Of the many credentials that professionals, experienced or otherwise, exhibit on their résumés and curricula vitae, “global mindset” is not spelled out in the same obvious ways as Ph.D. and vice president. Because it is no simple task to determine the global competency of various candidates, HR practitioners and global mobility professionals require a framework to understand the cultural aptitudes individuals need to thrive in multicultural environments as, among others, new hires, project managers, and international assignees.
What Is a Global Mindset?
Today, an education that allows you to be competitive in the workplace increasingly is about developing a global mindset through studying abroad or collaborating with and learning about people from other cultures. First, what is a global mindset?
Recent research from the Worldwide ERC® Foundation for Workforce Mobility and the Thunderbird School of Global Management, “Global Mindset Defined,” explains it as, “a mix of individual attributes that enable [someone] to successfully influence those who are different from him/her.”
International experience and education no longer are value-added qualities but, rather, are prerequisites for success in the global marketplace. Cultural awareness and cultural knowledge are crucial to being successful in global business, which is why international degree programs are perfect for the development of these assets.
“A global mindset allows you to recognize marketplace opportunities, manage and motivate diverse employees, and tap into a range of alternative ideas about how to run your business so that cultural hurdles don’t take you far off course,” state Charlene M. Solomon and Michael S. Schell in their new book, “Managing Across Cultures: the Seven Keys to Doing Business With a Global Mindset.”
The Ways You Can Pursue a Global Mindset
Living and studying in another country is as educational outside the classroom, if not more, as it is inside the classroom. Culture may be arguably different in certain regions within a single country (think Texas and California in the United States) but, in a foreign country, the opportunity to learn culture is much greater and the lessons are much broader. It is never possible to know how much you learn abroad until you have done it yourself, which is why HR practitioners and global mobility professionals should feel encouraged to take on international assignments themselves.
Higher education institutions that require study abroad and foreign language proficiency are excellent ways to gain these skills. Foreign schools and schools that consist of a highly international student body are exceptionally good places to pursue a global mindset.
The following exemplary schools offer various ways to develop a strong global mindset through international education.
More Programs that Develop a Global Mindset
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International MBA, IE Business School, Madrid, Spain (
www.ie.edu)
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Immersion Experience Program, Harvard Business School (
www.hbs.edu)
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International MBA, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (
www.chicagogsb.edu)
Erasmus Mundus Global Studies
The European Union’s Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Master’s course (EMGS) is an especially exciting global graduate program. It is a consortium of four leading European universities that bring together students from every continent for a two-year graduate school program, where they earn two Master’s degrees, each from a participating university.
Students apply to their choice of first and second year schools and are accepted based on academic merits and linguistic ability. The University of Leipzig, Germany, The University of Vienna, Austria, The University of Wrocaw, Poland, and the London School of Economics (discussed below in greater detail) are the four members of the consortium. Various institutions outside of Europe are partnered with EMGS to offer its European students an opportunity to study for a semester in places such as South Africa, Australia, and the United States.
Dr. Victoria Reinhardt, program coordinator of EMGS at the University of Leipzig, tells us that, “…this master’s program is designed in such a way that students implicitly get involved in an intensive intercultural learning process during the two years of their study. Non-European students come to Europe, European students study abroad at our non-European partner universities, guest lecturers from all over the world teach within the program, students are involved in high-ranking international academic events with leading scientists from all over the world and, last but not least, students themselves interact during and outside classes, experiencing views of different cultures on globalization, thus learning to think globally.”
Multiculturalism is an important part of the global studies concept, which aims to incorporate international perspectives into its curriculum, versus the offering of a singular perspective on global affairs. This intensive cross-cultural immersion is augmented by an emphasis on group projects and collaborative presentations, where various levels of formality are enforced to re-create the business environments most students of the program encounter after graduation.
Dr. Reinhardt also defines the meaning of a global mindset: “Using a global mindset means to structure the complex global reality and to formulate a global vision on concrete processes and events, but also to develop interpersonal skills based on intercultural competencies.” She confirms that this is an “indispensable way of thinking for people who want to… work in an international environment, e.g., in bilateral or multilateral diplomacy, transnational NGOs, media… or just management in transnational companies.”
Life as a foreigner in Europe for two years is an expansive opportunity to build a network of friends and colleagues from all reaches of the globe based on a unique, shared experience abroad.
Fuqua’s Global Executive MBA
At Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, in Durham, North Carolina, the Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) requires its students to spend 18 months in seven countries developing global business competencies. Students from around the world are brought together in GEMBA, giving it the global flavor indicative of a truly international degree. Coursework ranges from accounting methods to leadership to specific business practices of different world regions.
One of the core themes of the program is to “successfully adapt to your setting, wherever it may be, and remove yourself from the trap of looking at issues from one angle,” says Jennifer Chandler, CRP, GMS, director of global mobility consulting at Altair Global Relocation in Dallas, Texas, a current student of GEMBA. This is a central notion of any global education because the idea of being able to adapt to different locales and cultural attitudes is important.
Students bring their years of experience from various jobs and places around the world to Fuqua’s MBA, so interaction with fellow students makes the experience especially rich. Because classrooms do not elicit the same tension as a boardroom, students are able to learn and test some of their newfound knowledge in an atmosphere that is a “soft” place for the development of a global mindset. In other words, it is a non-threatening place to try out new skills.
