Global Innovation - The Paul Merage School of Business - University ...

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in international collaboration. No culture clashes here.
were impressed by the exposure to the material and the
experiences addressed in the course. They also note
that the challenges of working on a global team ran the
gamut from the complicated to the mundane.
Collaborating From the Beginning
Another reason for the course’s success may be that it
was developed in true collaborative fashion. Gibson had
been tossing around the idea with colleagues for a
while, but it wasn’t until Erez in Israel came on board
that things really took off. Gibson notes, “The framework
for developing the multinational teams was done
in conjunction with Professor Erez, who brought in a
dedicated PhD student to handle logistics.”
In a true collaborative sense, Gibson is proud of the
development team, including TAs Andreas Voigt and
Rebekah Dibble. Even the students themselves helped
by providing continuous feedback as the quarter unfolded,
which Gibson says she used to make adjustments
along the way.
Business Themes At Work
The course also incorporates the Merage School’s hallmark
business principles from the perspective of the
global team:
Strategic Innovation: Course builds individual skills
and examines team level characteristics that serve as
“points of leverage for increasing innovation.”
Information Technology: Students gain hands-on skills
in collaborative technology planning and use.
Analytic Decision Making: Sequential activities and
exercises build into increasingly complex, strategic
decisions that require analysis of political, economic,
and cultural factors.
A Cultural Experience Like No Other
No matter what kind of experience students have,
Rapoport advises them to bring an open mind. “I think
so many of us have our own stereotypes and preconceived
ideas about what people from other cultures are
By Connie Clark
INNOVATION
like. In a time-sensitive, team-based project like this,
every team member needs to come in without an ego
and be willing to listen to everyone's ideas. This was an
incredibly valuable exercise and I'm certainly better off
for having done it.”
Global Business Leaders
Leading business schools from around the world
participate in the Global Team Course:
The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,
Haifa, Israel
Indian Institutes of Technology, India
City University of Hong Kong
Peking University, Beijing
ESADE Business School, Barcelona and
Madrid, Spain
Swedish School of Economics and Business
Administration, Helsinki, Finland
The Paul Merage School of Business, UC Irvine
Stanford University
Michigan State University
University of Washington
INNOVATION AWARD WINNER
Professor Cristina Gibson
received the 2008 Pedagogical
Innovation Award at the annual
Celebration of Teaching in
May.TheUCIrvineAcademic
Senate Council sponsors the
award, which was given to
Gibson in recognition of the
success of the Global Team
Collaboration course.
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Merage | 2008 – 2009