Developing intercultural capability in business faculty members and their students

• Published in: The international journal of organizational diversity 2013-01, Vol.12 (1), p.49-59
• Main Authors: Mak, Anita S., Barker, Michelle C., Woods, Peter, Daly, Anne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic staff development; Action research; Business education; Business students; Capacity building approach; College students; Critical incidents; Cross cultural training; Cultural competence; Curricula; Diversity (Student); Foreign students; Griffith University; Higher education; Intercultural communication; Intercultural competence; International students; Internationalisation; Learning Circles; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Participatory action research; Postsecondary education; Professional development; Sociocultural factors; Stakeholders; Students; Teaching; Universities; University of Canberra; University students; University teaching; Workplaces
• ISSN: 2328-6261; 2328-6229
• DOI: 10.18848/2328-6261/cgp/v12i01/40214

Internationalisation at Home, a work-in-progress priority project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, aims to internationalise the learning and teaching practices of business higher education through intercultural capacity building of faculty, students, and the curricula. The initial phase of this participatory action research project involved consulting stakeholder groups (business professionals, faculty members, domestic students, and international students) to assess needs for socio-cultural competence development in business classes and workplaces. The integration of the stakeholder-generated critical incident scenarios with an internationally recognised intercultural training resource (the EXCELL Program) led to the design and delivery of a professional development workshop offered to Business faculty members at two Australian universities, the University of Canberra and Griffith University, Queensland. Afterwards, senior faculty members established learning circle meetings to support colleagues to adapt workshop resources and embed cultural diversity awareness and intercultural competence development in the Business courses they teach. In this article, the authors report and discuss the processes and outcomes of the professional development workshop and the learning circle meetings, including the curriculum renovation actions initiated by participating faculty members. They discuss the project findings to date in the context of preparing university graduates to be effective cross-cultural communicators in workplaces and society. [Author abstract]