Developing International Managerial Skills Through the Cross-Cultural Assignment

Abstract

This article describes the “Cross-cultural Assignment,” an experiential learning technique for students of business that deepens self-awareness of their own attitudes toward different cultures and develops international managerial skills. The technique consists of pairing up small teams of U.S.-based business students with small teams of international students from the same country, who are not yet completely fluent in English, to form augmented teams that then need to execute tasks and produce several end-products. This pedagogical method has been used successfully in recent years in international management and international business courses for both lower-classman and upper-classman undergraduate business students and for students in graduate MBA programs. The article positions the technique within the literature on experiential learning and cultural differences, describes the methodology in detail, offers several examples of its use, and discusses the benefits and challenges observed in its implementation.

Keywords

experiential learning cross-cultural training international management international business education

This article describes an experiential learning exercise that allows students to deepen self-awareness of their own attitudes toward different cultures and also to develop international managerial skills. The exercise can be categorized under a broad technique that we call the “Cross-cultural Assignment,” which is based on learning-by-doing and has been conducted successfully over the past several years with lower- and upper-classman students in undergraduate business courses as well as with graduate MBA students enrolled in international management and international business courses. This article not only describes the Cross-cultural Assignment in detail and positions it as a useful experiential learning method, but it also examines conditions for its use, its advantages, and its limitations. The objective of the article is, thus, to suggest an experiential-learning-based pedagogical instrument that can be helpful to educators in their effort to raise cultural awareness and to foster cultural understanding while also developing skills necessary for managing in an increasingly globalized world. We discuss characteristics of this technique, provide suggestions for implementation, and suggest that it could be used more broadly in education for international business.

The Cross-cultural Assignment is based on creating an environment in which activities need to be performed by augmented teams including a group of two to three U.S.-based business students, mostly native English speakers, and a group of two to three individuals from another country who are not enrolled in the business class and are not yet completely fluent in English. Students therefore find themselves in a situation in which they need to complete a well-defined set of tasks (i.e., do some research, exchange information, produce a report, and prepare a presentation) with individuals from a very different culture with whom communication is difficult, because by design members of each group cannot speak the other group’s native tongue fluently. For the participants, including both the business students and the international invitees, there are two broad categories of benefits from such a cross-cultural training technique. The first derives from the process of the Assignment, that is, from the fact that each participant will need to make some adjustments to execute tasks with individuals from a very different culture. The second category of benefits derives from the content of the required tasks that should be tailored to the respective course’s learning objectives.

The process of executing this Assignment becomes an invaluable developmental opportunity for each individual on the augmented team. Learning to overcome communication difficulties associated with lack of fluency in another language is one important by-product. There are several others. For example, the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding and implicit acceptance of different cultural characteristics and customs is a factor that students consistently have stated as one of the most beneficial. Linked to this is an increased capacity for empathy or “putting oneself in others’ shoes,” which results from the assignments. Being able to relate to different cultures in constructive ways is a skill that has components that can be acquired, and the experience of interacting with other cultures can be very helpful to the process. Last, another frequently reported benefit from the Assignments is the intrinsic reward of making durable friendships with someone from a completely different culture, something that has deepened as some students express interest in a particular component of culture, such as food or music, and fellow team members proceed to provide hands-on experience, such as cooking a complete typical meal or performing in class with a typical musical instrument. Over the past few years these cross-cultural assignments have been conducted in a U.S. higher learning institution with students from a variety of countries, including Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, France, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, China, Japan, Thailand, and South Korea, among others, with very good learning outcomes.

This section introduces the article. The next section describes experiential learning as a useful technique to help develop cross-cultural awareness and international business skills. The third section provides a descriptive overview of the Cross-cultural Assignment, including learning objectives, task content, and examples of course-specific exercises. The following section details the process of the Cross-cultural Assignment with a description of activity sequencing and implementation. The next section covers the assessment of learning outcomes, which is followed by a section offering a discussion of advantages and limitations of this pedagogical technique. The last section concludes.

Experiential Learning and International Business

Experiential learning has been used increasingly in management education and is not a new concept. In ancient and medieval times, apprenticeship was the favored and most effective method of acquiring professional skills. In modern times, experiential learning techniques have been used extensively in professional education, as exemplified by medical residencies, law internships, and art/design apprenticeships. For historic overviews of experiential learning and different views on it, including distinct models, see Jarvis (1987); Boud and Walker (1991); Usher, Bryant, and Johnston (1997); and Fenwick (2003). For the role of certain experiential learning techniques in management education, see Garvin (1991) and Kayes (2002).

The use of experiential learning techniques has been found to be especially effective in situations in which tacit knowledge is necessary, as recently documented by Armstrong and Mahmud (2008) and by Atwater, Kannan, and Stephens (2008), for example. Learning how to interact and how to develop constructive, positive, and value-creating working relationships with individuals from completely different backgrounds with perhaps completely different worldviews is an acquired skill-set that is difficult to codify. The necessary skill-set requires attitudinal, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional learning and growth to be developed. To give an example, at a dinner table in East Asia, which untrained Western individual would not hesitate when offered shrimp that are still moving in soy sauce by a host who is very proud of the fresh delicacy he/she is sharing? One must have had not only the cognitive knowledge but also the emotional preparation to react appropriately in such a situation. Experiential learning, because of its strong intuitive and emotional components, can have a decisive impact in the development of these types of abilities. With the growing importance of cross-border exposure as described by Schmidt-Wilk (2010) and Cant (2004), such experiential techniques are becoming an important part of teaching international business topics. These techniques may take the form of short-term immersion programs involving travel abroad, which have been categorized into three models by Sachau, Brasher, and Fee (2010). The first model, study tour courses, as exemplified in Porth (1997), Allen and Young (1997), and Tchaicha and Davis (2005), involve short-term travel—usually 1 to 3 weeks—and several stops to visit different environments. Another model is the semester-abroad program in which a student immerses himself or herself in a foreign culture during one entire term (which can be the summer). The third model involves international travel and volunteer work within a service-learning format. Expatriate experiences as described by Ng, Van Dyne, and Ang (2009) and by Lovelace and Chung (2010), and international consulting assignments as described by Kamath, Agrawal, and Krickx (2008) represent other effective ways of developing these skills.

