International cultural competence in international business education: The need to respond

International audienceWith the ever-increasing global focus of international commerce, business schools are responding by including courses in various aspects of international business. Students are taught of the intricacies of international finance, human resources, management, marketing, and operations based on national and international practices. Students know the bodies that spearhead globalization including the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and the World Bank. But nation states have not vanished; instead cultures are today demanding more attention than any other time in the past century. Because of this, members of expatriate communities will tell you that successful business practices depend upon the development and deployment of skills that are not taught in many business schools. These skills include the mechanisms, competencies, and sensitivities needed to respond to polymorphism or heteroglossia as defined by Bakhtin (1981). Polymorphism is the study of the multiple co-existing realities that deny the existence of polar opposites. Instead, polymorphism looks to creating the spaces that foster communication. This is external, or between or among two or more individuals, as well as internal, or the dialogue one conducts with one's self. Culture impacts on both the external and the internal communication and is multifaceted; that is the communication uses all the senses of the body, not only vocal and aural. Initiating interest encourages the students' to continue toward the dynamic interaction that is required in an intercultural environment. That is, tertiary educational institutions foster the acknowledgement and exploration of national and global tendencies. Using this approach, students may be able to understand cultural dynamics and implement and enhance their learnings when facing an intercultural experience. Innovative methodologies are then discussed that have been used to facilitate the intercultural learnings of students