Leadership and management in intercultural contexts

If you’re working across cultures or leading international teams, this course will help you build confidence and capability as a global leader. You’ll explore the challenges of managing in international settings and develop the skills to lead effectively in diverse environments. You’ll hear from experienced leaders and academic experts, reflect on your own practice, and learn how to bring out the best in people from different backgrounds. Through real-world examples and interactive activities, you’ll examine how national culture, institutions, and identity shape leadership – and begin developing a global mindset for today’s interconnected world.

Key features

  • Explore how cultural and institutional differences shape leadership and management
  • Develop practical skills to lead and manage in diverse international settings
  • Reflect on your own leadership style, identity, and development goals
  • Learn to adapt your approach to local business environments and cultural expectations
  • Gain insights from experienced leaders, peer discussion, and cutting-edge research

What is a microcredential?

Microcredentials are professional development short courses with academic credit designed to help you quickly build in-demand career skills and knowledge that you can immediately apply. Learn more about microcredentials.

Module

Module code
BZVM803
Credits

Credits

  • Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
  • One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
  • You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
  • For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.
15
Study level
Across the UK, there are two parallel frameworks for higher education qualifications, the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Northern Ireland and Wales (FHEQ) and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). These define a hierarchy of levels and describe the achievement expected at each level. The information provided shows how OU postgraduate modules correspond to these frameworks.
OU Postgraduate
SCQF 11
FHEQ 7
Study method

This microcredential is studied entirely online.

Module cost
See Module registration
Entry requirements

Find out more about entry requirements.

What you will study

This course supports your development as a confident, effective leader or manager in international and intercultural environments. You’ll reflect on your own practice, engage with real-world challenges, and develop strategies for navigating cultural and institutional differences in global business.

You’ll study three main themes, organised into three units:

Unit 1: A cultural perspective

You’ll begin by exploring different ways of understanding culture and how it influences leadership and management. You’ll engage critically with a range of frameworks, using them as a starting point to develop your own insights into cultural variation. This unit encourages you to go beyond textbook definitions and think deeply about the complexities of cultural settings.

Unit 2: Institutions and the business environment

In this unit, you’ll examine how national business environments are shaped not only by culture but by institutional structures, such as labour markets, corporate governance, legal systems, and regulatory frameworks. You’ll compare how these elements vary across countries and consider how they impact leadership practice, organisational strategy, and business conduct.

Unit 3: Developing a global mindset

The final unit brings your learning into focus by encouraging you to apply insights to your own leadership context. You’ll reflect on your identity and leadership style, assess your strengths and development needs, and begin crafting a personal action plan to grow as an intercultural leader. You will also consider what it means to develop a global mindset – an increasingly essential capability in today’s connected world.

You will learn

By the end of your learning, you’ll be able to:

  • demonstrate an increased critical understanding of cultural and institutional differences between countries and regions and their implications for leadership and management
  • apply the skills of perspective-taking and reframing that enable you to recast ideas and challenges in ways that work in different countries and regions
  • use cultural and institutional perspectives as a lens to think critically about your own context and your own management and leadership practice
  • critically interpret information about different countries and regions and draw implications for the effective practice of management and leadership in those settings.

Skills you will gain

By the end of this course, you’ll have the skills to lead and collaborate more effectively across cultures and national business environments. You’ll develop your cultural intelligence, improve your ability to build relationships and networks, and learn how to adapt your leadership style to local expectations.

You’ll also be able to think critically about your own leadership practice and apply new perspectives to real-world challenges. As part of the course, you’ll create a personal action plan to continue developing your global mindset and intercultural competence beyond the classroom.

Created by leading experts and practitioners from The Open University

  • Mark Fenton-O’Creevy is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at The Open University Business School. Before moving to The Open University, he was a faculty member at London Business School and has over thirty years of experience researching and advising on decision-making in international organisations.
  • Caroline Clarke is a Professor of Organisation Studies at The Open University Business School. She previously worked at Bristol Business School and spent five years as a researcher on the Change Management Consortium. Her experience teaching students from many different cultures provoked her curiosity about the relevance of multiple identities – an extremely relevant topic for those working in organisations.

Additional contributions were made by Björn Claes, Fahri Karakas, Nceku Nyathi, Angela Lilley, and Fidele Mutwarasibo.

Teaching and assessment

Assessment

You’ll take part in weekly tasks and discussions with co-learners to support and consolidate your learning. These activities and discussions build towards the assessment. Towards the end of the course, you’ll submit an assessment demonstrating the skills you’ve acquired. In this assessment you  will demonstrate how you have applied your learning to your own experiences and challenges, and create an action plan to support your continued learning. This will be marked and graded by subject matter experts and make up 100% of your final mark.

Study support

  • Learn 100% online on the OU’s learning platform with a mix of video, audio and written materials
  • Engage in interactive learning through self-assessment questions, tasks and reflection
  • Share ideas and experiences in discussion with other learners, building skills, confidence and knowledge
  • Receive support from mentors who guide discussions and answer questions
  • Study at a time that suits you with the flexibility to access the course from your desktop, tablet or mobile device

What you will gain

15 UK credits at postgraduate level from The Open University*. Academic credits are awarded on passing the final assessment. These will be at postgraduate level 7 of the Framework for Higher Education (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) / level 11 of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.

*Academic credit may be used towards selected OU qualifications. For more details, including eligible qualifications, visit Counting microcredentials towards OU qualifications. The credit awarded may also be used at another university, subject to the agreement of the receiving institution.

Course work includes

End-of-module assessment

Future availability

Leadership and management in intercultural contexts typically starts twice a year – in March and October.

This page describes the microcredential that will begin in October 2025.

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.

Entry requirements

As this microcredential is at postgraduate level, you should preferably hold a UK undergraduate degree or equivalent qualification.

Please note

  • If you don’t have a degree or equivalent level qualification, you may find the postgraduate level assessment challenging.
  • All teaching is in English, and your English proficiency needs to be adequate for postgraduate study. As a guide, this corresponds to Level 7 of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). However, you won’t need to provide a formal English language score to enrol.

Course length

This 12-week course requires approximately 13 hours of self-paced learning per week, totalling around 150 hours for completion.

Register

Start End England fee Register
13 Oct 2025 Jan 2026 £875.00

Registration closes 12/10/25 (places subject to availability)

Register
This module is expected to start for the last time in January 2027.

Future availability

Leadership and management in intercultural contexts typically starts twice a year – in March and October.

This page describes the microcredential that will begin in October 2025.

Additional costs

Study costs

There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.

Ways to pay for this module

We know there’s a lot to think about when choosing to study, not least how much it’s going to cost and how you can pay.

That’s why we keep our fees as low as possible and offer a range of flexible payment and funding options, including a postgraduate loan, if you study this module as part of an eligible qualification. To find out more, see Fees and funding.

Study materials

What's included

All learning materials, exercises and activities are delivered entirely online.

While certain content can be downloaded, some content is exclusively accessible online, requiring a reliable internet connection for viewing. Please consider this if you are travelling.

Computing requirements

  • Primary device – A desktop or laptop computer. It’s possible to access some materials on a mobile phone, tablet or Chromebook; however, they will not be suitable as your primary device.
  • Our OU Study app operates on supported versions of Android and iOS.
  • Operating systems – Windows 11 or latest supported macOS. Microsoft will no longer support Windows 10 as of 14 October 2025.
  • Internet access – Broadband or mobile connection.

If you have a disability

The course is delivered online and makes use of a variety of online resources. If you use specialist hardware or software to assist you in using a computer or the internet, you can contact us about the support which can be given to meet your needs.

To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our disability support pages.

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