The Cross-cultural Assignment technique described herein can be very useful for the student either as complement training to spending time abroad or, alternatively, as an admittedly imperfect substitute for one of these longer-term immersions in another country’s culture. Therefore, the Cross-cultural Assignment is a tool for the educator to provide elements of the cross-border experience using resources available on one’s own campus. Other such possibilities for experiential learning toward acculturation reported in the literature include the use of film as described by Mallinger and Rossy (2003) and by Pendergast (2010), the “gourmet” approach developed by Chavez and Poirier (2007) as well as specific cultural difference exercises using role-playing such as those introduced by Anakwe (2002), by Weiss (2003), and by Oddou (2005). Furthermore, Ozcelik and Paprika (2010) reported an approach for developing emotional awareness in cross-cultural communication using videoconferencing between U.S.-based students and Hungarian students, which involves experiential learning for a subset of the students and a reflection component for the remainder. Last, Molinsky (2010) introduced a framework for assessing how different cultural settings affect one’s acculturation competence and authenticity and illustrated it with international MBA students in the United States.

According to D. A. Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory, knowledge results from “grasping” and from “transforming” experiences (p. 41). Kolb identifies four learning modes, two of which are associated with “grasping,” experiencing and conceptualizing, and two of which are associated with “transforming,” reflecting and acting. The terms thinking and feeling have been used in the literature on learning styles to synthesize the extremes on the Abstract Conceptualization (“South”) to the Concrete Experience (“North”) axis of the Learning Style Inventory (Hunt, 1987; A. Y. Kolb & Kolb, 2005). Hunt’s “Northerner” learning style emphasizes feeling and is linked to concrete experience, whereas his “Southerner” learning style focuses more on thinking and is linked to abstract conceptualization. Many of the skills associated with the traditional methods of teaching international business courses fall under the “thinking” category, such as the ability to understand exchange rate variations or to examine supply chain logistics, the expertise to execute complex contractual agreements or to understand legal implications of a different tax code, and the knowledge to select most favorable macroeconomic conditions. These traditional methods of teaching are effective for learning abstract concepts. However, many other skills necessary for success in international business fall under the “feeling” category, most notably those skills necessary for successfully navigating different cultures. Because experiential learning techniques such as those described in this article are especially effective for this “feeling” category, they can be very useful for developing cross-cultural relationship skills.

Experiential learning techniques are based on the concept of “learning by doing,” that is, providing an opportunity for the student to both engage in the process of discovery and benefit from specific training while involved in a topic-related activity. Most experiential learning techniques, with the exception of internships, rely heavily on analogies and simulations that attempt to recreate certain conditions that affect the circumstances of the situation being studied. The Cross-cultural Assignment described in this article allows for a “learning space” (A. Y. Kolb & Kolb, 2005), which creates a context comparable to that which students would encounter when being exposed to other cultures when engaged in cross-border work. In this learning space, students have the opportunity to intuitively process and develop tacit knowledge by feeling, acting, and reflecting. The Cross-cultural Assignment also provides an appropriate context for each student to connect theories explaining cultural differences to their own individual direct experience.

In training for international business, experiential learning is appropriate for several reasons. First, as mentioned above, a cross-cultural interaction has a strong tacit nature that is difficult to teach. Second, the occasional need to work outside one’s comfort zone when dealing with individuals from a completely different cultural background leads to the desirability of techniques that stretch the envelope of each individual’s definition of that very “comfort zone.” Third, in international business training there is a need to develop sensitivities that allow for ethical judgment calls and for maintaining constructive relationships despite very different points of view. Fourth, these are acquired skills, but skills of complex acquisition because they need several layers of internalization by an individual to be absorbed.

The international business literature has several seminal works on individuals’ abilities to codify, interpret, accept, and benefit from the many cultural differences among nations, ethnicities, and peoples. Perhaps the most cited have been Hofstede (1980), Ronen and Shenkar (1985), Hall and Hall (1990), Trompenaars (1993), and the more recent GLOBE project (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004). Each of these studies proposes a unique framework to synthesize observed characteristics differentiating cultures around the world, as well as a set of dimensions or categories to better understand and, as a result, to adapt to these differences. What becomes clear when delving into these extensive pieces of research is the immense difficulty inherent in codifying all the myriad aspects of culture and the impossibility of an individual being simultaneously rationally aware of all of them. Besides the sheer number of differences, a complicating factor is the fact that most of them are not readily apparent, recognizable, or visible by the observer. This brings to mind Sathe’s (1985) iceberg notion of culture whereby only a small percentage of cultural traits are above the waterline and, therefore, identifiable.

Because of the large number of differences across cultures, the difficult recognizance of these differences, and their often subtle and subconscious nature, it is not enough to learn about them through codified knowledge techniques such as reading. It is necessary to put the student in a situation in which he/she faces the unexpected—it is necessary to force the student into unplanned situations to develop experiences that will produce tacit knowledge (perhaps intuitively acquired) in addition to the codified knowledge obtained through traditional cognitive acquisition techniques. The student needs to learn what it is like to operate outside one’s comfort zone and learn how to make appropriate decisions within those potentially uncomfortable contexts. The student must experiment with new situations.

The issue becomes even more important for business education when one realizes that the ultimate objective is more than having the student simply accept differences among cultures, or even becoming used to them. The ultimate objective includes those outcomes (acceptance and familiarity) but goes beyond them to add a few others. Students need to develop the skills that will allow them to engage in productive working relationships with individuals who are very different from them. The construct of Cultural Intelligence as described by Earley and Ang (2003) and later by Thomas and Inkson (2004) identifies the skill of successfully managing oneself in cross-cultural scenarios. Although subsequent academic work has mostly focused on empirical validation of the construct, and little academic research has delved into verifying whether components of the Cultural Intelligence construct are acquirable through training, an implicit premise of the assignments examined in this article is that some of these international managerial skills can be acquired and improved through direct experience. If this premise is accepted, one consequence is that the appropriate combination of experiential learning techniques could contribute to the development of these skills in students.

As they deepen their understanding of cross-cultural differences, students need to become aware that these differences may present challenges, but that they also may present unusual opportunities. Experiential learning techniques with cross-cultural elements can help students discern between potentially damaging and potentially rewarding situations leading them to act appropriately under different scenarios. This begins with the realization that the highest threat is the unknown, and therefore, one needs to calibrate cross-cultural encounters with a mixture of respect and cautious experimentation to learn on one’s feet either confirming or rethinking hypotheses previously held about a heretofore not well-known culture. The obvious need for training in this regard is one reason for the increasing popularity of business programs that include an international immersion component. Exposure to other cultures through the pedagogical technique suggested in this article, which is explained in detail in the sections below, can also help individuals enhance their cross-cultural managerial skills.

