BSNS201-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025

Business and Culture

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 14 July 2025
End Date: Sunday, 9 November 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 27 July 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 28 September 2025

Description

In this course, students will reflect on their own participation in multiple cultural forms: ethnic, occupational, gendered, national, digital, global, temporal etc. They will hear from academics and practitioners about their experiences of culture and their advice on how to engage with cultures. Students will learn how to build connections with people in ways which respect cultural traditions and allow for reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationships to develop in their future occupations and workplaces.

This course is about business and cultures. Culture can be seen as the assumptions and assessments we humans make about the world and the values and beliefs that guide or underpin them as we seek to create and maintain connections between people and with places. We think, write, talk and discuss culture in many different ways. For instance, occupational cultures help us make sense of the expectations people have of us in our roles as workers, organisational and business cultures are specific to particular entities, ethnic cultures can refer to groups of people who have common ancestry and history, and digital cultures create virtual meeting places for engagement. We can also envisage faith-based cultures, community cultures, national cultures and so on.  Of course, cultures can also change as people respond to, and proactively engage in, different ways of doing things.

In this course, students will reflect on their own participation in multiple cultural forms: ethnic, occupational, gendered, national, digital, global, temporal etc. They will hear from academics and practitioners about their experiences of culture and their advice on how to engage with cultures. A practical question that will help orient the course is, how can students build connections with people in ways which respect cultural traditions and allow for reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationships to develop in their future occupations and workplaces? The course is underpinned by all aspects of culture (such as those discussed above), but the course content is mostly structured around how students can engage with local, national and international cultures as well as reflect on their own cultures. As such, the course asks students to consider how their multiple, varied and perhaps conflicting cultural perspectives are part of, similar to, and different from, those of mana whenua, Māori, tangata whenua, Aotearoa New Zealand, and international cultures. It looks at the role Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi has in contemporary workplaces and the relevance of that role for the students’ subject majors, as well as the political and regulatory influences on business and the economy.

Learning Outcomes

  • In this course the following BCom learning goals will be developed:
  • demonstrate  advanced  knowledge  and  critical  competence  within  your  selected  subject major, informed by the broader context of commerce
  • use analytical thinking and problem-solving skills to address specific problems within the field of a particular core discipline or disciplines
  • demonstrate key skills and attributes sought by employers which can be used in a range of applications;
  • demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the nature of biculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand, and its relevance to a selected area of study and/or to your subject major or majors;
  • understand issues from a range of ethical, global and multicultural perspectives, reflect on your own performance and experience, and be engaged in the community;
  • communicate effectively both orally and in written form.

    At the completion of this course it is expected that:
    LO1.2.2 Students will be able to explain political and regulatory influences on the economy;
    LO1.2.3 Students will be able to describe the key elements and processes of the New Zealand legal system relevant to a business context;
    LO2.1.5 Students can work effectively in a team in order to reach a common goal;
    LO3.1.1 Students can explain the influences of their own culture and identity when engaging with another culture;
    LO 3.1.2 Students can explain the role of tangata whenua in society and in commerce and how te ao Māori (primarily perspectives, values and mana whenua) could be applied in their discipline, field of study or future work place, and the reasons for their incorporation.
    LO3.1.3 Students can explain how the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi underpin the management of resources in Aotearoa New Zealand.
    LO5.1.1 Students can identify, consider and debate perspectives, processes and impacts relating to globalisation and localisation in different contexts, drawing on theory and practice when considering issues in their discipline or field of study.
    LO5.1.2 Students can identify, consider and debate perspectives, processes and impacts relating to the culture and identity of multiple stakeholders, drawing on theory and practice when considering issues in their discipline or field of study.

Prerequisites

Any 60 points. RP: ACCT102, ECON104, MGMT100

Recommended Preparation

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00 Haere-roa 118 Ngaio Marsh Theatre
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Friday 10:00 - 11:00 A1 Lecture Theatre
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
Tutorial A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 15:00 - 16:00 Jack Erskine 443
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
02 Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00 Rehua 005
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
03 Thursday 10:00 - 11:00 Beatrice Tinsley 112
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
04 Thursday 13:00 - 14:00 Jack Erskine 443
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
05 Friday 09:00 - 10:00 Jack Erskine 111
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
06 Friday 11:00 - 12:00 Beatrice Tinsley 112
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
07 Friday 13:00 - 14:00 Jack Erskine 443
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
08 Friday 14:00 - 15:00 James Logie 104
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
09 Friday 15:00 - 16:00 John Britten 117 HP Seminar Room
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
10 Wednesday 09:00 - 10:00 Jack Erskine 121
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
11 Wednesday 11:00 - 12:00 Jack Erskine 446
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
12 Wednesday 15:00 - 16:00 Rehua 329
21 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct

Course Coordinator

Tyron Love

Textbooks / Resources

Readings will be provided via the course Learn site.

Notes

Class Representative
A class representative may be asked to volunteer in the first few weeks of class. Any problems with the course can be raised with the class rep. Their email can be found at UCSA. The class representative will take up any issues raised by class members with the lecturer concerned as they occur.

Departmental Academic Policies

Dishonest Practice
The University of Canterbury considers cheating and plagiarism to be serious acts of dishonesty.  All assessed work must be your own individual work unless specifically stated otherwise in the assessment guidelines. Material quoted from any other source must be clearly acknowledged. You must not copy the work of another person (student or published work) in any assessment including examinations, tests and assignments. Any person, who is found to have copied someone else's work, or to have allowed their work to be copied, will receive a fail grade for that piece of assessment and may face disciplinary action which may lead to a fine, community service or exclusion from the university.

IMPORTANT: Where there are concerns regarding the authorship of written course work, a student can be required to provide a formal, oral explanation of the content of their work.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $946.00

International fee $4,363.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see UC Business School Office .

All BSNS201 Occurrences