44-710366 International Management Competencies Level 7 Module Workbook 2025/2026

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

• INTRODUCING THE MODULE
• MODULE TEAM CONTACT DETAILS
• MODULE OVERVIEW                                                    
• SCHEDULE OF STUDY
• READING LIST
• TASK BRIEF – COURSEWORK
• ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

This module is an integral part of your course. 

Through collaborative experiences including work on case studies, class discussions and exercises you will consider the challenges and opportunities facing the international manager in managing across cultures.  You will also examine the ethical and sustainable aspects of leadership decision making.    

You will be challenged to apply ethical reasoning into international management practice - demonstrating awareness of opportunities to advance diversity and inclusiveness inside international firms and in collaboration with stakeholders.

You will work with other learners to reflect on and critically examine practices to advance responsible international leadership and management.Through the activities on the module, you will be challenged to reflect on your own international management competencies and to consider ways to develop your competencies further. This will be in areas including the management of diversity, cross cultural communication, cross cultural teamworking, negotiation and leadership. This will support your development and ability to thrive culturally, socially and professionally.

Today’s business graduates need both a solid understanding of business theory as well as the interpersonal and social skills required for managing and working together with people in organizations. Competent interpersonal skills are considered to be an important, if not the most important, characteristic for managerial effectiveness. For those working in organizations that have an international dimension, such a capability is influenced and made more difficult by the need to be effective in a variety of cultural environments.

This module aims to facilitate the development of international management competencies relevant to functioning in the multicultural environment of contemporary international business organizations. It will provide practical underpinning for other modules and significant opportunity for personal development relevant to contemporary international management practices and working with others in intercultural contexts.

How will this module be delivered? 

The module will be delivered with a combination of in person lectures and in person seminars.

Weekly teaching structure

Seminars will be student focused and will seek to maximise the opportunity for learning in an interactive setting which can strengthen critical reflection and encourage personal development through opportunities presented to share experiences and collaborate in groupwork.  There will be opportunity to discuss the material from the lectures and reflect on them in terms of the implications for international management practice and the development of personal competencies to work cross culturally. Given the multicultural nature of the student cohort and their wide range of international experience, the learning activities will focus on utilizing these characteristics. The lectures will introduce key theory and concepts which can then be applied to your own experiences and discussed in the seminars. Students will need to prepare thoroughly for the seminars- following required reading and reflection on the topic each week.

How this module supports your global and international perspective  
    
Internationalisation is embedded in the module as all of the topics that are introduced have an international dimension and context. The module explores the challenges raised in working cross culturally in the contemporary international management context. 

How this module adopts the Principles of Responsible Management Education   
    
The module works on developing competencies in intercultural communication. It facilitates reflection on ethical principles surrounding cross cultural dialogue. This is embedded in coverage of all the themes on the module and is also brought together in the final session of the module. 

How you will develop the attributes and skills that graduate employers are looking for 

The module seeks to facilitate the development of students in their own learning and self- evaluation of international management competencies. The lectures and seminars encourage student to apply new insights to their own personal development plan.  

How research informs what and how you study this module

Research informed teaching is applied in this module. Students are introduced to contemporary research, debate and analysis in areas such as cultural diversity in organisations, cross cultural negotiation, sustainable leadership in a cross- cultural environment and working with international teams. Emerging themes are explored including for example bicultural competence and culture and language in  multicultural team effectiveness.   

How will Blackboard be used with this module? 

The module Blackboard site will provide key teaching material. It will also be used for communication between module leaders, tutors and their students and for online assessment submission/ turnitin submission.  Students will need to have access to blackboard and the blackboard module site during the teaching.  Learning materials are accessible through the blackboard site ‘Learning Materials’. 

Assessment brief for this module. 

Your deadlines for all your coursework can be accessed via Assessment Diary.  Please ensure you check this and you know when all your submission deadlines are due.  There is a deadline time of 3:00pm for all coursework submissions in the Faculty.  Submissions should be online via the Blackboard submission point.  Please be aware that if you do not submit via the Blackboard submission point it will be deemed a non-submission and therefore receive a mark of zero.  You are also required to submit to Turnitin by the deadline for originality / similarity checking in addition to the submission for marking purposes.

It is very important to make sure that you submit your coursework by the deadline time on the date that the submission is due. Late submissions cannot be accepted. Failure to submit by your deadlines will mean that your work for that assessment task cannot be marked - this may mean that you will be referred in that module. 

If you are referred / deferred in a module, you will be expected to undertake reassessment work in order to pass that particular module.  The deadline for any reassessment coursework will be confirmed via Assessment Diary. 

If you have any problems submitting on-line you will need to contact IT Support  before the deadline.

