Abstract:

The aim of all graduate schools in organizational leadership should be focused on educating the “high-value decision maker” with a global mindset. Enabling students from many countries to experience study abroad has surged in recent years. The purpose of this paper – centering on the Organizational Leadership concentration at Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, California which is designed to develop individuals to take on higher leadership roles within their chosen profession was to determine if efforts to develop global mindsets in these doctoral students was successfully occurring. Specifically, a study was undertaken to determine if there was an increase in scores on the Intercultural Developmental Inventory (IDI) over a two-year period by these leadership Ed.D. students. No study before this has investigated this student group utilizing the IDI. The developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (Bennet, 1993) is the basis for the Intercultural Developmental Inventory, which is the basis for this study.

The educating of the “high-value decision maker” with a global mindset should be the aim of all graduate schools in organizational leadership. The rush to enable students in many countries to experience study abroad has surged in recent years. Although there are many definitions of “global competency;” according to Olson and Kroeger (2001), “a globally competent person has enough substantive knowledge, perceptual understanding, and intercultural communication skills to effectively interact in our globally interdependent world.”

The need has never been greater to produce “high value decision makers” from graduate schools due to the internationalization of labor markets for high skilled leaders. Wang, Peyvandi and Moghaddam (2009) report that the number of U.S students traveling abroad to study is increasing greatly and that the AACSB, the leading accrediting body for schools of business encourages graduate schools to prepare students for careers with a global context. Although there are many definitions of “global competency,” one of the best was that of Olson and Kroeger (2001), where they define this as “a globally competent person has enough substantive knowledge, perceptual understanding, and intercultural communication skills to effectively interact in our globally interdependent world.”

This was the first study of its kind done for the program and additional studies are now in process to determine if these initial results will be replicated in future cohorts. Additional study is needed to determine whether this is a pattern of improvement or an isolated instance.

We can surmise that a combination of coursework with students from international locations and the brief immersion where students in some cases had a hands-on global experience are the likely reasons that the increase of scores took place. While one can’t say that scores will increase for all students, it is clear that for those who are open to intercultural experiences and acquiring a global mindset, they will likely improve their IDI if combinations of intercultural elements are offered. These students will then be among those high value leaders who are sought after by multi-national organizations.

Keywords:

Organizational leadership, global mindset, global competency.