On June 21-24, 2011, the International MBA regular study module took place during which students studied the course "Building the trust in Cross-Cultural Communications". The distinguish feature of the module was: the students of IIB International MBA program and students of MBA program from the University of Alaska SouthEast, USA, and ALBA graduate business school, Greece, gathered in one classroom to study "cross-cultural communications".
The author of the course is Dr. Yulia Ivanova, Associate Professor of Management School of the University of Alaska SouthEast, who delivered the course for students and excellently fulfilled the mission of a course moderator and instructor in auditorium consisting of representatives of several countries – Ukraine, USA, Canada, Greece.
The course structure is consistent, it covers all the main stages of cross cultural relations analysis such as: peculiarities of business environment in one or another country, culture and how to define its` peculiarities, company and peculiarities having expats in management team etc. The students from the University of Alaska Southeast made a significant contribution changing experience and showed themselves from the best side participating actively in group tasks and group discussions.
Variety of cases (on which students worked for 70-80% of the time) based on real business situations made classes very interesting and practical stimulating thinking and sharing experience between students.
Close communications during the module, discussions in the class, work in groups and preparation of group presentations, projects, informal communication during visiting country ethno complex "Ukrainian Village", and club "Petrovych", coffee breaks etc. gave an opportunity to understand each other better, feel differences and similarities, learn how to develop business relations with representatives of different countries and cultures.