Turnitin

Submit through Turnitin as well as through the online submission point.  The Turnitin system will produce a report identifying any similarities between the work and existing literature or other sources and can be used to help students avoid plagiarism and assist with referencing.

Please note that you therefore need to submit the assessed work to two places-
1.  the online submission point and
2.  turnitin.  

Receiving student feedback for this module and how it will be used. 

Feedback from students will be obtained via on-going dialogue throughout the module, student representatives, the staff-student meeting.   The teaching team will work with course reps to gather feedback at an early - mid point and produce a set of action points in relation to this feedback. At the end of the module, students will be invited to complete the School’s Module Evaluation Questionnaire, the results of which inform the final Module Review and Action plan. 

Module Overview

MODULE AIM

This module aims to develop the international management competencies required for  diverse cultural and competitive international business environments.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

INDICATIVE CONTENT

• International management competencies 
• Learning styles and the reflective manager   
• Cultural intelligence 
• Tools and frameworks of cultural analysis   
• Cross cultural management  
• Communicating across cultures  
• Cross cultural negotiation  
• Multicultural teamworking   
• Responsible and sustainable cross-cultural leadership and motivation within a wide variety of organisational types. 
• Moral imagination and ethical competencies 
• Multinationals International Human Resource Management strategic options/ staffing practices and competencies 

Global mobility of workers and competencies development

Module Approach to Learning, Teaching and Assessment

You will be supported in your learning to achieve the learning outcomes in the following ways:

Learning Design Principles

Your learning on this module is experiential as you engage with the tools/frameworks and critical thinking related to international management practices.

Through collaborative experiences including work on case studies, class discussions and exercises you will consider the challenges and opportunities facing the international manager in managing across cultures.  You will also examine the ethical and sustainable aspects of leadership decision making.

You will be challenged to apply ethical reasoning into international management practice - demonstrating awareness of opportunities to advance diversity and inclusiveness inside international firms and in collaboration with stakeholders. 
  
You will work with other learners to reflect on and critically examine practices to advance responsible international leadership and management. Through the activities on the module, you will be challenged to reflect on your own international management competencies and to consider ways to develop your competencies further. This will be in areas including the management of diversity, cross cultural communication, cross cultural teamworking, negotiation and leadership. This will support your development and ability to thrive culturally, socially and professionally.

You will:

• acquire core subject matter knowledge and understanding through a variety of learning and teaching approaches.For example, you will explore, share, innovate, debate and challenge the theory and practice of international management in areas including global leadership competencies, cultural intelligence, cross cultural communication andcross cultural teamworking.
• explore critical perspectives and real-world examples of international management in practice in different contexts drawing on current research and the research of the teaching team.
• apply frameworks and tools to support your analysis and guide your decision making.
• engage in cross cultural teams and draw on this experience in your experiential learning of cross cultural teamworking.
• explore issues related to sustainability and responsible and ethical decision making as an international manager.
• experience a curriculum that is accessible, for example we ensure that our teaching and the module learning materials (including our online reading list) within the Virtual Learning Environment are suitable for our broad range for learners.
• examine examples and case studies from a diverse range of contexts.For example, we will look at leadership in different contexts and cultures.
• gain appreciation of the learning available from other cultures and contexts and value reflection as a life-long tool for personal and professional development. This will help you to develop as an empathetic, inclusive and responsible leader and give you the confidence to challenge issues of inequality.

Students will be supported in their learning, to achieve the learning outcomes in the following ways:

Given the multicultural nature of the student cohort and their wide range of international work experience, learning activities will focus on utilizing these characteristics. We will seek to maximise the opportunity for learning from seminar discussions and exercises, which can strengthen critical reflection. During the seminars there will be discussion around the material presented in the lecture and opportunities to ask questions alongside having individual and group reflective exercises. 

We will be using a personal Log book/ Diary during your study of this module. A reflective diary entry structured around each week’s topic/s will help you address the assignment and should be referred to in the assignment. You should refer to relevant log book entries located in the appendices of your work to support/ evidence your self evaluation and development planning.

ASSESSMENT INFORMATION

SCHEDULE OF STUDY

Reading List

Task Brief – Coursework 

Instructions To Students For Submission Of This Coursework

Task Details:

Individual Report of 4,000 words (refer to diary entries for evidence/ examples and include these diary entries in an appendix.) 

Section 1

Choose three topics/ competencies from the syllabus to focus on. 

This section should contain a self- evaluation of your attributes, skills and competencies relevant to a future career in international management. It should comment on your personal development in these three areas. The self-evaluation should utilise the concepts, tools, theories and ideas introduced on the module through the module topics and the recommended readings and exercises on the topics. These should be referenced. 

Section 2

Choose two topics/ competencies from the syllabus to focus on. 

