MAN 5197 Multicultural Leadership

MAN 5197 Multicultural Leadership

Course code: 
MAN 5197
Department: 
Communication and Culture
Credits: 
30
Course coordinator: 
Sut I Wong
Steinar Bjartveit
Course name in Norwegian: 
Multicultural Leadership
Product category: 
Executive
Portfolio: 
Executive Master of Management
Semester: 
2024 Autumn
Active status: 
Active
Teaching language: 
Norwegian
Course type: 
Two semesters
Course codes for multi- or associated courses
Course codeCreditsSemester
MAN 5198
2024 Autumn
MAN 5199
2025 Spring
Introduction

Leadership of Diversity.

Not only is business life becoming more and more global, but the work force in Norway is also becoming more and more diversified. Research consistently shows that organisations with diversified teams can increase the team’s creativity, performance and inclusivity. To capitalise on these benefits, organisations need leaders who are extremely culturally intelligent, and who understand the cultural backgrounds, beliefs and attitudes of the people around them. Multicultural teams are often made up of people who otherwise seldom interact with each other. For this reason, leading a multicultural team can also be an enriching experience that widens a leader’s perspective in terms of personal and professional growth. Equally, leading such a team of genuinely different people brings with it a range of challenges to be solved, so that the team can be effective within a constructive and secure environment for all who participate.

 

In this programme you will learn how to lead within multicultural and multireligious challenges at micro-, meso- and macro level, both within the public and private sectors. Through the programme you will acquire knowledge about the central theories and important research within this field, as well as analytical competence to evaluate multicultural situations. You will also gain practical skills to deal with concrete situations and problems. The programme will increase your dialectical awareness by highlighting dilemmas and paradoxes that do not necessarily have easy solutions. This will give you ideas and new perspectives with which to measure your own solutions against both contemporary and historical multicultural solutions. The programme will provoke and challenge you as a leader. It will change your mindset and your leadership qualities.

Learning outcomes - Knowledge
  • Have an advanced overview of a complex field dealing with diversity and multiculturalism
  • Have an international approach towards phenomena that can be seen as local challenges
  • Have insight into how international migration, both historically and currently, changes and develops society’s future sustainability.
  • Understand how multicultural diversity can also bring about creativity and innovation
  • Understand how skilled multicultural leadership can be crucial for society’s future sustainability.
  • Understand challenges and opportunities in multicultural teams and what these require of a leader
  • Understand how intergroup relations can be the basis for both peaceful coexistence and intense conflict
  • Have advanced knowledge of the academic debates about neo-liberalism and identity politics specialised towards multicultural issues
  • Have thorough and perspective-rich knowledge about historical meetings between different religions and secularism
  • Understand how the concept of gender can be challenging in multicultural meetings
  • Can apply this academic knowledge to new themes and phenomena
Learning outcomes - Skills
  • Can analyse and evaluate critical information and viewpoints both within the field and in the media
  • Can evaluate various theories about the field against each other, as well as understand their limitations and interpretive power
  • Can apply theories and methods within the field to evaluate relevant research, as well as design own pilot projects for assignment
  • Can use knowledge and methods from the field in own leadership of complex multicultural challenges
  • Can lead and form constructive multicultural teams with strong unity and effectiveness
  • Can evaluate HR-related questions that are of special relevance in multicultural organisations
  • Can balance different perspectives and interests in own multicultural leadership
  • Can evaluate self and own understand in exercising multicultural leadership
General Competence
  • Understand how a future sustainable society requires multicultural understanding, acceptance, and development
  • Understand how local conditions reflect pervasive international issues
  • Master an academic and scientific approach to multicultural issues
  • Apply own knowledge to practical challenges and new areas of mastery
  • Represent an ethically consequent approach to extremely complex questions of value
Course content
  • Multicultural leadership as a crucial quality in future leaders
  • Leadership of multicultural and diversified teams
  • Multicultural challenges in HR-related questions
  • Religion as a source of conflict: belief vs belief, religion vs secularisation
  • Convivencia and Còrdoba: Can religions co-exist?
  • How we form groups: biology, culture and social categorisation
  • Prejudices and ethnocentrism
  • Theories about intragroup and intergroup relations as an important tool for understanding multicultural challenges
  • Can the subaltern speak: Post-colonial and subaltern studies of Western reproduction of differences
  • Assimilation vs multiculturalism
  • Identity, not as a personal, but as a social construct
  • The need for acknowledgement of one’s identity
  • Development towards an increasingly mixed-race society: fight, flight, repress or join?
  • Liberalism vs popular nationalism
  • The challenges of liberalism in a time characterised by migration and multiculturalism
  • How gender is used to deny some people social rights
  • Gender as a central problem within many multicultural differences
  • Leadership within multicultural paradoxes and dilemmas
Teaching and learning activities

The program is carried out with five sessions over two semesters, a total of approx. 150 hours.

The supervision offer will be somewhat different in the various Executive Master of Management Programs. Guidance will be given during the lectures. In general, students can expect advisory guidance, not evaluative guidance. The guidance offer is estimated at 4 hours per. task.

In programs where attendance is not mandatory, it is the student's responsibility to obtain information that is given at the lecture, but which does not appear on the program's website.

