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Multinational Business Management (DRAFT)
Section 01
Fall 2011
NYU Stern
Class Meets: Saturdays: 1pm-4pm Room: KMC 5-140
Instructor: Professor Gary Katzenstein
Office: Tisch 413
Office Hours: Thursdays, 2-5pm or by appointment
Teaching Assistant: Laura Llamedo
Office Phone: (212) 998-4019
Email: [email protected]
I. Overview
Multinational Business Management is a survey of international business from a cultural and
managerial perspective. The course uses culture as a foundation to examine a variety of
considerations related to business in an international context. The first part of the course
briefly examines the context and environment of cross-cultural management (e.g.,
globalization and foreign investment environments). The main focus of this section is not
international strategy per se, but rather the cultural underpinnings for the strategic decisions
that multinational companies make. Thus, we will look at globalization, why firms get involved
in international business, and how they analyze their investment environments and
opportunities. We will also get some practical views of what happens when cultural
differences cause problems when going global. The second (and main) part of the course
concerns managing international organizations, including both macro issues such as
organizational structure, control, and culture, and more micro concerns such as motivation,
leadership, negotiation, and decision-making. The course also examines some general issues
affecting international management such as ethics and social responsibility and career
management for international managers and their spouses.
The course’s approach reflects major issues facing companies with international operations as
seen by their managers: the motivations for international expansion, the demands brought
by operating in foreign environments, the challenges of competing in a global competitive
arena, the management challenge of leading, integrating and constantly renewing a complex
organization in a dynamic global environment.
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We will focus on improving several sets of skills important for anyone involved in
international management: analytical skills, interpersonal skills, and communication skills,
both oral and written. Given that this is an MBA class, regular classroom attendance and
participation is expected, and will be critical for completing your course assignments. In fact,
if you are not going to attend class and know ahead of time, I expect that you will let me
know the previous week in class, or by sending me email. This is particularly critical for
those weeks where we will be doing role plays and your partner will waste his or her time if
you unexpectedly do not show up for class. Class attendance will be factored into your class
participation grade.
II. Resources/Materials
Course Web Site The course has a Web site on Blackboard where I will post the course
syllabus, references to interesting readings on the Web, and lecture
notes as the course progresses. Also, some of the textbook readings
and some other articles will be on the Blackboard Website.
Reading Packet The main readings and cases for this course come in the course packet.
The major focus will be on articles from the business press (WSJ, HBR,
International Herald Tribune, Economist, and Business Week) and cases
from Harvard Business School.
Readings/Cases
In designing the course, I’ve tried to respect the busy lives that you all have, particularly
considering that some of you have families and other obligations. Therefore, although the
readings for any given week may seem numerous, many of the readings are short (1-3 pages)
pieces from the business press. I will also help prioritize in class so that you know where to
focus your time; in the reading list that follows, articles that are critical/foundations are listed
in bold and articles that are optional/recommended are in normal font As you can see on the
attached schedule, each week is comprised of two kinds of assignments, Background
Readings and Cases/Articles for Discussion.
In the Background Readings column each week’s assignment consists of a few core readings.
These readings are critical to understanding and analyzing the case or discussion articles for
the week and should be read first in the order provided on the syllabus (which should
correspond to the order in the reading packet).
The Cases/Articles for Discussion column provides those materials that we will discuss in
class. I have included both several short articles and (usually) one main case. The short
articles will come with questions (I will post them on the course Website and/or hand them
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out in class) to guide your reading. Be prepared to answer them during class discussion, which
means coming to class with written notes to some of the questions I’ve asked. You will not
be expected to hand the notes in, but we will be disappointed if you are not able to answer
questions and do not have any notes in front of you. The articles will provide practical insights
that we will then use to discuss the main case for the day. Again, questions for the main case
will placed online and provided with the syllabus for your convenience.
Each week I will roughly follow the following format. I will lecture for about an hour to 75
minutes to give us a common foundation of knowledge. During lecture I will try to synthesize
the week’s articles, including those that are optional, while also drawing from other sources.
