Review of the Problem
The central assertion put forth in this paper is that organizations and businesses operating in and across the global marketplace are in need of highly skilled and capable boundary-spanning managers, entrepreneurs, and leaders. While it is proposed that self-awareness, inter-cultural communication skills, and networking abilities are critical components of a leadership education, research indicates that for too many business schools these concerns are largely being left to chance.
This research acknowledged an increased presence of Taiwan universities offering all-English MBA programs intended to target the unique challenges of leadership education and the needs of global management professionals. Business school leaders at these universities aim to enroll a diverse mix of students from a broad range of cultural backgrounds and work experiences. The study asked whether these young International and Global MBA programs might actually help to inform and achieve movement away from the tried-and-failed canonical prescription of functional area content and authoritarian instructional practices common elsewhere.
For this exploratory study, the following summary is offered to describe an effective boundary-spanner as a combination Networker /Cultural-broker:
Networker:
▪ Able to cultivate inter-personal relations.
▪ Able to communicate thoughts and ideas effectively.
▪ Able to understand own values and beliefs.
▪ Able to understand values and beliefs of others.
▪ Able to read and understand situations.
▪ Able to mobilize and influence people and resources in order to get results.
Cultural-broker:
▪ Respects different values and perspectives.
▪ Values mutual understanding and trust-building.
▪ Able to achieve win-win solutions to problems by influencing, bargaining, negotiating and mediating.
Importantly, in addition to these critical communication skills and networking abilities, it is also proposed that for a boundary-spanner to be truly effective in sustaining relationships and managing issues of a diverse nature, self-awareness must remain a constant interest to the effective boundary-spanner. So, it has been suggested that an emphasis on boundary-spanner education in the business school will involve commitments to improving and developing communication skills and networking abilities with opportunities for interaction and reflective integration of new learning associated with both subject area content and personal lived experiences. The specific concern in this study involves the experiences and objectives of an MBA agenda in support of boundary-spanner education away from or outside the formal classroom.
Discussion of Findings
This research focused on understanding student perceptions and behavior related to their management education and certain key components of a boundary-spanner developmental experience:
self-awareness, inter-cultural communication skill and networking abilities. The survey was sent out to 262 students representing five Taiwan national universities. Questionnaires were initially sent via email distribution on the internet. Some respondents (42%) replied by email. A vast majority of responses (58%) were gathered via a paper survey easily coordinated during a five school MBA networking retreat to
Penghu, Taiwan in April. A total of 43 surveys were returned for a response rate of 16%.
A majority (63%) of participants were international students representing 16 different countries while 37% were from Taiwan. The sample consisted of 53% females and 47% males. 47% of participants were 1st year MBA students and 53% were 2nd year students in the Spring of 2010. The age of
participants ranged from 72% between 20-30 years old, 19% between the ages of 31-40, and 9% were over 40 years old.
Data collected from this study indicate that understanding their strengths and limitations as well as understanding their own values and beliefs are important to aspiring global leaders; with Mean scores of 4.44 and 4.37, respectively on a five-point scale. Additionally, a mean score of 4.60 resulted when students were asked how important personal transformation and self-improvement are to their
management education. (See Table 1).
Table 1: Self-awareness & Self-improvement as priority for boundary-spanner education
Mean S.D.
Understand my strengths and
limitations 4.44 0.66
Understand own values and beliefs 4.37 0.82
Personal transformation &
self-improvement 4.60 0.62
How important are the following items to your management education?
5=Very Important 1=Not Important
Survey results also indicate that 95% of students in the study regard their ability to interact with and build relations with people from different countries (m=4.67), professions (m=4.51) and organizations (m=4.60), respectively, as important or very important components of their management education. (See Table 2).
Table 2. Inter-cultural Communication as a priority for boundary spanner education
Mean S.D.
Ability to interact & build relations with
people from other countries 4.67 0.57
Ability to interact & build relations with
people from different professions 4.51 0.59
Ability to interact & build relations with
people in different organizations 4.60 0.58
How important are the following items to your management education?
5=Very Important 1=Not Important
When students were asked about their level of engagement in various actions associated with networking abilities away from the classroom, responses here are somewhat less supportive regarding hypothesis 3. 71% students in the study do indicate that they are highly engaged in spending time forming and maintaining relationships with people from different countries (m=3.93). However, the numbers of respondents actually engaged or highly engaged in activity to cultivate a broad network of interaction and support outside their own student group is limited: EMBA enrollees (36%; m=2.30); professional in nearby corporations (28%; m=2.46); students at other universities (29%; m=2.28); their own professors (40%; m=3.00). These results suggest that there is need to find other means of facilitating development of student networking abilities and involvement in these boundary-spanning behaviors. (See Table 3).
Table 3: Networking abilities as a priority for boundary-spanner education
What is your level of engagement with the following activities?
5=Highly Engaged 1=Not Engaged
Students were also asked about their level of satisfaction with supports currently being provided outside the classroom to further their boundary-spanner development. Results indicate that half of all respondents are moderately satisfied with the amount of departmental supports being provided currently.
