SBS — MBA Communication and Negotiation Skills

Overview

Assignment

Part A (Case based)

Case study: – word count (1500-2000 words)

40 Marks

You are the HR Director of English First, a private English language teaching company based in the

GCC.

Until now you have taken a traditional approach to the recruitment and selection of teachers.

However, you have been noticing modern trends around the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for

recruitment and selection, and you think there is a lot of value in adopting this technology.

Your CEO, Mr. Dan Pearce, is skeptical of modern technology, and you will need to negotiate with

him to adopt AI for recruitment and selection. It should also be noted that Mr. Pearce does not like

communicating via complicated language, and negotiating is more effective when proposals are

communicated to him in plain English.

Write a proposal report communicated in plain English, making the case as to why English First

should start to invest in the HireVue AI technology. Use the language of counter-argument and

argument to ensure you negotiate persuasively. Refer to any published evidence to help support your

proposal.

Part B (Case based)

Case study: – word count (1500-2000 words)

50 Marks

You are the new Global HR Director for TEFORS, a company which makes luxury, leather backpacks

that can be used for travel and work.

TEFORS is headquartered in the UK, but to expand its market share, it wants to open a subsidiary in

China.

You have been asked to train a team of sales representatives from the UK to work as expatriates in the

subsidiary office in China.

Write a training report to help prepare the expatriates for their cross-cultural experience. Use the

following prompts to help structure the content of your report.

Briefly summarise the key information from the text: Negotiating International Business -

United Kingdom by Lothar Katz. What kind of business culture are the TEFORS expatriates

already accustomed to in the UK?

What cultural similarities and differences (see for example, Hofstede Insights Country

Comparison Tool) are there between UK culture and Chinese culture? How might this

information affect the way the expatriate communicates and negotiates with stakeholders

from China? What are the strengths and weaknesses of Hofstede’s research?• Are there are any relevant real-life examples/case studies, e.g. American Factory, that the

expatriate can learn from to improve their cross-cultural communication? If yes, what lessons

can be learned?

Develop a checklist for successful negotiations using essentials points from Opresnik’s The

Hidden Rules of Successful Negotiation and Communication Getting to Yes!; Fisher & Ury’s

The Principled Negotiation; and Caldini’s Interpersonal Principles of Influence. Only select

information for the checklist which you think will benefit the expatriates working in China and explain why.