Management education should engage with global leaders to prepare future managers to cope with the challenges and implications of adopting a global mindset as part of their lifestyle – while enjoying the benefits it can generate – says Gabriela Whitehead
The drastic impact of the ongoing global pandemic has reached most aspects of society, as governments all over the world have implemented a series of changes and regulations concerning many of our everyday activities. These regulations have been put in place to control the further spread of the virus, while protecting our health and that of others. One of the major changes is the restrictions imposed on international travel. This has drastically limited individual mobility across borders, from the opportunities to go to other countries for leisure, personal reasons or to temporarily relocate to pursue studies or work abroad, to the exchange of the goods and services that are part of our daily life.
The limitations on the spatial mobility of people had also impacted on the ways we relate to others in the social sphere as well as in the personal domain of family and friends. To overcome these challenges, online platforms and digital tools have widely spread becoming the normal means to communicate and interact. Other dominant sectors that shape social life have also been affected by restrictions on the mobility of people across countries, thus transforming well-established systems and policies.
For example, in the world of work, multinational corporations are adopting alternative options to continue operations in different locations, at the same time they are forced to reduce or even stop the move of workers across the company’s sites. Business trips and temporary expatriation are traditional ways to transfer the local workforce to undertake corporate merges, to purse geographical expansion, or as part of the general running of the business operations, for instance In addition, global mobility results in certain added benefits for the employees as they are able to meet face-to-face with the local workforce and experience the culture of the host community, both of which influence how people relate to others and generally understand ‘being international’.
Although these face-to-face exchanges are now restricted and the opportunities for interpersonal encounters are limited, employees must continue to interact within a multicultural context via online communication platforms. This not only means that physical locations have become irrelevant as the local as well as the global workforce meets in the virtual space, but also that the option to collaborate and work with those based in different locations is available to more employees as travel costs and administrative procedures are eliminated.
Similarly, in the educational context, distance learning and hybrid delivery modes have become the new normal for students and educators. With enhanced digital tools and online platforms, the traditional presential learning experience is replicated in the virtual environment, allowing participation and cooperation amongst fellow students and peers. In addition, the digital transformation in higher education has opened opportunities for prospective students across the globe to seek and pursue a qualification despite their geographical location; with the option to complete their degree from home, to relocate to the city where the institution is based or to change locations during the duration of the study programme. Independently of the choice of academic degree, with the spread in the adoption of virtual classrooms by institutions of higher education, the students have equal opportunities to interact in an international environment, by sharing their learning experience with peers from different countries and cultural backgrounds.
Global mobility and the global mindset
Global mobility is traditionally associated with the means for individuals to acquire international experience, which is often depicted as a key personal capability and a source of competitive advantage in the workplace. This is because the knowledge and skills gained by the individuals as they work in different countries can help them to develop a ‘global career’. However, a global mindset is also created by how people perceive themselves and others, despite their location. Their relationships with others in the social sphere are being shaped by the context in which they interact as well as the means they use to do so. At the same time, how people perceive these interactions is based on how they view and understand their reality and the extent to which this understanding influences their behaviours and attitudes towards others within the context of different spheres of social life.
The changes in spatial mobility as a response to the current travel restrictions do not necessarily provoke a negative impact on the ability to develop and practice cultural awareness. This is because the sense of identity as a member of an international community is constructed based on a shared lifestyle and attitudes towards place, rather than by the locality where the individuals live. At the same time, the context in which the individuals interact as well as the discourses ingrained within them influence the way people make sense of their reality and relate to the culturally different other. In other words, to be part of a multinational community in the same location or across the globe requires a combination of factors, including a view of the world that is based on the understanding and respect of local differences and supported by an environment that shares the same vision and values.
Studying a global academic degree, for example, continues to be an opportunity to construct professional networks across borders and to experience being international through regular interactions with others who share a similar learning experience. Business Schools can therefore help to nurture the global mindset amongst students and educators as well as the employees who support them by providing the means to acquire the key competences and basic know-how, such as the kind of training employers have traditionally offered to those who regularly undertake international business travel.
This knowledge is particularly relevant for those who choose to purse a global degree, where there are higher probabilities of interacting with an international community within the same classroom, either physical or virtual.
The role of Business Schools
Being global may be understood as a network of experiences that reach across geopolitical borders; a view of a borderless world that is possible thanks to online communication and digital tools. Nonetheless, the interactions within the virtual environment as well as the understanding of others remain an experience of the self, shaped by the given context and the role it has for the individual. How people perceive and relate to others as well as the language used in the virtual workspace or classroom differs from how they do with family or friends. Despite the elimination of physical distances between people during online communications, the individual differences in social and cultural backgrounds still exist, and therefore awareness, understanding as well as acceptance of such differences continue to part of a global mindset.
Training and education can support individuals to nurture a global mindset and to acquire cultural awareness; however, it is essential to retain a critical approach to the ways in which such knowledge is transmitted and shared. The global mindset is a personal approach to the world that is based on the perception of the self in relation to others and the context where they interact. This includes the ways in which dominant notions, such as globalisation and the duality of the global-local are represented and consumed by the individuals. There is not a ‘quick fix’ or standard list of competencies that can be followed by all those who wish to adopt a global mindset, as is sometimes claimed in popular management texts through oversimplified and even romanticised descriptions of international travel.
In the literature of careers, it is widely accepted that living abroad or experiencing an international environment can support personal growth and professional advancement because the competencies gained can be transferred across jobs and organisations as well as countries. In addition, the pursuit of international travel is commonly associated with notions of adventure and exploration that sometimes draw upon oversimplified views of the world as a source of opportunities and detachment from local constraints; however, there are also ambiguities and contradictory feelings involved in the mobile lifestyle. At the personal level, international mobility as well as regular interactions in a multicultural environment within a local or virtual community influences certain fundamental concepts in the life of the individual, such as that of home and the sense of belonging, in terms of the feelings associated with a given place or culture.
Business School education and organisational learning, in general, need to consider the ambiguities and contradictions experienced by the mobile individual, as is the case of regular business travellers and international students, which may conflict with idealised or oversimplified views of international relocations and multicultural settings. Therefore, management education should engage critically with actual accounts of those who experience the globe, to better prepare future professionals and managers to cope with the challenges and implications of adopting a global mindset as part of their lifestyle, while enjoying the benefits it can generate.
Dr Gabriela Whitehead is Head of Digital Transformation and Process Management at GISMA Business School.
Gabriela joined the GISMA team in October 2019. She works on data integration and decentralisation to optimise the databases, systems and processes used across all departments and services at GISMA Germany.
Gabriela holds a PhD and an MSc in communication, media and marketing with a specialisation in employee international mobility. Gabriela pursued both degrees as a remote student while starting a family and relocating internationally several times.
