International Management I

Course Objectives.

Students completing this course should possess the basic knowledge and confidence to go and live abroad and to begin to manage teams amidst workplace diversity within a Host Country. They should understand and foresee the political, economic, legal and technological constraints of conducting business across cultural barriers, and possess some of the skills required to bridge cross-cultural communication gaps.

This course will acquaint the international graduate student with some core concepts and major principles of International Management used by key executives of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in the United States and abroad. It is not an easy task to manage a domestic company, but this task becomes more difficult and subject to much greater risk once a firm decides it will “go international.” Important decisions have to be made, such as whether functional units such as Accounting, Design, Manufacturing, Marketing, Sales, Purchasing, Quality Control, Research and Development will be managed at home or abroad. Staffing becomes subject to difficult choices, such as the right “mix” of “expat” Parent Country Nationals (PCNs) with local Host Country Nationals (HCNs) or even Third Country Nationals (TCNs).

Whenever managers are sent abroad to live and to work, a risk of failure emerges. Even with proper preparation for living as an “expat” in a foreign country, the risk of failure (that the employee will decide to abort the assignment and return home before the assignment is completed) can be as high as 80% for the employee, even higher for family including spouse and children. Most foreign assignments are for three years’ duration, but failure is likely to occur within the first month or two. It can take up to 18 months to prepare an employee and her/his family to successfully work abroad, and at least half as long to prepare the same people for repatriation. As it is expensive for a corporation to send its managers and their families on foreign assignments, it is important to optimize their success in order to amortize this investment. Part of this course will focus on preparing managers for success in the international environment. Without having spent significant periods of time working abroad, a manager’s career pathway is likely to encounter promotion barriers, particularly at the higher levels.

Recommended Readings.

Deresky, Helen. 2014, International Management: Managing Across Borders and Cultures. Upper Saddle River: 8th edition, Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 0136098673.

Student Power Point Slides for Helen Deresky, International Management: Managing Across Borders and Cultures. Upper Saddle River: 8th edition 2014, Pearson Prentice Hall. http://wps.prenhall.com/bp_deresky_im_7/140/35949/9203172.cw/index.html.

Jones, David A. 2019. “Value Chain Planning: Assessing Demand Signals in an International Environment,” International Journal of Management, IT, and Engineering, Vol. 9, No. 10. Oct. [From Jones, David A. 2019. "Value Chain Planning: Assessing Demand Signals in an International Environment," Proceedings of Research World 655th International Conference on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Management (ICSTEM) held in New York on 16-17 August 2019

Liu, Hanzhen, and David A. Jones. 2018. “Feudal Internationalism? Foreign Policy of the People’s Republic of China: See China Change From Back Then to Now to What Next?” Kwartalnik Naukowy Uczelni Vistula [Vistula Scientific Journal], Vol. 55, No. 1, 21-40. Mar. http://www.i.vistula.edu.pl/media/docs/qsLdAgtz4EENy9Vd8yAWMiMXS

Jones, David A. 2018. Asia in Europe: Emerging Trade Routes by Ocean and Land. Boston: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 13: 978 1729599563 plus Seattle: Amazon Kindle: ISBN 10: 1729599567

Jones, David A., and Hanzhen Liu. 2018. “Tensions Along the Western Pacific Rim of East Asia: Obstacles or Opportunities?” in Zakowski, Karol, and Bartosz Kowalski, eds. 2018. Power Shifts in East Asia and Their Implications for Asia–Europe Relations. Łódź: University of Łódź Press.

Jones, David A. 2018. America Incorporated: Movement of Assets by Companies Chartered in the United States Across the World and Back Home,” European Journal of Business & Management Research, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1-7. Feb.

http://ejbmr.org/index.php/ejbmr/article/view/16/9

Jones, David A., and Hanzhen Liu. 2018. “Changing Face of Europe: The Projected Impact on Europe’s ‘Core’ and ‘Periphery’ of Chinese FDI into the Ceec Region,” International Journal of Economics, Commerce & Research (ITECR), Vol. 8, No. 5, 13-32. Dec. http://www.tjprc.org/publishpapers/2-41-1542884676-3.IJECRDEC20183.pdf

Jones, David A. 2018. “Move Europe East: Seizing an Opportunity to Make Central and Eastern Europe’s Economic and Political Wealth Equal or Surpass that of Western Europe,” Geopolitikai Kutatόintezet. 11 Jun.

http://www.geopolitika.hu/en/2018/06/11/move-europe-east-seizing-an-opportunity-to-make-central-and-eastern-europes-economic-and-political-wealth-equal-or-surpass-that-of-western-europe/

Jones, David A. 2017. "Four Leagues of the Pacific: United Kingdom, United States, China, Russia, Where Trust in Trade Meets Distrust in Security, A Pacific-Indian Treaty Organisation (PINTO) is Needed for a ‘Community of Nations’,” International Journal of Political Science, Law & International Relations, Vol. 7, No. 5, 11-28. Oct. http://tjprc.org/view-archives.php?keyword=&from_date=&to_date=&id=&jtype=2&journal=52&page=5

