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This article was downloaded by: [Northeastern University]On: 11 November 2014, At: 03:40Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
Journal of Teaching inInternational BusinessPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wtib20
Learning from an InternationalStudy and Research Project byUndergraduate StudentsHenk von Eije aa Faculty of Management and Organisation of theUniversity of Groningen , P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV,Groningen, The NetherlandsPublished online: 12 Oct 2008.
To cite this article: Henk von Eije (1998) Learning from an International Study andResearch Project by Undergraduate Students, Journal of Teaching in InternationalBusiness, 9:4, 21-38, DOI: 10.1300/J066v09n04_02
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J066v09n04_02
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Learning from an International Study and Research Project
by Undergraduate Students Henk von Eije
ABSTRACT. Besides courses with an international label, some business schools offer supplementary international elements in their curriculum. This article describes an integrated supplementary proj- ect in which undergraduate students organise an international study tour financed from their foreign research efforts. It analyses the learning content for two task groups, gender and self reported pro- fessionality. The students report changes in reference frames as well as learning on organizational capabilities, cultural differences, per- sonal effectiveness and on doing research. [Ar/icle copies availablefor a fee fiorii The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: [email protected],i]
INTRODUCTION
There are various philosophies, methods and strategies in teaching in- ternational business (Beck, Whiteley and McFetridge, 1996; Chekwa and
Henk von Eije is Associate Professor, Faculty of Management and Organisa- tion of the University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands.
The author would like to thank Henk-Jan Belsman, Pervez Ghauri, Diana Robertson, Anne-Marike Smiers and Ad van der Zwaan, the participants of the 1996 International Teaching Programme of the London Business School as well as two anonymous referees for their stimulating comments. The author is also indebted to the participating students of the 1996 ISP for their enthusiasm, coop- eration and kindness during the five weeks that he was allowed to participate. Only the author is responsible for errors or omissions.
Journal of Teaching in International Business, Vol. 9(4) 1998 0 1998 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 21
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Lee, 1994; Finney and Von Glinow, 1988; Gibbs, 1994; Keys and Bleick- en, 1994; Taggert, Wheeler and Young, 1994; Vielba and Edelshain, 1995). However, in their review of international business courses in tertia- ry institutions Beck, Whiteley and McFetridge (1996) did not find much diversity in international business programmes. Though additional diver- sity may be created by extra-curricular ingredients, they found some sup- plementary elements in the curricula of European MBA courses (of which only one MBA offered a study course) and minor information on supple- mentary activities in U.S. business schools. Moreover, the supplementary elements in the programmes did not clearly indicate “how these experi- ences contribute to the students’ abilities to understand and make sense of the world of international business” (Beck, Whiteley and McFetridge, 1996, p. 96).
Knowledge of supplementary elements and of what students can learn from them may thus be instructive. This paper discusses one such addi- tional international component in an undergraduate programme and then focuses on the learning experience reported by the participating students. The additional element is the so called “International Study Project” (ISP) of the Faculty of Management and Organization of the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). Thc ISP is an intensive international study tour organised by undergraduate students and financed from their foreign research cfforts.
The second section presents the ISP with respect to various aspects relevant in international programmes. The third section discusses the mar- keting and the management of the ISP. Section four indicates what stu- dents can learn from the ISP. Section five discusses the data and the methodology used for assessing the learning content. Section six presents the empirical results, while the final section gives the conclusions.
THE INTERNATIONAL STUDY PROJECT
In this section the ISP is presented with respect to aspects relevant in international programmes, namely location, participants, content, multi- cultural awareness and delivery method (Taggart, Wheeler, and Young, 1994, p. 6) .
Location
The ISP aims at countries which can be characterised as “emerging countries,” i.e., they have a fast developing economy and are lying outside the Western hemisphere. The latter implies that the participating students
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will be confronted with relatively large cultural differences which may increase their learning and their future ability to function as international managers (Keys and Bleicken, 1994, p. 7). In the past the following countries were visited: Indonesia and Singapore, Thailand, Mexico, Chile, China and Hong Kong, India and finally again Indonesia. The learning reported by the group of students who went to Indonesia in 1996 will be presented.
Pariicipants
Every year the ISP is thoroughly prepared by a committee of six stu- dents. These committee students are expected to organise the ISP (see also the next section) and to select the other participating students.