Description of the Cross-Cultural Assignment

The Cross-cultural Assignment provides students with an opportunity to engage with individuals from different cultures to jointly accomplish a group project in a situation in which each side has limited experience and no detailed previous knowledge of the other’s language, culture, and customs. This is an experiential learning exercise that offers students a window into the fact that their framework for looking at the world may be very different from that of other cultures and, therefore, encourages students to explore their comfort level with alternative worldviews. Acceptance of cultural differences is a crucial component of sustained and productive cross-border interactions in general and international business in particular. A necessary condition for engaging in cross-border interactions is to be aware of cultural differences and to be able to adapt to environments which are different from those one is used to.

The Cross-cultural Assignment depends on the availability on campus of a critical mass of international students with limited knowledge of English. These individuals are grouped according to country of origin and level of English fluency, and each such country-specific team of two to three is matched with a team of two to three U.S.-based students to form augmented teams who then execute the Assignment. It is highly desirable that the international students not yet have full command of the English language, that is, that at most they be in the high intermediate level of English knowledge. This is important because there should be some level of difficulty in communication within each team so students need to overcome the challenge of imperfect exchange of ideas and work to extend the limit of their comfort zone. Finding a cadre of international students who fit these characteristics is one difficulty in implementing the Cross-cultural Assignment technique.

Certain conditions need to be present in order for the exercise to achieve maximum pedagogical benefit. First, and summarizing the previous discussion, several teams are formed by combining business students from one culture—in this case, mostly from the United States—with individuals from a completely different culture who are not enrolled in the business course—in this case, international students who lack complete fluency in the English language. By design, the U.S.-based students have limited knowledge of the customs and no knowledge of the language(s) spoken by international individuals in the group with which they were matched. In case there are international (or multicultural) students enrolled in the business course, steps are taken to ensure that they join a team with international students from a country they are not familiar with. Second, the augmented team needs to work on task content related to the country of the international students. This task content is course-specific. For example, the assignment topics for an upperclassman undergraduate International Marketing course will very likely be different from those of a lower-classman undergraduate Introduction to International Business course. Third, depending on the objectives of the course and the materials covered, specific levels of knowledge of English on the part of the international students might be desired. For example, if the Cross-cultural Assignment is used within the context of an International Human Resources Management course, it could be appropriate for international students with very little knowledge of English to participate to illustrate to the U.S.-based students the difficulty of managing when communication is limited. Conversely, in a nonintroductory graduate-level course, it could be desirable for the international students to have a better grasp of English so they can explain their home country consumer practices and business traditions. The level of English knowledge of international students needs to be taken into account when selecting the task content of the Cross-cultural Assignment. Fourth, it is necessary that the augmented team meet together both in and outside the classroom several times. It is through several meetings that familiarity develops and trust is built. To give an example, while for high-context culture individuals it is usually important to spend time getting to know other team members before engaging in the task at hand, for low-context culture individuals it is usually desirable to start executing the required task as soon as possible. For students from different cultures it becomes very instructive to have had an opportunity to live through and witness this contrast first-hand, and the evolution is usually clearly seen only after a few meetings. Fifth, the Assignment should be structured in such a way that it also delivers value to the international students, who, although in our experience invariably excited to participate because of the exposure to U.S.-based students, should also reap tangible benefits from the experience. These tangible benefits can include grading in their respective coursework and access to a specific course, for example.

Most U.S. university campuses have several available sources of international students to participate in an assignment such as the one described herein. Some universities have affiliated English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) courses nearby or on campus, which can provide a number of interested international students from various countries enrolled in courses with different levels of English fluency. Other options for campuses without such ESL program offerings are to engage exchange students who are in the United States for one or two academic terms or long-term international students who have recently arrived from their home countries. Since we have a sizable contingent of ESL students available on our campus to participate in these assignments each term, the description that follows is based on this availability. However, we believe that the technique is fully transferable to environments without ESL students by working with the other types of international students mentioned above. We do not recommend using unaffiliated international individuals for these assignments because the foreign participants need to obtain tangible benefits deriving from their inclusion in the Cross-cultural Assignment, something that is not difficult for affiliated individuals. For example, in our experience with ESL students, the very opportunity for them to participate in a college-level class in the United States (in English) has provided sufficient reward. Beyond this intrinsic reward, we do provide certificates of participation and offer opportunities for social interaction, which the international students find very engaging and for which they have expressed gratitude.

Depending on the class size, the number of U.S.-based students per team has ranged between two and four, whereas the number of international students has varied from one to three depending on the number of countries available and the total number of students wishing to participate. The size of the augmented team resulting from the aggregation of these two sets of students has ranged between three and seven. In our experience, the ideal number of students per team, as previously mentioned, is four to six, with two to three international students and two to three U.S.-based students. We have worked with 6 to 11 augmented teams per course (or section) in a given semester. In our experience, the ideal number of augmented teams per semester per course (or section) is six to eight. What follows in this section is a description of the structure of the Assignment including its learning objectives, task content, and examples of specific course-related exercises. After these, the next section offers a detailed explanation of the process, including the sequence of stages, mechanics, and logistics of execution and wrap-up considerations such as debriefing and postassignment feedback mechanisms.

Learning Objectives

There are two broad categories of learning objectives in the Cross-cultural Assignment. The first category is present in all such assignments as described herein and relates to intuitive learning, that is, the “feeling” dimension of D. A. Kolb’s (1984) framework. This first set of learning objectives is a function of the structure and process of the Cross-cultural Assignment. The second broad category of objectives relates to the development of knowledge that depends on the task content of the Assignment because the learning objectives are course-specific. Although both sets of objectives are linked to skills in interacting with other cultures, the latter relate mostly to the development of codified knowledge and specific skills whereas the former relate mostly to tacit knowledge and to enhancing students’ knowledge of themselves and of how they might react to unexpected stimuli from the world around them. These specific objectives of the Cross-cultural Assignment may be summarized as follows:

Increase students’ awareness of the challenges associated with doing business in the global environment.

Help students examine their assumptions about their own identity as well as their assumptions about the many similarities and differences that each of us has with individuals from other cultures.

Increase students’ self-awareness, especially about their own cultural values and perspectives as they relate to other cultures, thereby developing their own critical thinking.

Introduce students to theories and concepts on the ongoing evolution of international competitiveness and cross-border business practices and illustrate how those theories, concepts, and developments can be used to help diagnose and solve problems when dealing with individuals in cross-cultural situations.

Build oral and written communication skills.

This section examines the task content of the Cross-cultural Assignment and provides examples of specific exercise topics that depend on course type, student level, and the international student degree of English fluency, among other variables.

