Building authentic intercultural awareness in the business classroom

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to illustrate a useful classroom exercise that addresses this challenge. International experiences help university students develop global cultural awareness and better understand culture’s impact on decision-making. As more companies grow their global operations, they seek students with global competency (Eaton and Kleshinski, 2014). However, less than 7 per cent of US university students have basic cultural intelligence according to Lopes-Murphy (2014). This presents faculty with the significant challenge of developing students’ global competency within the walls of the classroom.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper describes a phenomenological research classroom activity titled the “Global Consumer Exchange” (GCE) to help business faculty authentically build students’ global awareness, understanding of culture and understanding of global consumer behavior. In addition, the GCE offers a context to help faculty highlight the economic, logistical and technological concerns that global businesses must consider. The GCE was administered in an undergraduate consumer behavior course in cooperation with students from the Republic of Panamá.

Findings

Following the GCE, US students reported new awareness of issues they had never considered before and also indicated an increased interest in understanding other cultures. The students also expressed a newfound willingness to personally reach out to international students.

Originality/value

This GCE offers business faculty an easy-to-implement and easily adaptable activity to authentically broaden students’ intercultural awareness and develop a deeper understanding of international business concepts. Through this activity, students are able to gain experience applying phenomenological research methods. The GCE can also be adapted for any course and applied to a wide variety of countries partnerships with university international student organizations and/or English as a second language programs.

Citation

Lopez, T.B., Kemp, A.F. and McKenzie, R. (2019), "Building authentic intercultural awareness in the business classroom", Journal of International Education in Business, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 198-211. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIEB-11-2018-0054