National Diversity in Organisations: A study about integration between host and international students

Diploma Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Miscellaneous, grade: 7.5 from 10, Maastricht University (Organisation and Strategy), language: English, abstract: This thesis focused on international students (Germany, Belgium, Cuba, USA, Ecuadorand the Bermudas) residing in the Netherlands for the period of their studies and Dutchhost students studying at the faculty of Economics and Business Administration UniversityMaastricht, the Netherlands. The aim of this study was to examine whether the relationshipbetween international students (n=10) and host students (n=5) is concordant (consensual)or discordant (conflictual or problematic). The acculturation orientations of both groupshave been assessed using Berry s (1992, 1997) four acculturation strategies as there are:integration, assimilation, separation and marginalisation. Bourhis et al. (1997) InteractiveAcculturation Model has been applied to explore the relational outcomes between thegroups. In this study it was shown that integration is the strategy most preferred by host students. However, international students reflect separation (n=5), integration (n=3) and a mixtureof integration and assimilation features (n=2). Accordingly, the acculturation profiles ofhost and nationally diverse students are concordant (consensual) between host- (n=5) andinternational students (n=5) and discordant (conflictual or problematic) between host-(n=5) and international students (n=5). The findings suggest that Dutch language skills, a Dutch partner, multinational livingarrangements and interest in- and openness towards the Dutch society enhance integrationand assimilation orientations. On the contrary, the geographical closeness to the homecountry, a close relationship to family and friends from the home city, the multilingual skillsof the Dutch society, a high percentage of friends with the same nationality and linguisticbackground support separation orientations among international students. In addition, thelarge (numerical) size and homogeneity (in terms of nationality and language) of the groupof German students represented at the faculty influence the acculturation orientations ofinternational students and enhance separation orientations.