UTILIZING CULTURAL AND INTERNATIONAL LANDMARK CONSTRUCTS TO ASSESS BUSINESS STUDENTS' INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 23, 1996 UTILIZING CULTURAL AND INTERNATIONAL LANDMARK CONSTRUCTS TO ASSESS BUSINESS STUDENTS’ INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS Walter J. Wheatley, The University of West Florida Ghassan A. Ghraizi, The University of West Florida ABSTRACT Due to the ever-increasing international dependency of today world’s economy, almost every business degree curriculum includes at least one course on international business. The courses tend to accentuate how to expand and market products on an international scale. Little information is disseminated in these classes on how important the success or failure of these endeavors rests on the knowledge of differing countries’ culture and other related areas of knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a pilot study conducted to assess the extent that business students’ are aware of international culture and landmarks. INTRODUCTION In a nationally administered survey on global understanding conducted by the Educational Testing Service, the average college senior answered about 50 percent of the questions on world affairs correctly (Jarchow 1993). Other studies have provided a descriptive comparison of upper-level undergraduate business students from various countries in such areas that are considered critical to managerial success. Nationality, for example, has been linked to the underlying difference in some students’ attitudes. In studies of organizational managers, Haire, Ghiselli, and Porter (1966) reported that the percentage of difference in managerial job attitude that can also be attributed to nationality is 28 percent while Hofstede (1980) found that national culture explained 50 percent of the differences in employee attitudes and behaviors. Cultural awareness, therefore, is a definite means for U.S. managers to increase productivity and to maintain efficiencies in a foreign country and to influence products’ marketability in the international environment. Unfortunately, the Japanese, for example, have a greater understanding about American culture than Americans have about Japanese culture. It is this ignorance that may account for the reason the Japanese do not buy American products and why they have an advantage in the world market (Saltz and Foster; 1994). This phenomenon can obviously be generalized to other major countries that interact with the U.S. Understanding the background, culture, and the values of peoples implies studying a foreign country from its own perspective and understanding how its history has influenced its development. Many companies are turning to programs being offered by leading U.S. business schools (Miller 1994) in order to familiarize their global managers with cultural awareness. Unfortunately, U.S. business schools are not currently prepared to provide the cultural pedagogy necessary. Learning about international culture from an international business textbook is not only insufficient, but also inadequate. Educators, therefore, find great difficulties in teaching students international culture with the current resources available to them. In addition, the fact that educators themselves lack a high level of international cultural cognizance, it is of little surprise that students are ill prepared for the global business environment. A 1989 survey revealed that only 17 per cent of that year’s business doctoral candidates had taken any graduate course with significant international content (Laidlaw 1989). The American Assembly of collegiate Schools of Business and the Association of American Colleges started to emphasize an international curriculum in 1988. However, to properly prepare the U.S. student to prosper and survive in an international environment, international courses must add a major emphasis on international culture and customs. RESEARCH DESIGN The Samples Data were collected from students of all majors in the College of Business at a medium-sized, south- 187 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 23, 1996 eastern university during the Fall semester of 1994 and the spring semester of 1995. One hundred and eighteen students responded to The International Culture Quiz and sixty-seven students responded to the Where in the World Quiz. The majority of students were either juniors or seniors. Because of the nature of the quizzes, demand bias was deemed to be negligible. The Quizzes The International Culture Quiz consists of 10 questions that depicts various scenarios or factual questions from a variety of countries. The student chooses the correct response from five possible responses. The Where in the World quiz contains a listing of twelve infamous landmarks and a possible Country selection bank of twenty countries. The student is to match the landmarks with the country containing the landmark. Findings The results of this assessment study are consistent with other related studies dealing with the level of U.S. student’s awareness of their international environment. The average correct responses for both quizzes was approximately 40 percent. The actual frequencies of responses are depicted in brackets right next to each possible response. The average number of correct responses for The International Culture Quiz was 3.9 out of a possible 10. The average number of correct responses for the Where in the World Quiz was 4.8 out of a possible 12. DISCUSSION As with any assessment study, this study revealed as many expected findings as it did surprises. On The International Culture Quiz it was expected that the majority of students would know Futbol or soccer would be the most popular international sport and that touching is not acceptable in Japan. Somewhat of a surprise was that not more students were aware of the cast system in India