This should contain a personal development plan for the next six months. This should take into consideration the self- evaluation in Section 1 and identify two specific competencies (taken from the module topics) that you would like to develop further in those six months.  

Explain how you are looking to develop the chosen competencies. Demonstrate awareness and understanding of relevant concepts, tools, frameworks, theories and literatures on the topic (see module topics and relevant readings). Demonstrate ability to apply this understanding of the topic in informing your self- development plan. The plan should be SMART containing specific, measurable, achievable and realistic targets. 

A table can be used as a starting point in discussing your SMART Plan. Include practical plans for HOW you will achieve your targets. Identify opportunities to support your plan.    

Particular instructions to students 

Include a reference list and acknowledge all sources used in the assignment. Appendices can be used - make sure you refer to them and discuss them in the report.  Diary entries should be included in the appendices.  

Note: Use of a Log-Book / Diary is expected during your study of this module. A reflective diary entry structured around each weeks topic/s can help you prepare for the assignment.  Note down experiences in the module and outside of the module, on campus/ off campus that can be drawn on to discuss/ evidence your self- evaluation. Include diaries that you have referred to in your appendix. 

Submission requirements

On- line submission via Blackboard submission point and Turnitin.    

You must include a declaration that states use of AI. 
For this assignment AITS 1 and AITS 2 are permitted. 

Feedback & Feed-forward Strategy and how students can access their Feedback

The self-evaluation and development plan will receive individual written feedback using an assessment grid three weeks after submission.  

Indicative structure for the Assignment Report

Introduction 

Section 1 : Self Evaluation of Current Competencies   

Choose three topics/ competencies from the following 

 Cultural Intelligence 

Managing across cultures (Understanding cultures/ analysing cultures and managing across cultures) 

Communicating across cultures/ Cross cultural negotiation/ Working with language diversity  

Multicultural Teamworking 

Cross cultural motivation / Cross cultural Leadership 

Competencies in Ethical, Sustainable Management Practices  

Section 2 Self Development Plan  Approx 

Choose two topics

You can choose the same topics you used in section 1 or use different topics 

Include a table showing the Development Plan over a six month period for each competency.

Discuss the plan. 

This should refer back to theory/ concepts and literature to support the rationale for the planned activities and the evaluation of your development.  See blackboard learning materials posted for each topic including journal articles. Evidence engagement with these articles.  
This should be very specific, measurable goals to be achieved, specific actions to work on the identified competencies.  

Refer to theory/ literature on the topic area to inform your plan. 

REFERENCE LIST  

APPENDICES

To include the weekly diary entries that are referred to as evidence/ examples in the body of the report. (include a good range of diary entries to do this-advise at least five in-depth diary entries. Each diary entry is based on that week’s seminar activities and includes your own personal engagement/ reflection  in that  seminar.  

Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity – 

It is important that if you use AI tools to generate an assignment that you do not submit it as if it were your own work. You must check the AI Transparency Scale (AITS) to determine what level of AI use is allowed.

Our regulations state:

Contract cheating/concerns over authorship: This form of misconduct involves another person (or artificial intelligence) creating the assignment which you then submit as your own. Examples of this sort of misconduct include: buying an assignment from an ‘essay mill’/professional writer; submitting an assignment which you have downloaded from a file-sharing site; acquiring an essay from another student or family member and submitting it as your own; attempting to pass off work created by artificial intelligence as your own. These activities show a clear intention to deceive the marker and are treated as misconduct. Further guidance is available here: SHU Assessment

For this assessment, the permitted use of Artificial Intelligence is highlighted in the table below. All students are required to include a transparency declaration statement which can be added as an appendix to the assessment (not included in the word count) Transparency declaration statements

Your statement should:

• Indicate the AITS descriptor you are using.
• Briefly describe how AI was used (if applicable) or confirm no AI was used.
• Please include this statement as an appendix in your assessment. Failure to comply with this requirement may be considered a breach of academic integrity under our Academic Conduct Policy.

Sheffield Hallam University – Artificial Intelligence Transparency Scale (AITS)

Purvis, A. (2025). Artificial Intelligence Transparency Scale (AITS). National Teaching Repository.  

Assessment Criteria – Portfolio

Generic Grade Descriptor 2024 Level 7 

Module Outline.

Topic one….Management Competencies in a Multicultural Environment / Cultural Intelligence

Topic two. Learning and reflective practice

Topic three.The nature of culture.

Topic four.Tools for cultural analysis.

Topic five. Cross cultural management styles.

Topic six. Communicating across cultures/cross cultural negotiation 

Topic seven. Multicultural teamworking

Topic eight. Leadership and Motivation in an international/ cross cultural context

Topic nineCompetencies in ethical, sustainable management practices