X-Culture
Gain international experience without leaving campus
X-Culture offers students around the world the opportunity to work on real international business challenges for real global companies – in virtual teams where each team member is in a different country. As a UC student, you can participate in X-Culture, and earn 15 points credit towards your degree, as part of MGMT215 – Working and Leading in International Teams.
- After successfully completing a Readiness Test, you will be placed on a global virtual team. Typically, the teams are comprised of 6-8 trainees, each coming from a different country.
- The teams will be presented with an international business challenge and have about two months to develop a solution.
- There will be weekly deadlines that the teams have to meet. Each team member will receive a personal email with a link to the weekly progress update survey and will have to report if the team has completed that week’s task.
- At the end of the project, the teams will present their challenge solutions in a form of team reports. The reports will be evaluated by 6-7 independent experts.
X-Culture is the centrepiece of MGMT215, with the work you do towards this counting for 40% of the overall grade.
In addition, the course will introduce you to the attitudes, knowledge and skills required to be an effective and respectful member of, and leader in, an international or intercultural team. This will be done by utilising relevant theories, as well as by introducing you to different norms of teamwork and leadership from a range of cultural perspectives, including Māori and Pacific. You will then be able to apply and reflect on this knowledge through the X-Culture project.
The overarching purpose of MGMT215 is to prepare students to work and lead in international and intercultural teams, which is essential in the diverse, global environment that we live today.
MGMT215 is offered in Semester 2.
It is open to anyone who has completed MGMT100 and has a further 105 points at 100-level.
One of the key concepts introduced in MGMT215 is cultural intelligence (CQ) and students who successfully complete all requirements will receive the newly introduced UC Business School CQ Certificate.
CQ is a person's capability to function effectively in culturally diverse situations. Graduates today will inevitably work in culturally diverse organisations and teams. Cultural diversity is associated with increased opportunities for innovation and other benefits, but also greater potential for misunderstanding and associated challenges; therefore, it is essential that students develop the capability to function effectively in culturally diverse situations.
All participants who successfully complete an X-Culture project also receive an X-Culture certificate and recommendation letter. X-Culture notes that these frequently help students get jobs and promotions, as well as gain entrance to International Business graduate programmes. When the workplace goes global, a certificate of experience in global collaboration can make a difference.