Module: The Global Manager (Global Business Management, Marketing, IHRM, etc)
Scenario
The scenario below will lead to 2 separate, though related assignments:
1. A Briefing Report on living and working in Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Coursework 1)
2. A Training Programme for the manager assigned to the project (You need to do this)
You work for an international consulting company (ABC Consulting), which provides bespoke training to a range of companies involved in international business. Your company specialises in cross-cultural training and has gained a reputation amongst peers and clients for developing and delivering high-quality training programmes.
Your company recently won a contract to prepare a manager from a new client company for a long-term overseas assignment. The new client is a UK-based maritime engineering company, called “Seagate Marine Construction” (referred to hereafter as “SMC”). Employing 120 people, and often working with local contractors, SMC design and build underwater gates and locks for marinas and harbours. They are also involved in the design and construction of hydro-electric schemes and other port facilities.
Recently, SMC won a prestigious design and construction contract with the dry port of Abidjan, in Ivory Coast. The assignment to manage this project will begin on Mon 7th February 2022, and SMC have identified a manager, Mary Isaac, whom they wish to appoint to the role of Senior Project Manager. The project is scheduled to last for two years and would see the manager working with a small team of SMC engineers and a larger team of Ivory Coast construction workers. The role will also involve liaising with a range of stakeholders from the wider Abidjan community.
Mary put herself forward for the role and is in her mid-forties. She joined the company six years ago and has performed exceptionally well, earning two promotions in that period. She is married, to Obi, and has two children, Cynthia (16) and Jude (10). Since having children, she has worked only in the UK. However, as an Engineering student, Mary spent a year as an intern in a Swedish engineering company, and, after graduating, she spent two years in Dubai, working for a construction company. Before joining SMC, she had worked on several short-term overseas projects – all in Europe – the longest being 6 weeks. Mary has never previously visited or worked in Asia.
Despite this being her first long-term foreign assignment, SMC believe Mary has the credentials to be a highly-successful Project Manager in Abidjan. They now want you to help prepare her and perhaps her family too for her Abidjan adventure.
Assignment Title: Assignment 1: TRAINING PROGRAMME
You must read coursework one to complete coursework two.
The ability to identify development needs, and design (and deliver) training programmes is central to the role of HR professionals, whether delivering themselves or contracting others to carry out the training. Furthermore, evidence indicates that effective cross-cultural training (CCT) programmes significantly increase the likelihood of a long-term foreign assignment being successful. This assignment is a scenario-based role play, requiring you to design a training programme, following the key stages of CCT design.
It will test your ability to internalise a complex brief, work with incomplete information, state assumptions, and anticipate the needs and expectations of your intended audience(s). The assignment will also assess your ability to communicate effectively, succinctly and appropriately in written English. Finally, the assignment will provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate professional document design.
Based on the scenario and following an appropriate model, as identified in the Unit prepare a detailed outline, to be provided to SMC, of the cross-cultural training (CCT) programme your company would deliver for Mary, in order to prepare her for her assignment in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Your Assignment should follow the established stages of CCT development, demonstrating an understanding of CCT design, including in respect of key analyses and evaluations, and applying this to the scenario.
While you are free to apply any model of designing a CCT programme, following the analyses suggested in the model, if you are not sure which model to apply, you can use the model introduced in weeks 18 – 21 of the unit, especially with particular reference to the Tarique and Caligiuri model.
To design the CCT programme more credibly, you will find it helpful to state some assumptions at/near the beginning of your Assignment, so that everything that follows is more authentic:
Firstly, using the information provided within the scenario, you are advised to state explicitly what assumptions you have made in respect of her assumed „readiness‟ / cultural sensitivity. To do so, you are advised to assume (pretend) that you have carried out one or more individual needs analyses and state your hypothetical findings.
Secondly, you should state whether your CCT programme has been developed on the basis that she will travel to Ivory Coast alone or whether her family will accompany her. This has implications for the training programme.
Your Assignment should include – as an Appendix – a Training Schedule. This should be no longer than 4 pages of A4 (not included in the word count).
Your Assignment should conclude with two sets of recommendations:
1. For Mary (and her family)
2. For SMC
Parameters:
1. You should not mention the pandemic/COVID19 or any information and advice regarding the pandemic/COVID19. Different countries are dealing with the pandemic in different ways, with their rules and advice changing frequently depending on the situation.
For now, no one really knows for sure what the future holds, so we would not want you to second guess it, as it may complicate your work or mean you will have to rewrite it (or parts of it) last minute. Keep it simple and assume business as usual.
2. The Assignment should be presented in report format, 1.5-spaced, with Times New Roman,12 font for the main body (12/14 permitted for headings which should be highlighted).
3. The word limit is 2,000 words (plus/minus 10%), excluding direct quotations, the Appendix and Reference List. Words in tables are included in the word count.
4. Only one Appendix is permitted: the Training Schedule. Must not exceed 4 pages of A4.
5. The Assignment must be referenced, following the Harvard Referencing System.
6. You must include a Reference List, i.e. a list of all resources used to compile the document, presented in the Harvard style.
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