Using Popular Movies in Teaching Cross-Cultural Management

Satish Pandey

Paper Presented at 12th International HRD Conference, organized by AHRD, UFHRD

and the University of Gloucestershire, UK, May 25-27, 2011.

This paper was nominated for Highly Commending Paper Award of Journal of European
Industrial Training (published by Emerald Publications).

This paper was later published in Special Issue of European Journal of Training &
Development (2012), Vol. 36, No. 2, 320-350.

Copyright Satish Pandey

Using Popular Movies in Teaching Cross-Cultural Management

Satish Pandey
School of Petroleum Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), Gandhinagar,
India

Abstract
Films are considered as very valuable tool to classroom learning in a course on cross-cultural
management as they communicate through their characters, story, context, dialogues and audioeffects at several levels to students. Films help students to internalize situations which they might
not have experienced personally; hence help them to connect with various theories and concepts.
This paper is an attempt to understand challenges coming in way of using popular movies in
teaching course Managing Cross-Cultural Issues to MBA students. Two Hollywood movies
Outsourced (2006, director- John Jeffcoat) and My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002, director- Joel
Zwick) were used as teaching cases in the above mentioned course. Different clips from the
selected movies were shown in the classroom in different sessions throughout the course and
students were asked to write a reflection note on their classroom learning. Qualitative content
analysis of students reactions in their classroom learning notes reveals that students could
connect content of movies to cultural theories and concepts very well and found movies very
valuable and relevant to the course Managing Cross-Cultural Issues. This paper attempts to
reflect on course instructors perspective on selected movies as teaching resource and students
perception on learning effectiveness of popular movies in management classroom.
Key Words: Cross-cultural management, movies in management education, teaching with
movies, cross-cultural communication, cultural stereotypes, national culture
Author:
Dr. Satish Pandey
Associate Professor
Organizational Behaviour & HRM area
School of Petroleum Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU)
Raisan
Gandhinagar-382007 (Gujarat, India)
Phone: 91-79-23275116 (Direct line); Fax: 91-79-23276364
Phone (R): 079-26766056; Mobile: 9428597853

E-mail: satish.pandey@spm.pdpu.ac.in ; satishpandey_99@yahoo.com

Using Popular Movies in Teaching Cross-Cultural Management

Popular movies provide very rich content to management classrooms and have attracted attention
of scholars and trainers. A significant number of management scholars believe that young
students tend to remember popular movie content more often than monotonous textbooks,
research papers and other scholarly reference material. They are also very comfortable in
connecting movie scenes, dialogues of actors, story of the movie and music with theoretical
concepts explained in the classroom. As Champox (1999) said, films are a comfortable familiar
medium to contemporary students that can keep student interest in the theories and concepts
under discussion. He added further that although most films are fiction, they can offer powerful
experiences that students are unlikely to have in a classroom. Films can provoke good
discussion, assessment of ones values and self if the scenes have strong emotional content
(Champox, 1999). Dunphy, Meyer and Linton (2008) argued in their paper that who would like
to watch a training film on CEOs discussing management issues rather than popular Hollywood
movies e.g. 12 Angry Men (1957) or The Godfather (1972) which could be better connected to
management principles in a far meaningful way. Training videos focused on professional
development have limited appeal due to their burdensome subject matter and deadpan delivery;
and fail to leave long-lasting impact on students. Gallos (1993) emphasized that popular films
can be powerful vehicles for teaching students conceptual flexibility and ability to shift
perspectives. She also cited several movies in her paper which could be very useful for
management trainers in teaching multiple cultural contexts of the same situation e.g. Dead Poets
Society (1989), The Karate Kid (1984), Rashomon (1950), Working Girl (1988) , Born on the
fourth of July (1989). There are several open resources available on the internet to management
scholars, trainers and students which suggest long list of recommended Hollywood movies
useful for academic and training purposes.
Using Films in Intercultural/Cross-Cultural Training
The use of films in intercultural training has been recommended by a number of scholars
(Bhawuk & Brislin, 2000; Champoux, 1999; Littrell, Salas, Hess, Paley, & Riedel, 2006;
Summerfield, 1994; Mallinger and Rossy (2003),Varner & Beamer, 2005; Verluyten, 2007,
2008). As Cardon (2010) state that one of the primary benefits for university students is that
films are entertaining, engaging and in many cases stimulate curiosity towards other cultures.
Films can be very valuable intellectual exercise in deciphering other cultures and with guidance
and help of the instructors, students can learn nuances of cultural theories and constructs very
easily by means of films shown in the classroom (Cardon 2010, Mallinger & Rossy, 2003; Tidwell,
2001; Bhawuk & Brislin, 2000). In their study, Smith, Shrestha and Evans (2010) reported about their
experience of successful usage of the movie Crash in teaching cross-cultural intelligence and measuring
students understanding of cultural perception, cultural communication, cultural identity and cultural
relations through a multi-step 3600 evaluation process. They found that students performed well in

understanding the causes of cross-cultural problems but performance related to basic understanding of
cross-cultural concepts did not fare well. They reported further that students found the movie Crash very
engaging and enjoyable and they chose scenes in their written reports because of their emotional appeal
not for their relevance to specific cultural concepts.

There are few academic contributions available in intercultural training literature where scholars
have presented their innovative approach to teach cultural theories or cross-cultural management
by using films in the classroom e.g. Mallinger and Rossy (2003) on Gung Ho, Tidwill (2001) on
The Joy Luck Club and Fools Rush In, and Cardon (2010) on Slumdog Millionnaire. Cardon
(2010) has found the movie Slumdog Millionnaire, a very valuable tool to learn about principles
of stereotyping across cultures, and Indian culture particularly. He strongly recommended
Slumdog Millionnaire for non-Indian students studying in American universities, as being a
popular Academy Award winning movie as Best Picture, probability of its availability in the
market is quite high and awareness of students about this film also could be very high; and most
of them might have seen it. Bumpus (2005) recommended a valuable reviewed collection of six
movies relevant to teaching OB concepts with diversity perspective in MBA classroom- (a) A
Soldiers Story (Jewison, 1984) (b) The Associate (Petrie, 1996), (c) Smoke Signals (Eyre,
1998), (d) The Joy Luck Club (Wang, 1993), (e) For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval
Story (Sargent, 2000). There are several documents available on recommended lists of movies
useful in intercultural training e.g. Intercultural Training with Films by Christine Roell (2010)
which could be helpful to instructors looking for appropriate movies for using in their courses.
Different Methods of Using Popular Movies in Management Courses
Champox (1999) suggested that a film as an effective learning tool can be used in different ways
in the classroom e.g. as case, experiential exercise, metaphor, satire, symbolism, meaning,
experience and time. He further suggested that there are different ways to use a film in a teaching
course e.g. showing the film before the discussion or after the discussion, showing scenes
repeatedly in the classroom or showing two different movies on the same story to generate
different perspectives. In view of the author, a film can be used in several different ways as given
below:
1. The instructor can show some selected scenes from a selected movie in one or more
sessions in a course and generate discussions on specific theories, models and issues.
2. The instructor can show the entire movie before theoretical sessions. Selected scenes can
be repeated in the classroom, if required during discussions.
3. The instructor can give introductory lecture on relevant theories before the movie show
and later starts discussion on the movie and relevant theories.
4. The instructor may use few selected movies as cases in the entire course and show
selected scenes from different movies in different theoretical sessions as per pre-decided
session plan.
5. The instructor may assign some selected movies to groups of students as project
assignment and ask them to do film analysis on the basis of relevant theories (cultural,

