ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
The purpose of this article is to describe the perception on global forces of business major
freshman and sophomore undergraduate students in the United States. As global forces deeply
impact business life around the world, educators are looking for ways to provide necessary
knowledge and skills in business education curricula to develop competitive and competent
students who are prepared for the global economy. Although such efforts focus on the end
result in education, understanding students’ initial perceptions can help educators better shape
their curricula and courses. The findings in this article are categorized into individual impacts,
organizational impacts, and personal solutions. Emerging themes in individual impacts of
globalization include increasing individual competition around the world, loss of individuality
and new lifestyle with technology, and the Internet and social networks. Students identified
organizations as winners of global forces and described organizational impacts more positively.
Meanwhile, emerging themes in organizational impacts of globalization included more,
cheaper, and better qualified employees as well as off shoring American jobs to developing
countries, more customers, and new business practices on the Internet and social networking
sites. Personal solutions to cope with global trends were focused on improving qualifications
through education to stand out among global competition.
AACSB. (2011). Eligibility Proceduresand Accreditation Standardsfor Business Accreditation.
AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
Retrieved from http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/standards-2011-revised-jan2011-
final.pdf
Altbach, P. G., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: Motivations and
realities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(3-4), 290.
Bernstein, A. (2000, April 24). Backlash: Behind the Anxiety over Globalization. Business Week.
Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_17/b3678001.htm
Blinder, A. S. (2009). How many US jobs might be offshorable? World Economics, 10(2), 41–78.
Borsheim, C., Merritt, K., & Reed, D. (2008). Beyond technology for technology’s sake:
Advancing multiliteracies in the twenty-first century. The Clearing House:?: A Journal of
Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 82(2), 87–90.
Boyes, E., & Stanisstreet, M. (1998). High school students’ perceptions of how major global
environmental effects might cause skin cancer. The Journal of Environmental Education,
29(2), 31–36.
Boyes, E., Chuckran, D., & Stanisstreet, M. (1993). How do high school students perceive global
climatic change: What are its manifestations? What are its origins? What corrective
action can be taken? Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2(4), 541–557.
Case, R. (1993). Key Elements of a Global Perspective. Social Education, 57(6), 318–25.
Collins, M. (1996). What are They and What do They Want?. Journal of Career Planning &
Employment.
Did you know? 3.0. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY
Forrester, J. W. (1995). The beginning of system dynamics. McKinsey Quarterly, 4–17.
Hansel, B., & Grove, N. (1986). International Student Exchange Programs—Are the Educational
Benefits Real? Nassp Bulletin, 70(487), 84–90.
Janavaras, B., Kuzma, J., & Thiewes, H. (2008). College Of Business Majors’ Perceptions Toward
Globalization: An Empirical Study. Journal of College Teaching & Learning (TLC), 5(3).
Johnston, B., & Webber, S. (2003). Information literacy in higher education: a review and case
study. Studies in higher education, 28(3), 335–352.
Leu Jr, D. J. (2000). Literacy and technology: Deictic consequences for literacy education in an
information age. In M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook
of Reading Research (Vol. 3, pp. 743–770).
Lin, G., Michko, G. M., Bonk, C. J., Bonk, A. J., & Teng, Y. T. (2009). Survey Research on
Motivational Elements of YouTube: Age and Education Matter. Presented at the The
American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2009 Annual Meeting, San Diego,
CA.
Mason, M. (2010). Sample size and saturation in PhD studies using qualitative interviews.
Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research (Vol. 11).
McCarthy, C., Giardina, M. D., Harewood, S. J., & Park, J. K. (2003). Afterword: Contesting
Culture: Identity and Curriculum Dilemmas in the Age of Globalization, Postcolonialism,
and Multiplicity. Harvard Educational Review, 73(3), 449–465.
Merryfield, M. M. (2000). Why aren’t teachers being prepared to teach for diversity, equity, and
global interconnectedness? A study of lived experiences in the making of multicultural
and global educators. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(4), 429–443.
Merryfield, M. M. (2002). The difference a global educator can make. Educational Leadership,
60(2), 18–21.
Messer, D., & Wolter, S. C. (2007). Are student exchange programs worth it? Higher Education,
54(5), 647–663.
Palacios, R. (2007). Education and Freedom. In B. Wehling & C. Schneider (Eds.), Building a 21st
Century US Education System (p. 135).
Parker, W. C., Ninomiya, A., & Cogan, J. (1999). Educating world citizens: Toward multinational
curriculum development. American Educational Research Journal, 36(2), 117.
Patton, M. Q. (1999). Enhancing the quality and credibility of qualitative analysis. Health
Services Research, 34(5 Pt 2), 1189.
Paul, R. (1992). Critical thinking: What, why, and how. New Directions for Community Colleges,
1992(77), 3–24.
Peng, M. W., & Shin, H. D. (2008). How do future business leaders view globalization?
Thunderbird International Business Review, 50(3), 175–182.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms.
Corwin Press.
Richmond, B. (1993). Systems thinking: critical thinking skills for the 1990s and beyond. System
Dynamics Review, 9(2), 113–133.
Ryan, M. E., & Twibell, R. S. (2000). Concerns, values, stress, coping, health and educational
outcomes of college students who studied abroad. International Journal of Intercultural
Relations.
Sandelowski, M. (1995). Sample size in qualitative research. Research in nursing & health, 18(2),
179–183.
Seidel, K. (2007). The World is Flat, and US Education has Flat-Lined: Designing an Information
Infrastructure to Support a Globally Competitive Educational System. In B. Wehling & C.
Schneider (Eds.), Building a 21st Century US Education System (p. 135).
Senge, P. M. (1993). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization:
Book review.Smith, T. D., & Rivkin, J. W. (2008). A Replication Study of Alan Blinde’s“ How Many US Jobs
Might Be Offshorable?” Harvard Business School Working Paper. Retrieved from
http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-104.pdf
Sowa, P. A. (2002). How valuable are student exchange programs? New directions for higher
education, 2002(117), 63–70.
Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and procedures
for developing grounded theory. London: Sage Publications.
Weinberg, G. M. (1975). An introduction to general systems thinking. Wiley-Interscience.
N/A
Copyright: © 2012 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode