Our communities and workplaces have become more diverse in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, religion, and country of origin. How do you perceive diversity in your communities and workplaces? Does diversity mean different? This week you will be introduced the concepts of affinities in addition to diversities. You will have the opportunities to examine the commonalities that diverse groups of people share in their daily life and in workplaces. You will also apply the theoretical framework “cultural capital” (in Pierre Bourdieu’s “The Forms of Capital”) in understanding how diversity contribute to the societies and businesses.

Employees and business leaders nowadays are constantly interacting with people and stakeholders from diverse backgrounds. The cultural inclusion approach is adopted by many businesses and organizations to promote equity and fairness. What is your understanding of cultural diversity? Is diversity inclusion approach only for promoting the rights and opportunities for those who are disadvantaged? Are you aware of the values and benefits that people from diverse cultural backgrounds could bring to an organization? Do you know how to develop your cultural intelligence (CQ)? This week you will learn the importance of cultural intelligence (CQ) and the steps that you will need to take to develop your cultural strategic thinking and to cultivate your behavioural cultural intelligence.

Being culturally intelligent is a key future-focused capability for today’s business leaders. In addition to developing their own cultural intelligence, business leaders need to learn how to leverage their cultural intelligence to effectively motivate and lead others in workplaces. This week you will learn the approaches and programs through which you apply cultural intelligence to effectively manage and lead culturally diverse teams or effectively interact with culturally diverse stakeholders. You will develop the competencies of evaluating cultural environments and strategizing responses accordingly. Attention will also be on the approach and framework for developing high-performing global teams

Being a citizen of our globalised and interconnected world could also face a series of challenges. Traditional institutions, such as the state, community, workplace, and family have all been affected one way or another by the global forces. The boundaries of nation states become increasing blurry and weakened with increasing dominance of transnational business activities and migration of people. For many, traditional family structures are disrupted and family members scattered around globe. All these changes affect individual behaviour and the interactions with each other. This week you will examine the major challenges brought about by globalised forces and develop the awareness of these challenges in a range of institutional settings.

Cultural intelligence (CQ) is a competitive advantage that current and future business leaders need to acquire and cultivate. By consciously or unconsciously practicing and applying CQ in your workplace and daily life, you will become a true global citizen and business leader in a globalized world. In the final week of this course, you will apply all the knowledge we have learned so far and focus on some practical exercises on how to develop the mindset that is globally oriented and culturally sensitive. You will also further develop some skills in translating your individual global mindset to ethical conducts of businesses and organizations.