Growing global expertise

Lehigh’s efforts to prepare students for the global world of business were recently showcased in Austin, Texas, at the 2015 National Undergraduate Business Symposium, a consortium of undergraduate business programs whose representatives meet annually to share best practices and to examine trends and issues in education.

Katrina A. Zalatan, associate dean and director of Undergraduate Programs in Lehigh’s College of Business and Economics, gave a presentation titled “Leveraging Campus Culture to Grow Global Competence.”  Her presentation highlighted Lehigh’s integrated core curriculum as well as its innovative summer programs abroad, including programs in Belgium, Prague, Ireland and Shanghai.

“We have a unique culture of faculty involvement in the College of Business and Economics,” said Zalatan, pointing to faculty’s strong concern for student success and pride in student accomplishment.

“Our faculty engage deeply in a collaborative process to inventory global learning opportunities across the core curriculum, to determine a portfolio of student learning goals and to continually improve programs so that students not only understand the functional areas of business but also how they integrate and create value in a global context.”

Zalatan’s presentation was part of the symposium’s focus on “Leadership in a Diverse World.”  Held this year at The University of Texas at Austin, the symposium provided participants with opportunities to learn from each other on matters of leadership, diversity and global initiatives. Other presenters included representatives from the College of William and Mary, Bloomberg Businessweek and Georgetown, Syracuse and George Washington universities.

Zalatan noted in her presentation that CBE students, starting in their first year are exposed to the global forces on business decision-making, then continue to build breadth and depth of understanding over four years through an integrated core curriculum.  CBE faculty also created summer programs abroad, which are attractive to students who may have difficulty leaving campus during regular semesters because of other commitments. Professor Jim Maskulka, for example, she said, blazed a trail with Lehigh in Belgium, which combines business courses and an international internship.

Also, Zalatan said, alumni have enhanced students’ global learning by funding programs that include the Martindale Student Associates Program and the Tauck Scholars Program. 

“Learning about the global environment is increasingly more important as the global marketplace is providing huge opportunities not only for all types of organizations but also for the individuals in those organizations and their host countries,” said Mike Santoro, professor of management and member of the Undergraduate Core Curriculum Committee. He pointed to multinational firms such as Disney and Apple, which are generating more and more of their revenues from outside the United States.

To address the need, Lehigh developed courses that expose students to critical global concepts. Santoro emphasized two “bookend” courses: An introductory course in business that lays a necessary foundation, and a strategic management capstone experience in senior year that integrates prior course learnings to help students better understand critical issues around social responsibility, ethics and a dynamic global environment.  The capstone course includes case analyses and a global marketplace simulation competition that requires students to work in teams to run a global manufacturing firm.

 
Undergraduate Core Curriculum Committee member Matthew A. Melone, a professor of finance and law, said topics in law are now presented to students to highlight the risks that are somewhat unique to global businesses, such as political risk, cultural disparities and tax changes.  Also, he said, an ethics course emphasizes cross-cultural value conflicts—such as privacy rights in Europe vs. rights of expression in the United States – so that students are exposed to some of the issues that are of heightened importance in a global context.

All Lehigh CBE students also take at least one global course in addition to their required core curriculum, drawing on a wide array of courses from the College of Arts and Sciences. Seventy-one percent of current CBE seniors have taken two or more global courses.