social, psychological, political etc.). Students will get CD/DVD of the movie from video
libraries, do library or internet research and submit the project report to the instructor.
The author had experimented with the method-4 (as described above) in teaching the course on
Managing Cross-Cultural Issues to second year MBA students. This paper is based on authors own
experiences in conducting the course.
The Course: Managing Cross-Cultural Issues
The course on Managing Cross-Cultural Issues is an elective course offered to second year MBA
students of School of Petroleum Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar
(Gujarat state, India). The course was designed and taught by the author during academic years 2009-10
and 2010-11. The course is designed to achieve the following learning objectives:

1. To help students in understanding issues related to cross cultural diversity at work places.
2. To sensitize students to the need for managing differently in diverse cultural environments, and
3. To develop skills for diagnosing and understanding heterogeneity of cultures, and to function
effectively in different cultural environments.
Course Pedagogy:
The course was conducted in a seminar-cum-workshop format and different
pedagogical techniques such as lectures, case discussions and group project were used to achieve the goal
of effective learning. The selected movies Outsourced (2006)1 and My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)2
were adopted as video cases in the course to make classroom learning more interesting and relevant to
students. The course was conducted in 10 classroom sessions of 90 minutes each (total 15 classroom
hours), contributing to 1.5 credits to students.
Sample:
The present paper is based on authors own experiences in teaching this course to two
batches of students. The 2008 batch had 14 students (13 boys and 1 girl) and 2009 batch also had 14
students (13 boys and 1 girl) who opted for this course in their second year MBA. All of the students were
Indian citizen, belonging to different states of India, in the age group 22-30 years and majority of them
belonged to Hindu religion (barring one Christian student in 2008 batch). In both the batches, most of the
students had good command over English and Hindi languages (written and spoken), and had seen many
English (Hollywood) and Hindi movies in the past. Some of them knew other Indian languages including
Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bangla and Telugu. An average student of the class had good
fluency over English, Hindi and the language of ones state. From national culture perspective, all of the
students in both the batches belonged to Indian culture.

The movie website (http://www.outsourcedthemovie.com/ms_corptraining.html) recommends corporate training

material developed by Michigan State Business School professors Aneil Mishra, Ph.D. and Karen Mishra, Ph.D. and
global outsourcing consultant Atul Vashistha, Chairman of services globalization firm NeoIT, and founder of
international business training company GlobalAbility.
2
The movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding is in recommended list of popular movies by The Cross-Cultural Training
Centre (CCTC) of Central New Jersey. (website: http://www.cctcnj.org). Both the movies, Outsourced and My Big
Fat Greek Wedding are also featured in the recommended list of Christine Roell (2010) in her paper on Intercultural
Training with Films.

Selection of Movies: For the batch of 2008, only Outsourced (2006) was used in the course. Positive
feedback on using a popular Hollywood movie in a course on cross-cultural management motivated the
author to go for including more movies in the next attempt. Hence, for the batch of 2009, the author
decided to include My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) for adding more flavor in the course content. The
author was not aware of many internet resources related to selected movies (cited in this paper) when
these movies were actually used in the course as video cases. Hence, this paper is based on authors
experiences and observations in the classroom.
Screening of Movies: Both the movies, Outsourced and My Big Fat Greek Wedding were not shown in
full screening in one session but selected scenes were screened in different sessions as per pre-decided
session plan (see Appendix-A) and relevant theoretical issues were discussed in the classroom. If a scene
needs to be discussed in the next classes, then it was repeated to refresh students memories on students
demands, so they can quote dialogues, background or actors in their discussions. Some scenes from both
the movies which depicted sexual intimacy were skipped in screening. In each batch, there were 3 or 4

students who had seen the movie Outsourced in their past before joining the course; however no
one had seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding earlier.
Course Work:
Students were asked to read selected chapters from reference books, case studies
and recommended research papers before each session. Students were also asked to refer books

Understanding Cross-Cultural Psychology, authored by Pittu Laungani (2007), Sage

Publications; and Asian Perspectives on Psychology- Henry S. R. Kao and Durganand Sinha
(Eds.) (1997), Vol. 19, Cross-Cultural Research and Methodology Series, Sage Publications,
New Delhi; as these books present Indian and East Asian perspectives of culture as well as a
wonderful comparative analysis of Eastern and Western cultural psychologies. The second main
reference book Understanding Cross-Cultural Management, authored by Marie-Jolle Browaeys
and Roger Price (2008), Pearson Education India is another wonderful book presenting a
complete framework of cross-cultural management from Western perspective. Students were
advised to explore more books on culture, cultural psychology, social psychology, cross-cultural
management etc. available in the library, so they do their own comparative analysis of different
cultural theories and approaches (see listed of recommended reference books in Appendix-A). It
helped very much in the classroom discussion when students could connect movie scenes shown
in the class to various cultural theories and concepts, and their own life experiences. This created
a very positive environment in the classroom.
To evaluate learning outcome of the course,
Course Evaluation and Data Analysis:
students were asked to write reflection note on their classroom learning with specific mention to
learning generated through movies shown in the classroom. Students reactions written in their
reflection notes were analyzed through qualitative content analysis. First, reactions with specific
reference to movies were separated from statements related to general theoretical learning; and
then classified and coded on the basis of indications of cultural concepts mentioned in those
statements. The data analyzed and discussed in this paper pertains to the batch of 2009 (14
students only). There is no such data collected or analyzed for the batch of 2008 but the author
has tried to bring some of his observations with 2008 batch in discussion.

