INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

International Business Students' Software Capabilities

International Business Students' Software Capabilities

Introduction

Emerging globalization, new economic challenges, rapid increase of information technologies (IT), and the requirements of multi-lingual proficiencies are only some of the challenges facing businesses today. These rapid changes mean that graduates are prepared for an environment that has changed. Globalization and the dramatic developments in technology have reduced many of the constraints to information. The question is: are these nations and their national economies ready to face these challenges? Is business education preparing future managers capable enough to cope with these challenges?

Different nations have experienced different levels of success meeting global challenges facing the national educational system. The issue is difficult to manage and is very complex, consisting of different social, economic, cultural, and lingual aspects. In the center of this approximation, there is an educational system, which is providing production and services for the market of a national economy (as a kind of customer) producing and maintaining human resources, particularly the knowledge level of human beings, recognizing the more or less-identifiable need of the market.

The supply of knowledge in any field can increase through an effective education system. Distinguishing between teaching and learning is crucial. Tribus (1999) states that teaching occurs when we show students how to solve a problem; learning occurs when students figure out how to solve their own problems, while Pask (1961) states that “teaching is the control of learning.”

Looking at the recent publications, most of the problems are transparent; however professionals are offering significantly different approximations and methods for business education reforms. Walker and Ainsworth (2001) develop a business-process approach to delivering the core business undergraduate curriculum, consistent with the trend toward process-managed organizations.

Brewer et al. (2000) investigated the application of strategic planning techniques for continuous improvement in a college of business.

Business education should develop a process of inquiry and a desire for learning in students. To achieve this, business education must change from knowledge-based education to process management. This essential change will enable business education to provide students with the communication, interpersonal, and intellectual skills that prepare them for a better understanding of the broad picture of business in today's global environment.

Need for changing business education strategy

School, college, and university education is a part of all individuals' lives and provides them with opportunities to learn and acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes. What is to be learned and how it is learned, is usually pre-determined based on the curriculum of a business school. Business school should revise business curriculum to cope with the changes occurring in the global business environment. To understand the need for changes in business education, it is necessary to understand the changes that have been taking place in the business environment. One of the major driving forces for changing the business environment is the rapid increase in the development of technology, especially in IT, whether in the hardware or in the software that facilitates the preparation, dissemination, and communication of data are easy and available, at ones finger tip, at less ...