Search results

A major concern facing multinational corporations in the 1990s is how to prepare managers to operate effectively within another culture. Unfortunately, many corporations seldom provide cross‐cultural management training because it is considered unnecessary or ineffective by top management. Given such corporate mentality, a major concern facing trainers is how to develop cultural awareness and improve cultural sensitivity. Introduces a new approach for enhancing the efficacy of cross‐cultural training by extending one of the most effective psychotherapeutic counselling methods – transactional analysis – over the cross‐cultural setting. Presents conceptual framework which suggests that a crucial element of cross‐cultural training for managers must be to help them achieve an “adult ego state”, and thus ensure that they maintain the most effective cross‐cultural position – my culture′s OK, your culture′s OK. By using transactional analysis as a prerequisite to other approaches in cross‐cultural training, trainers can provide a more comprehensive programme which will not only enhance sensitivity and awareness, but ultimately lead to a greater usage of and appreciation for cross‐cultural training by organizations.

The purpose of this case study is to explore to what extent US university undergraduates participating in a research abroad program through US–Taiwan Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) developed intercultural awareness and cross-cultural adaptability skills. It also suggests additional program design features to enhance students' international experiences.

To better understand participants' experiences in the PIRE program, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach. Demographic questionnaires, pre- and postsurveys, observational field notes and individual interviews were conducted for data collection and analysis.

Students perceived the experience abroad to improve their intercultural awareness and skills such as openness to cultural differences, coping with challenges abroad and effectively working in diverse teams. Specifically, quantitative findings reflected group gains in the areas of flexibility/openness and perceptual acuity, whereas qualitative findings indicated growth in students' emotional resilience and personal autonomy.

Additional data collection methods, such as pre-/postinstruments or a longitudinal study would provide a more comprehensive assessment of the impact of education abroad on students' intercultural learning.

Evaluation of programs and outcomes can help identify areas to maximize student learning and assess the value of education abroad.

This is original research and makes a contribution to education abroad programs in postsecondary education.

Faced with a unique problem of providing cross‐cultural awareness training on a continuing basis, Griffith University, located in Brisbane, Queensland developed an innovative program to meet the challenges it faced. A key strategy in the University's Indigenous Recruitment Strategy was to establish a cross‐cultural awareness program sensitising university staff to employment matters affecting indigenous Australians. The reality of developing, implementing and sustaining such a program meant that factors that operate in any large organisation, particularly where flexibility in releasing staff to participate in staff development programs is limited, were particularly problematic. The end product, “Please Explain: Indirect Discrimination in the Workplace”, has translated the concepts of cross‐cultural awareness, traditionally expressed through verbal means, into a staff development resource accessible in multiple formats: print, online, video and audio. The project is an excellent example of how unique solutions can be found to tackle seemingly insurmountable problems, and of how the completely different arenas of information communication technology, staff development, cross‐cultural awareness and anti‐discrimination training can come together in synergistic reality.

Draws on relevant academic literature to explore the nature of cross‐cultural capability and goes on to consider its implications for the student experience in British undergraduate business education. Some of the key issues concerning the design of mechanisms and strategies for integrating cross‐cultural capability within the curriculum are highlighted and discussed with a view to informing what needs to be done to prepare undergraduates for the international business world of tomorrow

Fostered by technological developments and globalization, culturally diverse teams are becoming a mainstay of organizational strategy. As the use of multi-cultural teams continues to increase, it becomes paramount to understand the mechanism(s) by which leaders can promote effectiveness within these teams. Despite this need, there are numerous challenges facing those who seek to understand these phenomena and move science and practice forward. The purpose of this chapter is to present a few of these challenges and approaches which can assist in mitigating these challenges. Finally, we identify what we see as key research needs within this area.

