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Enhancing intercultural effectiveness in international virtual student teams: an exploratory study

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Abstract

Internationalisation of higher education implies the need to prepare students to work in a globalized and culturally diverse environment by developing adequate intercultural competences. The present study focused on the behavioural dimension of intercultural communication competence and investigated whether the short-term experience of working on a project assignment in a virtual multicultural team could produce an increase in students’ intercultural effectiveness. The study employed a single-group pre-test-post-test research design. The sample included 73 students representing 16 nationalities studying in Russian and Japanese universities majoring in business or economics. Students’ responses on the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (Portalla and Chen in Intercult Commun Stud 19(3):21–37, 2010) were collected before and after the project, and paired difference tests (t test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test) were used for data analysis. Results indicate that that overall intercultural effectiveness of the students by the end of the project increased as compared to pre-test scores. Significant shifts were registered for five of the six dimensions of intercultural effectiveness: Behavioural Flexibility, Interaction Relaxation, Interactant Respect, Message Skills and Identity Maintenance. Findings suggest that virtual multicultural team assignments can contribute to the development of intercultural competence as a meaningful internationalisation outcome, and therefore may be an appropriate and cost-effective tool for enhancing internationalisation at home. Other implications for educators are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank Vice-President Kenji Yokoyama and Professor Phillip Pardo from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and Professor Yuri Sadoi from Meijo University for their continued cooperation on the project that provided the setting for the present study. We also thank all the companies who provided information for the project assignments, and Mitsuko Takahashi, representative director of Haa Baht Inc. and JETRO Russia business supporter in 2017, for her help with promoting this project in the business community. We also thank the anonymous reviewers whose comments helped improve and clarify this manuscript.

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  1. Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School, 1-44 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, Russia, 119234

    Irina Petrovskaya & Sergei Shaposhnikov

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  1. Irina Petrovskaya
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Appendix: Intercultural effectiveness scale (Portalla and Chen 2010, p. 36)

Appendix: Intercultural effectiveness scale (Portalla and Chen 2010, p. 36)

  1. 1.

    I find it is easy to talk with people from different cultures.

  2. 2.

    I am afraid to express myself when interacting with people from different cultures.

  3. 3.

    I find it is easy to get along with people from different cultures.

  4. 4.

    I am not always the person I appear to be when interacting with people from different cultures.

  5. 5.

    I am able to express my ideas clearly when interacting with people from different cultures.

  6. 6.

    I have problems with grammar when interacting with people from different cultures.

  7. 7.

    I am able to answer questions effectively when interacting with people from different cultures.

  8. 8.

    I find it is difficult to feel my culturally different counterparts are similar to me.

  9. 9.

    I use appropriate eye contact when interacting with people from different cultures.

  10. 10.

    I have problems distinguishing between informative and persuasive messages when interacting.

  11. 11.

    With people from different cultures.

  12. 12.

    I always know how to initiate a conversation when interacting with people from different.

  13. 13.

    Cultures.

  14. 14.

    I often miss parts of what is going on when interacting with people from different cultures.

  15. 15.

    I feel relaxed when interacting with people from different cultures.

  16. 16.

    I often act like a very different person when interacting with people from different cultures.

  17. 17.

    I always show respect for my culturally different counterparts during our interaction.

  18. 18.

    I always feel a sense of distance with my culturally different counterparts during our interaction.

  19. 19.

    I find I have a lot in common with my culturally different counterparts during our interaction.

  20. 20.

    I find the best way to act is to be myself when interacting with people from different cultures.

  21. 21.

    I find it is easy to identify with my culturally different counterparts during our interaction.

  22. 22.

    I always show respect for the opinions of my culturally different counterparts during our.

  23. 23.

    Interaction.

Note. Items 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 are reverse-coded before summing the 20 items. Behavioral Flexibility items are 2, 4, 14, and 18; Interaction Relaxation items are 1, 3, 11, 13, and 19; Interactant Respect items are 9, 15, and 20; Message Skills items are 6, 10, and 12; Identity Maintenance items are 8, 16, and 17; Interaction Management items are 5 and 7.

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Petrovskaya, I., Shaposhnikov, S. Enhancing intercultural effectiveness in international virtual student teams: an exploratory study. Educ Res Policy Prac 19, 345–361 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10671-020-09262-w

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