Communication Across Cultures

Abstract

Abstract An important learning objective for business students is that with whom one chooses to do business should be based on objective business factors rather than subjective stereotypes. The goal of this exploratory study was to examine the effect of formal interventions in the classroom on students' choices of group members and whether the interventions helped to alleviate subjective choice strategies. In this experiment, data were collected from MBA students representing five major racioethnic identity groups. It was hypothesized that experiential learning exercises would modify the effects of identity group membership. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that the experiential learning exercises had a significant and positive influence on subjects' ability to acquire and assimilate information concerning potential group members beyond the stereotypical categorization of identity group membership. One disturbing aspect of the findings was the parochial response of the Caucasian subjects. While the thrust in business schools recently has been to focus on ways to get international students indoctrinated into western culture, it appears that it may be more appropriate to focus on ways to get U.S. students to communicate across international cultures.