Testing the Relationship of Career Enhancing Behaviors to Perceived Utility of Ethical and Cross-Cultural Competencies Across Two Independent Samples of MBA Alumni

Sensitivity to cross-cultural management and ethics management have both been classified as important relationship-building competencies, with prior work also recognizing the need for MBA instructors to not only teach both competencies but to act as role models to their students. The two-fold purpose of this paper was to first develop a short, reliable Perceived Utility of Ethical and Cross-Cultural Competencies (PUECCC) scale by combining items measuring both competencies learned or practiced in a client-focused, team-based MBA capstone course. The second purpose was to test the relationship of a career enhancing behavioral measure to PUECCC. Three binary behaviors, i.e., job interview, professional network expansion, and career change composed the career enhancing behavioral measure. Using two separate samples of MBA capstone course alumni, support was found for a reliable two-item PUECCC scale and a significant positive relationship of the career enhancing behavioral measure to PUECCC. Years of professional experience for both samples was also positively related to PUECCC. Ethical management and cross-cultural effectiveness are both important competencies to build into a curriculum to help MBA students develop to succeed at work.