After a short break we will come back to discuss the articles and cases in the Cases and
Articles column. We will discuss short articles first, followed by the main case. On some days
we will use videos or exercises instead of articles or cases. During the first few weeks,
however, I will rely more on cases and discussion rather than lecture material that you can
easily read on your own. Also, we will do a few hands-on exercises to give you an experiential
feel for what it’s like to manage outside your own culture.
III. Assignments and Grading
The course emphasizes both oral and written communication, much as any manager’s life does.
Therefore, analyzing, writing up, and discussing business situations is perhaps the best way to
assess your grasp of the material. Grades for the course will be assigned as follows.
Assignment Weight
Group Case (Pairs) 20%
Individual Writeups (4) 55%
Class Participation 25%
_______________________ _____
Total 100%
Article Summaries
In addition to learning content material about international management I am particularly
interested in improving your thinking and writing skills. Therefore, I will consistently emphasize
thoughtful framing of the issue in any article or case. Summarizing the situation with a one or
two word sentence will force you to really think about what is going on, and will more likely
help you remember the article down the road.
Students have two main problems with problem framing. First, they simply don’t do any
framing at all, and therefore fail to think thoroughly and carefully about what is really going on
in the situation.
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The other main problem is the tendency to frame the problem too narrowly. That is, the issue is
framed in a way that it doesn’t cover all stakeholders or that it targets a minor issue that, if
solved, will still leave the larger problems of the original situation to be addressed. We will
practice framing skills as we go through class so you should get good at it with practice.
Therefore, each week I will ask you to “frame” at least one of the articles/cases that is due that
week. The frame should be “25 words or less”: one or two sentences that give the gist of what
you think the main point is of the article. I will have more to say about this once the
appropriate technology is in place.
Attendance/Lateness Policy
You are allowed one week’s “free” absence, meaning you will not be penalized for one week
where you are not in class or when you come to class but are not fully prepared. If you are in
class but have not read the articles/cases, please let me know beforehand so that I do not cold
call you under adverse circumstances.
After the first unexcused absence you will start losing class participation points. The first
unexcused absence will cost you that day’s attendance and half a day’s participation. The next
will cost you the absence for that class but will also cancel 1.5 day’s class participation. The
fourth class that you will miss will cancel an additional 2 days of participation. Anyone who
misses more than four classes will likely not be able to pass the course. Again, I am willing to be
reasonable if there is good reason for not being there (illness, job interviews, and such), but
these need to be cleared with me in advance, if at all possible.
No notebook or laptop computers, smartphones, or tablets can be used during class time as
they are a distraction. This is Stern’s policy.
Group Case (Peer evaluations)
Interpersonal skills are particularly critical to a successful managerial career. Therefore, part (5-
7.5%) of your grade for your first case will come from your partner’s evaluation of your
performance on the case. This will give you the incentive to work out differences and
difficulties instead of simply “dumping problems on the other person or pointing fingers
afterward,” the most common responses that people have when interpersonal difficulties arise.
I will be available for consultation on these interpersonal issues during office hours or by
appointment before they spiral out of control.
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III.A Class Participation
Your class participation grade is a large part of your overall course grade because this is a
discussion class. Your class participation grade is something to be earned by consistent and
quality contributions to class discussions. You should, therefore, attend class weekly, and be
sufficiently prepared to contribute to the discussions.
The evaluation of your class contribution will be based on your understanding of the situation,
your recommendations for action and their connection to your understanding or analysis, and
your effectiveness in communicating this information. Classroom contributions are evaluated
using the following criteria after each class:
Excellent: Participant offers a complete analysis and action plan; synthesizes contributions;
summarizes and/or moves class discussions ahead and contributes to the
learning of others.
Satisfactory: Participation reflects good analysis and action plan; participant constructively
criticizes others’ ideas and substantiates position with well-rounded analysis.
Unsatisfactory: Participant is unprepared when called upon; analysis or action plan others
substantiated or reasoning faulty; criticisms directed at others vs. their ideas;
absence.
III.B Cases and Case Write-ups
During the semester you will have to complete three case write-ups. The first will be done in
pairs, while the other two are individual assignments. The three cases were chosen to be
relatively broad, covering multiple course topics, rather than the specific week for which the
case is assigned. The first case emphasizes globalization/localization, the strategic environment,
coordination/control in a multinational company, while the second case covers multiple issues
related to organizational processes and behavior. The third case focuses on both organizational
behavior and human resource management in a cross-cultural setting.
