IW201
Business Communication for Global Teams
Faculty
Brendan Thomas Quinn
Founder & Consultant at BTQ
Course length
Duration
Total hours
Credits
Language
Course type
Fee for single course
Fee for degree students
Skills you’ll learn
Overview
Technical teams are global, and technical excellence cannot be sustained within a team that does not communicate effectively. This intensive, practice-driven course begins with the foundations of professional business communication — structuring a message, selecting appropriate channels for a hybrid workplace, and practising evidence-based listening — before demonstrating, through current research, that this ‘standard’ toolkit is itself culturally specific.
This realisation leads into the core of the course: cross-cultural communication. Drawing on Erin Meyer’s eight-scale Culture Map and Hall’s high- and low-context theory, students learn to give feedback, negotiate, resolve conflict, and collaborate across cultures, applying these skills daily in diverse teams.
A dedicated module examines artificial intelligence as a cross-cultural interface, exploring where machine translation and large language models are effective and where they may encode bias. Each session combines one hour of theory with two hours of group work, supported by a continuous team project running throughout the course.
By the end, students are able to communicate effectively across cultures and critically evaluate the role of AI in mediating communication.
Learning highlights
- Build a solid foundation in professional business communication — message, audience, channel choice for hybrid work, structure and evidence-based listening.
- Show, through current research, that ‘good communication’ is culturally shaped, turning basic skills into the gateway to cross-cultural competence.
- Give students a shared, practical framework for reading any cross-cultural situation — the eight-scale Culture Map, high/low context, and cultural intelligence (CQ).
- Develop the everyday skills of global collaboration — feedback, persuasion, negotiation, conflict resolution and inclusive communication.
- Build a critical, current understanding of AI as a cross-cultural tool — its usefulness, its biases, and responsible use.
- Practise all of it in diverse teams through a single project that mirrors a real international venture.
Course outline
15 classes
Session 1
Foundations of Business Communication — message, audience & channel for a hybrid workplace (purpose/audience, the 7 Cs, sync vs async; Bailenson on video/Zoom fatigue).
Session 2
Structure, Clarity & Evidence-Based Listening — top-down structure (‘bottom line up front’) and high-quality listening.
Session 3
Whose Rules Are These? — the business-communication toolkit revealed as a cultural default (Connor’s intercultural rhetoric); what culture is; teams form; bridge into the Culture Map.
Session 4
The Culture Map I — Communicating (high vs low context) & Evaluating (direct/indirect feedback).
Session 5
The Culture Map II — Persuading, Leading, Trusting, Deciding, Disagreeing & Scheduling; building the eight-scale map; Final Project brief & market pairing issued.
Session 6
Stereotypes, Bias & the Single Story — generalisation vs stereotype, unconscious bias and the ladder of inference.
Session 7
Global & Virtual Teams — working across distance; building the Team Communication Charter.
Session 8
Negotiation & Conflict Across Cultures — interests, face and disagreement styles (role-play).
Session 9
Inclusive Communication & English as a Lingua Franca — designing for mixed-fluency audiences.
Session 10
Live Simulation — the global project kick-off; structured peer and mid-course feedback.
Session 11
AI Module I — Machine translation, tone & cultural bias in AI; hands-on bias probe.
Session 12
AI Module II — AI as a cross-cultural collaboration tool; building a culturally-aware prompt kit.
Session 13
AI Module III — Ethics, bias audits & human-in-the-loop design; the team AI Bias Audit.
Session 14
Final Project Studio — build, coach & timed dry run; presentation craft for a global audience.
Session 15
Final Presentations, Assessment & Course Close — team presentations, peer assessment, reflection.
Course materials
Books
Media
Prerequisites
No formal prerequisites are required — the course is foundational and suitable for both Bachelor’s and Master’s students. Students should have a working proficiency in English (as the course is delivered and conducted in English as a lingua franca), as well as a willingness to participate actively in team activities, simulations, and reflective practice. Prior international study, work, or travel experience is welcomed but not required.
Methodology
The course is deliberately practical and collaborative rather than lecture-based. Every three-hour session follows the same rhythm: roughly one hour of focused, research-led theory followed by two hours of hands-on group work — simulations, role-plays, clinics, and building components of the final project. Students work in fixed, deliberately diverse home teams for all three weeks. Short daily homework applies each concept to the student’s own experience or to an AI experiment.
Formats used: short interactive theory sessions, workshops and skills clinics, cross-cultural simulations and role-plays, individual reflection and homework, sustained group project work, and team presentations.
Grading
Apply for this course
Business Communication for Global Teams
by Brendan Thomas Quinn
Total hours
45 Hours
Dates
Sep 07 - Sep 25, 2026
Fee for single course
€1500
Fee for degree students
€750
How to secure your spot
Complete the form below to kickstart your application
Schedule your Harbour.Space interview
If successful, get ready to join us on campus
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