Going Global: Developing Management Students' Cultural Intelligence and Global Identity in Culturally Diverse Virtual Teams

TLDR

The study designed a 4‑week online multicultural team project to test its impact on management students’ cultural intelligence, global identity, and local identity. The project involved 1,221 graduate management students in 312 virtual multicultural teams across four cohorts from 2008‑2011, using a constructivist, collaborative experiential learning design that provided a psychologically safe environment for trust building; data were collected via web‑based questionnaires at baseline, post‑project, and 6‑month follow‑up, with team trust measured mid‑project. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that cultural intelligence and global identity increased significantly over time and persisted for 6 months, while local identity did not; team trust moderated these effects, with stronger gains under moderate to high trust.

Abstract

Taking a constructivist, collaborative experiential learning approach to education and training of global managers, we designed an on-line, 4-week virtual multicultural team project and tested its effect on the development of management students' cultural intelligence, global identity, and local identity. The total sample of 1221 graduate management students, assigned to 312 virtual multicultural teams, consisted of four cohorts, each participating in one 4-week project; one project was conducted every year between 2008 and 2011. All projects were designed in the same way, according to principles of collaborative experiential learning, and offered a psychologically safe learning environment that enabled trust building. Data on cultural intelligence, global identity, and local identity were collected by way of web-based questionnaires at the beginning and at the end of the project, as well as 6 months later. Team trust was assessed in the middle of the project. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that cultural intelligence and global identity, but not local identity, significantly increased over time and that this effect lasted for 6 months after the project had ended. Trust as a team level factor moderated the project's effect on team members' cultural intelligence and global identity, with significant effects under moderate to high rather than low levels of trust.