I will generally provide questions to answer for each case, although as managers you are
expected to analyze each situation, determine the problems and their causes, and suggest and
support some reasonable solutions to the problem described in each case. Because there are
three cases to hand in, each write-up will be relatively short (probably 5-7 pages, depending on
the case). There are no group research projects, term papers, or exams. Rather I expect that
you will keep up with the material by doing these cases. I have tried to space the assignments
out so that you have sufficient time to “recover” from the previous case before the next one is
due. Nevertheless, because the course emphasizes the behavioral aspects of cross-cultural
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management rather than the strategic, the cases’ due dates tend more towards the latter
weeks of the course, when you have enough composite knowledge to do a comprehensive
(and, therefore, more realistic) case.
As per Stern policy, cases should be handed in by uploading your write-up to “Turnitin” on the
course’s Blackboard site.
More on Case Write-ups
Case write-ups are a particularly useful exercise as they are quite similar to the memos that
occupy a good deal of a manager’s time in most companies. Therefore, I ask that you take these
writeups seriously and do your best to present them in a clear, logical fashion. We can talk
more about improving your writing if you would like. In particular, if you are not confident in
your writing skills please speak to me individually or send me email and I can recommend a few
references that might be able to significantly improve your writing relatively quickly. In the
meanwhile, based on my experience, here are a few tips that can help improve the quality of
your case writeups.
1) Do not merely reiterate what is already presented in the case
A common mistake is to merely summarize or repeat the situation presented in
the case. Assume that I have already read the case, and briefly summarize it
where necessary, but make sure that your analysis tells me what you think is
happening in the case.
2) Link the pieces of the case together
A well-written case write-up links its problem identification, problem analysis,
recommended solutions, and implementation sections. (We will talk further
about the main elements of a case during the semester). For example, an issue
presented in the problem identification section should be traceable throughout
the entire paper. Similarly, do not raise issues in the recommendation section
that have not been presented previously. Thus, to check your paper for
coherence you may wish to use a block diagram of the main issues that you are
discussing in each section to see if they flow from one section to the next.
3) Use course concepts to explain the situation
The cases were chosen to illustrate concepts and theories we will discuss in class.
Therefore, it will be useful at times to strengthen your argument by reference to
some of those ideas (although you should not list citations, references, or
specific theories as you would in an academic paper).
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Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a critical value of the University community. Integrity violations destroy
learning communities and the spirit of inquiry that is vital to the effectiveness of the University.
Anyone caught cheating or plagiarizing will fail the class. Plagiarism is copying anything from
another source without citing that source. As you probably know, NYU Stern subscribes to
various services that can check your paper for plagiarism including Turnitin. If these sites
determine that you have copied from previous NYU Stern students or the Internet, there will be
serious consequences.
If you are not going to be able to make a deadline on a case write-up, please do me (and
yourself) a favor. First, do not sit in the class where we discuss the case. Second, please let me
know beforehand (if possible) that you will not make the deadline, and we can discuss how to
go from there. If you do not do either, you will fail the case, and obviously this will have serious
consequences for your overall grade.
Because some of you come from cultures where what is considered academically acceptable vs.
cheating may vary I wanted to be very clear about this. With the Internet so ubiquitous in our
lives some people have suggested that doing some "research" on the Internet about a case
might be a good way to start thinking about things. In the U.S., (at least in this class) this is
clearly considered cheating and is fully unacceptable at Stern. Therefore, do not type the name
of the case into some search engine looking for someone else's answers or thoughts on the
case. In the past, a number of my students have done just that and eventually purchased
answers to cases through sleazy websites that sell such answers. Others have simply copied
other answers posted on the Internet. I can assure you that Turnitin in and the various other
cheating protection services will find those answers along with previous answers submitted by
NYU Stern students and will bring them to my attention. Therefore, please do not even
consider using the Internet for any sort of research or background checks related to the cases
in this class. Again, I will be very strict with any violations of integrity, so do yourself and me a
favor and please do your own work.