The other 24 students are selected from a group of 40 to 50 students who apply for participation. These applicants write a motivation letter and a research proposal on a case. The selection is based on this written information as well as on two interviews with committee members. Dur- ing the first interview the potential participants are evaluated on personal characteristics, while during the second interview the research proposal is discussed in cooperation with a faculty professor. The 24 students selected are assigned research projects and are therefore referred to as “research students.”
Contents
After having decided upon the country to be visited, the study tour is organised by the committee students. The study tour usually embraces obligatory visits and free-to-choose visits as well as some days of sightsee- ing. The assignments usually aim at giving additional inside information on the country and on the research to be done. They contain visits to, e.g., the central bank, ministries of industry and technology, investment agen- cies, the Dutch embassy and branches of some large Dutch multinational companies. Most of the time is, however, reserved for the research assign- ments of the research students.
In total 12 research assignments are sought. Each ofthese will have two students cooperating. Participating companies are expected to pay DFL 12,000 (=US$ 7,000) for the research, while the individual students con- tribute DFL 1.500. In return for the research grants the students provide research efforts. This means that during the month of April the research students prepare for the research by i.a. receiving company briefings, conducting desk research, preparing research questions and question-
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naires, searching addresses and key informants and making appointments. During the month of May the foreign country will be visited and the research students will then conduct their investigations there. Most re- search assignments involve gathering information on possibilities of coop- eration or of buying and selling and they usually consist of interviewing company managers and officials. In these aspects the ISP resembles the Ulster University project described by Bell and Brown (1990). The-fter having earned a three-week holiday-the students return to finish their research project by writing a final report for the company. After having successfully finished their report for the company, the research students are rewarded by the faculty with seven and the committee students with nine credit points (each point meaning a week of work).
Multicitltural Awareness
Before the visit to the country, the committee and the research students prepare a report on the country. Moreover, they visit workshops on scien- tific research as well as guest lectures and group building weekends and they follow a language course. During this preparatory period they also read and write on i.a. the politics, culture, economics and demographic structure of the country. During this fust period students mainly learn multicultural aspects from courses and reading, while during the actual study tour they will learn from experience as they will be involved in frequent contacts with people and managers from the country to be visited. Both approaches to teaching (the cultural aspects of) international manage- ment, namely courses and experience (Vielba and Edelshain, 1995, p. 38), are therefore incorporated in the ISP.
Delivery Method
Two faculty professors assist the organising committee in preparing the workshops and in deciding on the guest lectures. The most important thing is, however, the supervision of the research. This means that they discuss the research assignments with the students, comment on written research proposals, assist the students in doing the research methodologically sound, suggest extensions or reductions in the research done and, finally, assist in supervising the progress and the quality of the research and its content. During the preparation period and the visit to the country the accompanying professors refrain from interfering with the organisation. The desired attitude of the professors is to be service oriented: the delivery method is “to follow the lead of a learning group.”
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MARKETING AND MANAGING THE ISP
The success of the ISP highly depends on the willingness of companies to fund a research proposal. The willingness of companies mainly depends on the country to be visited, on the marketing efforts of the students and on the quality of the project. These three aspects will be discussed here, as well as some operational aspects as these latter contribute to the quality offered to the participating students.
Country Choice
The country is chosen by the committee students during a process in which they first reduce potential countries to be visited to about ten. For these countries the committee sends questionnaires to several contacts (Ilke country specialists and embassies), while each of the committee members reads recent information on one or two countries. After having received the answers on the questionnaires each committee member advo- cates for a visit to his or her country and defends that country from verbal attacks of other committee members during a special selection day. At the end of that day three or four countries remain. These countries are pre- sented to the advisory board. Taking into account the advice of this board as well as trying to avoid countries to be visited by competing Dutch student organizations one country is finally chosen.
It is almost needless to say that the country choice is a high risk one as for example political changes may endanger the whole project. Once this choice is made, it cannot easily be undone: all marketing efforts and all further investments are aimed at that specific country. In this way the students also Ieam to perceive the risk of making investment choices.
Marketing of the Project
As more student organizations may compete for the same research proposals and because The Netherlands is a small (though international oriented) country, committee students first signal their choice to other student organizations. Then the committee prepares an eight page in- formation folder on the project and on the opportunities companies may find in that country. Then they inform several editors (of La. newspapers, bank relation journals, newsletters on the country) and several institutions like the chamber of commerce, industry associations, embassies, The Netherlands Economic Information Service and export associations. Be- sides these general information outlets, the students also use a database of
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companies related to the Faculty. Of about 150 of these companies they then read the annual accounts. If these accounts indicate that these compa- nies are working in that country or are willing to expand their business in that region, the companies will be mailed (with an inclusion of the citation from the annual account and the country folder). After a week these companies are contacted by telephone. At that phone call the companies indicate whether or not they are interested. Of course most of them are not interested, but from the companies showing interest around 75% will contribute to the project.
