English   Danish

2025/2026  KAN-CCDCO2006U  Leading and Managing Intercultural Projects

English Title
Leading and Managing Intercultural Projects

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory (also offered as elective)
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course First Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for Global Business and Politics
Course coordinator
  • Esben Karmark - Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC)
Main academic disciplines
  • Corporate governance
  • Globalisation and international business
  • Project and change management
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 23-05-2025

Relevant links
Learning objectives
Students completing the course should be able to:
  • Define the concept of a “project” and the theory of knowledge essentials for successful project management leadership in an international context.
  • Identify and critically discuss the roles, tasks, and interests of project participants and stakeholders of presented Harvard Business Review cases.
  • Analyze team dynamics, power relations, organizational strategy and main financial aspects for project management, while selecting relevant theory to critically assess practices encountered in a project of own choice.
  • Specify and compare the concepts of project risk, uncertainty, trust and complexity, as presented and developed throughout the course literature, cases, and class discussions.
  • Analyze and reflect upon project management functions in contemporary complex organizations. Demonstrate understanding of the variance of national or regional employment ecology models and their impact for project leadership and strategic management outcomes.
  • Demonstrate good academic writing skills. These skills include clear and accurate academic written English, the correct use of relevant terminology, appropriate logical flow, and proper use of citations and references.
Course prerequisites
Knowledge of corporate strategy, management theory, and organizational behavior is an advantage, but not a precondition for participation.
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 1
Compulsory home assignments
Students must pass one compulsory assignment in Academic English to be eligible to attend the exam. This assignment is also the individual student project proposal for the final written Project Report exam.

A retake will be planned for students who due to documented illness cannot participate in the compulsory assignment
Examination
Leading and Managing Intercultural Projects:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Project
Release of assignment Subject chosen by students themselves, see guidelines if any
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Autumn
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

This course will take up the leadership tools necessary to design, manage, and evaluate project work by exploring the conceptual foundations for successful project management in today's globalized, complex organizations and societies. We go beyond simple, and simplistic, “how-to” approaches to project management in several respects. 

 

First, case analysis will offer detailed study and class discussion on leadership and management of projects. Second, the epistemology of project leadership will be developed from case analysis and research literature on project management.  

Third, a historical sense of the project leadership and management literature will offer essential context for further specialization in the Diversity and Change Management Master's program. 

  

Participants will consider how to manage uncertainty and risk associated with project work. We will explore how the human elements of power, politics, and interrelationships play into the success and / or failure of projects. Curriculum-related themes include culture, complex organizations, strategy, stakeholders, diversity, and geopolitical regional differences. 
  

This course aims to help students become informed project managers and leaders, as reflective consumers of project management situations: able to read material with a proper sense of case literature strengths as well as weaknesses. 
Research-based teaching
CBS’ programmes and teaching are research-based. The following types of research-based knowledge and research-like activities are included in this course:
Research-based knowledge
  • Classic and basic theory
Research-like activities
  • Discussion, critical reflection, modelling
Description of the teaching methods
The course will be conducted as on-campus lectures with class discussion. The approach includes assigned readings of cases and literature, reflection, and guided case discussion. Case discussions will employ the Harvard Business School style “case method.” Sessions will include small-group presentations of the cases, instructor-led class discussion of cases and guest lectures.

Students are expected to demonstrate regular class attendance and active participation. Prior case reading is a must. Class discussions depend upon and presume student preparation by reading of the assigned cases prior to each class.
Feedback during the teaching period
On the basis of the lectures and prepared case readings, students will work specifically on cases in groups and will present to the rest of the class. Immediate feedback is given by the class and by the instructor.

The final course examination consists of a 10 pages written project proposal that is based on a mid-term project course proposal.

Students must file a mid-term project course proposal, based on an original research issue. The proposal consists of three pages of text, with citations and a references page, using APA research format: Introduction, Method, Data, Discussion.

The research issue proposal is student inspired. The inspiration can come from student experience, course content, or prospective Master's thesis notions. One instructor provides feedback on acceptability of project paper topic for the course, including structure and logical flow in this mid-term exercise. The other instructor assesses the same document in terms of academic English written competence levels. Students receive detailed feedback on their academic English through assessment and individual feedback.


Student workload
Lectures 30 hours
Academic Writing in English lectures 10 hours
Exam 34 hours
Preparation 132 hours
Total 206 hours
Expected literature

Lueke, R. 2004. Managing Projects Large and Small: The Fundamental Skills for Delivering on Budget and on Time . Cambridge: Harvard Business Press.  

  

Lonergan, Bernard JF 1988. Cognitional Structure. Chapter 14 in Collection. Volume 3 in  The Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan (Edited by FE Crowe and RM Doran, pp. 205 - 221). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.  

  

A case course pack updated annually and made available to students through Harvard Business Publishing.   

  

Additional readings as detailed in the course folder.
Last updated on 23-05-2025