Cross-Cultural Assignment Task Content

We have experimented with several types of cross-cultural exercises in different international business and international management courses at several levels, including introductory courses for freshman lower-classman undergraduate students of all majors, program capstone courses for senior upper-classman undergraduate students majoring in International Business, as well as international business courses in graduate MBA programs, for example. It is interesting to note that although adaptations in terms of the complexity of the assignments are desirable, the process of the Cross-cultural Assignment as described in the next section has been found to be robust to differences in course level. The process described in the next section also has been found to be robust to course objectives. For example, although an introductory course for lower-classman students of all majors is by necessity broader and less deep than a capstone course for International Business major seniors, the Cross-cultural Assignment has played a very important role in each of those two types of courses and has been conducted with different content but following the exact same process.

The Cross-cultural Assignment proposed in this article relies on a specific topic and related tasks that are jointly executed by the augmented team of students and have the objective of becoming catalyst forces in the experience. The task content itself also provides an opportunity for the instructor to introduce a “thinking” (i.e., cognitive and rational) component to the Assignment, which helps counterbalance the intensely “feeling” (i.e., experiential and intuitive) nature of the Cross-cultural Assignment as an experiential learning technique (D. A. Kolb, 1984). This task content is selected in a way such that the international students can substantially contribute because they provide a necessary local view. We have also used the Cross-cultural Assignment in international business courses held abroad either during the summer or during specific study tours, with very positive results. In these scenarios, for obvious reasons, it is much easier to find individuals with little knowledge of one’s own culture, and students have engaged in several variations of the exercise. What follows are some examples of the specific task content used in the Cross-cultural Assignment, whether held on campus or abroad, and whether held for lower-classman undergraduate students, upper-classman undergraduate students, or graduate students.

Developing a 1-week business tour throughout the foreign country

The assignment is to meet with the international students and together plan a detailed 1-week tour for business people in their country. The objective is for the business people on the tour to learn the most they can in 1 week on topics such as the local culture, economy, institutions, business environment, and investment opportunities. This is not an easy task because it requires knowledge of the main business opportunities and the main economic activities, besides knowledge of the geography and demographics of the country. It goes without saying that the deliverables need to include far more than can be found in a travel guide.

Identifying five customs or cultural differences in the (foreign) country

The assignment is for the U.S.-based students to meet with the international students and together identify, describe, and provide examples of five customs or cultural characteristics that are very different between their two countries.

Identifying the five things you are most proud of and the five things you are least proud of about your (foreign) country

The assignment is to meet with the international students and together articulate the five country characteristics that make the international students most proud of their country and those five that make them least proud of their country. The same should be done by the U.S.-based group of students, who also need to identify the five things that make them most and least proud of the United States.

Developing a 2-week service-learning course in the foreign country

The assignment is to meet with the international students and together come up with a plan for 2-week student service visit to their country to provide the most benefit possible in 1 week while simultaneously allowing the visitors to learn as much as possible about that country through visits to specific sites in the other week.

Identifying in detail how foreign nationals in that country view the United States (both pros and cons)

The assignment is to observe and summarize what the international students think about Americans and the United States in general, as well as what the international students think about U.S. businesses operating in their country. In this process, U.S.-based students may clarify, confirm, or dispel, as the case may be, those particular foreigner views—in doing so they will have an opportunity to learn more about the foreign culture and their understanding of it will be greatly expanded.

Gauging popularity of online social network websites in the foreign country

The assignment is to meet with the international students and together develop a presentation (which should start with an introduction of the country) that examines how communications technologies including the Internet, later generation cell phones, social networking websites, and so on, are used, perceived, and accepted (or not) in that country, including how these technologies are changing interactions among people. As part of this assignment, the augmented team must use the technologies being examined. For example, if they examine the use of Skype, they must engage in at least one live Skype-type conversation with one or more people in the other country. The objective is to allow students to not only find out about technology use in that country but actually experience it by interacting informally with individuals from the other culture using the respective technology.

Establishing a marketing research focus group from the country

The assignment is for the U.S.-based team to select a consumer product and identify how this product would be adapted for a successful launch in the other country through working with the international students in person, and perhaps with other country nationals through electronic communication. The foreign nationals would be working in a format akin to a focus group for the product so the product needs to be of interest to everyone in the augmented team. This assignment is most appropriate for upperclassman undergraduates or for graduate students because it involves not only exploring consumer preferences in the country but also understanding distribution and marketing communications practices.

Comparing the country of international students with another country in the same target region as a place for a U.S. company to do business in

For this assignment, the U.S.-based students assume they represent a U.S.-based industry association exploring business opportunities for its members within the economic region of the international students’ country. The team needs to examine the geographic region to select a target country which a U.S. multinational would use as first center of operations in that particular region. The augmented team then will compare these two countries. The purpose of the comparison is to uncover and report opportunities for the members of the particular industry to operate in the region. The entry strategy should reflect the entry mode into the chosen country, that is, the country that provides the most interesting economic opportunities as a center for expansion in the region. The idea is to gather evidence that will allow students to draw a sketch of both countries as a potential operating location for American firms (e.g., as a market, a place to manufacture). The team needs to assess the advantages for a U.S. firm operating in each of the two countries. The team also needs to estimate how challenging it would be for U.S. firms to operate in each country and what might be done to overcome local obstacles as the first entry into that particular region.

These represent a sample of possible Cross-cultural Assignment topics. We believe that many more possibilities exist depending on the nature and specific objectives of the course. As additional examples of other assignment topics, an instructor might ask each group to reflect on and analyze a major ongoing current event of global significance from the perspective of each culture in a given group, or each group might discuss implications and interpretations of an ethics-related case or situation from the perspective of each culture. Table 1 provides examples of possible task content for the Cross-cultural Assignment with respective recommended student levels, types of courses, and desired international student English fluency.

Table 1.

Examples of Possible Task Content for the Cross-Cultural Assignment.