Managing Project Quality
All new committees use written information and briefings provided for by students from former committees. Nevertheless, the students of the new committee try to improve on previous experiences. Therefore the commit- tee students participate in a faculty course on project management and they rethink all aspects of former tours. This does not mean that every- thing will be changed: most features and procedures are retained but the rethinking causes a mental internalization of the project. New features are, however, incorporated during the series of projects because technology changed, and the use of laptops (and the coping with viruses), portable telephones and e-mail is becoming standard.
After having rethought the whole tour, the committee members inform the other students of their choices. The resulting discussion period is one of the most difficult phases for the committee students, because the other (research) students are also very well able to express their own ideas and the communication abilities of the committee students then have to come convincingly to the fore. Nevertheless, by this procedure, the committee students invariably deliver a high quality tour.
Managing Operations
Besides managing quality, the students also have to make operational decisions. Most of these decisions are made in advance by using country contacts, telephone, telefax and Internet. Nevertheless a pre-trip is ar- ranged: during a fortnight two committee students visit the country direct- ly before the trip takes place. They then check all arrangements from hotel rooms and bus tour operators to travelling times and the availability of ATM’s. These committee students then also attend the companies and organizations which are prepared to receive the whole group of ISP partic- ipants and they will explain the target of the ISP and discuss the future visit face to face.
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This perfect preparation may even cause some disappointment with the committee students during the tour. Changcs in schedule are usually mar- ginal and during the tour they have more time off in comparison to the previous preparatory year. Though the committee students still kcep track of the logistics, are monitoring progress and are available (for standing in with sickness and providing a listener’s car) they loose their advantage as “country specialists,” because only the research students do have frequent contacts with company managers within the country.
WHAT CAN STUDENTS LEARN FROM THE ISP?
According to Sullivan and Tu (1995, p. 475) “One of the most impor- tant abilities of global managers is the ability to learn and adapt.” In this article these abilities are measured indirectly by asking the students wheth- er or not they learned and-if s o o n what aspects they learned. The ISP confronts students with a complex learning situation in which a multitude of learning processes occur and where learning content differs among students. Four general categories on which the students could learn were discerned and will now be discussed.
Learning from Organising the ISP
The ISP is a twofold organized learning process. Students not only participate in the organised process of studying at the Faculty of Manage- ment and Organization, but they also cntered thc ISP-part of the pro- gramme. However, the ISP students are not passively consuming a pro- gramme prepared by the faculty: the committee students themselves do organise the whole programme. Moreover, rcsearch students assist thc committec in tasks as diverse as taking pictures, preparing weekends or seeking sponsors.
Organising the different parts of the ISP generates (mainly daily) leam- ing on how to organise things and on how to get them done. “Organiza- tional abilities” are relevant for the professional careers of business stu- dents and the learning on these abilities was therefore analysed.
Experiencing Cultural Differences
The ISP does not aim at a comparable country, but at countries outside the Western hemisphere. So students may learn to cope with rather new cultural situations. They are not only confronted with foreign national
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habits, attitudes and frameworks but also with a variety of subcultures. In particular they have to interview managers, and though some of the stu- dents know the way of life of managers from home, managers do live in a subculture which differs from the subculture of students. Also the auto- mated research attitudes of the participating professors may be instructive to students. Moreover, the students will learn differences in life-styles: compared to their usual situation in the Netherlands they become both relatively rich as well as time-poor.
The relative wealthiness may, on the other hand, hamper the cultural learning process too. Students know that they can leave the country if necessary, they do not have to struggle for life, they do not have to be afraid of not getting adequate medical attention, etc. In fact, the ISP tour can be classified as an adventure, but as one of the professors once men- tioned to the parcnts of the participating students: “It is a safe adventure.” Time-poorness and the homogeneous character of the group of 30 students (all located in the same hotels) may finally also reduce the learning from the new environment.
