{"id":38956,"date":"2024-07-16T15:45:27","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T13:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euruni.edu\/blog\/?p=38956"},"modified":"2024-07-26T10:21:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T08:21:37","slug":"global-business-perspectives-study-abroad-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euruni.edu\/blog\/global-business-perspectives-study-abroad-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Business Perspectives: Study Abroad Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Would you be surprised to learn that the WHO officially declared an end to the COVID Public Health Emergency only a year ago, on 5 May 2023? Fortunately, global travel restrictions were lifted in most countries long before then (in the UK a year earlier, in mid-March 2022). But those pesky masks and PCR tests lingered for a while longer to remind us of what we had lived through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why remind you of this? It surprised most of us to how accustomed we had become to come and go as freely as we wished. And it shocked us how devastating the pandemic was on global markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reminded us that the world is a global marketplace and that for trade and business to thrive, we are reliant on each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Global Perspective<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Globalization is a relatively recent phenomenon, becoming popular in the 1990s to describe the \u201cunprecedented international connectivity\u201d of the post-Cold War world. This was thanks largely to advances in transportation and communications technology \u2013 think of air travel and the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world has never been the same, and COVID almost brought the world to its knees. Indeed, many businesses didn\u2019t survive the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Personal Perspective<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of you reading this will probably have a global perspective, whether you realize it or not. Meaning? You have an understanding \u2013 perhaps not fully articulated \u2013 of how interconnected the regions of the world are, economically, politically, and socially. You also have a perception \u2013 at least you did before you departed the shores of your home country \u2013 that people in other countries are \u201cdifferent\u201d, and that these differences in \u201cculture\u201d shape how we view the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your first encounters with some foreign cultures could probably be described as a \u201cshock\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember venturing out on my first Saturday morning in a Middle Eastern country. It was a sweltering hot day and I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt \u2013 the only person in the city, it appeared to me, who was wearing shorts, and I felt under-dressed. Until I sat down at a Starbucks and was joined by an American guy in shorts who was as relieved as me to see someone else in shorts, and advised me that we should probably \u201cstick together\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We had experienced \u201cculture shock\u201d. We had not yet developed a global perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A global perspective means having a new approach to viewing the world one is involved and located in. Typically, this affects how people perceive and understand their identity, and that of others, as they continue to interact and learn new cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A global perspective is one of the primary outcomes of a study abroad program.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Request<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Why is the Global Perspective Important?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The nature of work is changing, and where we do our work is changing. It\u2019s possible to be a \u201cdigital nomad\u201d \u2013 wireless internet, mobile hotspots, and smart devices have enabled us to work virtually wherever we want. This shift applies to hybrid learning, where educational institutions now offer hybrid or online learning options enabling students to study from different locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This generation has seized the opportunity to gain a global perspective for three main reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n