Where Have You Been? An Exercise to Assess Your Exposure to the Rest of the World’s Peoples (2021)

Name: Where Have You Been? An Exercise to Assess Your Exposure to the Rest of the World’s Peoples (2021) (English version)
SKU: W27504

Paul W. Beamish

Product #:W27504

Supplier:Ivey

Discipline:General Management, International Business

Setting:Africa, 2020

Details:Exercise (PDF) • 12 pages • 2022-04-06

Subjects:

Career advancement Internationalization Careers Business management International business Management

Geography:

Africa

Your Price:

$10.54

Language:

Format:

Purchase this material with a free Educator Account and enjoy more benefits:

Free Educator Copy
Free Teaching Notes
Build your coursepack
Discounted academic price

This annually updated exercise assesses one’s exposure to the rest of the world’s peoples. A series of worksheets require respondents to check off the number and names of countries they have visited and the corresponding percentage of world population that each country represents. The summary of a group’s collective exposure to the world’s people will inevitably be the recognition that together they have seen much, even if individually some have seen little. The teaching note provides discussion questions that consider why there is such a high variability in individual profiles, the implications of each profile for one’s business career, and what it would take for respondents to change their profile.

Learning Objectives

This simple exercise makes an important point—most people have had much less direct exposure to the rest of the world’s peoples than they previously thought. When coupled with the widely-held perception that exposure to other cultures makes one a better global manager, most respondents acknowledge that a change in their individual behaviour is in order. The exercise can be used with individual cases or as an ice-breaker during the initial class or session of international management courses or programs. In those classes, it can serve both as an individual assessment and as a measure for the development of a group. This is a useful team-building and familiarization activity. For marketers, it underscores the need to gather greater base knowledge about opportunities in 219 countries.