HRM elective offers exciting global virtual team project to Evening MBAs – Dr. Dana McDaniel Sumpter
As globalization is a significant factor in the competitive advantage of today’s companies, we increasingly recognize how the global work context is characterized by cultural diversity and geographical dispersion. Organizational leaders need to understand how culture, cross-cultural differences, and intercultural similarities function and are necessary for success in global organizations.
To help our students gain skills in these important areas, Professor Dana Sumpter has had her HRM 658: Diverse Talent Management students in the Evening MBA program undertake a month-long project titled The Multicultural Team Project. Run by Professor Miriam Erez and project coordinators out of Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, this project provides our students with the opportunity to work with a global virtual team, consisting of four members in MBA programs across different countries. Through this virtual, multicultural team, students experience the opportunities and challenges in working with diverse others, as well as those facing an investor in a foreign country. Each team prepares a proposal for a new business or subsidiary in a country that is unfamiliar to the team members. Proposals analyze the cultural aspects related to running a business in the specific location.
Through this project, our students gain valuable experience in understanding similarities and differences in cultural values, enhancing their managerial capacity to adapt to a global work context. CSULB students have experienced many challenges in working with culturally and geographically dispersed teammates, such as communication issues or scheduling conflicts. However, these challenges provide great learning opportunities. Their intercultural interactions with their teammates helps to build awareness of one's own culture and learn how others perceive a person's own culture, while understanding characteristics of the global work culture. As an added bonus, teammates have often developed into global friendships and networking opportunities.
Thus far, 36 CSULB MBA students have successfully completed this project, with 21 additional students ready to participate this fall 2019.
