This programme provides you with a wide range of in-depth knowledge and skills, and enables you to focus on aspects of intercultural communication that are relevant to people working either in business or in other professions.
Our core modules develop your ability to analyse, explain and investigate effective communication across cultures. Optional modules enable you to select particular areas in which you want to specialise, according to your own intellectual interests or career aspirations.
The programme concludes with an empirical piece of research, which will allow you to put your knowledge into practice and further hone your practical skills in carrying out systematic research.
Core modules
Understanding Culture
While the idea of culture can seem relatively straightforward, how we understand it has become quite a contested area in the study of intercultural communication. This module will give you a better understanding of the idea of culture, introducing a range of conceptualisations of culture that have been developed in different disciplinary areas. Importantly, you’ll gain a critical perspective on culture and a deeper understanding of your own experience of communicating interculturally in everyday life and in the workplace.
Exploring Professional Communication
Communication plays a central role in business and other professions. This module will introduce you to theoretical approaches, models and concepts that will help you understand the complexities of professional communication in different socio-cultural contexts. You’ll explore a wide range of authentic examples that occurred in different workplaces around the world. The module develops your ability to identify, describe, and analyse different types of communication in various professions, using different analytical and theoretical frameworks and approaches.
Culture, Identity and Adaptation
This module focuses on recent research in the area of cultural identity, adaptation, and growth. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, it explores major theories of cultural adaptation, including stress, learning, and identity. The module also provides you with the opportunity to start researching these issues for yourself. The practical development sessions will enable you to reflect on your own identity and cultural adaptation, promoting your own growth towards intercultural personhood. Assessment is by a reflective portfolio and analytical commentary on your reflection.
Leadership, Teamwork and Culture
What is leadership? What is teamwork? And what role does culture play in this context? This module will address those questions by introducing you to theoretical approaches, models and concepts that will help you understand the complexities of leadership, teamwork and culture. It focuses on the crucial role of communication and follows some of the most recent debates around leadership, teamwork, and culture. You’ll analyse these notions in action by exploring numerous real-life examples of how leadership and teamwork are actually done in different socio-cultural and intercultural contexts.
Research Methods
This module will familiarise you with current issues in researching culture and communication in business and professional contexts. It will help you develop essential skills in designing a research project. You’ll be introduced to a range of data collection methods and analytical approaches, as well as up-to-date ethical issues in research. Term One will focus on quantitative research methods and Term Two will focus on qualitative methods. The module is designed to prepare you to begin work on your dissertation at the end of Term Two.
Dissertation, or Experiential Placement and Major Project
You’ll be allocated a supervisor who will provide guidance in Term Three during the process of carrying out your own research.
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Crisis Communication
- Globalisation and Diversity in the Workplace
- International Business
- Intercultural Coaching and Development
- Language and Interaction in Context
- Management Across Cultures
- Marketing Across Cultures
- Media and Intercultural Communication
- Public Relations Across Cultures
- Teaching Language and Culture