Jones, David A., and Hanzhen Liu. 2017. “Searching for the Tao? Reexamining Modern Changes in Asian Management: Characteristics and Significance,” International Journal of Business & General Management, Vol. 6, No. 5, 119-134. Aug/Sep.

https://www.scribd.com/document/361294619/13-IJBGM-Searching-for-the-Tao-David-a-Jones

Jones, David A. 2015. Four Eagles and a Dragon: Successes and Failures of Quixotic Encirclement in Foreign Policy, An Analysis. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc. 394 pp. ISBN 9 789385 436826.

http://asc.uw.edu.pl/faculty_publications/four-eagles-and-dragon-cover-introduction-chapter-seven.pdf

Jones, David A. 2015. “Economic or Cultural Encirclement? Differential Association in the Strategic Management of Multinational Asian and European Corporations,” China-USA Business Review, Vol. 14, No. 11, 532-544. Nov.

http://www.davidpublisher.org/Public/uploads/Contribute/56a0700b98cf2.pdf

Jones, David A. 2013. “Avoidance of ‘Landslides’ West of Karakoram: Projected Successes and Failures of China’s Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe,” in Chopra, Rakesh, Puri, Sandeep, Ranjan, Jayanthi, Malhotra, Gunjan, eds. 2013. Beyond Norms: Management for Excellence. London: Bloomsbury, 51-59.

Jones, David A. 2013. “Avoiding Foreign Deceptive Investment: Lawfully and Legitimately Structuring Asian Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Central and Eastern Europe,” ASM International Journal of Ongoing Research in Management and IT,” Issue 1, INCON13-Fin-032, 1-12. Jan.

Jones, David A. 2012. “China’s New Grand Strategy for Europe: What China’s 10 Billion Dollar Projected Enterprise Cooperation Will Mean for Central and Eastern Europe, for China Itself, and for the World,” Transnational Corporations Review 4:4, 85-97. Dec.

Jones, David A. 2012. “Caveat Emptor: Conflict of Laws, Banking, Competition, Subsidies and Other Issues of International, European Union, and Local Laws that Parent and Host Country Nationals Should Understand Before Undertaking Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Europe,” Bharati Law Review 1:2, 39-58. Pune, India. Nov/Dec.

Liu, Hanzhen, and David A. Jones. 2018. "Feudal Internationalism? Foreign Policy of the People's Republic of China: See China Change from Back Then to Now to What's Next?" Kwartalnik Naukowy Uczelni Vistula [Vistula Scientific Journal], Vol. 55, No. 1, 21-40. Mar. http://www.i.vistula.edu.pl/media/docs/qsLdAgtz4EENy9Vd8yAWMiMXS.pdf

Liu, Hong.. 2018. Chinese Business: Landscapes and Strategies. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Osnos, Evan. 2014. Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Schwarzman, Stephen A. 2019. What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence. New York: Simon & Schuster Avid Reader Press.

Also consider improved ways of studying, from a "fixed mindset" toward a "growth mindset". Stromberg, Joseph. 2015. "Re-reading is inefficient. Here are 8 tips for studying smarter," Vox. 16 Jan. https://www.vox.com/2014/6/24/5824192/study-smarter-learn-better-8-tips-from-memory-researchers

OUTLINE:

Module One: Assessing the International Environment.

Deresky, Chapter 1. The Challenge.

Deresky, Chapter 2. Political, Economic, Legal and Technological Environment.

Module Two: Cross-Cultural Corporate Social Responsibility.

Deresky, Chapter 3. Managing Interdependence: Corporate Social Responsibility.

Deresky, Chapter 4. The Role of Culture.

Module Three: Communication Across Cultural Borders.

Deresky, Chapter 5. Communication across Culture Barriers.

Deresky, Chapter 6. Negotiation and Decision Making.

Module Four: Strategy for International Markets.

Deresky, Chapter 7. Formulating Strategy for the International Market.

Deresky, Chapter 8. Implementing Strategy: Cross-Border Alliances.

FIRST EXAMINATION: Materials Studied to Date.

Module Five: Coordinating Global Human Resources.

Deresky, Chapter 9. Organising Structure for a Global Operation.

Deresky, Chapter 10. International Staffing and Training.

Module Six: Integrating Parent Country Nationals (PCNs) with Host Country Nationals (HCNs) and Third Country Nationals (TCNs).

Deresky, Chapter 11. Managing ”Expats.” Host Country Labour Relations.

Module Seven: Motivating and Leading in a Global Organisation.

Deresky, Chapter 12. Motivating and Leading in an International Environment.

Deresky, Chapter 13. Crafting International Teams Amidst Workplace Diversity.

Case Analyses by groups as Class Presentations, following the Harvard Business School (HBS) Case Analysis Method. Term Paper on a subject of each student's choice related to international management, with proper documentation.