THE VIEWS OF AMERICAN MULTINATIONAL CEOS ON INTERNATIONALIZED BUSINESS EDUCATION FOR PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEES

For some time, a number of industry leaders have been exhorting American business schools to train their students in the aspects of international business. As late as 1987, a group of prominent leaders from business, labor, academia and government issued a report that stated that business schools must internationalize the entire course of study and should include comparative business practices, foreign languages and analyses of other countries and cultures. But do the CEOs of the major American multinationals recognize the importance of an international business education for all employees in management? Do they believe that the business graduates they hire should have some education in the international aspects of business? In this study, unlike most studies of this nature, the respondents were asked about the importance of international business education for all business graduates, not just for those destined to work in the international operations of the firm. Nearly 80% of the respondents agreed that the employees will learn the international aspects of business on the job. This contrasts markedly with the results of the 1977 Nehrt report (30%), but is very close to the results of the 1984 Kobrin report (73%). The respondents who believe that international courses are relevant to their businesses (80% of all respondents) gave individual courses about the same importance as did those who participated in the 1984 Kohers study, which was also concerned with all business graduates hired by firms in the Southeast. Two other studies had similar results for business graduates destined for international operations only.