project. This allows 
students to draw from the material presented throughout the sessions and use the content as the 
backbone for their project. There will also be an individual assignment to ensure that you 
understand and have the ability to critically analyse the key concepts delivered within course. 

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module, the student should be able to:

1. Perform systematic comparative research, allowing them to identify patterns and 
   distinctions of management practices in various cultural settings, and the risks they 
   present; 
2. Have a heightened awareness of how management practices both affect, and are affected 
   by, the cultural environment in which the manager operates; 
3. Critically assess the leading theories and concepts of this field of study; 
4. Develop enhanced cultural awareness and the ability to self-reflect on one’s own cultural 
   identity;
5. Augment an understanding of certain specific cultural contexts, thereby allowing them to 
   become less ethnocentric and more tolerant of other cultures; 
6. Identify cultural etiquette, gestures, and symbols across the globe which will equip them 
   to manage and negotiate at an international level.

Relation to Degree

This module draws from several Programme-Level Learning Goals for the Global Business 
Programmes including: Identify, critically evaluate and synthesis the substantive theories, 
frameworks and models that are used in cultural management; Analyse and solve a variety of 
problems from a multi-disciplinary knowledge basis of theories, tools and techniques; 
Communicate effectively in oral and written modes in professional and academic settings; Apply 
knowledge and understanding of the social and ethical dimensions of management and research 
in both the public and private sectors of society and to apply this knowledge effectively in 
management and research contexts; Work effectively as an individual and in teams; and 
Demonstrate the ability to engage productively with a changing social, cultural and technological 
environment. 

Workload

This course carries 5 ECTS credits. 
Each credit corresponds to circa 10-15 hours of work, amounting to about 150-200 hours in total 
workload. This includes the time spent attending lectures, reading the course texts in preparation 
for exams, working in groups for the assignment, and presentations.

Textbooks and Required Resources

Required textbooks: Logan, Dave, King, John, Fischer-Wright, Halee (2011) Tribal Leadership Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization.

Recommended reading: Browaeys & Roger Price (2015) Understanding cross-cultural management 3rd ed.  Isbn: 978-12920- 15897 (or later edition).

Each week I will upload articles on Blackboard for you to read along with the course content. Please make sure that you read these as they will be of immense value to you when preparing your group project.

Assessment

There are two areas that you must pass in order to successfully complete the class 1. the group 
project report and 2. an individual assignment. Points cannot be carried over to make up for a 
lower grade in one section. Student assessment and due dates are found in the Table below. 
More specific information follows, and detailed instructions and grading rubrics are located on the 
Blackboard page for this module. Students have 14 calendar days from the release of 
feedback/grades for each assessment to arrange a meeting with the professor pertaining to 
further understanding the grade and feedback given. Any requests after this timeline will not be 
granted. 

Attendance & Class Participation 10%:  All students are expected to attend lectures weekly and to engage in class discussions and activities. In-class discussions with your peer-group forms an important part of cross-cultural learning and development. In line with TBS policies, regular poor attendance may be grounds for students not passing the module. The module leader should be informed by email ahead of the lecture (where possible) if a student cannot attend. 

Individual Assignment 55%  Individually, you are required to write a reflective essay on your 
own cultural understanding journey. The paper should be no more than 2,000 words excluding 
references (Harvard Style). The essay should be structured around the elements of the “cultural 
intelligence index” test which will be administered in week 1, then subsequently after a period of 
several weeks. Further assignment information will be presented on blackboard. You are required 
to submit your paper via blackboard and Turnitin in week 9 of term. Exact date will be confirmed 
in class. 
Group project report 35%:  As a group, you are required to interview five expatriates living in 
Ireland at various stages of the expatriation process. Ideally, you should interview someone who 
has just arrived in Ireland 0-3 months, someone who has been in Ireland between 4-6 months, 
someone who has been in Ireland 6-9 months, someone who has been in Ireland 9-12 months, 
and someone who has been living in Ireland between 1-3 years. The aim of this assignment is for 
you to understand and present the acculturation process of these expatriates. After all interviews 
are conducted, you are required to write a comprehensive paper on the experiences of the 
expatriates you have interviewed, while drawing from theory to explain their expatriation process. 
The paper should be no more than 3,000 words excluding references (Harvard Style) and 
transcripts (audio files of the interviews are also acceptable). It is a good idea to include some 
expatriate quotes from the interviews to support your statements and further enhance the reader’s 
knowledge of the expatriation process. Each interview should last around 20 minutes and should 
be transcribed and included at the end of your paper. You should not have a personal relationship 
with any of your interviewees prior to interviewing them, as doing so may cause various forms of 
bias. You can recruit students on campus (MSc etc) or outside of campus. Recruitment can be 
done informally (through a friend), or formally (e.g. by using a college organization/club that 
supports international students). Your interviews should be semi-structured. We will go through 
outline questions in class prior to the launch of the assignment. Further assignment information 
will be presented on blackboard. You are required to submit your paper via blackboard and 
Turnitin in week 11 of term. Exact date will be confirmed in class. 

TURNITIN 

Assignments in this course will be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin, a Web-based resource 
that compares the text of student papers to an extensive electronic database. You are not allowed 
to submit a report that you have submitted or partially submitted to another module. If this happens 
the group will receive a Fail grade. 

LATE SUBMISSION POLICY 
Late group assignment submission will be penalised by 10% off the assignment grade for each 
overdue day, unless prior authorisation was given by the lecturer. 

If there are extenuating circumstances that prevent you from sitting the test/presentation please 
contact the lecturer prior to the submission date. If contact has not been made with the lecturer
prior to date of submission, no resit will be permitted. This is a hard rule to ensure fairness to all 
students in the class.

Biographical Note

Nick McIlroy is a Teaching Fellow within the Trinity Business School. In addition to 
having several years lecturing experience as Visiting Professor at the triple-accredited 
ESSCA School of Management’s Shanghai campus, he has a broad range of 
management experience in both Public and Private sectors, practicing in a global 
business environment. Nick has lived and worked in East and Southeast Asia, 
Australia, Europe and the USA. His research and consulting interests focus on EU-Asia 
trade and investment relations, agribusiness, and migrant networks and 
entrepreneurship. Nick is a graduate and scholar of Trinity College, and a fluent 
speaker of Mandarin