48% of students indicated that they are satisfied –highly satisfied with support efforts. In particular, just 33% of respondents feel satisfied-highly satisfied with support efforts to help connect students to people in other schools or organizations (m=3.07). And just 27% are satisfied-highly satisfied with supports to connect students with working professionals (m=2.86). Somewhat greater satisfaction was reported regarding faculty advisement (m=3.51) and assistance with cross-culture relationship abilities (m=3.53) (See Table 4)
Table 4. SUPPORTS to facilitate boundary spanner skill development beyond classroom.
Another survey question asked students to identify their level of confidence that they in fact possess critical skills and abilities related to the fulfillment of an effective boundary-spanner role.
Students in the study are confident that they know their own values and beliefs (88%; m=4.28), respect the values and beliefs of others (81%; m=4.05) and are trustworthy (83%; m=3.98). Further, 76% of survey respondents rate themselves as confident critical thinkers and problem-solvers (m=3.70) and also convey confidence for reading people and understanding motivation and behavior (m=3.84). When it comes to effective networking (m=3.91) and finding win-win solutions to problems (m=3.70), 71% and 72% of students claim to be confident or highly confident, respectively. A majority of respondents (73%) express confidence in their ability to not allow conflict and criticism to harm their relationships (m=3.86).
Survey results further suggest a moderate level of student confidence associated with organizing other students to solve problems (58%; m=3.44) or coordinating people and resources to achieve a goal (60%;m=3.40). Just 57% of students feel confident- highly confident in their ability to express themselves with clarity (m=3.62) while 58% say they are willing to be influenced by the views of other people
(m=3.48). Such moderate performance associated with these key boundary-spanner criteria suggest two possibilities. First, some business school leaders might infer that greater attention to a students’ past proven leadership experience can be a constructive measure in finding students for admission and
enrollment. Additionally, more attention to fashioning a support environment that is capable of promoting and encouraging leadership attributes for boundary-spanning success will be useful.
Table 5. Selected SELF‐REPORT LEVEL OF CONFIDENCE in relation to possession of key
Two additional exploratory questions were included in the survey questionnaire. One question simply asked students to indicate whether an internship experience was required for them to meet program graduation requirements at their institution. In this instance, only respondents from one
university, National Chiao Tung University, are currently expected to complete an internship during the Summer between year one and year two of study. It is suggested that participants of a practical overseas internship experience often are advantaged by their exposure to real-world work experience that
frequently require critical-problem-solving, interaction with people from different countries, cultures and professions, and expanding opportunities for networking and strengthening of communication skills – important components of a boundary-spanner education.
A final question asked students if they have noticed barriers between individuals or groups in their program experience. Results from this question show that 81% of respondents have noticed cultural
barriers within their peer group; a clear indication that ample opportunity exists to further target occasions for broad exposure to cross-cultural understanding and skill development.
In addition to completed survey questionnaires, many students involved in the study also
volunteered other personal insights that help to illuminate the experience of students currently enrolled in an I/GMBA programs. Following, is an overview of the variety of additional comments and insights offered by students in this study:
- “ One really worthwhile experience included a social mixer held in Taipei. It was entirely organized by students from four different universities and it gave us a chance to build our support network and begin getting to know one another.”
- “My department helps us organize a winter tour to a place in Taiwan. We refer to this activity as “Knowing Taiwan.” It gives us a break from the hectic pace of studying and allows us to spend time getting to know each other better while we learn more about the local culture.”
- “My department experimented with offering separate workshop experiences for both first year and second year students. Most people thought it was very successful! We talked about our unique potential as a peer group and got to discuss our group dynamic and some personal issues a bit. We also worked on helping each other organize important action steps for our future career success. That was great but, I wish we could have started that discussion in our first year.”
- “I pretend that I know things that I really don’t know to hide my weaknesses. I think a lot of us do that.”
- “I think people’s biases and stereotypes get in the way a lot and create obstacles to keep us from connecting as we might like.”
- “Our school doesn’t help us with internships. I wish they did!”
- “We had students go to Africa, the USA, Europe, South America, and other countries here in Asia for their Summer internship. Some international students stayed here in Taiwan. It was very cool to hear about their experiences. Some even got job offers.”
- “I haven’t talked to any student who is getting much help with their career planning and coordination efforts. I could really use a counselor to help me explore my options.”
- “ A bunch of us talked about how nice it would be to be assigned an Advisor in our first year instead of only at thesis time.”
- “Somebody did suggest that organizing us into advisory teams that meet regularly to focus on either personal development issues or discussion to help integrate our course experience, you know “the big picture,” would be a good idea. I liked the sound of that!”
- “Cliques are definitely a problem. And I’ve noticed that domestic students can be a bit superficial and dialogue with them stays rather trivial with almost no chance for a deeper, more penetrating discussion. I understand that language is an obstacle for us at times.”
- “I participated in a retreat weekend with peers and professors from five different universities.
We went to Penghu with two objectives 1) pure social networking so we could know each other and 2) some practical problem-solving as we got a chance to offer solutions to local leaders concerned with increasing tourism to the island. What an awesome experience! And already, we’ve had one reunion meeting, are planning a return leadership camp together this Summer, and I’m sure we’ll gather one more time before graduation!”
- “I did wish that we could have had more chances to meet professionals in the EMBA program.
We’re surrounded by great corporations but it’s so hard for foreign students to get to meet people!”
- “Some people are actually taking 7 or 8 courses at a time. At that pace, it’s hard to get people to actually listen to one another. We’re too busy I think.”