Ranked #1 in the World
Business schools recognize the need to help their students develop a global mindset, but few of these schools use any type of instrument to measure outcomes. Thunderbird uses the Global Mindset Inventory, a scientific instrument developed on campus that Professor Mansour Javidan, Ph.D., shared Nov. 14 at the MBA Roundtable in Washington.
Javidan, the dean of research and Garvin Distinguished Professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz., said most people grow up with one national and cultural identity and never learn how to work with people different from themselves. Yet corporations with global ambitions need managers who know how to influence people across cultures.
“We’ve got to make sure that we compensate for that lack of developmental experience,” he told executives from about 65 business schools in the United States, Canada and Europe. “We’ve got to help them out, coach them and teach them to be able to work with people who are different from themselves.”
An MBA Roundtable survey of 72 programs found that nearly all identify global mindset development as a “strategic priority.” Yet only six programs in the survey use any type of instrument to measure outcomes.
Javidan said Thunderbird gives its Global Mindset Inventory to students when they first arrive on campus and then a second time before they graduate. Thunderbird students scheduled to graduate in December will receive their before-and-after results on Dec. 3.
“The whole purpose of this is not to evaluate and give you a grade or a pay raise,” he said. “The whole purpose is for you to understand what your own strengths and weaknesses are.”
Javidan said the Global Mindset survey of 91 questions is the first of its kind designed to help students and global managers identify their strengths and weaknesses before venturing onto the world stage.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “There are many instruments out there. A lot of people will tell you they have instruments that can assess global leaders, and we looked at them. None of them takes a rigorous, empirical, scientific approach. The Global Mindset Inventory does.”
Is a global mindset in your DNA?
Thunderbird has created psychometric tool that is changing how global businesses compete. Learn more about the Global Mindset Leadership Institute or contact the project leader, Thunderbird Dean of Research Mansour Javidan, Ph.D., at mansour.javidan@thunderbird.edu.
February 13th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
After watching the video, Javidan was talking about the Thunderbird student who was scheduled to graduate in December and he said that the Global Mindset survey of 91 questions is the first of its kind it was designed to help students.