Improving Personal Effectiveness
In general the things which are learnt during the ISP will be either added to the reference frame, enlarge the reference frame or incidentally demand a fight for reestablishing a reference frame. In the latter case it involves “critical learning,” which mainly occurs with an oppressed indi- vidual or group (Bolhuis, 1995). Though ISP students can hardly be classi- fied as belonging to an oppressed group, individual students may person- ally be confronted with their own attitudes, wishes and preferences, and the ISP is providing a stimulating context for revising these. We classified these aspects as “personal effectiveness,” which is analysed explicitly.
We must, however, consider the possibility that some of the students may already have developed attitudes of a professional. A common feature of professionals is that they are not used to cope with failure. In particular the students which participated in the ISP are on average successful. They have good brains and will probably finish the curriculum of the university and they are selected from twice as much applicants. Moreover, if the students have participated in the organizing committee, they already have prepared themselves for a year on the visit to the foreign country. They therefore know a lot and may have acquired attitudes of a professional. Professionals may, however, avoid learning. Because “many professionals are almost always successful at what they do, they rarely experience fail- ure. And because they have rarely failed, they have never learnt how to learn from failure. So whenever their single-loop learning strategies go
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wrong, they become defensive, scrcen out criticism, and put the “blame” on anyone and everyone but themselves” (Argyris, 1991, p. 100). This means that not all students might learn as much as other people in the same situation could do. Therefore, the learning experience of committee stu- dents is compared to that of research students, while also the learning of students who report to have had a high professional attitude will be compared to those which indicated not having had a high professional attitude.
Learning from Doing Research
The research of the ISP aims at increasing the knowledge for the com- pany which finances the research. Good research is normally done by professionals, who have explicit and tacit knowledge in their field. The rescarch of the ISP is, however, done by students. In fact even a major aim of the ISP is to learn students to do research. Searching for good questions, taking care of relevance and knowledge from theories, as well as finding methodologically sound answers are regularly stressed by the assisting professors. This implies that the practice of doing research might be learnt by the students.
Nevertheless, risk is involved. This is the risk of learning to do the wrong things. Firstly, the research is committed by the organking commit- tee and allocated to the twelve research groups. In principle the relevance- from a company standpoint-will be there, because the company would otherwise not pay DFL 12,000 for the research. There is, however, no guarantee that the research question is a good one. One of the companies, for examplc, asked for the names of people who formed the decision unit of a future project, while the project was not yet decided upon and while the Indonesian culture is not oriented to decision units. Because the com- mittee students will be glad to provide all participating students with a research assignment, they may find it difficult to reject an unsound compa- ny question.
This may-secondly-become more uncomfortable if ethics are involved. One company, for example, restated the research question while the stu- dents were in Indonesia and then asked the students to go to competitors, while using the name of the university, and to find out why the competitors were cheaper. The use of the name of the universih, was then declined directly and fiercely by the accompanying professors: This generated use- ful discussions on ethics within the group of participating students. It was then convened that the students-when asked for-would tell who was fi- nancing the research. This proposal was, however, declined by the manag- er of the assigning company. A second proposal to stimulate responses
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from competitors by promising the competitors a general, undetailed, re- port on the research findings, but still hiding the name of the sponsoring company, was also declined by the responsible manager because he did not want to finance research for his competitors. Therefore, it was decided that when respondents would refuse to answer questions, neither the stu- dents nor the professors would consider themselves to be responsible for inadequate research outcomes.
A third risk is that students might learn to do quasi-research. There is much time stress, and this may convey the idea amongst students that methodological sound research counteracts with relevance. Students may then try to skip methods which are necessary in doing the research correct- ly. The university may then not be glad with what is leamt, because students will leam to do the wrong things.
DATA AND METHODOLOGY
Information on the learning content of the ISP was gathered from an anonymous questionnaire offered to all students participating in the 1996 ISP. The questionnaire (as well as a more extensive treatment of the ISP) can be requested from the author. The questionnaire was presented to the students at the end of the research period in Indonesia. It contained closed and open questions. The closed questions asked them to rate their knowl- edge at three moments in time. These moments were the start of the ISP period (to), the moment of departure to Indonesia (tl) and the moment they filled in the questionnaire at the end of the research period (t2).
