The Importance Of Developing A Global Mind-Set: Advocating For Australian University Students

The importance of global mind set to the Australian university students

A global mind-set can primarily be defined as the ability of an individual to easily adapt and acclimatize in new and unknown environment by comprehensively integrating the new experience with the existing skills and knowledge. Global mind-set can further be understood as the cognisant and extensive appreciation of the intrinsic diversity and culturally interceded forces that dominate the international strategies, organizations, and markets. Having a global mind set enhances an individual’s ability to think and reason beyond their predominant/ pre-existing behaviours and ethnicity. This permits them to straightforwardly fit into new and strange environments or situation. This therefore zeroes the definition of a mind-set to a mere openness of an individual to new people, cultures, organizations, conditions and a diversified way of doing things based on the prevailing situation (Lazaris and Freeman 2018, p.181) 

This paper is intended to point out the importance of global mind-set and develop an advocacy for the Australian university student to positively embrace the concepts of global mind-set.

The importance of global mind set to the Australian university students

Although different literatures by diverse scholars may have variances in definitions to a global mind-set, there is a mutual consent in the importance of having a global mind-set. Based on the fact that the students are future leaders of the nation, it is imperatively important for them to familiarize themselves with the concepts of global mind-set. This is vital to them in the following ways;

Helping them to adopt to new cultures and being able to manage it minimal conflicts; at the university, it is typically true that the students encounter and interact with other people from diverse cultures, more especially from different nations/ countries. Having a global mind-set facilitates their socialization process. Accepting the fact that different societies hold dissimilar norms and believes help the students to have mutual respect for other internationals and thus easy socialization. This is very important for students preparing to be leaders and/ or working in a diverse organization or country (Felício Meidut? and Kyvik 2016, p.5924).

Stimulating curiosity and interests; an individual who holds a global mind-sets understands that there is no universally correct way of doing things/ there are infinitely many ways of doing things, mostly dictated upon by the prevalent situation or environment. This calls for learning of new things by comprehensively exploring different experiences.

Not bound to local; it is substantially true that all societies and communities have codes of conduct (ethics). Nevertheless, the ethics may differ and for one to effectively leave in harmony with people from different societies, they should be able to be diverse rather than holding only the local society ethics. These importance’s can further be maximized to; being flexible to situations, Proactive use of diversity and Openness to leaning (Egel and Fry 2018, p.981)

Based on the current trend of the nation, there are very many internationals persons entering Australia which is an implication of it embracing a global cooperation. This calls for the need for the growing population to be conversant with the required global mind set skills and knowledge. It is however, the role of the students to clinch the trend of the country by positively adjusting to the international context. According the guardian website, Australia has had a series of adjustments from its native norms. This implies that the adjustment has not just began but rather had it pioneered decades back (Le Ling and Yau 2018, p. 70)

Assessment of the global mind set of a sample of student

In an attempt to critically develop an empirical fact regarding the perception of global mind set among the Australian university students, a simple survey was conducted to determine their minds. A sample of 8 students were got from the university among who included 4 females and 4 males students. As a way of having a reliable finding, four students were got from the college of business two of whom were international students and others locals. The remaining four were got from the science department and also had two locals and two international students. In an interview of their perception in regard to the international mind set, the following results were found (Andresen and Bergdolt 2017, p. 195)

A chart of the survey findings

name	college	nationality	sex	global mindset (strenght)
asha barack	business	arabia	female	5
okwir david	science	england	male	4
dindr job	science	afgansta	male	2
abnelly done	business	australia	female	5
tate tmale	business	german	male	3
akol jnny	science	australia	female	5
amery jelly	science	australia	female	1
deny dol	business	uganda	female	5

From the preceding results, it can significantly be concluded that there is a sense of awareness regarding the importance of global mind set among the student. However, the trend of the findings did not in any way, indicate that the global mind set is affected by the sex or course offered by the students. From the graph, it was also noted that some students do not value the importance of global mind set even though it was to a less extend (Jiang Ananthram and Li 2018, p.413)

As discussed earlier, there is a continuous trend of globalization in the world. This has been accelerated by the increasing invention and innovation of technology which has changed the economic, political cultural and social way of leaving. As a core example, there are considerably many international students studying in Australian universities. In order for them to live alongside the non-nationals in harmony, they must all adapt the international mind set, both the local and the international students (Story Barbuto Luthans and Bovaird 2014, p. 155). Additionally, as they prepare for the world of work, there are possibilities that they may be recruited in an international company else, other countries. Short of international mind set will definitely affect the students’ later performance and skills both socially and behavioural. With these facts, it is typically important and necessary for the university students to develop a global mind set (Vogelgesang Clapp and Osland 2014, 165)

How the global mind set of Australian university students can be improved

Diversely studying about workplace and business expectations of significant markets and countries. As students study, they have career related goals of where they would wish to work. With this hint, the students should carryout diverse research about their expected future jobs and communities. This will help in improving adaptability and compliance to such places and communities.

Building of strong intercultural relationship; as a way of improving the global mind set among students, intercultural socialization should be encouraged. Today, many universities around the world have cultural gala in which all students from different cultures and countries get to express and showcase their cultures and norms. This is a significantly important aspect of emphasizing cultural socialization and mix up (Lester Virick and Clapp 2016, p. 249)

Emphasizing the understanding of personality traits and finding strategies of how to adjust. Personality traits are important determinants of how people behave and respond/ react to situations. Traits of an individual determines ones openness, curiosity, social dexterity, and emotional awareness. The university can help in improving this conscience by introducing compulsory course units such as introduction to psychology, and introduction to sociology, among others (Gaffney et al. 2014, p.383) 

References

Andresen, M. and Bergdolt, F., 2017. A systematic literature review on the definitions of global mindset and cultural intelligence–merging two different research streams. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(1), pp.170-195.

Egel, E. and Fry, L.W., 2018. Cultivating a Global Mindset Through “Being-Centered” leadership. Handbook of Personal and Organizational Transformation, pp.981-1000.

Felício, J.A., Meidut?, I. and Kyvik, Ø., 2016. Global mindset, cultural context, and the internationalization of SMEs. Journal of Business Research, 69(11), pp.4924-4932.

Gaffney, N., Cooper, D., Kedia, B. and Clampit, J., 2014. Institutional transitions, global mindset, and EMNE internationalization. European Management Journal, 32(3), pp.383-391.

Jiang, F., Ananthram, S. and Li, J., 2018. Global Mindset and Entry Mode Decisions: Moderating Roles of Managers’ Decision-Making Style and Managerial Experience. Management International Review, 58(3), pp.413-447.

Lazaris, M. and Freeman, S., 2018. An Examination of Global Mindset and International Market Opportunities among SMEs. International Studies of Management & Organization, 48(2), pp.181-203.

Le, Q., Ling, T. and Yau, J., 2018. Do International Cocurricular Activities Have an Impact on Cultivating a Global Mindset in Business School Students?. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 29(1), pp.62-75.

Lester, G.V., Virick, M. and Clapp-Smith, R., 2016. Harnessing Global Mindset to Positively Impact Advances in Global Leadership through International Human Resource Management Practices. In Advances in Global Leadership (pp. 325-349). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Story, J.S., Barbuto Jr, J.E., Luthans, F. and Bovaird, J.A., 2014. Meeting the challenges of effective international HRM: Analysis of the antecedents of global mindset. Human Resource Management, 53(1), pp.131-155.

Vogelgesang, G., Clapp-Smith, R. and Osland, J., 2014. The relationship between positive psychological capital and global mindset in the context of global leadership. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 21(2), pp.165-178.