This document provides information about an elective course called the Cross-Cultural Business Skills minor. It outlines the course structure, assignments, expectations, and schedule. The course runs for one semester starting in February and includes team and individual assignments, lectures, and a final exam in June. Students will work together to research and write a book on cross-cultural management topics over the course of the semester.

1. — Tuesday, 12 January, 2016—
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The first lesson week will look
somewhat different from our
normal schedule, in order to let
everyone smoothly choose their
team and task roles. In week one
you will therefore just be invited
to join the Tuesday and Thursday
evening classes. Full time students
will however from week two on-
wards also have one weekly theory
class and possible team/stream
appointments. Part time students
are very welcome to join, but it’s
not required for their study pro-
gramme. The exact week schedule
took a long time to be confirmed,
but is availble from rooster.hva.nl.
Part-time fulltime
Because part-time students are
exempted of varied study pro-
gramme requisites and because
fulltime students need to have
a minimum amount of contact
hours for the Dutch student grant
regulations (Studiefinanciering),
we have adjusted our course’s
timetable accordingly.
© SH69T Studio, 2012
Welcome to the minor Cross
Cultural Business Skills
Lessons start
on 2 February
I
t took us longer than antici-
pated to send you this introduc-
tion flyer, but here is a quick
welcome newsletter providing you
with some first information on the
elective course (minor) you chose.
I have entered your name on my
mailing list and assume you will
takepartintheminorcross-cultur-
al business skills starting on Febru-
ary 2 at 19:00 hours in room 00.30
in the Fraijlemaborg building near
the Arena station. I am looking
forward to this new semester, and
meeting you all for the first time.
I personally think a choice to work
on your intercultural intelligence
is a smart one, as the global sup-
ply chain undergoes a quantum
shift at the moment. The world
is internationalising at a speed
never seen before. The amount of
cross-border contacts is augment-
ing exponentially, making the
chances of having to communicate
professionally with people from
elsewhere (either via globalisa-
By Sander schroevers
CCBS coordinator
Assignments
There are several team assign-
ments, which we would like to
schedule already in week one.
We’ll tackle this during Sander’s
evening classes of Feb. 2 and 4,
Prevent us choosing prescheduled
teams for you, simply by not miss-
ing the first two lessons.
Experiences to share?
An expat or exchange student? We
would love to hear you explain
your own country to us. There is
a work description and prescribed
format available, and co-present
with Sander one night, naturally
for bonus points. —more in class
Web lectures: integral
teacher talk powerpoints
Watch back selected full lessons,
and yes: finally pause your teach-
er. At CCBS we are pleased to use
this excellent way to inform you.
It also works on smartphones.
—more on web = multimedia
educational News for expats or exchange students book project News Video Audio News
tion or emigration), unarguably
high. At CCBS we will provide
you with the necessary skills and
knowledge to feel more secure in
such situations. In lessons, web
lectures and readings we will cover
most of the globe. Besides, you
will actively research yourselves
and even co-create new knowledge
together with your classmates.
Learning goals:
On completion of this minor, par-
ticipants will be familiar with the
key principles of cross-cultural
communication, and be able to
identify and analyse instances of
cross-cultural communication
difficulties, as well as suggest so-
lutions to those difficulties. This
will contribute to achieving the
specified programme learning
outcome of taking a proactive and
self-reflective role in working and
developing professional relation-
ships abroad, or when dealing with
foreign contacts at home. But for
now, please browse this little news-
letter to get a taste of what will be
hapening in just a few weeks, and
let’s meet on Febr. 2 and 4, when
we will start to get well organised
for the semester. On behalf of my
colleagues Riana and Aynur: see
you then people!
Prescribed book:
The textbook below is mandatory
as syllabus and course reading ma-
terial. It will be available as from
February 1, and can be purchased
only at the StudyStore campus
bookshop at the-Fraijlemaborg
(or online for part-time students).
Leadership research
The semester’s book concentrates
on International Leadership
styles (see back side), so during
the semester our research will
focus on local Leadership issues.