Self-reporting may generate so called Lake Wobegon effects (Maxwell and Lopus, 1994). This means that bad performing students participate less in inquiries or, if they do, overreport their achievements. Because the group of ISP-students formed a positive selection of the student popula- tion of the Faculty of Management and Organization, self-selection and self-reporting bias for this reason is not very likely. Nevertheless, ISP-stu- dents form a selected group and they may not have been participating for the attainment of a predetermined level of knowledge, but for an increase in knowledge and capabilities. Selection- and reporting-biases may thus- in another fominfluence the results positively. Positive bias is however also almost absent, because the response rate was high. Four question- naires of committee students (67%) were returned. The two non-reporting committee students had made the pre trip and were at the moment of reporting temporarily out of the country for a renewal of their visum. Of the male research students 12 questionnaires were (86%) received. One questionnaire was not answered by a male student because he already
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Herik von Eve 3 )
answered the test questionnaire. This means that we only had one non-re- porting male research student. Finally, all twelve questionnaires (100%) of the female research students were returned.
A second problem must be faced, namely that students were questioned (at t2) on knowledge at previous moments (to and ti) and it may be difficult for people to assess their knowledge from the past. A different procedure would have been to ask the students to respond at the three different moments in time. It was, however, expected that the students would be inclined to rate their knowledge at least as adequate, i.e., grade themselves at e.g., 7 (more than sufficient) or 8 (good) on a scale in which I means “very bad” and 10 means “excellent.” This implies that progress over time would then be difficult to measure, because the reference frame (of what adequate knowledge means) may have shifted. The way in which we now measured the knowledge and what is learnt is not affected by such an unconscious shifting reference frame and in that respect will not generate underreported learning effects.
With respect to the quantitative analysis we used four knowledge catego- ries discussed in the previous section. These were labelled as “organization- al abilities,” “cultural differences,” “personal effectiveness” and “research abilities.” What students knew or learnt on “organizational abilities” was measured by averaging the self-reported marks (on a scale of 1 to 10) on each of the five questions, with which we tried to measure these abilities. These questions were framed like “Please indicate your knowledge on: ‘How to organise things,’ on: ‘How to raise funds’ and on: ‘How to cope with a company target.”’ Summing up the reported knowledge marks of each question and dividing the sum by the number of questions (5) re- sulted in a score for each individual student on “organizational abilities.”
What students knew or learnt on “cultural differences” was measured with the individual score based on seven other questions like “Please indicate your knowledge on: ‘What Indonesian habits are’ or on: ‘How to work in foreign countries.’ ” The score on six other questions measured the “personal effectiveness” of individual students. Questions in this group asked for example for knowledge of ‘How you cooperate with others’ and of ‘How to work under time stress.’ Finally, the score calcu- lated from nine additional questions generated a measurement of individu- al knowledge of “research abilities.” These questions asked for example for knowledge of ‘Why to use theories’ and of ‘How to find good an- swers.’
The scores of individual students on each knowledge category were then used to compare results over time with the matched pairs t-test of SPSS. This test demands that the samples are obtained in pairs, which is
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the case because each student answered the same questions for three differcnt moments in time. This test investigates the significance of two population means accurately if the populations are normally distributed. If the latter is not the case, the test may still be regarded as approximate (Kanji, 1993). With this t-test we compared the average (averaged over all the students in the relevant group) knowledge score on each category at the beginning and at the end of the preparation period (at to and t l respec- tively) and before and after the stay in Indonesia (at t l and t ~ ) . We calcu- lated the average score for all the students as well as for the three sub- groups discerned (committee students, male research students and female research students).
-
I- WHAT STUDENTS REPORT TO HAVE LEARNT
This section presents the findings from the questionnaire. It first dis- cusses the results from the quantitative analysis and it then describes some qualitative results.
Quantitative Findings
The average scores on the knowledge categories are presented in Table 1 for all students as well as for the three subgroups discerned. Table 1 indicates the average scores in the knowledge categories “organizational abilities,” “cultural differences,” “personal effectiveness” and “research abilities,” which are indicated as ORG, CUL, PER and RES, respectively. The table shows that at the start of the ISP (at to) the total group of students reports to h o w on average most of “personal effectiveness” (7.23). The knowledge of “organizational abilities” (6.77) and of “research abilities” (6.38) is less at the start of the project, and at that moment least is known of ‘‘cultural differences” (5.55). This ranking of average knowledge at the start of the ISP is the same for all three subgroups. Things which are closest to the individual thus gave a high knowledge score and things far away were less known: at to the students reported a difference of 1.68 (7.23-5.55) in average marking between “personal effectiveness” and “cultural differences.”
