Doing International Business: From Cultural Perspectives

The remarkable growth of the global economy over the past 50 years has been shaped by the dynamic interplay of various driving and restraining forces. From business and HRD (Human Resource Development) aspects, an understanding of globalization as it applies to the field of training and educational programs enables organizations to develop competencies and skills to respond to these emerging challenges faced by globalization. In recent reports (Yager, 2001; O’Regan, 2001), employers are increasingly having trouble finding workers who have excellent (1) soft skills, (2) business etiquette, (3) interpersonal communication skills, and (4) intercultural communication skills. An international business organization cannot succeed if cultural factors are ignored, and the same is true for educational programs. The central goal of this study was to explore the aspects needed for cultural understanding in formal course offerings such as language courses, as well as possible activities/subjects that could improve culture understanding. Significant differences regarding how students’ academic profiles affected their attitudes toward culturally related issues were discovered in this study. Recommendations were made for changes in language courses taught to Hospitality majors