BH3313: Assignment Brief


Academic Year: 2022-2023

Module Name: BH3313 Global Working

Module Leader: Dr Achilleas Karayiannis


Coursework Task

Interview: The interview is a pre-requisite without which you will be unable to complete your
written essay. The task is for you to interview someone from another culture, who is currently
employed: part-time or full-time. It is critical that you interview someone from another
culture; you can interview someone from another culture in terms of their origins regardless
of the country they are employed/live at. As a guideline, you want to try and find out what
their cultural values are, and how this affects, or might affect, their approach to various
workplace dynamics; including how their approach is/might be different (if at all) from the
approach adopted by others in their workplace.

Written Essay: Using theory and research from the module, discuss your findings from the
interview in terms of the cultural dimensions you believe the individual best aligns with, and
the way these (might) shape their approach to various workplace issues such as (but not
limited to) negotiation, leadership, team-working and communication.

[Note: for the purposes of this assessment, when we speak of cultures, we are referring to
national (i.e. country) cultures as discussed throughout the module.]

Task Details/Description

Interview: the person you interview can be a friend, an acquaintance, or someone
completely new that you approach purely for the purposes of this task. The important thing
is that the person you interview should be from a different culture to your own culture; ideally
choose a culture that is very distinct from your own. It is critical for this difference to be
primarily exist at the national level and in response to the module starting with Hofstede's
Cultural Dimensions framework; hence, you must refer to similarities and differences at a
national level (Hofstede) but then you have a choice in terms of which of the frameworks to
consider from the following: Trompenaars (organizational level of culture), Hall
(social/individual level of culture) and the GLOBE framework in terms of cultural
clusters/similar countries sharing similar characteristics. It is advisable to develop a question

itinerary to take with you to the interview, in order to address all elements of the task and
keep you on track during the interview. The questions can be of your own choosing, and of
course you can delve deeper into the interviewee’s answers where you feel it is appropriate.
You want to ask the right type of questions in order to extract the information you need to
be able to complete the written essay, but at the same time, you do not want to be
unnecessarily intrusive. As a rough guideline, the interview will take approximately 20 – 40
minutes. You are not required to submit anything for the interview.

Written Essay: You will need to have conducted the interview in order to be able to do this.
There are two elements to the written essay. First, you will need to understand which cultural
dimensions best align with your interviewee in terms of the cultural values they alluded to.
This will provide structure in helping you to understand their culture. You can choose to
focus on any of the dimensions we have covered in the module and/or in your independent
readings. You also do not have to focus on complete frameworks (e.g. Hofstede), and can
instead pick and mix dimensions from across frameworks, specifically choosing those
dimensions which apply best to the cultural values the interviewee alludes to. Second,
discuss how the culture of the interviewee shapes or might shape their approach to
workplace issues such as leadership, negotiation, team-working and communication. You
are able to discuss workplace issues other than these. The essential point here is for you to
use theory and research on these topics to inform your discussion in a critical and reflective
manner. Feel free to introduce your own personal reflections where you feel they are
relevant (e.g. did something surprise you in terms of it being very different to your own
values/approach?), but keep these reflections concise and do not let them detract from the
overall task.

In order to do well on this assessment, it needs to be clear that you have engaged with the
module content, as well as going beyond this in your independent readings. That is, you
need to draw widely upon theory and research in approaching your essay. You need to be
pragmatic and respectful in both the essay and the interview.

Lastly, you are advised to use some of the questions/answers from your interview to
organise the main body of your work too and submit the entire interview, including questions
and answers, as an appendix to which you can refer to.

A note on ethics

Discussions around culture are very personal. Be sensitive and respectful in your approach,
even if you might not agree and/or identify with the points made by your interviewee. Be
sure to provide clear details on what the interview entails, and be sure that the interviewee
consents to participating. Make your interviewee aware before the start of the interview that
all questions are optional and they can choose not to answer if they do not wish to. In this
instance, you will simply move onto the next question; you want to ensure the interviewee
is at ease during the interview. When writing up, be careful not to refer to any identifying

information. For example, do not use the name of the interviewee in your essay, and do not
refer to any other information that could identify your interviewee. This is to preserve the
confidentiality and anonymity of your interviewee.

Module Learning Outcomes Assessed

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
1. Critically analyse the key theories in cross-cultural working.
2. Recognise and analyse their own and others' cultural norms in communication and
interaction style.
3. Evaluate the potential issues and challenges for international organisations of
diverse cultural patterns in work and communication styles.
4. Determine appropriate communication, negotiation and leadership strategies for
managing global teams in business.

Presentation Requirements

Word Count: 3,000 words (+/- 10%); tables, figures, any appendices and the reference list
are not included in the word count.

Font size: 12

Letter type: Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri

Line Spacing: 1.5

Submission Date & Time

15th of December 2022 (12:00, noon – UK time)
Electronically via Blackboard

Assessment Weighting for the Module

100% of final grade.










Marking Criteria

Criteria <40% Fail 50 – 59% (2:2) 60 – 69% (2:1) 70% + (1st)
Analysis of interviewee’s culture

Demonstration of a comprehensive
awareness of the interviewee’s
culture using relevant cultural
dimensions
There is insufficient
awareness of the
interviewee’s
culture, and
understanding of
the cultural
dimensions is poor.
Reasonable efforts are
made to analyse the
interviewee’s culture,
and a basic
understanding of the
cultural dimensions is
demonstrated.
Thorough understanding
of the interviewee’s
culture is demonstrated,
with a good grasp of the
applied cultural
dimensions.
Extensive efforts are made to
understand the interviewee’s
culture, and an excellent
application of the cultural
dimensions is displayed.
Implications for the workplace

Identification of the issues that
do/may occur in the workplace as a
result of the interviewee’s culture.
The impact of the
interviewee’s
culture on
workplace issues
are not sufficiently
addressed.
Some effort is made to
consider how
interviewee’s culture
does/may impact upon
occupational working,
albeit briefly.
There is a good
appreciation of how
workplace issues are/may
be impacted by the
interviewee’s culture.
An accurate and in-depth
discussion is presented on
the implications of the
interviewee’s culture for a
range of workplace issues.
Use of theory and research

The extent to which you make use of
theory and research from the module
and from your wider readings
Little or no use is
made of theory and
research.
Some use is made of
theory and research.
Good use is made of a
range of different sources,
over and beyond core
module content.
Extensive use is made of a
wide range of sources
consistently throughout the
assignment, and these are
applied competently.
Presentation & References

The quality of your written work and
consistency and formatting of
references
The work is very
poorly written
and/or presented.

Referencing may be
vague/ absent.
The work is reasonably
clear and coherent and
presented sensibly.

Referencing may be
inconsistent/poorly
formatted.
The work is well written
and presented.

References are
consistently formatted
throughout.
The work is very well written
and presented and there are
very few if any omissions/
typographical errors.

Referencing is well done
throughout.