The program also uses distance learning, e.g., online lectures and discussions, during the majority of each semester as most GEMBA students work full-time and live far from North Carolina. This also is an excellent way for students to become familiar with virtual teamwork. Because virtual workspaces already are some of the most challenging, learning to interact across cultures via electronic means is an exceptional benefit to programs that incorporate distance learning.
Chandler also says that people who can appreciate the cultures of other countries ultimately will be more successful in their own industries. Some may be thinking, “I don’t work for a company that’s international.” She tells us that you do not “have to work for a company with international offices to have a global mindset. It’s also valuable in a local setting with co-workers of different personality types, cultures, and values.” Furthermore, living in an ethnically diverse country such as the United States means that you are more than likely going to communicate at some point with people who immigrated from abroad.
Before moving onto the next school, it makes sense to look at multiculturalism in education. Working with students from other cultures is the preamble to working with colleagues and clients from other cultures. For example, a Japanese student with classmates from Kenya, India, Colombia, and Germany will learn vastly more about a global mindset than a Japanese student in a Japanese university. How does this make someone more qualified for a job than someone who is unfamiliar with multiculturalism? Two concepts commonly used in academic spheres explain the abilities of people who are either culturally aware or not:
1. Ethnorelativism—an acquired ability to see many values and behaviors as cultural rather than universal. Individuals who have this ability tend to understand the behaviors of people who come from cultures that are not their own, enabling them to interpret and react appropriately and to make informed decisions.
2. Ethnocentrism—a tendency to believe that one’s own cultural or ethnic group is the most important and relevant, which obscures a person’s ability to work effectively with people from other cultures.
Knowing these traits will help global mobility and HR professionals recognize the experience and personality required for their staff to perform in a global context. Prior acquaintance with multiculturalism is a major advantage for a person pursuing any profession or career.
The London School of Economics and Multicultural Student Bodies
The next school in this series is one that has proven its global stature through its famous and diverse alumni, who have become heads of state, Nobel Laureates, and transnational corporate leaders. The London School of Economics (LSE) is the international and multicultural school, a propos to the aforementioned value of diverse student bodies where approximately 68 percent of students were from countries outside Europe during the 2008-2009 academic year, according to official school statistics. In total, LSE students represent more than 170 nations. Cross-cultural exchange in any school with such demographics is a large part of the academic process, and the development of a global mindset is one of the end results.
Dr. Patrick O’Brien, LSE professor of global history, teaches the concept of global citizenship and global history, or how histories can be written to reflect the globalized nature of the modern world. In various courses, he teaches how national identities and cultures are changing: where national culture is traditionally quite narrowly conceived and concerns a certain level of patriotism and xenophobia, it is more recently shaped out of a diversity of identities that are colored by cultures from around the world.
In other words, the idea of being a global citizen is more possible today than it ever has been given the ease with which humans can travel and live across cultures and political boundaries. O’Brien advocates that students adopt global citizenship in the 21st century and expand their point of view through the study of global processes. He claims that, “Local cultures are merging, adapting, surviving, and contributing to universalizing [behaviors].” The LSE experience is, in part, founded on the idea of a global culture and learning to tune your mind to a global bandwidth.
The Thunderbird School of Management
The Thunderbird School of Management in Glendale, Arizona, was the first graduate school to specialize in global business and international management. It is ranked highly for its unique MBA and other graduate programs by numerous publications, including BusinessWeek and The Financial Times. Aside from attracting an international student body, The Thunderbird School uses “Winterims” and “Summerims,” which are short-term courses that students can take in-between semesters in countries around the world.
A description from the school puts it best: “To be a successful global manager, you need to observe the world’s best businesses and business professionals at work in their natural environments. Through conversations with global business leaders, visits to multinational corporations or embassies, observing cross-cultural business negotiations and business presentations, you become familiar with the regulatory, political, economic, and cultural climates in which business is conducted in different world regions. You learn to analyze the risk and negotiate the challenges of doing business abroad. And you begin building global professional networks before you graduate.” Courses such as “Managing People from a Global Perspective” and “Communication and Negotiations Across Cultures” exemplify Thunderbird’s worldwide focus.
Other Institutions
This selection of schools is by no means exhaustive, but rather is a model for evaluating the international quality of an individual’s education (in class and “on the street”). The rather organic process of fostering a global mindset in individuals is attainable in a number of ways and through a number of experiences. It is most effectively acquired through study abroad and through the forging of relationships with people from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds.
Coursework that focuses on global business practices and global perspectives are dually important, as the traditionally narrow-minded curriculum of our past no longer is suitable for performance in today’s industries. Most important, the global mindset is learnable, and there is no single version of this concept, but there can be no better substitute for real-life, firsthand experience when there is a discussion about being globally aware or culturally intelligent. The implicit and explicit approaches of international programs are truly effective to this end.
Sean Dubberke is marketing and program coordinator, RW3 LLC, New York, New York, and a member of the MOBILITY Editorial Advisory Committee. He can be reached at +1 212 691 8900 or e-mail sean.dubberke@rw-3.com.