Students from the Degree in Tourism (English) Participate in a Global Intercultural Project

30/01/2020

Within the framework of the subject “Tourism Marketing”, third-year students from the UAB Degree in Tourism (English) have taken part in an intercultural project with 13 universities from other parts of the world.

The Global Case Study Challenge is an initiative in which over 300 university students from all over the world are brought together in small teams (termed global virtual teams) to work together remotely on a case study.

Each virtual working group comprises students from distinct countries such as France, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Chile or Bosnia-Herzegovina. In addition, each global virtual team is assigned students from diverse areas of study, thereby promoting greater interdisciplinarity and professional profiles of a more varied nature.

Through this approach, students have to learn to organize themselves and to jointly decide, for example, what type of digital platform to use in their remote work or the best time to meet for an international videoconference.

Each group has to find a solution to a conflict deriving from cultural and ethical differences. Some of the cases raised deal with issues such as the problem of offshoring in India; disputes concerning a Swedish company in Saudi Arabia; or cultural differences in working contexts in Thailand, among other issues.

Cultural Intelligence, a Global Professional Skill

The aim of this experiential learning activity is, consequently, to facilitate university students’ cultural intelligence; that is, the ability to interact effectively with people from distinct cultural backgrounds.

Additional aims of this exercise are to take on skills in managing and directing virtual and international teams, and to improve the technological and digital skills of future professionals.

In parallel with the teamwork, students of the “Tourism Marketing” have also received lectures on new tools and concepts useful for the management of remote teams. In one such session, students of Tourism in English were visited by Barbara Covarrubias, one of the main coordinators of the Global Case Study Challenge and a lecturer at the FHWien der WKW university.

According to Covarrubias, whose research focusses on intercultural competences and new ways of working, “developing competences in digital leadership and knowing how to work in digital environments is becoming very important because many companies are already offering their workers the possibility of working remotely”.

For Covarrubias, this new way of working also allows companies to benefit from more international talent and to obtain greater commitment and loyalty from their workers. In addition, certain studies have highlighted that companies adopting this model have a higher percentage of women in positions of responsibility than is the case for other organisations.

The Global Case Study Challenge, a New Learning Experience

In the last phase of the project, representatives from each group are required to give an online presentation of their proposed solution to the case study. This year, there were over 185 interconnected participants from various parts of the world.

This online session also includes brief items covering cultural intelligence and good practices. This year, the experience of You Noodle, a company that works with remote teams from San Francisco, Santiago and Barcelona, was highlighted.

Meritxell Lago, one of the participants in the project, says that at the beginning it was difficult to coordinate with the rest of the group. But she describes the project as a good experience in which she acquired new digital skills and improved her interpersonal communication. “I liked studying the intercultural challenges with other countries and having the opportunity to put this into practice”, she says.

For Caroline Heller, an Erasmus student from Brazil, being part of the Global Case Study Challenge has allowed her to understand how cultural influences can cause conflicts in cases such as mergers between companies from other countries; but it also allowed her to work with students from other parts of the world who have distinct ways of thinking. “I’ve been able to see other points of view and to have experiences that I want to have in my own working life”, she comments.

Anna Zinenko was the project coordinator at the UAB School of Tourism. For her, the Global Case Study Challenge was a key opportunity for students to become involved in real global virtual teams and to learn how to work successfully: “it doesn't matter whether they end up working in a hotel or a travel agency, if they want to develop their professional career they’ll have to work with international teams”.