By Soni Sharma
Usually, most of the business schools fulfil their duties by emphasising to their students in the classroom that the corporate sector is a part of the global economy and citing the cases which tell the stories of Pollo Campero (a fast food chain), operating a Toyota, or an international smartphone brand. The faculties also discuss the sale of International exports and the expansion of worldwide brands that are all the same (For example, Disney, Apple, McDonald’s, and Coca-Cola). These tales are only one method that business school professors could make an effort to globalise the business curriculum.
In recent years, the globalisation of businesses has occurred faster than the internationalisation of business schools–—in terms of faculty, students, and curriculum. Indeed, there is now a disconnect between global economic realities and the ability of business schools to produce global managers. Categorically few business schools have prepared mission-based strategies for international business education and created opportunities that increase global awareness, global understanding, and global competence through student and faculty engagement and development. These changes only can advance business schools’ mission of producing global managers.
Premier Business Schools have internationalised their PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Management) programs by highlighting International Immersion Program, international teaching, training, and collaborative research. These strategies helped to achieve three main objectives:
To foster global awareness, which involves learning more about different parts of the world, their institutions, and how they affect business practices
To foster greater global understanding, which involves gaining deeper insights into how different societies function while also being sensitive to cultural differences
To strengthen global competence, which involves acquiring diverse behavioural skills and global mindsets.
To develop global awareness B-schools integrated two path systems. They included international curriculum and subjects in their program specifically in PGDM. The first approach infuses concepts and content into course materials across the business education core. Through integration, business students are exposed to concepts that help them develop an awareness of any international implications that their decisions may have when engaging in problem-solving activities.
Secondly, introducing international teaching through faculty exchange and international webinars. Research efforts and courses in international and global management, international marketing, international finance, international service and hospitality and other fields have been designed and introduced in the curriculum. B-schools kept encouraging faculty members to gain new perspectives and understanding of the global dimensions of their fields as the ultimate objective.
The dual specialisation approach by leading B-schools is also helping to create global understanding and environment through the development of an international curriculum. Students acquire adequate knowledge and skills to deal with the global marketplace. Specifically, students are exposed to dissimilar cultures and differing socio-political contexts that help them develop a more rigorous understanding of the global marketplace. Business schools that follow this approach add faculty from other countries or encourage their current faculty to take sabbaticals in various parts of the world to enrich their teaching and research resources. Additionally, faculty may also be actively involved in international business associations or conduct research focusing on international firms, to improve their international knowledge.
Many business schools develop partnerships across the world. These associations involve more than just the exchange of students and faculty. Strategic alliances provide student participants an avenue to enhance their global competence by taking courses in different countries and regions. Sometimes, members of strategic alliances set up dual degree programs to make their educational offerings more attractive to potential participants and encourage the flow of students and faculty in both directions, internationalising the home campus as well as students who visit there. Finally, the business school’s international partnership supports students with access to more experiential international placements such as internships, study abroad programs, and exchange.
Via the above mentioned approaches, students learn that international business is not only about the crossing of national borders but also the learning experienced by managers outside their home environments. Business schools’ programs which facilitate the development of global competence focus on students’ development of attitudes and are conducive to integrating and applying international experience and learning.
The author is associate professor at Jaipuria School of Business, Ghaziabad. Views are personal.