and that the religious root of Saudi Arabia forbids the acceptance of interest payments. The big surprises were the number of students who did not that the official language of Brazil is Portuguese and that the capital of Canada is Ottawa. The lack of knowledge of other more lessor known aspects of international cultural was expected. Correct responses on the Where in the World Quiz that were expected included the locations of the Sphinx, the Eiffel Tower, and Big Ben. The only less than expected correct responses was the location of the Taj Mahal. It was also felt that more students would have sufficient knowledge to locate Lake Maracaibo, one of the largest reserve of oil in the world. The Monument to Independence, which is in Mexico, was probably with confused American monuments of independence. Their knowledge of the locations of other famous international landmarks was very disappointing but came as no surprise. CONCLUSION Reich (1990) asserts that a nation’s most important competitive asset is the skills and learning of its work force. Since the global business environment offers the American workforce many opportunities to develop skills with foreign counterparts, international perceptions can either facilitate or obscure the learning experience. Furthermore, international cultural awareness can determine the success or failure of foreign operations. Training executives exemplifies educators’ short-term goals in promoting international awareness. Accommodating the curriculum of undergraduate and graduate business students, on the other hand, has been identified as a means of addressing the long-term goals. In developing the appropriate approach, business schools need to first understand their students’ current attitudes and perceptions of foreign cultures. Assessing students’ current knowledge of international culture and awareness hopefully will lead to an enhanced international pedagogy. REFERENCES References available upon request. 188 Table of Contents Volume 23, 1996 Modeling Advertising Effectiveness Simulation as an Aid to Learning: How Does Participation Influence the Process? Administering Business Simulations in Transitioning Economies: The Introduction of Simulation Gaming to Estonia Business Simulation Games: Current Usage Levels. A Ten Year Update The Relationship Between Interpersonal and Task Cohesiveness and Performance in a Business Simulation Game The Design of an ITS-Based Simulation: A New Epistemology for Learning Correlates of Learning in Simulations How Do We Know where we're going if we don't know where we have been: A Review of Business Simulation Research Making Cash Flow Come Alive and Sensible in the Classroom Enhancing Simulation Learning through Objectives and Decision Support Systems An Analysis of Deliberate and Emergent Strategies Relative to Porter's Generic Differentiator and Cost Leader: A Bias and Variance Modeling Approach Introducing Ethical Dilemmas into Computer-Based Simulation Exercises to Teach Business Ethics CEO Strategic Locus of Control Effects on Game Performance and Playing Behavior The Relational Database As a Link between Operations and Cost Accounting Goal Setting over Time in Simulations Computerized Business Simulations: A Workshop Exploring the Tutor's Role, Task & Needs Strategic Analysis of the Product Portfolio with the COMPLETE PPA Package: A Strategic Market Planning Tool Draft Standards and Registration Procedure for Assessment Instruments Perspectives on a New Generation of Business Games An Economic Multiple Regression Case In Experiential Learning Changing Institutional Norms and Behavior, Not Culture: Experiential Learning Comes to Myanmar Strategic Management and the Case Method: Survey and Evaluation Individual Differences in Internet Attitude and Use Long Live the Plan - or Should It? Examining the Impact of Detailed Strategic Plans on Organizational Performance Do Your Students Really Read the Manual? A Computerized Contextual Tool As A Surrogate for the Traditional Student Manual Pilot Analyses of Self-Peer Evaluations in an Experiential-Exercise Human Resources Management Course Leader Behavior Feedback: A Learning Exercise Dilemma-Dilemma: An Exercise for Teaching Significance Of Communication Computer Mediated Conferencing: Technology and Classroom Learning Multimedia in the Workplace: Who is really using it and where is it Headed? Using Experiential Exercises for Collecting Research Data: Integrating Teaching and Research Interactive Distance Learning as a Tool in a College's Theory and Practice The President's Decision: An Experiential Exercise in Decision Making Integrating Computer Literacy Skills in the Undergraduate Curriculum: The Advanced Accounting Experiment Imperatives for the Transfer of Experience-Based Training Deciding How to Decide The Internet as a Pedagogical Tool Internet Scavenger Hunt Two Management Exercises Based on Committee Work Multimedia in the Year 2000: How Will It Affect Our Lives? Bootstrap Benefit Segmentation: Finally A Way to Teach Benefit Segmentation without Primary Data or Those Fancy Statistical Methods Multimedia and Learning: Is There A Connection? A Changing Business Policy Collaborative Learning Through Real-Life Assignments in Accounting Classes The Necessity Of Incorporating Local Cultural Aspects Into International Business Experiential Exercises Utilizing Cultural and International Landmark Constructs to Assess Business Student's International Awareness Legal Issues related to the Use of Application Blanks: An Experiential Exercise The Family in the Classroom: An Experiential Exercise for Teaching Issues Related To Expatriate Assignments Using Internet Resources to Enhance Teaching of Information Systems Courses: A Demonstration Proposal Chalkboards to Chipboards for Teachers and Consultants How Do We Measure The Learning In Experiential Learning and How Do We Best Simulate It?