Investigating the Value of a Peer-To-Peer Mentoring Experience

Abstract

Globalization of business skills has become critical as employers have a requirement for culturally adaptable marketing and business graduates who are “work ready” in either Australia or overseas. These students must have both discipline knowledge and soft skills including cultural competence. How students develop intercultural skills at university is discussed. Given that more than ninety percent of local university students do not participate in academic offshore experiences, a focus is on the internationalization-at-home activities that universities offer. This study looks at cross-cultural peer-to-peer mentoring. A paucity of research on the effect of these experiences further enhances the relevance of this topic. This research investigates whether Australian marketing and business students who undertake a cross-cultural peer-to-peer mentoring experience “at home” become more cross-culturally adaptable. A quasi experimental pre and post-test survey shows that this method of an “at home” cross-cultural experience has a significant effect on four of the cultural dimensions. They are Flexibility/Openness, Personal Autonomy, Perceptual Acuity and Fulfilment. This means that as a result of this study, the recommendation for future peer-to-peer mentoring experiences would be to specifically target these significant dimensions as part of the peer-to-peer mentoring agenda. The focus of their agenda on these dimensions would allow peer-to-peer mentors of different ethnicities and those mentors who are Australian born but who mentor students from different countries, to be confident that their work was directly attributable to increasing their mentees’ and their own cross-cultural adaptability. It shows that cross-cultural mentoring for marketing and other business students in an “at home” setting is an important part of preparing business and more specifically marketing students for the challenges of the global workplace.

Learning together, learning deeper: A little teacher assisted learning engagement

“…Unlike in the cases of Abegglen, Burns, and Sinfield [5]; Ragavan [16]; Cropper [18], the mentors and mentees in the current study came from similar locale, familiar with each other, and all of them were peers although the mentors were senior university students while the mentees were junior university students who were majoring in biological science. It was claimed that a mentoring program that falls in the same clout, culture, and specific experience (in the case of the mentor) is most likely to succeed [18], [19]. Moreover, unlike in the cases of Abegglen, Burns, and Sinfield [5]; Ragavan [16]; Cropper [18], the current study needed not to take more time to establish relationships as they belong to the same college and mostly, they were friends.…”

Comparison of Explicit and Implicit Methods of Cross-Cultural Learning in an International Classroom

“…However, the majority of university students do not participate in international exchange programmes, hence "internationalization-at-home" activities remain an important opportunity for skill development [17]. Griffiths et al [17] (ibid.…”

“…However, the majority of university students do not participate in international exchange programmes, hence "internationalization-at-home" activities remain an important opportunity for skill development [17]. Griffiths et al [17] (ibid. ), using a quasiexperimental pre-and post-test survey, concluded that these activities can have a significant effect on a range of cultural competences.…”

“…They highlight that peer-to-peer mentoring should be reciprocal in order to support mutual trust that allows cross-cultural adaptation. Griffith et al [17] provide additional insights suggesting that peer-to-peer mentoring efforts focus on improving the individual's flexibility and openness, personal autonomy, perceptual acuity and fulfilment. Besides peer-to-peer mentoring, from another point of view, Seidl [22] emphasised the importance of emphatic teachers who create an emotionally literate learning environment in the international classroom.…”

Worth the investment? An examination of the organisational outcomes of a formal structured mentoring program

“…Contemporary literature reports on many ‘alternative’ forms of mentoring such as peer mentoring, group mentoring, e‐mentoring, co‐mentoring or collaborative mentoring, multiple‐level mentoring, and reverse mentoring (where a younger, junior employee mentors an older, senior colleague to share their technological expertise and generational perspective) (Ensher, Heun and Blanchard 2003; Griffiths, Kopanidis and Steel 2018; Mullen 2016; Murphy 2012; Pololi and Evans 2015). These different forms of mentoring can generally be categorised as either ‘informal’ or ‘formal’.…”