V. Course Schedule and Assignments
“Core” article indicated by Boldface
Optional and Recommended articles indicated by (O/R)
(L) indicates item is on Blackboard
Week # Date Topic Background Reading Cases/Articles for Discussion
1 Sept. 17 Introduction
“Questions of Culture”
“All Cultures are Not Equal”
“Big U.S.Firms Shift Hiring Abroad”
“Tuning Out the World”
“The World is Flat”
“The Case Against Globaloney”
(O) Hooker, Ch. 1, “The Cultural Iceberg”
Article: Start-Up Firms Solve Challenges of Going Global
Article: China’s Square Peg vs. the West’s Round Hole
Go Global or No?
Exercise: Viewing Own/Other Cultures
GLOBALIZATION/COORDINATION/
CULTURE
2 Sept. 26 Globalization/ Localization
Schneider and Barsoux, “The Global Organization” Strategies for Managing Cultural Differences: (Schneider pp. 253-274)
Employer Beware: Brazil’s Labor Laws
(O) Ajinomoto Series
(O) Foreign Policy piece on Red Tape
Article: Red Tape Traumas
Article: The Envy of Europe
Article: An Economy With Safety Features
(O) Article: Germany Reels in Red Tape
(O) Article: World Cup Surprise: The New Flexi-German
Article: Achtung Christmas Shoppers!
Article: Serious in Singapore
Case: Euro Disney: The First 100 Days
HK Disneyland Articles
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3 Oct. 1 Environments/
Distributed Work
The Problem with Outsourcing
“Trust Makes the Team Go Round”
(O) Some in Silicon Valley Begin to Sour on India
(O): Offshoring: What Can Go Wrong
(O) How Teams Can Work Well Together From Far Apart
Article: Think Locally
Article: Send Jobs to India?
Case: Siemens AG
Exercise Due: NPR Piece on Outsourcing
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Week #
Date Topic Background Reading Cases/Articles for Discussion
4 Oct. 15
Control/ Coordination
Making Global Strategies Work (pp. 11--top of p. 19 only)
Geographic Subsidiary Management (BB, pp. 594-597)
Country Managers Come Back In From the Cold
Executives in China Need Both Autonomy…
GM Splits With Creator of Success in China
Why Multiple Headquarters Multiply
(O): “McDonald’s Paneer Burger for the Indian Palate”
Skim: Mendenhall, Ch. 11(L/B)
CASE DUE: KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN (JAPAN) (PAIRS)
GUEST SPEAKER/ETHICS
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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND PROCESSES
4 Oct. 22 Culture I
Fukuyama: “Social Capital and the Global Economy”
(O): “Transparent Governments, via Webcams in India”
“Us and Them”
Of War And Kisses: How Adversity Shapes Culture (listen on NPR)
“A Ticket for Corruption”
Exercise: BaFa BaFa (to be prepared in class)
(O) Do Cultural Differences Make a Business Difference?
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5 Oct. 29 Culture II
Cullen and Parbeoteah, Ch. 2, “Culture and Multinational Management”
Article: Know Thy Culture: Few Do
Article: Embracing Failure
Article: Guess Who’s Not Coming to Dinner
Article: “Pulling Rank Gets Harder at One Korean Company”
Article: “My Way or the Highway at Hyundai”
Article: “Toyota: Accelerating Into Trouble”
“Manana Forever (on Mexico) (plus NPR excerpt): Individualism/Trust (Mexico Simulation or for Motivation)
Video: Doing Business Internationally (in class)
Cases/Articles for Discussion
6 Oct. 29 Communication Hall, Underlying Structures of Culture Article: A Loud and Promised Land
Article: Pilot Error: Korean Air Confronts Dismal Safe Record…
Article: Air Safety Flies Into Touchy Debate on “Culture”
Article: Language Barrier Proves Dangerous in Korea’s Skies
Article: Korean Air Bucks Tradition to Fix Problems
(O) Article: How China Turned Around A Dismal Air-Safety Record
(O) Article: An Aviation Outsider Lands Well
Recommended: Hall, The Silent Language in
Overseas Business
“How to Tell When Yes Really Means No”
(O): Weird and Wonderful Foreign Phrases
(O): In Train Crash, Time Obsession May Be Culprit
(O): Plain English Gets Harder In Global Era
Article: Catching the Continental Drift
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Article: Untranslatable Word in U.S. Aide’s Speech Leaves Beijing Baffled
Article: Will “Mr. Cat Poop” Clean Up at the Box Office in Hong Kong?