At the end of the period (t2) “personal effectiveness” still scores high- est to the total group (7.82) but now “research abilities” score least (7.41). The difference in average score between both items is then, however, only 0.41. At the end ofthe period “personal effectiveness” still scores high for all subgroups, but the things least h o w n differ. The committee students now report to know least of “research abilities,” male research students
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TABLE 1. The Average Scores on the Relevant Knowledge Category
to tl t2
ORG 6.77 7.27 7.56 All students
CUL PER RES
5.55 6.62 7.50 7.23 ’ 7.56 7.82 6.38 ’ 7.00 7.41
Committee students ORG 6.35 CUL 5.50 PER 6.50 RES 5.79
7.58 7.73 6.43 * 7.35 7.53 7.72 6.50 6.90
Male research students ORG 6.85 7.26 : 7.62 CUL 5.55 * 6.66 7.49 PER 7.33 7.54 7.80 RES 6.53 7.16 * 7.57
7.42 Female research students ORG 6.84 7.12 - .- CUL PER RES
.
5.57 6.66 7.58
6.43 7.00 7.42 7.39 7.59 : 7.89
An asterisk (7 between two columns indicates that the average score on the relevant knowledge categoty differed significantly at a 95% level (according to a matched pairs 1-test) between the moments in time indicated in the column headings.
still report to know least of “cultural differences” and female research students report to know least of both “organizational abilities” and “re- search abilities.”
Differences in knowledge over time according to the matched pairs t-test in a two-sided test at 95% significance is indicated at each line in Table 1 with an asterisk between the averages presented for the three moments in time. This test showed that all research students significantly learnt on every aspect in both periods. Despite the large increase in aver- age knowledge found with the committee students, the matched pairs t-test did not indicate significant increases in reported knowledge with these students during the first period, not even on the “organizational abilities” dimension. This is remarkable, because these students then invested very much time and effort in organising the whole project. A reason for this “anomaly” may be found in the very small number of students in this
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group: the variance of knowledge reported may have differed too much in comparison to the average increase in reported knowledge.
If we were to measure the amount of learning as the difference in average knowledge scores, we would find on average more learning dur- ing the first (preparatory) period than during the second period. For exam- ple the whole group of students reports according to Table 1 to have learnt from time to to tl 1.07 (6.62-5.55) on “cultural differences,” while that group on the same knowledge category reports to have learnt 0.88 (7.50-6.62) in Indonesia (between tl and t2). Exceptions to this outcome are found with the research students of which both sexes report to have learnt more during their stay in Indonesia on “personal effectiveness,” while the female students also learnt slightly more on organizational capa- bilities in Indonesia than in the preparatory period. At this moment the data do not allow to discern between various reasons for these differences, like measurement errors, the duration of the learning period (the prepara- tory period was at least 6 times as large as the period in Indonesia) or to the differences in teaching and learning (the first period was to the research students more course oriented and less experiential than the second peri- od), but these aspects might be interesting to investigate in further re- search.
Besides the results presented in Table 1 and discussed above, we also performed two additional tests. The first test related self-reported profes- sionality to learning because high professionality may reduce learning (Argyis, 1991). We therefore included a question on self estimated pro- fessionality and separated (within the group of all students) those students who rated themselves high on professionality (a rating above 7 at time to) from students who considered themselves to have had a low profes- sionality at that time (a self evaluative score less than 7). The various scores on the knowledge categories (ORG, CULT etc.) were then ealcu- lated for both “high” and ‘‘low’’ professionals. Within the group of all students, reported knowledge levels on all categories were significantly higher in the group of students which considered themselves to be pro- fessionals. As a consequence students with low reported professionality at to generally learnt more (but normally not significantly so) in consecu- tive periods.
We, finally, tested with a (non-paired) t-test on learning differences between groups, but we did not find significant differences between com- mittee students and research students nor between male and female re- search students.
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Qualitative Findings
The questionnaire presented to the students also contained three open questions. The answers to the open questions were classified in broad categories. Because some of these categories attracted only a small num- ber of answers and some answers could not be classified in these catego- ries these answers are presented either separately or discarded with. In the following, the questions are presented in italics.
1. Would you please indicate why you wanted to participate in the ISP for Zndonesia?
The main reason for participating in the ISP is “To get in touch with a foreign culture or a foreign country.” This answer is given most frequently by the female research students. “(Learning) to do research” was also very relevant. “Getting international experience’’ and “Preparing for the final (research) project of the faculty” were also mentioned often (the latter also mainly by female research students). “Having a good time or an adventure” was mentioned foremost by male research students, while “Organising a (large) project” was mentioned by the students of organis- ing committee. “Bring theory in practice,” “Learn to know other people,” “Learn to apply for a project,” “Having contact with companies” and “Learn to select people’’ were other answers given.