Movie Review and Analysis

Movie- Outsourced (2006)
Outsourced is a romantic comedy film, written by George Wing and John Jeffcoat; and directed
by John Jeffcoat, released in September 2006. This movie reflects well on intercultural
differences between American and Indian cultures. This movie has received many positive
critiques on its cross-cultural theme.
Plot3:
When a Seattle-based US firm Western Novelty decides to outsource its call centre to India, it
asks Mr. Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) to train his replacement in India, which he has to
accept reluctantly. Right from the first day of his arrival in India, Todd encounters a series
culture shocks and unusual situations with Indian people. He starts understanding this new
country, its culture, people and society slowly and steadily. In the process, he gets good support
from his manager Purohit (Asif Basra) and female colleague Asha (Ayesha Dharkar), who also
starts liking Todd later.
When things are progressing forward, and centre starts performing with its full potential, the
company again decides to outsource jobs to China for saving huge costs. The centre in India is
being closed and its employees should look for another job. Todd helps Purohit to get a new job
by recommending his name to Centre Head of China office. At the end of the movie, Todd
comes back to US, but his has sweet memories of India, Asha and his colleagues with him.
Analysis:
Because of its cross-cultural context and relevance to IT outsourcing industry, this movie has
potential to attract attention of everyone- be it student, working professional or academician.
That may be reason why this movie has received enormous appreciation from management
trainers. The author has selected this movie because of its potential to cover a very wide range of
topics included in the course specifically differences between American (Western) and Indian
(Eastern) cultures.
Movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 American romantic comedy film written by and starring
Nia Vardalos and directed by Joel Zwick. At the 75th Academy Awards, it was nominated for
the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The movie is centered on Fotoula "Toula"
Portokalos (Nia Vardalos), a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with a nonGreek upper middle class "White Anglo-Saxon Protestant" Ian Miller (John Corbett).

This plot summary is based on the content available on Wikipedia webpage of the movie. (Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourced_(film))

Plot4:
Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) is a 30 years old girl from a conservative Greek family, and
works as waitress in her family's restaurant, Dancing Zorba's, in Chicago. At thirty, she is the
only girl in her family, deemed as a failure for not getting married by the right age. Her family
expects her to "marry a Greek, make Greek babies, and feed everyone until the day she dies".
But Toula is looking for more in life, she often finds herself very lonely in her big Greek family.
She wants to join computer classes for making herself a better professional and quitting her
waitress job. Her mother convinces her father Gus (Michael Constantine) to let her take some
computer classes at college. She changes herself by replacing thick glasses with contact lenses,
wears her hair curly, and begins to use makeup. She, her mother, and her aunt Voula (Andrea
Martin), then, convince her father to allow her to work at her aunt's travel agency. Toula feels
much better in her new job. One day she notices Ian (John Corbett) hanging around looking at
her through the window. They finally introduce themselves and begin dating. Toula keeps the
relationship secret from her family until some weeks later when Gus finds out. Gus gets wild
knowing that his daughter is dating with a non-Greek boy and starts searching a suitable Greek
groom for her.
Ian and Toula continue to see each other against Gus's wishes. Ian proposes to marry her, she
accepts, and he agrees to be baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church to be worthy of her family.
In the meantime, Toula also meets with Ians mother (Fiona Reid) and father (Bruce Gray) and
they accept her quite easily.
But, the wedding planning becomes a tough exercise for Ian and Toula, as they have to manage
the Big Greek Family and Ians parents. Gus insists on inviting the entire church to the
ceremony. A lot of confusions are created by Toulas family members and relatives as everyone
tries to help in the wedding planning process as per ones best possible way.
Ultimately, the wedding day comes and traditional wedding itself goes without a hitch. Gus gives
a speech accepting Ian and the Millers as family members in the wedding party and buys the
newlyweds a house right next door to him. The film's epilogue shows the new couple's life six
years later in which they have a daughter Paris that they raise in the Greek style, but Toula tells
her she can marry anyone she wants when she grows up after she says she wants to go to
Brownies instead of Greek school.
Analysis:
This movie is selected by the author because of its potential to cover a wide range of topics
specifically influence of family culture on individuals personality and behavior, gender
relationships, cultural dimensions theories of Hofestede, Trompennar and culture clash. Another
reason of selecting this movie for this course was that it revolves around Greek culture which is
likely to be perceived as foreign culture, though in the movie, there could be possibilities of
over-dramatized presentation of Greek culture.

This plot summary is predominantly based on plot summary published on the Wikipedia page of the movie with
some modifications. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Big_Fat_Greek_Wedding)

Content Analysis of Students Reactions

As instructed by the author, 14 students of batch 2009 submitted their reflection notes as a part of
course evaluation. Students reactions with reference to their learning of cultural theories and
concepts from movies shown in the classroom were analyzed through qualitative content
analysis. Table-1 gives an account of content analysis data with reference to various factors
considered for content analysis. The numbers mentioned in the tables 1a and 1b indicate number
of students whose reactions were classified and coded under that category. For example, 10 out
of 14 students cited both the movies in their reflection notes; whereas only 3 students cited the
movie Outsourced only and 1 student cited the movie MBFGW (refer table-1b). Similarly, 6
students out of 14 evaluated both the movies in terms of their learning effectiveness delivered in
the classroom through their critical statements. Some selected reactions on learning effectiveness
of movies are given below. We have used two-lettered codes (abbreviations of students names)
to indicate individuals s against their reactions for convenience in referencing.
Table-1 Content Analysis of Students Reactions with specific reference to movies
Outsourced and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Table- 1a Perceived association of movies with theoretical concepts
S.
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Theoretical concept cited with specific reference

to the movie
Differences between Eastern and Western
Cultures
Culture Shock
Culture and intercultural communication
Cultural adaptation
cultural adjustment
acculturation process
Family culture
Influence of family culture on self and
personality
Cross-cultural competence, cultural intelligence

Table-1b

Outsourced

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Nil

6
5
2
1
5
Nil
Nil

7
1
5
2
4
5
3

Movies cited by students in their reflection notes

Movie
Outsourced only
My Big Fat Greek Wedding only
Both
Learning effectiveness of both the
movies

