Developing cross cultural awareness through foreign immersion programs: Implications of university study abroad research for global competency development
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficacy of foreign immersion programs in terms of increasing cross cultural awareness among university students in business, accounting, human resources and agriculture. The authors extrapolate from their population to the practice of developing business professionals on international assignments. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents findings of a four year, government sponsored university exchange program involving 40 professional management and agriculture science students from four US and Brazilian top research universities who participated in a semester long study abroad experience. Pre departure and post exchange data were collected using the well established Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) In addition, the authors collected academic performance data and verbal mid and end project personal assessments. Two of the authors of this paper served as project directors, the third as evaluation specialist. Findings Despite