Task Content	Recommended Student Level	Type of Course	Desired International Student English Fluency
Develop 1-week business tour in the foreign country	Undergraduate upper- and lower-classman	Introduction to International Business; International Management	Lowest
Identify five cultural or custom differences	Undergraduate upper- and lower-classman	Introduction to International Business; International Management	Lowest
Explain five things that make you most and least proud about your country	Undergraduate upper- and lower-classman	Introduction to International Business; International Management	Lowest
Develop 2-week service-learning course in country	Undergraduate upper- and lower-classman	Introduction to International Business; International Management	Medium
Identify how foreign nationals view United States	Graduate and undergraduate	International Business; International Management	Medium
Gauge popularity of online social networks in country	Graduate and undergraduate upper-classman	International Business; International Marketing; International Management	Medium-high
Engage in a market research focus group	Graduate and undergraduate upper-classman	International Business; International Marketing	Medium-high
Compare that country with a third one for business	Graduate and undergraduate upper-classman	International Business; International Management	Medium-high

Process of the Cross-Cultural Assignment

To be successful, all students involved need to see the benefit of the Assignment. In our experience, this has never been an issue because, while the U.S.-based business students readily recognize the importance of cross-cultural training and welcome the opportunity for that reason, the international students (although sometimes from nonbusiness disciplines) are eager to engage in such a rich opportunity to practice their incipient English skills. At our particular school, U.S.-based students participate in the Assignment as a requirement for selected international business courses in which they are respectively enrolled, whereas international students from the ESL program on campus participate on a volunteer basis. As mentioned above, international students involved in the Assignment are awarded certificates of participation, obtain extra credit in their ESL coursework, and benefit in other ways such as participation in enrolled student activities and development of new friendships. In our experience, the number of international students volunteering to participate has always been higher than needed. The process of the Cross-cultural Assignment is virtually the same regardless of its task content. From the instructor’s perspective there are three sequential stages involved, which we have called Preparation, Execution, and Postassignment Analysis.

Preparation

The Cross-cultural Assignment involves significant preparation both in planning and in set up. At least 1 month before kick-off, the instructor should meet with the entity responsible for the international students who will be participating. In our case this is the English Language Services department that oversees ESL instruction. In institutions lacking such a program, perhaps the International Student Office or the Exchange Student Office may fulfill this role. This meeting serves to identify countries of origin, to determine dates of international student availability, to understand the needs of the international student cohort including the possibility of adapting the content of the Assignment to the particular cohort, and to firm up the timeline of the Assignment execution. The opportunity is divulged among the international students, including a summary descriptive text of the Assignment with the benefits expected. During the weeks prior to the student kick-off meeting, which is the first step of the execution stage as described in the next subsection, international students volunteer for participation in the exercise knowing that at least two students from a given country are necessary per team.

One week before the student kick-off meeting, the instructor informs the class, that is, the U.S.-based students, the number of international students who will participate as well as their respective countries of origin. At this point, the U.S.-based student teams in the class have already been formed and the beginning (first 15 minutes) of a class is dedicated to matching these U.S.-based teams with the international student country teams, a process that is done without the presence of the foreign students, that is, the U.S.-based student teams pick their countries based on each team’s interest without having yet met the international students. There are additional constraints in the matching process such as, for example, the need for U.S.-based students who speak a specific language (e.g., Spanish or Mandarin) not to be matched with international student teams of the same language (i.e., Latin America or China). Also, ideally each U.S.-based team should be matched with an international team of the same size. The process of matching U.S.-based student teams to countries is an open in-class discussion in which each of the 6 to 11 teams informs their first, second, and third preferences in terms of a country. Our experience is that this process, which may seem difficult at first glance, has actually been fairly easy as virtually every team has ended up with either their first or second option—in 4 years of using the Cross-cultural Assignment we have never had an instance of unresolved country matching.

Execution

This subsection describes the six steps in the Execution stage from the students’ point of view: Introduction, Acquaintance, Engagement, Delivery of End-Products, Self-reflection, and Debriefing. The instructor should carefully prepare for the kick-off event, which is an all-hands meeting in class during which the introduction occurs. The Acquaintance step occurs in the remaining class time when each augmented team is afforded time for the students to get to know each other. The longest step in the Execution stage is Engagement, during which the augmented team executes the Assignment, preparing the presentation and the written report. During this step, the instructor should closely track each team’s progress and make sure that each augmented team finds the time to meet and execute the required exercises. This step is followed by Delivery of End-products, namely, the written report and the presentation. The last two steps are the Self-reflection and the Debriefing. Tables 2 and 3 summarize the stages and steps in the Cross-cultural Assignment including timing, content, details on logistics, instructor role, and suggestions to help the process.

Table 2.

Stages and Steps in the Cross-Cultural Assignment.

Stage	Step	Approximate Timing	Content
Preparation	Planning	1-2 months prior	Identify source of international students; meet with International Student Office; understand their priorities to make this a meaningful experience for them
	Set-up	1-2 weeks prior	Select teams; match with countries; define modus operandi; set expectations; review procedures
Execution	Kick-off	First joint session	All students together; instructor outlines objectives and schedule; each student introduces himself/herself
	Acquaintance	First joint session	Augmented teams meet during class and spend 30-45 minutes together; discuss goals; set first off-site meeting
	Engagement	2-7 weeks	Assignment is executed in several team meetings both on- and off-site; students learn about each other’s cultures
	Delivery	Two class sessions	Two classes dedicated to presentations: report due first day
	Self-reflection	2 weeks after delivery	Two weeks to reflect on Assignment and learning
	Debriefing	1-2 weeks later	All-hands in-class meeting(s) during which students share their experiences, including challenges and rewards
Ex post analysis		1-2 months after end	Instructor and International Student Office search for improvements

Table 3.

Instructor Role and Suggestions in the Cross-Cultural Assignment.

Stage	Step	Setting	Instructor Role	General Suggestions
Preparation	Planning	Various	Planner	Establish contact with International Student Office; understand International Student Office objectives
	Set-up	Various	Mediator	When matching countries with teams use democratic process with general student consensus
Execution	Kick-off	Classroom	General introduction	Each student states what he/she is most proud of regarding own country
	Acquaintance	Classroom	Team helper: circulate	Augmented teams meet and make plans for next steps
	Engagement	Off-site	Thorough support	Students to meet several times in different venues; schedule next meeting before breaking; encourage joint leisure activities
	Delivery	Classroom	Presentation coaching	Give primer on presentation skills if freshman students; use digital video recordings to help students present better
	Self-reflection	Off-site	Depth/thought guide	Encourage students to engage in search for self-knowledge through analyzing their own reactions to what happened in the assignment
	Debriefing	Classroom	Group reflection leader	Select the students with deepest written reflections and encourage them in class to share their thoughts—discuss
Ex post analysis		Meeting	Gather stakeholder opinions	Make sure all stakeholders give input

Introduction or student kick-off meeting

The instructor should prepare a short list of “ice-breaking” questions for the introductory meeting, the first step of the Execution phase. In our experience, two questions have been very successful as ice-breakers: stating what they think is the most unique (or interesting) characteristic of his/her country and stating what makes him/her most proud about the country. The U.S.-based business students are introduced to the ESL students and the instructor describes the exercise to the aggregate group. This is accomplished in the classroom setting, and after the instructor presents the particular exercise, each student briefly introduces himself or herself to all: every student (i.e., both U.S.-based and ESL students) needs to mention his/her name, city and country of origin, and something unique about his/her native country as described in the previous section. It has been amazing to us how over the years students who have difficulty speaking English suddenly become very articulate as they describe something about their country of which they are especially proud.