—more in course reader
TXTBK CrossCulturalBusinessSkills
by Sander Schroevers (Ed.)
Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: CCBS press
ISBN: 978-90-79646-28-9
Price: € 29,00
HvA databases: Books24x7
We intensively make use of
online readings at CCBS.
This means that sometimes
your homework consists
of selected chapters from
books. Surf to: [bib.hva.nl],
choose [Databases] and under
the letter [B] choose [Book-
s24x7].You need to log-in
with the combination you
received by postal mail.
Icebreaker drink 2 Feb.
May we suggest you to join for a
short drink after class on Tuesday
evening1Sept.?Thiswaythegroup
atmosphere really gets nicer. Join
us to the Grolsch Cine Café, ArenA
blvd. 242 near Arena train station.
The first drink is on us naturally.
social capital

2. Ccbs MINOR CHECK OUT: WWW.minorccbs.COM-
Events by CCBS
CCBS regularly organises sym-
posia or seminars on country
specific cultural intelligence. Here
journalists, entrepreneurs or other
interested people can mix with the
regular CCBS student audience.
We try to invite distinguished
speakers, plus an expert-panel.
Previous CCBS events got pub-
lished even in the Financieele
Dagblad on two pages. Normally
we also organise some (illegal)
in-school parties, respecting the
proverb: ‘work-hard, play-hard!’
To let such events go smoothly,
an event-stream is taking care of
organising and hosting events.
more in class
By appointment only?
When we will mail you a timetable,
it will show certain blocks sched-
uled as: ‘by-appointment-only’.
These are meant as consult-hours,
for which TEAMS or STREAMS
will schedule appointments (with
the lecturers Aynur, Riana or
Sander). During such a consult a
group’s progress will be assessed.
All consult appointments are com-
pulsory and they influence the
grades for the group product(s).
the Streams: your
individual task
At the semester start you will be
asked to choose a specific task
which we call STREAM, (this
in order to differentiate it from
TEAM). The stream tasks are in-
dividual and usually encompass
online data research for Higher
Education or Media. There is also a
possibility to work on a more cre-
ative stream task, with the Photo-
shop assignment. The stream task
of students taking part as CLASS
MANAGERS, are more specific:
like PR, acquisition, VIP selection,
social media and web communi-
cations and event management.
Class managers can earn exemp-
tions for exams or parts thereof.
The class management board regu-
larly consults with Sander, and can
make use of existing workdescrip-
tions in so-called WRKBK’s. These
are pdf-files often explaining ex-
actly what to do, and usually also
contain a planning and the targets.
Facebook website
After the start of the semester
both our website and Facebook
site will play a pivotal role in the
communication between staff
and students amongst each other.
Furthermore these two are cross-
medially connected to OneDrive
as our primary channel for data.
It is here, where you will find all
the information, downloads, etc.
We strive not to e-mail too much,
and ask you to upload and down-
load everything from there, except
for the larger video files, which
can be uploaded on our YouTube
channel. For the rest our TXTBK is
the central reference source.
Part-time students just join the
two evening classes. All full-time
and exchange students also have
two day-time project classes, a
plenary theory class and manda-
tory consult appointments.
Because of the class size we de-
cided to split the project classes
in two tracks. These are mirrored,
so if you are in the early track on
TUE, you will find yourself in the
later track on THU. For a detailed
overview please consult the roster
website at: https://rooster.hva.nl
Classes after week one
TUE 12:00-13:40 Track 1 Project class
TUE 13:40-15:20 Track 2 Project class
TUE 15:20-17:50 Teamworkdeliverables
TUE 19:00-22:00 Plenary lecture
THU 10:20-12:00 Plenary lecture
THU 12:00-13:40 Track2Projectclass
THU 12:50-15:20 Track1Projectclass
THU15:20-17:00Teamworkdeliverables
THU 17:00-17:50 Appointment only
THU 19:00-22:00 Plenary lecture
How many papers have you
made so far during your stud-
ies, and what happened to all the
work in the end? At this course we
believe that our participants are
capable of high quality work, pro-
vided that we can inspire them to
do so. For the PocketBook assign-
ment the whole class researches
and writes a cross-cultural mana-
gament book together. And be-
sides the writing process we also
operate during five months as a
small publishing and event organi-
sation. That means that we fullfill
parallel assignments: writing a
chapter in a ‘team’, and a project
Timetable Writing a book together in
stead of just another paper
which classes, when and where ?
pocket book
assignment of 6 ects credits
© Photograph by SH69T
Humor is by far the most
significant activity of the
human brain.