Number of students
3
1
10
6

Students reactions on learning effectiveness of movies

AT: The learning through movies was very helpful as we could see and understand scenario
more effectively.
PZ: By the help of movies (Outsourced and MBFGW), we could relate better the use of this
subject (applicability of MCCI course).
JM: The objective of the course was well covered with healthy classroom discussions
amongst us and the movies. The movies showed us the real scenario how people get culture
shock and how they cope up with it.
SO: Through the movies, I came to understand that before visiting any new country or place
with a different cultural background, one should have general idea of that culture, so that
culture shock can be avoided.
NJ: Both movies covered a wide range of cultural issues and learning.
These reactions indicate that some students appreciated the selected movies as a valuable tool for
delivering effective learning in the classroom. However, all the 14 students did not react in that
way but none of them indicated any dissatisfaction or negative comment regarding the learning
value of the movies in their statements. We can see here that most of them were able to connect
movies with their life experiences and course content quite easily and effectively. The movies
also helped them in drawing their own picture of cultural understanding. The reactions also
indicate that students have found the selected movies quite helpful in achieving goal and
objectives of the course.
Students reactions on differences between Eastern and Western cultures (With reference to the
movie: Outsourced)
DD: This movie Outsourced demonstrated a lot of difference in western and eastern business
cultures and practices.
VP: Differences in Eastern and Western work cultures can be easily seen in this movie. As we
see that people from Western countries are more professional in their conduct and behavior
whereas Eastern (particularly Indians) are driven more by emotional appeal within the work
environment.
JM: Learnt about differences between Eastern and Western cultures, etic and emic approach of
cultural study, could connect movie with concepts well with my own experience of working at
IBM, as when some people from US came for project knowledge sharing and it was difficult for

both of us (We- Indian team and them- US team), and they were facing a lot of problems and
difficulties and could not adapt to situations.
Right from the first session of the course, students were encouraged to think from multiple
perspectives on cultural issues especially when comparing Western cultures with Non-Western
(predominantly Eastern or Indian) cultures. Students were also asked to read book on crosscultural psychology by Pittu Laugani in which the author had narrated his experiences with
British, American, European and people from other nationalities, and explained how he faced
difficulties in intercultural communication in foreign land and how he learnt to cope with those
difficulties. In the book, the author had also narrated a number of difficulties which people from
Western countries normally face in India. It contributed a lot in classroom discussions as most of
students were able to connect scenes of the movie Outsourced with narrations of Pittu Laugani
and his theoretical explanations, and their own real-life experiences (see comments of VP and
JM above).
Students reactions on Indian culture (the movie-Outsourced)
SO: The movie also shows that Indian culture cannot be taught in classrooms but one has to
learn about it with joy and experiencing with feelings, and capture its essence.
VR: This movie is a completely relevant learning experience, as we belong to India, and the
entire plot of the movie is tied with India. This movie tells us that Indian culture cannot be
trained in the classroom but one has to feel, experience and learn it.
The above comments indicate that students had found the movie Outsourced very relevant in
context of learning about Indian culture, society and professional work culture prevailing in
India. However, students comments are much loaded with their emotions rather theoretical
analysis. One cannot deny this fact that life experiences are the best teacher for anyone in the
world but people need professional training to learn cross-cultural management skills. If culture
cannot be taught in the classroom, there would be no need for training courses on cross-cultural
skills. These statements confirm our findings quite similar to findings of Smith et al (2010) that
indicate students gets influenced by emotional appeal of movie scenes rather than their
connectivity with cultural theories and concepts.
Students reactions on family culture and influence of family culture on self and personality (the
movie- My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
NK: Watching it was a fun. The film exposes inner working of passionate Greek family, good
learning about family culture, intense relationship among family members.

SO: I learnt that how family culture influences a person's personality? Introvert girl born
and brought up in an orthodox family. I learnt how cultural differences influence people's
relationships when two different families encounter each other.
The movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding was selected by the author to cover specific topics e.g.
influence of family culture on individuals self, personality, life style, attitude and behavior. The
movie also enlightens on interpersonal relationships among family members and between
different families. In the classroom discussions, students tried to connect various scenes of the
movie with a typical Indian marriage ceremony, and how different people act and react to
different situations happening in a marriage ceremony. Many students in the classroom tried to
identify similarities between the Greek family depicted in the movie with a typical Punjabi
Indian family and some of them also shared their own personal experiences of similar
intercultural marriages happened in their social circles.
Students reactions on culture shock
JM: We learnt about culture shock and different aspects of culture shock. We initiated
discussion on man-woman relationships, different cultures- one is too loud, expressive and
conservative, patrirachial. Learning about model- denial, defense, acceptance, adaptation,
adjustment, integration. We learnt how to cope with culture shock. (My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
NS: The experience of culture shock was well portrayed in movies Outsourced and
MBFGW. The movie Outsourced has depicted firsthand experience in a different culture very
well and highlights culture shocks experienced by its characters very well. I also faced similar
culture shocks when I came to Gujarat to join this MBA programme.
(Outsourced and My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
SO: The movie shows how a foreigner visiting India get culture shock in different situations,
but learns to adapt to it and overcome culture shock when meets another foreigner in restaurant,
and learns to accept this new culture, improves his cultural intelligence and not bullying to
Indians. (Outsourced)
HP: Culture shock for both families happens in form of food, their habits, speaking manners,
eating, gathering, celebrating occasions etc. Small and nuclear family Vs Big and joint/extended
family.
(My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
NJ:
These movies depict the importance of adjusting to a culture and overcoming culture
shock.
Culture shock is the concept which dominated most of classroom sessions during the course.
Right from Session-2, when initial scenes of the movie Outsourced were shown in the classroom;