Acquaintance

Students huddle with their counterparts in augmented teams of four to six students, depending on the size of the respective groups. This is the first stage of working together, in which students try to understand each other’s motivations and objectives. Students also deal with preliminary task-specific issues, for example, discussing their roles and exchanging contact information. This also is an initial information-gathering session, where initial data needs for successful execution of the task at hand are discussed. Students leave this acquaintance session having already scheduled their following meeting. Over the years it has been rewarding to see that even students who walk into the exercise with unidentified fears have come away from the introductory and acquaintance sessions invariably optimistic about the exercise. We view this as a testament to the natural human instinct to engage with fellow human beings.

Engagement

This phase is the longest, usually lasting several weeks, and is dedicated to the actual execution of the Assignment. We have used different formats over the years, with this step lasting between 2 and 7 weeks, depending on the length of the course. During this phase, teams meet frequently to complete the assigned tasks—the vast majority of teams have scheduled several meetings, with most organizing weekly events. Students have met both on and off campus and have jointly engaged in leisure activities as well. U.S.-based students have usually helped international students learn more about America including taking them to visit tourist attractions, whereas international students have often invited U.S.-based students to home-cooked typical meals. These activities have been found to increase students’ engagement and benefit from the exercises.

Delivery of end-products

There usually are three graded end-products to each Cross-cultural Assignment. Two are delivered as a group (a written report and a presentation of the respective task as described below), while the third and last is an individual self-reflection, which is described in the next step. We have provided student teams with digital video recordings of their group presentations. These video recordings not only have given students an opportunity to work on their presentation skills but also have provided them with an additional window through which to reflect on their Cross-cultural Assignment experience. In addition, the instructor can provide meaningful feedback in short order. Students seem to have quickly realized that there is much to learn from working together to deliver the requested end-products, and as such, there seems to have been more focus on learning (i.e., doing the best possible job) as opposed to the course grade.

Self-reflection

According to D. A. Kolb (1984), reflective observation is a fundamental part of the experiential learning process, because it enables absorption and internalization of the experience. The self-reflection is an integral part of the Cross-cultural Assignment and is an individual task. Each U.S.-based business student must engage in his/her own process of self-discovery by identifying, examining, and reflecting on the experience and articulating lessons learned. The idea is to delve into one’s reactions to and impressions of working with individuals from another culture through examination of the process and its impact on oneself. In essence, it is an exercise in self-knowledge because it is a reflection on the impact the Assignment has had on the individual, encompassing “before” and “after” components. This reflection is submitted in written form because it is not easy to articulate objectively the sometimes subjective lessons of the Assignment, and the effort to do so is in and of itself a growth experience.

It is necessary for the instructor to provide some guidance for these reflections. It is here that students have an opportunity to think about and perhaps articulate some of the tacit knowledge components of the learning objectives, such as increased self-awareness including an examination of assumptions on their own identity as well as an increased awareness of the challenges and appreciation for the rewards of cross-cultural interactions. We have attempted to do this by offering guidance questions, some of which are open-ended and others of which are more specific. Examples of open-ended questions posed are the following: Did you get more or less than you expected out of the Cross-cultural Assignment? Explain why. Did your attitude toward the foreign culture change throughout the exercise and if so, how? What lessons did you learn about yourself through the Assignment? Comment on any unexpected difficulties encountered. Examples of more specific questions are the following: Identify the characteristics of the U.S.-based team that in your mind made the Assignment easier and those that made it harder. Do the same for the international student team. Explain. In what ways did this assignment help you increase your awareness of and appreciation for other cultures?

Debriefing

The final stage in the Assignment consists of the debriefing. Ideally, there should be one debriefing session including all business students and all international students together followed by another final debriefing session for the business students only (the international students could also conduct a separate final debriefing session). These debriefing sessions are moderated by the instructor and have the objective of sharing and disseminating lessons learned so each student can benefit from others’ experiences. These debriefing sessions also allow the instructor to obtain immediate feedback on the relevance and appropriateness of the Assignment for that particular population. The debriefing sessions occur after the group presentations have been completed and the individual reflections have been handed in. In our experience the best way to begin debriefing sessions is by asking questions similar to those addressed in the individual reflections (and outlined in the previous paragraph), thereby allowing students who are willing to make their thoughts public to do so. Interesting discussions have ensued but some common themes have been observed in most groups. Students in general have been surprised by the level of empathy and by the degree of interaction that was achieved even with imperfect communication due to lack of language expertise. Furthermore, students have reported that the nervousness and apprehension that often preceded the exercise was quickly overcome as they focused on addressing the task at hand and the logistics of doing so. Further details on findings from the debriefing sessions are provided in the Discussion section below.

Postassignment Analysis

This is the stage in which the instructor reflects on the Assignment together with the department responsible for international students to articulate lessons learned and identify opportunities for improvement as well as desirable adjustments. It is necessary for this feedback loop to occur after the individual reflections have been completed and evaluated because input from self-reflections and from the debriefing provides important feedback for the process. This stage is an integral part of the evolving use of the technique because it provides an overall evaluation that allows for improvements in the process. There are three main areas of inquiry. The first is the level of effectiveness of the Assignment, that is, the examination of pedagogical success in light of the specific objectives outlined above, a topic that is addressed in further detail in the “Assessment of Learning Outcomes” section below. The second is a reflection on logistics and mechanics to examine the level of efficiency attained, that is, whether the “moving parts” in the Assignment were integrated in the best possible way given unavoidable constraints such as number and characteristics of international students available, composition of the U.S.-based class, appropriateness of physical installations and classrooms, and so on. Finally, the third area of inquiry is an examination of the content of the Assignment in light of the objective of continuously developing its scope and impact, which is a meta-analysis searching for ways to continuously improve the pedagogy. This is especially important to understand how the Assignment should be adapted to best serve students of different levels (lower-classman undergraduates, upper-classman undergraduates, graduates), different degrees of familiarity with foreign cultures, different compositions (U.S.-based business student class with only American students, with mostly American students, with mostly foreign students, class offered abroad, etc.). We have found that maintaining the same process for all variations in the task content of the Assignment is very helpful because the International Student Department can fall into a standard procedure when providing support. Therefore, we have maintained the same structure but have varied the content of the Assignment as described above.