2. Wouldyou please indicate the three most relevant things which you learnt from the ISP and how you learnt them?
Most answers here were related to personal effectiveness. Improve- ments in English, in giving motivations, in reducing conflicts, in giving and getting critical remarks, in communication, in observation and in presentation are mentioned frequently, in particular by the committee students and the male research students. “Working with and handling differences of other countries or cultures” and “Devising and doing research” were also mentioned recurrently (at least 15 times). “Learning to interview people” was mentioned seven times as were “Standing for your tasks and targets,” “Having (successful) contact with companies” and “Making appointments.” “Learning to cooperate,” “Being pa- tient,” “Working with stress” and “Learnt about myself” were an- swered four to six times. One student said to have learnt that “Writing takes time.” Finally, one student learnt that “Having information is having power,” while another student learnt that “The right person with
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the relevant knowledge mostly is not in!” In particular the combination of the latter two answers is intriguing. Answers on how the students learnt these various aspects were frequently unanswered and are discarded here.
3. Are your habits and/or mindset (ways of thinking and looking at things) changed and gyes, can you indicate the content ofwhat changed and how you evaluate this?
Seven male research students reported to have learnt to see “Relativity of things” and that “Things can be different from what you think.” With respect to personal aspects in total also seven students (but now more equally distributed amongst the groups) reported to have improved (“Be- ing more flexible or serious”). Six students report to have become familiar with a foreign culture. Five (mainly female research) students report to have gained patience. Four students report that they now see that not everybody thinks the same. Two students, finally, reported that their trust in people has diminished.
With respect to the most relevant things learnt some aspects came to the fore which were not completely anticipated in the closed questions, name- ly the number of times that personal effectiveness might be involved. In particular, standing for ones own sake and targets, using interview tech- niques and becoming more patient were not considered to be possible learning categories in advance. Finally, changes of mindsets were ex- pected, but the main classes in which they occur are now known better. They involve seeing the relativity of things, having more patience, being more flexible and serious as well as being more familiar with another country.
CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge on the increase of competence brought about by supple- mentary international elements in business programmes is scarce, because it is frequently not made explicit what students can learn from these elements. In this article part of this knowledge gap is bridged by present- ing a special supplementary element, by indicating what students might learn from that element and by measuring the increase in knowledge reported by the participating students.
The supplementary element is the International Study Project (ISP) of the Faculty of Management and Organization of the University of Gronin- gen (The Netherlands). That project is an international study tour which
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differentiates from other study tours because the students themselves orga- nise the project and because of the intensive research efforts required from individual students. Moreover, the assisting faculty profcssors do not lead by teaching classes, but they follow the lead of the learners. . The features of the project could at least cause learning on four knowl- edge categories, namely “organizational abilities,” “cultural differences,” “personal effectiveness” and on “research abilities.” Because the preclas- sification into four categories might not capture all learning potential generated by the ISP also answers on open questions were welcomed.
The students who went with the ISP to Indonesia in 1996 indicate to have learnt most on “cultural differences,” but they also report significant increases in knowledge on the othcr three categories. Moreover, the refer- ence frame of some students has been changed. Some male students report to see things less absolute, while mainly female research students became more patient. Other students became more flexible or serious. Some of the changes in the reference frame are however not necessarily positive, like the reduction in trust found with two students.
Having made explicit and having measured what students reported to learn from such an intensive international experience, some caveats should be mentioned. Firstly, the group of participating students was small and the findings may already for this reason not be generalized outside the sample. Secondly, the ISP is a highly integrated tour with very specific features. But even for the ISP described, the learning content for a differ- ent goup of students aiming at a different country may diverge from what has becn reported here. Though some of the characteristics of the ISP may be interesting for organisers of other study tours, the learning results of the 1996 ISP-students can thus not be expanded to participants of other study tours. The article, finally, only presents self-reported increases in knowl- edge. Whether or not this adds to the competence strived for in the cumcu- lum is not answered. Though there exists an assumed relationship between self-reported knowledge and real knowledge and between real knowledge and competence, additional research on the impact of international experi- ences and improved competence is still needed.
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