in every session students continued discussions on other theoretical concepts around culture
shock. The data indicated in table-1 also confirms this where maximum numbers are written
against culture shock which means 13 students out of 14, explained about culture shock in their
reflection notes. Some of them cited both the movies and some of them cited any one which they
liked most.
Students reactions on cultural adjustment and adaptation
AT:
I understood cultural adjustment from honeymoon to irritation & hostility stage,
gradual adjustment, biculturalism stage. Cultural adjustment takes its own time.
HP: Mr. Todd gradually learns about Indian culture and adapts lifestyle e.g. with "Holi
festival', develops better communication with coworkers and other people around him 'auntijee'
and others.
(Outsourced)
NJ:
This movie tells us about individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Boy gets culture
shock when meets girlfriend's family members. Boy learns about informal and jovial
environment of family, importance of food, eating/drinking and celebrating every moment, stood
firm on his decision of marriage and adapts to Greek culture. . I learnt cultural adaptation
model- denial, irritation, acceptance, adaptationhow to cope with culture shock.
(My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
PR: This movie shows us experience of an American marrying a girl from a conservative
Greek family and how he cope with the situation, and both the families after initial resistance
and uncomfortable encounters, learn to adapt with each other. This movie tells us about
respecting and accepting other cultures.
(My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
SO: I learnt that nothing is impossible, though cultural differences are there but attitude to
mix and adapt with other cultures, and respect to other cultures helps in cultural adaptation. The
movie also depicted how people get culture shock and learn to overcome it.
(My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
Another theoretical concept which influenced students mindset very strongly is cultural
adjustment and adaptation, a well-connected concept with culture shock. Here, My Big Fat Greek
Wedding scores over Outsourced, as more number of students cited scenes from this movie in
their reflection notes (even if we club together numbers written against cultural adaptation,
cultural adjustment and acculturation process, see table-1a). If we see students responses in this
case, they have cited about theoretical models of cultural adjustment and cultural adaptation and
tried to connect movie scenes for explaining their theoretical learning.

Students reactions on cross-cultural competence and cultural intelligence (movie- Outsourced)

VR: The movie shows us, when a foreigner enters in a country not by choice, there is an
initial resistance to the culture of the country, which then accepted slowly where the individual
feels that he can live with this culture, and slowly adapts to this new culture. This movie also
tells about importance of cultural intelligence.
NS: I also learnt about cross-cultural competence and cultural intelligence through the
movie Outsourced, when hero initially failed to recognize and respect cultural differences but
later learnt, and started finding this environment and his colleagues and the country very
interesting. This is my learning- how to adapt to new cultures after doing ones homework
properly, it is required in the age of globalization.
PR: This movie has given a great deal of learning since it involves the behavior of Indians
and how our behaviors are perceived odd by foreigners. It shows about experiences of a
foreigner in India, which he encounters in different situations and places; and how he learns to
cope with them and becomes a good manager for his team members. It depicts well on culture
shock, cross-cultural competence, cultural adaptation, cultural integration and cultural
intelligence.
It can be observed in above responses of students that cross-cultural competence and cultural
intelligence also influenced students mindset up to a great extent. Here, Outsourced scored over
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Table-1a). Students responses also indicate that they not only liked
the movie very much but also learnt a lot by connecting its story, scenes and dialogues with
cultural theories and their personal experiences. The above comments reflect more on their
personal learning out of classroom experiences than just their personal likes for a particular
movie scene or character. The above comments also mention of a number of relevant connected
in a common thread indicating good level of learning outcomes achieved.

Discussion
In this entire experiment of using two popular Hollywood movies, Outsourced and My Big Fat
Greek Wedding, the author had different experiences during the course. Students, who joined the
course, were quite enthusiastic right from the first session and maintained their enthusiasm
throughout the course. They participated in each and every activity, classroom discussion and
project work with high commitment. As an instructor, the author was quite apprehensive about
using selected movies in continuity as students may lose the interest in later sessions that may
impact quality of discussions negatively. However, it did not happen and students participated in
discussions with full enthusiasm throughout the course. Another apprehension of the author was
that while using selected scenes from different movies in the same session may create breaks in

continuity of discussions and students may find difficult to switch over from one movie context
to another one, but this switchover was also liked by students and they found it quite interesting
to connect scenes from different movies to the same theoretical concept e.g. culture shock or
intercultural communication. A common response of students during classroom discussions was
that movies provided them variety of visual stimuli and ideas that forced them to see the same
picture from multiple angles hence resulted into developing multiple perspectives on crosscultural issues. Students found both the movies very meaningful and relevant in context of the
course MCCI. Their responses on learning effectiveness of movies also indicate the same.
Students were so involved in the course that some of them came up with their own
recommendations on popular Hollywood, Bollywood (Hindi) and Indian languages, and even
foreign languages movies which could be used in courses on cross-cultural management, crosscultural communication or cultural studies.
One of the major objectives of the course was that at the end of the course students should
develop their own theoretical perspective free from any cultural biases. However, it is very
difficult to free oneself from lifelong learning of cultural stereotypes that happen in a specific
cultural context. In a classroom, full of students of Indian national culture, mostly of Hindu
religion and only single girl student in the class, it was a tough task to keep free classroom
environment from cultural stereotypes. There were instances of arguments on gender issues and
cultural stereotypes, cultural biases of Indians against Americans and Westerners or Indians
special pride on their cultural values but all these incidences helped in realistic cultural learning
in the classroom and developing multiple perspectives on cross-cultural issues (both, students
and the instructor agreed on this point) and selected movies worked as catalyst in this learning
process.
Limitations
One of the limitations observed by the author in teaching course on Managing Cross-Cultural
Issues was that both the groups (2008 and 2009) were dominated by males, Hindu religion and
Indian national culture. The classroom experience could be far interesting and rich if students
could be from diverse backgrounds (different nationalities, religions, ethnic groups, languages
other than Indian sub-continent languages and 50% female students), but these are idealistic
conditions which an instructor can wish for teaching a course on cross-cultural management.
Although all the students knew English very well but some of them found difficulties in
understanding some words and phrases spoken by different actors in both the movies (may be
because of foreign accent) but they were quite vocal in expressing their difficulties.
Small batch size (14 in both the batches) is another factor which acted as a limitation in
classroom learning. A small group of students limits variety of ideas and thoughts in classroom