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

We have used three criteria to gauge the impact of the Cross-cultural Assignment on individual students as reported in their respective self-reflections but have not incorporated these results in grading because if we did so students might be tempted to alter their reflections to fit a desired outcome to improve grades, which would undermine the objective of the reflection. Each individual reflection is examined using the following three statements, which are evaluated on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent):

Cultural sensitivity. Student shows appreciation and is sensitive to the values of other countries and cultures

Cultural challenges. Student demonstrates an understanding of the challenges associated with operating in a different cultural environment

Operating in a global environment. Student shows evidence of internalizing the challenges and complexities associated with operating with other cultures

Perhaps the most meaningful testimonies of learning outcomes are anecdotal comments that students have incorporated in their individual reflections. Several of these are reported in the Benefits to the Students section below and can be summarized by the fact that students have reported that the Cross-cultural Assignment was their most meaningful experience in the respective course.

The rubrics or templates in Tables 4 and 5 are shared with students in the beginning of the term and are used to evaluate the two group end-products (respectively the written report and the presentation). The written report evaluation template focuses on development of cross-cultural cognitive skills and the demonstration of writing skills, whereas the presentation template focuses on the content and quality of the verbal delivery. These rubrics allow for systematic evaluation of outcomes and are an integral part of course grading. Other evaluations of learning outcomes may or may not be a component of course grading at the discretion of the instructor.

Table 4.

Cross-cultural Assignment Written Report Evaluation Template.

Cross-cultural context
Global cultural challenges	Properly evaluates the cultural challenges associated with cross-border differences	4	3	2	1	Challenges associated with cross-border differences not examined
Analysis of country context	Contextual background identified and analyzed	4	3	2	1	Either ignored country contextual background and/or weak analysis of contextual background
Use of management course concepts, research, and theories	Identifies and uses relevant course concepts, research, and theories	4	3	2	1	Course concepts, research, and theories identified and used are inappropriate, insufficient or irrelevant
Cultural difference awareness	Outstanding recognition of the cultural cross-border opportunities	4	3	2	1	Cultural cross-border opportunities not addressed
Interpersonal/communication skills
Organization and structure	Paper is well-organized with strong organizing theme, and clear main ideas and transitions	4	3	2	1	Paper is not well-organized, unclear purpose, unclear relationship and/or transition between sections
Readability	The text is highly readable—a pleasure to read with ideas flowing naturally	4	3	2	1	Text is difficult to read—logic is difficult to follow and flow of ideas does not make sense
Writing quality—language	Excellent choice of words and language. Good writing style—no editing required	4	3	2	1	Inconsistent writing styles. Appears like a list of facts. Errors in word usage. Major editing and revision required
Writing quality—grammar, spelling	No spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation errors	4	3	2	1	Errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar
Professional finish, format and citation of references	Excellent finishing, proper use of sections, whole paper follows same format	4	3	2	1	Paper does not follow basic rules of structure and format

Table 5.

Cross-Cultural Assignment Presentation Evaluation Template.

Materials	Posted material on time	4	3	2	1	Material posted late
	Outline very good	4	3	2	1	No outline or not appropriate
	Included materials such as PowerPoint, articles, websites	4	3	2	1	Few supporting materials
Content	Thoroughness	4	3	2	1	Sketchy
	Focused on key points	4	3	2	1	Didn’t focus on key points
	Reflected learning on country culture	4	3	2	1	Not connected to country culture material
	Logical explanations	4	3	2	1	Didn’t make sense
	Use of examples	4	3	2	1	No examples
	Interesting	4	3	2	1	Not interesting; primarily reading material
Presentation
Organization	Strong organization with clear main ideas and transitions	4	3	2	1	Little organization, unclear purpose, poor transitions between presenters
Eye contact	Presenter makes eye contact with everyone/no nervous behaviors	4	3	2	1	Eye contact is infrequent
Style	Speaks in a clear voice and displays ability for communicating with the audience	4	3	2	1	Presenters are difficult to hear. Too fast or too slow. The speakers do not show much enthusiasm
Visuals	Good visual aids used to make presentation interesting and meaningful	4	3	2	1	Visual aids are distractive and not related to topic being discussed
Q&A	Students provide knowledgeable and targeted answers	4	3	2	1	Students demonstrate poor understanding of the material

Discussion of Difficulties and Rewards

In this section, we address difficulties and challenges that we have encountered throughout recent years as the technique has been developed and include our attempts to address these challenges. We also present a (less structured) account of rewards and reported benefits to the students. We begin with the challenges.

Difficulties and Challenges

Student matching

One inherent difficulty to this technique is the matching of students. We have required at least two international student team members from the same country, which leads to our starting the process before every term addressing the pool of international students, that is, which countries do international students who want to participate in the Cross-cultural Assignment come from? Before each term, we meet with the ESL office at our institution to identify the roster of potentially interested students and their countries. In the beginning of the term, we present these countries to the U.S.-based business students, whose teams have already been created, and each team selects their first-, second-, and third-option country from those available. Through a fine-tuning process, each U.S.-based team finalizes their country selection. This is done prior to the introduction or “kick-off” meeting, so when students get together for the first time they are already matched. Although for the most part this has worked smoothly, every term there has been at least one case of last-minute changes spurred by some addition or subtraction in the “available country” list. This has never been a major issue because when this has occurred, the introductory meeting has begun with an on-site real-time adjustment to the team compositions and countries of focus and the exercise has gone forward without any problem.

Scheduling

Students tend to be very busy; hence, scheduling meeting times may be somewhat difficult. To add to this difficulty, cultures differ in their degrees of assertiveness in setting up additional meeting time possibilities and also in their use of means of communication. Therefore, it is necessary that the issue of scheduling be addressed explicitly in at least two ways in the introductory meeting. The first way is to make sure the next face-to-face augmented team meeting is scheduled before the introductory session ends. The second, and perhaps more important, way is to have an informal exchange of ideas as to the preferred means of communication to avoid any scheduling misunderstandings going forward (whether email, voice, texting).

Task orientation speeds

Different cultures have different attitudes toward completing tasks. This can be illustrated by the four stages in a negotiation as noted by Graham and Sano (1986). These stages can be summarized as non–task sounding, task-related exchange of information, persuasion, and agreement. While certain cultures, such as Anglo-Saxon and Germanic cultures, tend to go more quickly to the third stage of persuasion, other cultures, such as East Asian (e.g., Japan and Korea) and Latin American will tend to spend more time getting to know their counterparties (non–task sounding) and trying to find out what their underlying incentives are (task-related exchange of information), which could generate some imbalance in any given negotiation if the parties are not aware of these different cultural preferences. On occasion we have found that busy U.S.-based students might be too task oriented, attempting to move too quickly to the third and fourth stages of “getting the job done,” whereas international students may still be trying to wrap their heads around the experience and what it means, that is, they are still in stages one and two. We have found this awareness and perception of task-orientation stages to be a very valuable learning experience for all students, that is, when in a group one must be receptive and responsive to different speeds of engagement.

