Be a Better Manager: Live Abroad
by William W. Maddux, Adam D. Galinsky, and Carmit T. Tadmor
Travel and living abroad have long been seen as good for the soul. What’s perhaps less well-known is that they’re also good for the company. People who have international experience or identify with more than one nationality are better problem solvers and display more creativity, our research suggests. What’s more, we found that people with this international experience are more likely to create new businesses and products and to be promoted.
For example, we ran an experiment in which 220 MBA students from Northwestern’s Kellogg School were asked to solve the famous Duncker candle problem. In this behavioral test, individuals are presented with three objects on a table: a candle, a pack of matches, and a box of tacks. They’re asked to attach the candle to a cardboard wall—using only the objects on the table—so that the candle burns properly and does not drip wax on the floor.
The correct solution demands the ability to think creatively: Empty the box of tacks and use it as a candleholder. The solution is considered a measure of “insight creativity” because it involves making the “aha!” discovery that the box is not just a repository for your tools but a tool itself.
We found that the longer students had spent living abroad, the more likely they were to use the box as a candleholder. In fact, 60% of students who had previously lived abroad solved the problem compared with 42% of students who hadn’t lived abroad. Interestingly, time spent traveling abroad had no effect on creativity.
In another study, we asked undergraduates at the Sorbonne to complete a creativity test called the Remote Associates Task (RAT). Participants were shown three words and asked to come up with a word that is associated with all of them. (For example, for “manners,” “round,” and “tennis,” they’d need to come up with “table”: table manners, round table, table tennis.) The students who recalled and wrote about an experience living abroad just before doing the RAT answered more questions correctly than those who recalled and wrote about other experiences.
This creativity effect was even more pronounced in students who had made an effort to adapt to their host countries. In a study of 133 Insead students from 40 countries (15 of whom held dual citizenships), we found that creative enhancement was significantly higher for students who said they had adapted to the foreign countries while they lived there than for students who said they had not.
A subsequent study reinforced the finding. Israeli managers working in Silicon Valley who had incorporated both Israeli and American cultures into their personal identities (such people are called biculturals) had better professional reputations and got promoted faster than managers who identified themselves with only one culture or the other (monoculturals). When we measured the ability of these managers to see and integrate multiple perspectives on different issues—what psychologists call “integrative complexity”—we found that bicultural managers scored higher, and it was this enhanced integrative complexity that led to better job performance. In another study, we found that biculturals were more likely than monoculturals to create new products.
Expatriate programs are good for developing better managers, our research suggests. We believe that companies could make them even better by ensuring that expats are not cocooned from the local culture during their stints abroad. The more expats interact with locals and local institutions, the more creative and entrepreneurial they’ll become.
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My note:
Living abroad, the meaning is not just living in another country. So there is no point if you go abroad but just for holiday in nice hotels, visit nice place, eat in nice restaurants. Or even for school, when you have nice dormitory and nice cafetaria, and making friends only with students from your country.
When you live abroad, then really live it. Live as the people from that country, live the culture, experience their lives!
How long you live there isn't the main determinant. Four weeks, two months, six months, a year, all are the same. It's how fast you can adapt that matter and will determine the learning that you will get.
And how you can adapt if there is no change? :)
I didn't say that we must do extreme things,no. But when you want to go abroad, don't let the thought about your security occupied all of your mind and being your obstacle.
"How if I can't sleep?"
"How if I don't like the food?"
"How if I can't bear the weather?"
"How if the people there aren't nice?"
"How if I run out of money?"
Hey! we are HUMAN, we already survive for centuries!so proof that you are a true generation of mankind :D
Since I was in Senior High I always dream to go abroad. In my dream I will go to cool countries such as USA or Europe. I will study or work in best University/ big companies there. I will live in a nice flat, eat yummy food. (mimpi sejuta umat kali ye ini)
But right now, my mind up for something completely different. Yes, I still want to go abroad. But instead of going to fancy countries I want to go to some ASEAN countries. Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippine. And I want to do social project. About all international issue that's happening now : global warming, environment, children, HIV/AIDS, woman empowerment, entrepreneurship.
Why?
Think, if you can't survive in ASEAN how you can even survive in other part of the globe?
If you want to be a big people, the world class leader, how you can lead if you don't even know your society?
I want to be an internal auditor for multinational company, maybe you wondering what's the correlation between doing social project and career as internal auditor, how it can help my career?
as an internal auditor I will be responsible for the compliance of the company's activities with the legal matter, governance, and also help the company to improve their operations.
and a multinational company, in how many countries they're exist?
what if their performance isn't align with the law, how many customers/clients/institutions/communities,etc that will bear the loss?
what if the company performance can't improve and even get worse,how many unemployment there gonna be?
the family at home, their health, the environment,the local economic, all will suffering too.
So,can you see?it's a domino effect,what you are doing matter for others, and I feel like I have this "personal social responsibility"
That's why I want to go for exchange, I want to give impact for society. So later when I become a big leader, I can give bigger impact too :)
Milla Hanifan Saniy*
Vice President Finance and Talent Management
AIESEC Local Committee in Surabaya 2010-2010
*my former junior executive when I was being Senior Executive of Finance in AIESEC Surabaya