discussions. On the basis of classroom observations, it is felt by the author that batch size of 2530 could be ideal for such kind of courses focused on cross-cultural management, cross-cultural
communication or cross-cultural skills training etc. A large group (more than 40) is not also
recommended that an instructor may find it difficult to control the class and most of students
may not be watching the movies seriously which may dilute effectiveness of classroom
discussions.
One of the limitations identified by academicians in using popular films in classroom is that
films are storytelling from a particular directors point of view and therefore reflect personal
perspective which may be or may not be acceptable to some students (Mallinger and Rossy,
2003). Students from different backgrounds may react differently to the same scene and actors
in the scene and draw different interpretations (Mallinger and Rossy, 2003). There may be some
uncomfortable situations in the classroom if students find some scenes objectionable on grounds
of racial, caste, language, religion or any other kind of prejudice. There are also chances that
films shown in the classroom may strengthen certain stereotypes among students against some
specific groups if this issue is not handled carefully by the instructor in the classroom (Mallinger
and Rossy, 2003).
Another important issue in using movies in the classroom is handling scenes with sexual
intimacy, nudity, extreme violence, abusive language and weird situations, especially when they
come in connection to critical sequences in the movie. It is recommended that an instructor
should try to avoid screening of such scenes as far as possible. If scenes are embedded in the
story in such a way that audience will miss the storyline then instructor should take decision in
consultation with the students to avoid any embarrassing situation in the classroom. Mallinger
and Rossy (2003) advise instructors to select movie scenes very carefully and recommend that
scenes loaded by with nudity, violence or foul language should not be shown in the classroom as
some students (females and students believing in strong moral or conservative religious values)
may not like it or refuse to participate in classroom discussions. In his own experiences with the
movies, Outsourced and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the author had decided to skip scenes with
mild sexual intimacy in classroom screening to avoid any embarrassing situation; as in both of
batches, there was only one girl student in the classroom.
In a course on cross-cultural management, language may become one of the major limitations
which needs be handled carefully as language is major medium of communication. Digital
technology has made dubbing and subtitling of movies very easy and a number of movies are
available in more than one languages e.g. Slumdog Millionaire is available in English and Hindi
both. But, at times, dubbed scenes or scenes with subtitles may be communicating real meaning
of dialogues in the scene which may lead to distorted communication to participants. People find
very difficult to understand and appreciate humor, satire and verbal expression of feelings in a
language which they do not know at all. Champox (1999) also cautioned management scholars

and trainers about this limitation arguing that some students may not like to watch foreign films
with subtitles and foreign films can also have culturally-based subtleties that a nonnative might
not understand easily. While discussing on intercultural communication and culture shock, some
South Indian students commented that for them watching Rajinikanths movies (most popular
Tamil movie star in South India) in any language other than Tamil is a culture shock, as in
dubbing and subtitling process essence of dialogues is lost. An instructor needs to be extremely
careful if one chooses a foreign language movie available in dubbed form or with subtitles for a
course on cross-cultural management or cross-cultural communication.
Another limitation of films is time-period in which films are made, not the time period which
they claim to portray (Mallinger and Rossy, 2003). This limitation becomes very critical in
courses on cross-cultural communication, cross-cultural management or cultural studies etc.;
when instructor has availability of films produced by different directors in different time period
but on the same story. For example, there are two movies with the same name, The Time
Machine (1960, director- Geroge Pal) and The Time Machine (2002, director-Simon Wells), two
movies on Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi (1982, director- Richard Attenbourough) and The Making
of Mahatma (1996, director- Shyam Benegal). Similarly Nixon (1995, director- Oliver Stone),
Pearl Harbor (2001, director- Michael Bay), JFK (1991, director- Oliver Stone), Patton (1970,
director-Frank J. Schaffner), Schindlers List (1993, director-Steven Spielberg) claim to portray
historical events but are very influenced by directors own perspective and cultural values of the
time period in which they were produced.
This limitation of time period needs to be handled very carefully by the instructor in the
classroom. The instructor should be extremely careful in selection of the movie and relevant
literature linked to discussion topics. The instructor should encourage students to think from
multiple perspectives on the same issue/situation depicted in the movie and relevant literature,
and lead discussion carefully. Most important, the discussion should be focused on theoretical
issues and literature, and movie should be used as complementary or supporting content to the
literature. Champox (1999) considered time period as advantage if an instructor chooses two
movies on the same story but produced in different periods with different directors and actors.
The instructor can use this opportunity to generate multiple perspectives in the classroom.
Conclusion
Overall, the author felt quite satisfied with this experience of using two popular Hollywood
movies in teaching the course Managing Cross-Cultural Issues. Initially, when author used the
movie Outsourced with the 2008 batch; there was a concern whether this experiment may succeed or not
because the author had planned to show the movie in different sessions sequentially. The author was also
doubtful if this movie may become just an entertainment piece rather than a valuable learning tool at the
end of the course. The successful experiment encouraged the author to introduce another popular
Hollywood movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding in the next years course; and this time students

feedback on their learning was taken through their reflection notes and the experiment was also
successful second time with the 2009 batch. On the basis of his classroom observations and
students reactions in their reflection notes, the author concludes that be it a management case in
print form or a popular movie, its learning effectiveness and success in the classroom is
determined by careful selection of case or movie, active participation of students and teaching
skills of the teacher. Innovation in classroom learning comes from mindset of the teacher, a welldesigned course content and active involvement of students in the course.

References
Bhawuk, D. P. S., & Brislin, R. W. (2000). Cross-cultural training: A review. Applied
Psychology: An International Review, 49, 162-191.
Bumpus, M. A. (2005). Using Motion Pictures to Teach Management: Refocusing the Camera
Lens through the Infusion Approach to Diversity. Journal of Management Education, Vol. 29
No. 6, December 2005 792-815.
Champoux, J. (1999). Film as a teaching resource. Journal of Management Inquiry, 8, 206-217.
Cardon, P. W. (2010). Using Films to Learn About the Nature of Cross-Cultural Stereotypes in
Cross-Cultural Business Communication Courses. Business Communication Quarterly, Volume
73, Number 2, June 2010 150-165.
Dunphy, S., Meyer, D. and Linton, S. (2008). The top 10 greatest screen legends and what their
definitive roles demonstrate about management and organizational behavior. Behaviour &
Information Technology, Vol. 27, No. 2, March April 2008, 183 188
Littrell, L. N., Salas, E., Hess, K. P., Paley, M., & Riedel, S. (2006). Expatriate preparation:
A critical analysis of 25 years of cross-cultural training research. Human Resource Development
Review, 5, 355-388.
Mallinger, M., & Rossy, G. (2003). Film as lens for teaching culture: Balancing concepts,
ambiguity, and paradox. Journal of Management Education, 27, 608-624.
Smith, W. I., Shrestha, N.R. and Evans, C. L. (2010). 3600 approach to assessing cross-cultural
intelligence: use of film. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies. Volume 3, June 2010. (Internet
Journal- http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/09424.pdf)
Summerfield, F. (1994). Crossing cultures through film. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.
Tidwell, C. H., Jr. (2001, November 1). Fools rush in: Developing cross-cultural sensitivity
using film-based group projects. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National
Communication Association, Atlanta, GA.
Varner, I., & Beamer, L. (2005). Intercultural communication in the global workplace (3rd ed.).
Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Verluyten, S. P. (2007). Cultures: From observation to understanding. Leuven, Belgium:
ACCO.
Verluyten, S. P. (2008, October 30). The use of video excerpts in intercultural training. Paper
presented at the 73rd Annual Convention of the Association for Business Communication,
Lake Tahoe, NV.