Globalization is a powerful force that will shape the future world in which our children will live. To prepare our students for the world, we need to prepare their teachers. To be effective in the new global environment, teachers need broader sets of knowledge and skills than have previously been required. We designed this action research study to examine our teacher candidates’ use of global education content to support our ability to develop their knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward its use. The following research questions focus the study: How do elementary education teacher candidates utilize global content within integrated unit plans? How can the elementary social studies methods course prepare teacher candidates to use global content? The findings reveal teacher candidates’ integration of global content was strongest in the areas of foundational-knowledge-level dimensions with few examples of higher-level application, cross-cultural experiences, or action-oriented learning tasks. Secondly, global education content requiring a critical perspective was minimal or nonexistent in the teacher candidates’ planning. We discuss these two concerns and present action steps to build teacher candidates’ capacity for developing higher levels of global content into their instructional unit planning.

The purpose of this paper is to compare high school students' global literacy level in metropolitan areas of China and the USA.

The authors adopted a global literacy instrument to surveyed 2,157 New York City (NYC) high school students and 2,220 Chinese high school students. This paper adopted an independent sample t‐test and an ANOVA to identify significant differences regarding demographic features on the Likert‐scale items, and used the Pearson correlation coefficient to explore the degree of association between factors.

From this global literacy scale, compared with NYC high school students, Chinese students have greater awareness of comprehending and appreciating cross‐cultural perspectives, becoming global citizens, and exhibited greater approval of the performance of their own country's interconnectedness and interdependence with other countries. Students in the two countries exhibited similar confidence in using new literacies.

Students would pay close attention to global issues if they were aware of how these issues affect their daily life and future. With critical‐thinking abilities, students would be in a better position to make decisions that contribute to the common good. With awareness of diverse cultures, students could learn the values, strengths, and weaknesses of people. With fluency in new literacies, students could research and analyze information from multiple resources, and collaborate with others through the use of technology.

This paper profiles the global literacy of US and Chinese high school students, describes factors correlated with both US and Chinese students' global literacy, and suggests students' preferences regarding “global education”‐related activities.

There is a high failure rate among companies involved in cross‐national mergers and joint ventures. One of the major causes for these costly mistakes is a lack of adequate preparation of the personnel involved and a failure to provide training which fosters self‐awareness, cultural sensitivity and the spirit of co‐operation between foreign partners. Presents three models which are valuable for helping to analyse the problematic areas in cross‐cultural communication. Gives two case examples to show how the models have been applied in practice, involving French, Dutch, Swedish and UK companies.

Given the rising expansion of Western multinational companies (MNCs) to the African contexts, the development of expatriates and local employees has become increasingly important to the human resource management of these MNCs. This paper aims to provide critical lessons on cross-cultural communication competences for Western expatriates working in the sub-Saharan Africa business environment.

This paper is a qualitative phenomenology that makes use of lived experiences of senior expatriate staff working in Ghana in the form of direct interviews.

Results showed that cross-cultural communication competence is very important for Western expatriates’ functioning in sub-Saharan Africa. The findings also established a plethora of cross-cultural communication skills that are essential for Western expatriates’ successful adaptation and work outcomes in Africa.

This research argues that there is the need for the appreciations of the differing cultural patterns of expatriates and local staff, and this provides the underlying assumptions of intercultural and cross-cultural communication in global business.

A critical perspective of international business that has scarcely been studied offers lessons for Western expatriates working in sub-Saharan Africa.

This paper aims to review the simulation methods that are available for training to develop cultural awareness for business people, members of international NGOs, diplomatic staff and others working in the international environment, as well as teachers of international business subjects at universities. It provides examples of good practice with analysis of the effectiveness of the different training methods.

The paper takes the form of a critical review of existing methods with comments on suitability, advantages and disadvantages and examples of good practice.

The development of cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity is of fundamental importance for those working in the international community. Various methods of simulating cultural scenarios can be used to prepare those going to live and work in this environment. The most effective methods involve experiential learning in real‐life scenarios.

The methods described involve simulation exercises for use at various levels of business training. They are examples of real‐life cross‐cultural problem areas experienced by those working internationally.

The paper presents a comprehensive review of existing methods of simulation with examples of good practice and a statement of learning outcomes.