Case: Funny Business
Week #
Date Topic Background Reading Cases/Articles for Discussion
7 Nov. 5 Motivation
Steers, Ch. 9, “Culture, Work, and Motivation”
“Wayward Police Officers Must Wear Pink Armbands of Shame in Bangkok”
“Stores’ Treatment of Shoplifters Tests Rights”/Watch Video on NYT
Article: “You Americans Work Too Hard”
Case: Lincoln Electric: Venturing Abroad
Mexico Exercise?
Exercise: “How Well Do You Know Your International Colleagues?” (Adler)
8 Nov. 12 Leadership
Steers, Ch. 6, “Leadership and Global Teams”
(O) In Search of Global Leaders
Foreign-Born Chiefs Reflect Fortune 100's Global Reach
“Trust Makes the Team Go Round” (from Week 3)
(O) “How Do Different Cultures Weigh the Same Decision?”
(O): Comparing Chinese and Western Cultural Roots (L/B)
Article: “Koreans, Vietnamese Learn to Get Along”
Article: “Tongue Twisters”
Case: “Lark International”
Not critical, but interesting pieces:
(O): Suspicion in U.S. That China Has Put Ban on Hollywood Films
(O): Making Money Abroad, and Also a Few Enemies
9 Nov. 19 Negotiation NOTE: Please read all of these readings after
class!!!
Exercise: Negotiation Simulation (to be handed out the week
before in class; if are not in class the week before, please contact me immediately to get your role).
The Hidden Challenge of Cross-Border
Negotiations
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When Culture Counts
When Culture Affects Negotiating Style
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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Week #
Date Topic Background Reading Cases/Articles for Discussion
10 Dec. 3 Integration/Human
Resource Mgt.
Black & Gregerson, "The Right Way to Manage Expatriates"
CASE DUE: KAREN LEARY (A)+(B) (INDIVIDUAL)
Article: The Castaways: An American Expatriate Finds….
Exercise: Cross-Cultural Adaptability Index (CCAI)
Questions to Ask: HRM Menu: Cultural Determinants (Schneider)
Time-Zoned: Working Around the Round-the-Clock Workday
Traveling More Lightly: Staffing Globalization
Costing More Over There
Perks Trimmed for Expatriate Financiers in Hong Kong
Paid in Dollars, Expats Struggle to Make a Living
(O) Down and Out
Exercise: Careers in Global Management Survey (Adler)
Return of the Native Executive
(O): “When Are You Coming Home?”
11 Dec. 10
HR Continued/Guest
Speaker
Solvay Group: International Mobility and Managing Expatriates Case
Values in Tension: Ethics Away From
Home
Case: Four Seasons Goes to Paris
Guest Speaker: Chris Knothe
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Dec. 17
Ethics/Women in International Mgt./Culture
Shock
“The Rule of Law Finds Its Way Abroad—
However Painfully”
“Measuring the Human Cost of an iPad Made in China”
“It Pays to Hire Women in Countries That Won’t”
Behind the Rush to Add Women to Norway’s Boards
A Push For More Women On Corporate Boards (NPR)
“The Wrong Way to Promote Women”
(O) Women Managers in a Global Economy
(O) Ferraro, Ch. 7, Coping with Culture Shock (L/B)
Article: Bar Code: Cambodia’s Beer Girls…
Articles: Great Expectations, A Horatio Alger Tale, A Dayak Tribesman’s High-Tech Dream Loses Some Luster
Article: India’s Skewed Sex Ratio Puts GE in Spotlight
Article: Would $5-a-Day-Minimum Wage Make Life Better in Haiti?
CASE DUE: The Floundering Expatriate (Pairs)
Course Wrap-up
Video: Ethics Overseas (in class)
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