Internet Documents:
Christine Roell (2010). Intercultural Training with Films. English Teaching Forum, Vol. 2., 2-15.
(http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/files-folder111111/48_2-etfintercultural-training-with-films.pdf)
Iti Rakshit (2010),

Cross-Cultural Bridging Strategies in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, July 5, 2010.

(http://www.suite101.com/content/cross-cultural-bridging-strategies-in-my-big-fat-greek-wedding-

a257976)

Review document on My Big Fat Greek Wedding. (http://www.eslnotes.com/movies/pdf/My-BigFat-Greek-Wedding.pdf)

Appendix-A
Session Plan for the Course Managing Cross-Cultural Issues
Sessions
1

Topic

What is Culture?*
1. Topics covered: Introduction to What is culture?, various perspectives and
approaches to study culture, why a course on managing cross -cultural issues
is relevant for management students?
Eastern and Western Cultures
Topics covered: Differences between Eastern and Western cultures, national culture,
cultural dimensions theories by Hofestede, Trompennar and others.
Movie: Outsourced
(OUT -1, OUT -2)
Cultures Influence on Work Values and Organizational Practices
Topics covered: Cultures influence on self, personality, work values, management
styles and work culture; professional work cultures in different countries/geographical
regions.
Movie: Outsourced
(OUT -3, OUT -4)
Movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding (MBFGW-1, MBFGW-2)
Culture Shock and Acculturation
Topics covered: Culture shock, coping with culture shock, acculturation,

Movie: Outsourced
(OUT-1, OUT-2, OUT-5, OUT -6)
Movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding
(MBFGW-3, MBFGW-4, MBFGW-5, MBFGW-6)
Intercultural Communication
Topics covered: Intra-cultural communication, intercultural communication, barriers
and problems in intercultural communication, cultural adjustment, culture and gender
relationships

Movie: Outsourced
(OUT-3, OUT-4 , OUT -8, OUT-9)
Movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding
(MBFGW-4, MBFGW-6)
Working in culturally diverse teams
Topics covered: Cultural diversity at workplaces (gender, minorities, different ethnic
groups).

7
8
9

Movie: Outsourced
(OUT-3, OUT-4, OUT-7)
Ethics: Complexities in Managing Across Cultures*
Managing Intercultural Business Negotiations*
Cross-Cultural Competence and Cultural Adjustment
Topics covered: Cultural intelligence, cross-cultural competence, cross-cultural training

10

Movie: Outsourced (OUT-3, OUT-4, OUT -5, OUT -7, OUT-10, OUT-11, OUT-12)
Movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding
(MBFGW-7)
P r oject P r esenta tions a nd Reca p of Lea r ning

Notes: 1. Scenes from the movie Outsourced are coded as OUT and from the movie My Big Fat Greek
Wedding, as MBFGW.
2. Some movie scenes are included in more than one session, but that inclusion is for classroom
discussion purpose. In actual classroom sessions, scenes were repeated in next sessions as per situational
requirements e.g. students demand or need felt by the instructor.
3. * No movie scenes from selected movies were shown or discussed in these sessions.

Selected Scenes from the Movie- Outsourced

OUT- 1: (00:30-12:27, duration- 12 minutes approx.)
Todd Andersons boss Dave asks Todd to relocate to India as the company has decided to outsource the
call centre of Western Novelty to India. Todd reluctantly agrees to train his replacement in India as the
entire department is outsourced. He arrives at Mumbai airport and gets a series of culture shocks with
Taxi drivers, auto rickshaw driver, catches train hurriedly at the railway station and lands up in a small
town Gharapuri where he meets his local manager Mr. Purohit.
OUT- 2: (13:00-21:11, duration-8 minutes approx.)
Todd finds himself in many awkward situations e.g. touching the food with left hand, too personal
questions from Indian people and their self-disclosures about their personal life to a stranger, being called
his name as Toad instead of Todd, a cow in the call centre building which is under construction,
encounter with Indian toilet system, exposure to lower and upper castes in Indian social system, perplexed
to see picture of Goddess Kali and so on.
OUT -3: (21:20-23: 39, duration- 2:20 minutes approx.)
Todd conducts his first training session with his team members, faces unexpected questions from them
and realizes cultural differences between American and Indian work culture.
OUT -4: (25:48-29:52, duration- 4:04 minutes approx.)
Todd wants to reduce MPI from 12 minutes to 6 minutes and he conducts more training sessions for his
team members on American people, their language and lifestyle. In the process, he also learns new things
about Indian culture from his Indian colleagues.
OUT -5: (33:00- 35:50, duration-2: 50 minutes approx.)
Todd sees an advertisement of a popular fast-food restaurant MacDonnell which he misperceives as
McDonalds, he travels miles away to Mumbai and meets another American guy at the restaurant who
advises him on how to adjust with Indian culture and people and makes ones life easy in this country.
OUT-6: (37:32-, 41:02 duration- 3:40 minutes approx.)
Todd finds himself in the open when the Indian festival of colors Holiis being celebrated by people of
Gharapuri. Initially, he finds himself in a state of shock, but Purohit tells him about Holi and Todd enjoys
the festival with full enthusiasm and spirit.

OUT-7 (42:25- 52:45, duration- 10:20 minutes approx.)

On his return to the call centre, Todd and Purohit get surprised to see MPI at 8:12 and Asha on
supervisors seat. She tells them that somebody had to take charge, so she did at her own. Todd works out
new strategies to motivate his people, he allows them to redesign their workstations as per their desires.
This move makes people happy. Todd also enjoys dancing and partying with his team members. He also
convinces his company to send incentive gifts for his team members if they achieve target of 6 minutes.
OUT -8: (53:28- 63:28, duration- 10 minutes approx.)
On knowing that the gift parcel landed in some wrong place with the same name, Todd and Asha decides
to go to that place for collecting the parcel. On the way, Asha tells a number of things about Indian
culture and social systems to Todd. Asha gets annoyed when Todd could not understand communication
of local agent and hotel manager, and they land up in Kamasutra suite of the hotel.
OUT -9: (1:10:00-1:12:00, duration- 2 minutes approx.)
Todd also accepts invitation of poor man who belongs to lower caste to whom Todd had offered his food
earlier. Todd comes to know that he is a trained electrician. Todd gets exposure to daily life of poor
people in India.

