Andrew L. Molinsky, Ph.D.

Managing Across Cultures

         Succeeding at international business not only requires business intelligence; it also requires cultural intelligence. The purpose of Professor Andrew Molinsky's Managing Across Cultures class is to teach students how to function smoothly and successfully in specific foreign cultural interactions, which serve as the building blocks for successful adaptation to a foreign setting. In particular, the class will focus on developing students' abilities to "cross-culturally code-switch," which refers to the act of changing one's behavior in a specific business interaction abroad where the norms for how to behave in the new culture differ from the norms for how to behave appropriately and effectively in one's native cultural setting. Examples of cross-cultural code-switching include (but are certainly not limited to) the following: (a) a Japanese manager in US-Japanese joint venture giving constructive criticism and feedback to American boss, when in the same situation in Japan, such behavior would be highly inappropriate; (b) a Saudi businesswoman in the US participating actively in a brainstorming session with male colleagues in the US, when she would never actively voice her personal opinions (or even likely find herself in) such a male-dominated situation in her native culture; (c) Foreign MBA students in the U.S. from East Asia "pitching" themselves at a networking event, or in an interview, when, in these foreign students' culture, such behavior would be perceived as overly aggressive. All these situations require behavior in the new culture (the United States) that is not only unusual for foreign-born individuals; it also conflicts with their cultural values and beliefs.
          The purpose of Professor Molinsky's Managing Across Cultures course is to help improve students' abilities to function effectively in these cross-cultural code-switching situations, and thereby become more effective and capable global leaders. The class works on improving students' cultural fluency and cross-cultural code-switching ability through an innovative, experiential learning project focused on cross-cultural code-switching in real situations. Students will embark on personal "cross-cultural code-switching missions," in which they will select several real-life business, social or academic situations that pose particular difficulties for them in the U.S., and will then be forced to confront these difficulties by performing cultural code-switches in real situations, outside the classroom. Step one will be to master the American "cultural code" for appropriate verbal and non-verbal behavior in the situation. Step two will be to attempt actual switches in behavior in real situations outside the classroom using this knowledge of the cultural code. Members of the class who are native to North America will serve as cultural mentors to foreign students, providing them feedback about the cultural code, and "shadowing" them while on cross-cultural code-switching missions to provide performance feedback about their code-switching ability.