Contemporary HEIs are characterized by internationalized classrooms and diverse learning spaces that blend various linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Achieving the benefits of diversity falls short however, and challenges remain unaddressed since academics, central to unlocking the full potential of the international classroom, lack competence, resources, and tools. Despite universities offering CPD, these suffer from low enrollment and a high drop-out rate. A literature review confirms that the voice of academics has been neglected in designing CPD. We investigated the perceptions and needs of academics in the context of a medium-sized university in Sweden using a survey. The findings indicate that the design and delivery of CPD would benefit from adopting an andragogical approach. There is a valuable lesson for designers and deliverers of CPD in academia: listen to the needs of your audience, involve them in design and delivery, acknowledge their experience, and build collaborative learning opportunities.

The Background: The globalization of the business world and the ongoing internationalization of many organizations have profound consequences for societies and economies. National economies, the Austrian and Swedish being the examples in this study, are globally intertwined and export dependent. When businesses search for opportunities outside national borders, employees will engage with diverse groups of stakeholders while conducting daily business and pursuing organizational goals. Additionally, due to migrations, the available workforce is becoming increasingly diverse. Business schools have an obligation to educate graduates who are "ready for life." To stay relevant, business programs, specifically in marketing and sales, need to deliver not just subject-specific knowledge but also give students the chance to increase their intercultural competence.

Purpose: This study contributes to the discussion on business schools' role in improving students' intercultural competences and the necessity to align learning outcomes with future market needs.

Study design/methodology/approach: The content analysis of 240 qualified recruitment advertisements was conducted to investigate, in line with signalling theory, how employers' express their requirements and expectations in recruitment advertising.

Findings/conclusions: The empirical study shows that ads frequently describe work environments as culturally diverse. Most reviewed advertisements contain references to interactions with partners and customers across national borders. However, there is a weak connection between the work situation described in the ads and the skills required to tackle diversity. While foreign language and communication skills are frequently listed as requirements in those ads, intercultural competence is seldom a requirement. Even if not vocalized, evidence suggests that future graduates will increasingly need intercultural competence.

Limitations/future research: The study was conducted based on a limited number of recruitment advertisements. Future research could include a wider coverage of recruitment advertisements. The qualitative research would complement findings on the need for interculturally competent graduates.

There is a certain dichotomy in the idea of a multicultural classroom. The internationalization of higher-education institutions (HEIs) means that educators are increasingly meeting culturally diverse students. Although the concept of diversity has a positive connotation, with a wide agreement about the benefits of multiculturality, the daily work (and life) in a diverse setting is often burdened with obstacles that make a lot of educators (as well as students) choose not to engage with cultural diversity. What seems to be a great asset, faced with the harsh reality of deadlines and performance expectations, becomes a problem. However, undeniably, cultural diversity will remain in the context of future graduates’ work and lives. In order not to miss the opportunity to equip them with valuable intercultural competences, we developed a course for educators to address the frequently stated issue of a lack of training or knowledge to address multicultural classrooms.

This paper follows the process of ideation, design, development, and delivery of a continuous professional academic development course – that puts the needs, circumstances, and preferences of learners (educators) at the center. The insights from educators are collected in 21 interviews across the university. Our point of departure was to recognize educators as adult learners, leading to the elaboration of andragogical principles as guiding values in the course design, while ideas of instructional design were instrumental in creating a blueprint for the course “Managing an Intercultural Classroom.” We aim to contribute to the discussion on continuous professional academic development for educators, with the goal of improving the learning experience for students. We present our model for designing learning experiences that can be used as a general model for designing different educational formats.  

The world is changing. Educators in business administration, including marketing, face the challenge of providing relevant education. Students, as a primary stakeholder, are interested in competencies that make them (competitive) employable. The organizations (employers) are reducing their willingness to train new employees on the job and demand their immediate contribution to organizational goals. Society increasingly emphasizes that higher education must go beyond education and research into the third mission of direct contribution to community development and economic development. This article discusses the (re)designing of an international marketing course based on experimental learning and instructional design. The course is integrated into the local business community and uses, as an asset, a diverse student population to respond to challenges local businesses face in pursuing entrepreneurial internationalization. The effects of the course (re)design are measured through the course evaluations during the last three-year period. The goal of the article is to contribute to collegial discussion on engagement with the business community to increase relevance of education, as well as share ideas for systematic course design and delivery.

