The Future of Education

Cultural diversity is a current characteristic of the student populations of universities throughout the world. The present paper aims to examine challenges potentially related to multicultural student group work in higher education and the relation between the students’ perceived importance of such challenges and their cultural background, measured in terms of the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. In order to achieve this aim, an online survey was completed by 100 students of 21 different nationalities of the 6-EC (European Credits) International Marketing course taught in English language at the Universitat de València. In this course students must develop an international marketing plan during the 14-week practical sessions in multicultural teams of around 5 members. Students’ perceived importance of challenges related to multicultural student group work were measured in the survey through a 19-item scale adapted from Popov et al. (2012), whereas Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (i.e. power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, indulgence) for the country of origin of the student were obtained from the Hofstede Institute (2017). First, in order to examine the challenges potentially related to multicultural student group work, means for each item are calculated and show that the most relevant challenge is “Differences across team members in ambitions (e.g., aiming for an “Excellent” grade or just “Passed”), followed by “Different attitudes toward deadlines”, “Low level of motivation”, “Free-riding behavior”, and “Insufficient  English language  skills”. Second, to examine the extent to which students’ perceived importance of challenges of working in multicultural groups as related to cultural dimensions, correlations between these variables are estimated. As a result of this, power distance emerges as the cultural dimension most significantly related to the students’ perceived importance of challenges related to multicultural group work, in the sense that the lower the power distance, the higher the perceived risks of working in multicultural groups. Explanations for these results, implications for lecturers dealing with multicultural groups and suggestions for further research are provided.

Keywords: cultural diversity, team work, higher education;