Virtually every business, regardless of its size, product or service focus is affected by global trends. In the midst of such activity, people of different cultures, ethnic origins, and languages, are constantly interacting. A project team for developing the next generation of cell phones is made up of a Brazilian, a German, a Japanese, and an American, and it’s being led by a French Canadian living in Cupertino, California.
Similarly, it’s clear that even within a given country, working across boundaries is the norm. A Caucasian millennial male works with a Hispanic woman from Generation X. A right-wing, capitalist-minded Afro-American from the Boomer generation is working with a
“tree – hugger” American Indian from Generation Y. The boundary is simply different personalities with different perspectives and inclinations, though both individuals are from the same country, same gender, same generation and the same ethnic background.
Executive MBA programs have increasingly recognized the need to train their MBA professionals to become effective in this barrier-filled world of commerce. That means helping them to understand their strengths and weaknesses in competencies relevant to these kinds of interpersonal encounters and leadership contexts.
The Kozai Group specializes in assessments that give a profile of an individual’s stronger and weaker competencies in these areas. Executive MBA students need to understand their tendencies. They need to develop themselves to be effective learners in a diverse environment, to be able to build bridges with people different from them and to handle the stress that goes along with these challenges. Their entire career will be positively or negatively affected by their effectiveness in these areas.
Currently, a number of executive MBA programs are using the Kozai Group’s Global Competency Inventory (GCI) to help programs and students start this process of self-awareness and development. In many cases, projects and class objectives are centered around applying their knowledge of their profile and improving their competencies.