OUT -10: (1:15:00- 1:20:10, duration- 5:10 minutes approx.)

Todds boss Dave arrives in India suddenly, when Todd takes him to the office, the entire office is
flooded with the irrigation water from a nearby field. Dave gets irritated with this situation but Todd tells
him that it is not a big problem and shifts the entire office on the rooftop with the help of local electrician
who makes it functional within few hours. Dave breaks the news that the company has decided to close
this centre and outsource it to China, as it will save huge costs.
OUT-11 (1:21:00-1:24:00, duration-3:00 minutes approx.)
Todd breaks the news of outsourcing of call centre to China to all team members. Purohit gets
disappointed on loss of his job. Todd consoles him.
OUT-12 (1:30:00-1:32:15, duration- 2:15 minutes)
Dave again asks Todd to shift to China, Todd refuses this offer and recommends Purohit for this job, as
he is the man in need.

Selected Scenes from the Movie- My Big Fat Greek Wedding

MBFGW -1: (1:30- 12:50 , duration- 11:20 minutes approx.)
Toula narrates about her childhood and big Greek family, also tells about her inner self-conflicts,
loneliness and emotional feelings.

MBFGW -2: (15:40-23:40, duration- 9 minutes approx.)

Toula sees a pamphlet related computer classes. She asks her mother to help her in convincing the father
for allowing her to join computer classes. She joins computer classes and slowly brings new changes in
her personality and appearance (curly hairstyle, thick glasses replaced by contact lenses, change in
dressing style etc.). Toula, her mother and Aunt Voula also convince Gus to let Toula work for Aunt
Voulas travel agency.
MBFGW -3: (37:10-40:20, duration- 3 minutes approx.)
Gus becomes wild knowing that her daughter is dating with a non-Greek boy. He starts looking for
suitable Greek groom for his daughter. He rejects Ian Millers proposal upfront. Toula shares her feelings
with the mother who asks her to forget about love, as no one can go against her fathers wishes in the
family.
MBFGW -4: (42:21-43:30 ,duration- 11:10 minutes approx.)
Toula meets with Ians father and mother and they accept her quite easily as life-partner of their son.
MBFGW -5: (44:55-55:35, duration- 11 minutes approx.)
Gus finally agrees to accept Ian Miller as his son-in-law on advice of her wife but on the condition that he
will be baptized through Greek rituals before the wedding takes place. Ian agrees to his proposal. Ian
faces some unusual experiences with Toulas family members but he starts accepting the situations
slowly.
MBFGW -6: (56:10-69:21, duration-13:11 minutes approx.)
Toula and Ian arrange for meeting of Portokalos and Miller families (their parents only) at family dinner
but it turns to be Big Greek Family Dinner. A number of goof-ups happen in series- Toulas mother
orders the invitations but misspells Ian's parents' names and Toulas cousin Nikki ordered tacky
bridesmaids dresses. On their arrival to the party, vegetarian Millers find themselves shocked when they
are welcomed by the Big Greek Family in a very loud and noisy atmosphere, offered meat-based dishes,
faced difficulties in communicating to family members, forced to listen lengthy stories of personal life
experiences of Aunt Voula and many more.
MBFGW -7: (87:30-97:35, duration-10 minutes approx.)
The wedding day comes and marriage ceremony happens in a very good atmosphere. In the wedding
party, Gus announces acceptance of Ian and Miller family as part of their Big Greek Family. Toulas
family members also find Ian a real Greek boy. Everyone is very happy and blesses the newly-wed
couple.

Reference Books: (These chapters were recommended as pre-session readings for sessions in which
various scenes from movies were shown.)
1. Understanding Cross-Cultural Psychology- Pittu Laungani (2007), Sage Publications.
a. Ch-1, What is this thing called Culture? (Session-1)
b. Ch-2, A Perspective on Cross-Cultural Differences between Eastern and Western
Cultures.
(Session-2)
2. Understanding Cross-Cultural Management- Marie-Jolle Browaeys and Roger Price (2008),
Pearson Education India.
a. Ch-3, Western Business Cultures
(Session-2)
b. CH-4, Eastern Business Cultures (Session-2)
c. Ch-5, Cultural Dimensions and Dilemmas (Session-3)
d. Ch-6, Cultures and Styles of Management (Session-3)
3. Understanding and Managing Diversity: Readings, Cases and Exercises- Carol P. Harvey and M.
June Allard (2005), Prentice-Hall India.
a. Ch- 13, Intercultural Communication: A Current Perspective (Session-5)
b. Ch-9, A World View of Cultural Diversity- Thomas Sowell (Session-6)
c. Ch- 38, Building A Business Case for Diversity- Gail Robinson and Katheleen (Session6)
4. Managing Across Cultures- Susan C. Schneider and Jean-Louis Barsoux (1997), Prentice-Hall.
a. Ch-1 The Undertow of Culture (Session-1)
b. Ch-2 Exploring Culture (Session-1)
c. Ch-3 Interacting Spheres of Culture (Session-1)
5. The Cultural Dimension of International Business- Gary Ferraro (1994), Prentice-Hall.
a. Ch-3 Communicating Across Cultures Language (Session-5)
b. Ch-4 Communicating Across Culture: The Non-Verbal Dimensions (Session-5)
6. Readings for session-9
a . Cross-Cultural Competence in International Business: Toward a Definition
and a Model- J a mes P . J ohnson, Toma sz Lena r towicz a nd Sa lva dor Apud,
J our na l of Inter na tiona l Business Studies (2006) 37, 525 543.
b. Cultural Intelligence: Understanding Behaviors That Serve Peoples Goals Richa r d Br islin; Regina ld Wor thley; Br ent Ma cNa b, Gr oup & Or ga niza tion
Ma na gement; F eb 2006; 31, 1, 40-55.
c. Cultural Intelligence: People Skills for a Global Workforce - Da vid C Thoma s;
Ker r Inkson, Consulting to Ma na gement; Ma r 2005; 16, 1, 5 -9.
7. Recommended Additional reference books for General Reading
a. Asian Perspectives on Psychology- Henry S. R. Kao and Durganand Sinha (Eds.) (1997),
Vol. 19, Cross-Cultural Research and Methodology Series, Sage Publications, New
Delhi.
b. Encyclopedia of Multicultural Psychology- Yo Jackson (2006), Sage Publications.