by Ed Ng, School of Business Administration

In my BUSI 6315/COMM 4315 course on International and Intercultural Management, students get first-hand experience in people management skills.  I work with instructors in the Corporate Residency MBA program in order to foster learning for both groups of students in an interactive, experiential environment.

The graduate students are charged with leading a diverse, multicultural, and cross-functional team of undergraduate students in completing a country case study project.  MBAs apply their leadership and coaching skills to motivate their teams to successful completion of a project which culminates in a “trade mission” presentation at the end of the semester.  As team leaders, the MBA students experience everyday management challenges such as motivating teams on task, resolving dysfunctional behaviours, and facilitating problem-solving using their knowledge from organizational behaviour theories.  They also develop coaching and mentoring skills such as providing their team with guidance and directions, leading by example, providing timely feedback, developing subordinates, and creating an environment of trust in a multicultural setting.

Meanwhile, the undergraduate students also learn to work as a team, resolve work issues, maintain healthy group dynamics, manage workflow and support each other and their team leaders.  Teams must complete their project on time, meet all project objectives and guidelines, and deliver their presentations to the client in a boardroom setting.

At the conclusion of the project, both MBA and undergraduate students learn to conduct performance appraisals by participating in a 360/multisource performance evaluation with each other as peers, supervisors and subordinates.

A very beneficial outcome is that students gain self-awareness in their strengths and weaknesses as people managers and team members.  This academic experience also helps them to develop their leadership and coaching skills, and functional competencies in communication, project management and performance assessment.