Male and female considerations

Some countries have different levels of power distance orientations and different levels of male–female roles from other cultures. We have decided in our Cross-cultural Assignment implementation to not try to tailor student characteristics to specific country student matching patterns; that is, the only criterion for U.S.-based students to be matched with a particular country is mutual interest. As such, we have had virtually every permutation of team composition and always have had very positive results. To cite one example, in some Arab countries women’s rights differ from those of men (local women cannot drive, cannot vote, cannot travel without a male companion, cannot be elected to higher office, etc.). We have had instances of all-women U.S.-based teams choosing Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, and being matched up in some cases with all-male Saudi teams, in other cases with all-female Saudi teams, and in yet other cases, with mixed-gender Saudi teams. In every case the results were very enlightening as both the U.S.-based students and the Saudi-Arabian-based students walked away from the experience with a much richer understanding of each other’s culture. We plan on continuing to match students as we have in the past, that is, solely based on students’ mutual interest.

Free-riding

As with any team project in any academic setting, there is always the potential for student free-riding. Although we cannot guarantee that the issue has been eliminated, we can affirm that it can be mitigated through several initiatives such as team coaching, peer evaluation of team members, and faculty interventions whenever necessary. Mid-course peer feedback mechanisms are also helpful. Students are aware of these precautionary steps, and perhaps because of this as well as the experiential nature of the Assignment, free-riding behavior seems to have been avoided.

Class-size limit

The nature of the Cross-cultural Assignment, the desirability of not having augmented teams with more than six members, and the preference for a significant “hands-on” learning experience including intense in-class interaction is the main factor that contributes to limit class size. In our experience, classes have varied from 20 to 31 students (with at most 11 augmented teams). We believe the Assignment begins to lose its effectiveness with a class-size of 50 students (17 augmented teams) and have found no way around this class-size limitation.

Rewards and Benefits to the Students

Although students have identified and we have observed several benefits to them from the use of this pedagogical technique, the most oft-cited benefit seems to have been a subjective and, in their words, “surprising,” deeper understanding of a different culture. The vast majority of students, especially lower-classman undergraduate students, after having reported some degree of trepidation at the beginning of the exercise, have said they were surprised at how smoothly it went and at how beneficial it turned out to be. Perhaps students have used the word surprising to articulate the power of tacit learning within an experiential context—it is unclear whether the surprise relates more to the depth of learning or to the fact that the Assignment turned out to be perhaps less painful than feared. The opportunity to engage in an open-ended series of encounters with individuals from a different culture in which there is a loose structure but also numerous opportunities for creativity seems to have been a major factor in students’ reports that the Cross-cultural Assignment consistently exceeded their expectations.

Another benefit reported by the U.S.-based students was the sheer amount of information they were able to obtain about a country in which they had been interested to begin with and about which they sometimes already had some previous knowledge. This first-hand information obtained from people with different backgrounds, including uncensored opinions about sometimes somewhat controversial topics, seems to have stood out as a strong experience. U.S.-based students also reported deep interest and surprise in foreign students’ perceptions of America. For example, it was common for international students to mention that once they had arrived in the United States, they were very well received and felt very comfortable. A team from Japan, for example, mentioned the friendliness and informality of Americans, opinions that in and of themselves shed light on Japanese culture. In our view, the notion that the word “normal” depends on the context from which one comes is a significant benefit of the Cross-cultural Assignment.

Students have reported that the exercise has been very useful for them to eliminate stereotypical opinions they had about a particular culture while also leading them to respect more deeply the academic research on different cultures because of the clear difficulty in performing it. Some students have reported the Assignment as having been a life-altering experience not only because of their interaction with their respective augmented teams but also because in observing other students’ presentations they were able to see that other students had similar experiences, therefore enabling them to compare and contrast across cultures and across individual augmented team characteristics. U.S.-based students have reported a journey of self-discovery as they recognized that some prejudices had been based on false notions and that the Assignment helped them recognize that kindness and compassion are universal qualities regardless of country or ethnicity. In short, the Cross-cultural Assignment seems to have contributed to the development of students as men and women for others, that is, it seems to have helped prepare students for a life of cooperating with people of different beliefs and customs.

Last, the Cross-cultural Assignment has provided an anchor point to more explicitly understand Hall’s, Hofstede’s, Trompenaars’s, and other models of cultural dimensions by providing students with the opportunity to compare and contrast the specific models with what they observe. To cite the example of Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture, having the direct experience with students from another country has allowed U.S.-based students to gain a much deeper understanding of individualism–collectivism, power–distance, uncertainty avoidance, and so on, as they have been able to apply these dimensions to their own experience in working with their fellow team members from foreign countries.

Conclusion

This article describes the Cross-cultural Assignment with international students, an experiential learning technique used in different types of international management and international business undergraduate and graduate courses. This technique has been used for several years with very good learning outcomes, and the main objectives of the article were to report on the Assignment, to describe the methodology, to identify challenges and benefits from its use, and to encourage the dissemination of this pedagogical tool.

The article also attempts to open avenues for further inquiry. One necessary topic for further research is whether the premise that cross-cultural skills can be acquired and developed is indeed confirmed for all individuals. Although it seems to be the case that some individuals benefit greatly from developmental initiatives such as the Cross-cultural Assignment, it remains to be determined whether these exercises can be more broadly applied. Yet another opportunity for further experimentation is the development of other experiential learning formats within which to develop cultural awareness.

As described above, the Cross-cultural Assignment is very useful in training individuals for any type of cross-cultural role, for which tacit knowledge is important. Because it is based on “learning-by-doing,” it takes advantage of the appropriateness of experiential learning techniques for developing one’s intuition. As such, it is especially recommended for cross-cultural situations in which it is virtually impossible to rationally understand all the components of a particular situation, leading to at least some reliance on other forms of perception and knowledge such as intuition, emotion, and cultural intelligence. In summary, our view is that international business education could benefit from the expanded use of variations of the Cross-cultural Assignment described herein. Stated even more broadly, we believe that, pedagogically, international business training would greatly benefit from experiential learning techniques. The Cross-cultural Assignment with international students described in this article is one such experiential learning method offering a learning platform for U.S.-based students to deepen their understanding of the complexities associated with operating in a more globally interconnected world.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to sincerely thank Associate Editor Cindi Fukami and two anonymous reviewers for substantive and insightful comments that, in our view, contributed significantly to the article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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