Academics Abroad : A cross cultural study

This paper aims to investigate if individuals from an academic setting encounter the same types of difficulties and problems as those discussed in literature for individuals working in a business abroad. There is much literature on the most common difficulties and problems that business individuals may encounter when working overseas. We have identified three main areas which are communication, relationship to hierarchy and decision making norms. However, there is little documentation on difficulties from an academic perspective. In order to see if any similarities or differences existed within these areas, we interviewed individuals from an academic setting, to see if their experiences are similar to the business individuals or not. The sample in this paper consists of teachers and researchers at Umeå University which have experiences from working overseas. In total we interviewed ten individuals and the result point in the direction that individuals from an academic setting do not experience the same difficulties and problems as individuals from the business world do. From the three topics identified as the most common problem areas in a business setting, two (communication and relationship to hierarchy) showed a result that is not in accordance with the existing literature on the business context and one (decision making norms) was not directly related to the individuals represented in this sample .