There is an agreement among scholars that we need to prepare students to be ready-for-life, as well as the agreement that the future might be characterized by, broadly defined, diversity. Although the benefits of diversity are numerous and praised, there is also an understanding that diversity on its own does not necessarily mean that these benefits will be realized. Working (and living) in a culturally diverse environment poses a challenge and requires skills and mindset to overcome obstacles and reap the benefits. It is no surprise that the global contemporary business world induces discussion on globally competent employees. But employees of tomorrow are today’s students, and therefore, to prepare them for culturally diverse workspaces, the question of intercultural competence and its development during studies becomes relevant. Future employees are to work with a diverse group of stakeholders outside the organization (customers, clients, intermediaries, partners) and to work in a diverse team of colleagues inside their organizations. The internationalization of HEI created an environment that offers opportunities to engage in cross-cultural contacts and advance cross-cultural competence. 

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate about advancing and measuring intercultural competence by presenting findings from a pilot study. We conducted 45 interviews on internationalization and diversity in a HEI from the multistakeholder perspective (management, teachers, staff, students) across four schools belonging to a university in southern Sweden. Parallelly, we assessed the intercultural competence of different student groups using Ang’s Cultural Intelligence Scale collecting 177 responses in the process. We will present our experience from the project, initial findings and share a suggestion for a practice that can serve as an alternative to measuring intercultural competence.

Society is increasingly becoming multicultural, with more pressure to improve the quality of intercultural interactions. Higher education institutions are experiencing internationalization through increased mobility of students and faculty, which creates the need to manage diversity with the imperative of smoothing communication, reducing stress and making studying and working in a multicultural environment more efficient. Employers also dictate a need to educate culturally competent professionals, who are capable of succeeding in a globalized environment characterized by increased workforce mobility and international assignments. Intercultural competences discourse has a long track with researchers and practitioners, without any agreement on its definition or measurement, but with a clear message that cultural diversity will not result in increased intercultural competences. In this paper, intercultural competences are viewed as a transversal learning outcome, considering the increasing internationalization of higher education institutions. The research is qualitative in nature, based on the analysis of course evaluations and an open-ended survey. This study used a purposeful sample of current and former students who have been exposed to a diverse intercultural environment while studying at an international business school in Sweden. Based on the findings, a course design is suggested where exposure to cultural diversity is guided and facilitated by bringing students to collaborate in an assignment-driven context, with a culturally diverse group composition. Lecture-based components of the course are balanced with the addition of a component of self-reflection assignment, providing both culturally specific and general knowledge, thus contributing to the ability to extrapolate the experience on future intercultural encounters.

Brands are not only applicable to products and services, but can also include people (Kotler and Kotler 2012; Rein et al. 2006). According to McNally and Speak (2002 p. 29) “everybody has a brand”, including professors (Jillapalli and Jillapalli 2014). With an increased competitive educational environment (Casidy 2014; Tanrikulu and Gelibolu 2015), creating a strong brand identity for Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) includes the use of professors, instructors and teachers (as educators) to attract students and funding. Due to limited research into professor brand identity, the purpose of this research is to investigate the nature and development of a professor brand within a business school, specifically the creation of a brand by professors.

In the study, use was made of personal branding theory (Montoya and Vandehey 2002; Peters 1997) where the professor is regarded as the CEO of “Brand You” (Gad 2002). Additionally, theory from Corporate branding (Abratt and Kleyn 2012) which identifies two major components of corporate identity namely strategic choices and corporate expression was incorporated. In applying this to a professor brand, the strategic choices include course management (e.g. planning, goals) and the representation was expanded to include language, tone and style of personal presentation (dress) (Rein et al. 2006).

This exploratory study uses semi-structured interviews among educators to achieve the purpose of the research, using a convenience sample of professors in a Swedish HEI. An interview guide was developed associated with the theoretical concepts. Interviews were recorded and transcribed prior to content analysis in order to ensure trustworthiness of the data.

Professors identified various roles and target audiences, and that brand development took place in different ways was dependent on the role undertaken. The initial findings suggest mixed responses to the identification of a professor brand. Themes identified include the Performance (of the professor in the student experience), Flexibility or responsiveness to student needs and Respect towards the students. The potential “dark side” of the strong brand was also noted.

Theoretically, the findings will enable the development of an integrated model of professor brand identity, including both antecedents and outcomes. Practically, this research suggests strategies for the development of professor brands as positive professor brand equity can impact the students’ retention, engagement and word-of-mouth, creating a positive effect for the HEI’s brand equity.

In the ever-more connected and intertwined world, driven by specialization, economies of scale, and outsourcing, results are obtained through extensive communication and collaboration in international environment. We are witnessing successful complex business endeavors that rely on unobstructed and creative exchange of information and synergy of skills and resources. These processes are accomplished in international environment to a greater extent than ever. This calls for a deeper understanding of intercultural processes and communication for the purpose of achieving business results. This article aims to provide the guidance in negotiating with American partners, based on a number of structured interviews. Attempt was made to link major intercultural theories with practical experience of Austrian companies and individuals working with their United States (US) partners, as well as with self-assessment of a number of American business people. According to the best of our knowledge, there is a shortage of articles that deal with specific features of negotiating with American partners.