Managing across organisational and cultural boundaries

This module is about collaboration – working, managing and organising across organisational and cultural boundaries. Whether within or across organisations, via partnerships, joint ventures and alliances, collaboration can be both stimulating and rewarding. It entails the combination of resources and expertise which enables partners to achieve something jointly that they cannot achieve working alone. However, collaboration is also fraught with difficulties and dilemmas. In this module you’ll explore the many issues and challenges associated with working collaboratively across different contexts. You will also learn about concepts and theories that can help you to better manage collaborative situations in the future.

What you will study

This module makes a broad distinction between organisational, inter-organisational and international contexts. You'll explore what is involved in collaborating effectively within and across such different contexts.

There are five study themes throughout this module, all of which are central to understanding how different individuals perceive and experience the different contexts in which they work. The themes are:

managing aims
power, politics and trust
cultural diversity
international management perspectives
the darker side of collaborative arrangements.

The module gives you opportunities to learn from a whole variety of different resources including reading articles, studying case material, watching short videos, listening to audio clips and using other online media. Your learning will be structured through and around activities. These will involve you exploring your own situation, being introduced to that of other students on the module and critically analysing and applying relevant theory. You'll study some of the material independently and some of it collaboratively with other students through participation in online forums, audio conferencing sessions and a collaborative wiki. (For the collaborative wiki you'll work jointly with 3-5 other students for each of Units 2 to 5, and this work will form part of the assessment.) This will ensure that you experience a level of collaboration and exposure to different contexts; different cultures; different ways of experiencing them; different ways of managing and being managed in them; and different interpretations of key themes.

By the end of the module, you should be able to interpret individuals’ experiences and perceptions – including your own – of different intra-/inter-organisational and international contexts that in turn should enable you to engage effectively with others across such different contexts. Through the exposure of module theories and concepts, you should be able to engage more effectively with a range of key challenges and issues in the workplace.

Unit 1: Working in organisational, inter-organisational and international contexts
In this introductory unit you'll look at different contexts in which work, organisation and management take place and how these different contexts affect individuals’ perceptions and experience of working in them. There is a particular focus on collaboration and you will begin to identify some of the issues that need to be carefully managed if individuals are to collaborate effectively across organisational and cultural boundaries. You'll be introduced to the theory of collaborative advantage which underpins the design of the module and which you will use to explore many of the challenges associated with collaboration in and across different contexts.

Unit 2: Managing aims
In this unit you'll be studying aims at different levels – the individual, organisational and collaboration level. Through reflecting on your own experiences and that of other students and through analysing and applying theory, you will identify issues and challenges pertaining to the management of aims within and across different contexts. You'll explore the role of aims as a motivator for individuals’ actions and behaviours; learn about advantages and difficulties associated with goal setting in organisations; the cultural influence on the aims that business leaders pursue; and the sheer ambiguity and complexity of aims in collaborative contexts.

Unit 3: Organisational power, politics and trust
This unit focuses on the three interrelated themes of power, politics and trust. Through critical evaluation of relevant theories (such as those by Machiavelli, Lukes and Foucault on power and politics) and reflection on personal experiences, you'll explore the importance of power, politics and trust in organisational interactions between individuals, teams and organisations in and across different contexts.

Unit 4: Cultural diversity
In Unit 4 you'll study culture and how it is used as a concept to describe and explain the behaviour and actions of individuals within their context, be it an organisation, a nation, a region or a profession. You'll discuss how culture impacts on individuals’ actions and behaviours within and across organisations and ultimately how this affects what organisations are attempting to do.

Unit 5: International management perspectives
In this unit you'll study international management perspectives on different contexts relating to individuals, organisations and collaborations. You'll focus, in particular, on the growth, nature and diversity of international collaboration in the context of globalisation. You'll be introduced to a number of cases that show how collaboration can be different in the international context. You'll therefore learn about the international context of collaborations and the kinds of implications they entail for both organisations and managers.

Unit 6: The darker side of collaborative arrangements
Corruption, politics, whistle-blowing, conflict and failures are covered in this unit on the darker side of collaboration. You'll examine signs and symptoms of organisational problems and be introduced to ways of recognising problems in collaborative settings. You'll explore cases of failed collaborations (such as the failure to work collaboratively in the wake of hurricane Katrina and the corruption surrounding Ikea’s entry into Russia), look at ways of tackling problems, and learn about strategies that individuals can pursue to help surface or resolve problems.

Unit 7: Paradoxes, tensions and dialectics
In the final unit, you'll reflect on your learning journey throughout the module and consider how you can carry on using what you have learnt in future collaborative contexts. You'll be introduced to concepts and theories that can help you address collaboration in practice. This will focus particularly on the ways in which tensions, paradoxes and dialectics can support your understanding about how to make things happen in collaborative contexts.

You will learn

After studying this module you should have a good understanding of:

themes pertinent to organising and managing within and between organisational and international contexts
issues pertinent to different organisational actors and stakeholders including aims, power and politics; cultural diversity; international diversity and the darker side of collaborating.

You should be able to:

synthesise, critically evaluate and challenge existing knowledge of inter-organisational relations (IOR) and organisational behaviour (OB)
identify and critically assess different perspectives on managing and organising
use conceptual frameworks to describe functions of organising and managing in and across organisational and international contexts
critically evaluate theories in relation to personal experiences, organisational, inter-organisational and international setting with which you are familiar and the relative standpoints of others within different contexts
articulate ideas and communicate effectively using appropriate IOR and OB concepts to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Entry

This is an OU level 3 module. OU level 3 modules build on study skills and subject knowledge acquired from previous studies at OU levels 1 and 2. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject.

Managing across organisational and cultural boundaries is relevant for anyone interested in aspects of organisational behaviour and inter-organisational relations.

If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.

Outside the UK

This module has a very strong international and cross-cultural flavour and will appeal to anyone, both in and outside the UK, who wants to explore the core themes of managing aims; power, politics and trust; cultural diversity; international management; and the darker side of collaborating.

Qualifications

B325 is an optional module in our:

It can also count towards most of our other degrees at bachelors level, where it is equally appropriate to a BA or BSc. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this module can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.

If you have a disability

The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying B325 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.

Study materials

What's included

The main study material, in weekly texts including extra resources and activity material, is provided online. A module text, module reader, and a module study guide are provided in print by post.

You will need

You will need a headset with a microphone and earphones if you wish to take part in online tutorials.

Teaching and assessment

Support from your tutor

You will have a tutor who will help you with the study material and mark and comment of your written work, and who you can ask for advice and guidance on your academic study. We will also offer group tutorials (either face to face or online) or day schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Online tutorials allow you to talk in real time to your tutor or other students over the internet, and include additional features such as an interactive whiteboard and the ability to share web pages.

Where tutorials are held depends on the distribution of students taking each module.

Assessment

The assessment details for this module can be found in the facts box above.

You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.

Future availability

Managing across organisational and cultural boundaries starts once a year – in April. This page describes the module that started in April 2019 for the last time.

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.