The students are evaluated through a project assignment that counts for 60% of the total grade and an individual 3-hour school exam that counts for 40%. The project assignment can be written individually or in groups of up to three people. All exams must be passed for diplomas in the program to be awarded.

The project assignment is part of the degree's independent work, cf. Regulations on requirements for a master's degree, corresponding to 18 credits per. program. For the degree Executive Master of Management, the independent work will consist of the sum of project assignments from three programs.

In all BI Executive courses and programs, there is a mutual requirement for the student and the course responsible regarding the involvement of the student's experience in the planning and implementation of courses, modules and programmes. This means that the student has the right and duty to get involved with their own knowledge and practice relevance, through the active sharing of their relevant experience and knowledge.

Software tools
No specified computer-based tools are required.
Additional information

Module 1: Identity politics and belonging. In a time of massive migration and resulting compound groupings, the need for group identity is clear. People need to belong, and social identity is much stronger than personal identity. How do such societies become “ghettoised”? There are both advantages and disadvantages to such developments. In-groups and out-groups can, in this way, become the basis for many conflicts. The module provides insight into how international migration, both historical and contemporary, changes and develops society’s sustainability, as well as an understanding of the challenges and opportunities in multicultural teams and what this requires of leaders, but also an understanding of how intergroup relations can be the basis for both peaceful coexistence and intense conflict. The module provides the skills needed to lead and form constructive multicultural teams with strong unity and effectiveness.

Module 2: Gender and power. Questions of gender and equal rights are very central in many multicultural problem areas. Many of these contentious issues have been in the media spotlight. It is a question of power and powerlessness, but with many different aspects. They way in which these questions are understood and dealt with is critical in multicultural leadership. The module contributes to understanding how the concept of gender challenges in multicultural meetings, how different perspectives and interests should be balanced in own multicultural leadership, and how to evaluate HR-related questions that have special relevance to multicultural organisations. The module enables the use of the field’s knowledge and methods in own leadership within these complex multicultural challenges.

Module 3: Liberalism and freedom. The ideology of liberalism has been fundamental in Western Europe’s development, and it still dominates the way we evaluate right and wrong, not least in a business economic context. This ideology has often collided with immigrants’ traditions and beliefs. In addition, in recent years liberalism has come up against populist currents. Many central thinkers believe we now need a new form of liberalism. The module covers advanced knowledge about the academic debates on neo-liberalism and identity politics specialised towards multicultural issues, evaluating various theories in the field against each other in order to understand their limitations and interpretive power. The module provides the skills to analyse and evaluate critical information and viewpoints both within the field and in the media.

Module 4: Diversity and coexistence. Muslim Spain holds a special place in European history. For some centuries this region was an unusual example of how Muslims, Jews and Christians could live together in peace, and even create the leading centre of competence in Western Europe. Many streams of thought, skills and innovations come from Muslim Spain and helped to form modern Europe. At the same time, Muslim Spain is also a story about prejudices, persecution and the Spanish Inquisition. We will look at multicultural solutions then and now. We will focus on personal leadership, as well as understanding and skills with which to meet multicultural challenges and opportunities. The module contributes to understanding how multicultural diversity can also bring about creativity and innovation, and thus enables the application of academic knowledge in relation to new themes and phenomena. The module also strengthens the ability to evaluate self and own understanding in exercising multicultural leadership, as well as to apply own knowledge to practical challenges and new areas of mastery.

Module 5: Istanbul/Constantinople – where East and West have always met. This place is a hub for meetings between cultures and religions. The main theme of multicultural and multireligious coexistence is explored with special focus on multireligious challenges, not least contemporary meetings between tradition-rich religions and secular society. We will look at how Constantinople and Istanbul have met these problems in the past and present. The module contributes to international approaches to phenomena that can be seen as local challenges, to perspective-rich knowledge about historical meetings between different religions and secularism, and to an understanding of how skilled multicultural leadership is critical for society’s future sustainability.

 

Qualifications

Bachelor degree, corresponding to 180 credits from an accredited university, university college or similar educational institution. The applicant must be at least 25 years of age and at least four years of work experience. For applicants who have already completed a master’s degree, three years of work experience are required.

Disclaimer 

Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this. 

Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Submission PDF
Exam/hand-in semester: 
Second Semester
Weight: 
60
Grouping: 
Group/Individual (1 - 3)
Duration: 
2 Semester(s)
Comment: 
Term paper, counting 60% of the final grade.
Exam code: 
MAN 51971
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Submission PDF
Exam/hand-in semester: 
Second Semester
Weight: 
40
Grouping: 
Individual
Duration: 
72 Hour(s)
Comment: 
Individual 72 hours home exam, counts 40% of the final grade.
Exam code: 
MAN 51972
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Type of Assessment: 
Ordinary examination
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
Total weight: 
100
Student workload
ActivityDurationComment
Teaching
128 Hour(s)
Teaching activities at campus.
Teaching
40 Hour(s)
Digital teaching activities at INSENDI.
Prepare for teaching
150 Hour(s)
Preperations before lectures and other teaching activities.
Submission(s)
150 Hour(s)
Work on project assignment.
Examination
24 Hour(s)
Work with homeexam.
Group work / Assignments
308 Hour(s)
Group studies, group tasks, own work and other forms of specialization.
Sum workload: 
800

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 30 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 800 hours.