—Edward De Bono
OneDrive, no DLWO...
In order to allow also our external
students quick access to the neces-
sary files, we will distribute files in
online non-HvA folders. We will
invite team members to their own
folder, and a general CCBS folder.
You are also asked to upload your
work there. OneDrive is the pre-
ferred way of handing in assign-
ments and work, in stead of mails.
—more in class
Social events at CCBS?
In the first week we suggest to have
a socialising drink in town, to get
to know each other better. And at
the end of term II we have our fes-
tive book presentation, followed
by a fun party in town.
Vast country library
The CCBS course offers you some
fantastic country profiles and
other reference material. Stuff that
Google can never supply you with.
Once your team has chosen for a
country you can obtain digital or
books via your lecturers.
—more in class
HvA databases goldmine
Although some of you may already
have discovered the digital wealth
which the school’s databases offer,
you nevertheless will be surprised
probably by what you can learn
during the special instruction les-
sons. Please note that the use of
the HvA databases is compulsary
for certain research assignments.
—bib.hva.nl = databanken
Eating and drinking OK
Some students have to work all
day, and commute as well. We re-
alise that they need to strengthen
their energy levels. So you are al-
lowed to eat or drink during the
evening lessons (provided that you
clean your table afterwards). At the
first floor there is also a campus
restaurant, serving dishes also on
TUE THU evenings. In short:
‘Bon appétit!’
quick Headlines
ccbs management tasks
To gain experience in leader-
ship and to obtain exam ex-
emptions: consider applying
for a class management task.
task in a so-called ‘stream’. The
good news is that at the end of the
semester you will have become a
true writer. Your very own name is
not only on the back-cover of the
book, but also in GoogleBooks, in
all library and internet catalogues.
Naturally we advise you to add a
heading Publications to your CV.
It goes without saying that the
book presentation always is a great
party. Interested in what previous
CCBS students did? Check out the
HvA library, or browse a digital
copy from our website or Google-
Another semester structure
Coming originally from the part-
time academy, this course follows
a slightly different semester calen-
dar. So all fulltime students: please
take note of this when planning
your breaks etc.
A semester of 20 weeks is divided
into two terms of 10 weeks each.
Of these ten weeks, the first seven
are lecturing weeks, the last three
are always for exams, assignments,
resits, and feedback. So it’s 7 + 3
weeks (term I) and again 7 + 3
weeks (term II), holidays excluded.
Final exam mid June
The school’s definite exam time-
tables will be published later, but
for the time being we expect the
final exam to be in the week 6 of
term II. For exchange students, or
those going on work placements
this proves to be a better solution,
compared to the regular schedule.
CCBS global
fact tank
CCBS global fact tank is an ongo-
ing academic research project, of
the Amsterdam University of Ap-
plied Sciences. It entails a quan-
titaive online survey and qualita-
tive recorded multimedia quotes/
interviews. Each semester the
worldwide business skills survey
assesses approx. 2,500 executives
and senior managers aged 25-
55 in each participating country.
At CCBS we hope to encourage
you to develop ways to find and
contact professionals around the
globe. We ask you to record a
phone and Skype conversation
(focus interview) and we ask you
to find professionals willing to re-
spond to our online survey. This
data set is to be used as building
material for your country book
chapter and for placement on our
website. Besides we send out press
packs to newspapers and business
magazines around the globe, and
got published in Brazil, Ghana etc.
World-wide workforce III
An intercultural benchmark of
global recruiting practices
2015, HvA minor CCBS
ISBN 978-90-79646-25-8
Price: € 15,00