Asha Rao, Associate Professor, California State University--Hayward
Lecturing: Cross-Cultural Management and Conflict Resolution
Host: The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India
June 2003-October 2003

Asha Rao has spent her career finding ways to tackle the challenges that sometimes surface when people from different cultural backgrounds interact. An expert in the field of conflict resolution and negotiation in business, Rao traveled on a Fulbright grant to Bangalore, India to the Indian Institute of Management. There she lectured on cross-cultural management, organizational behavior, conflict resolution and negotiation, and international human resource management.

Rao finds that her management students, both those in her home institution, California State University-Hayward, and those in India benefit from an understanding of how cultural diversity impacts management issues. For example, one assignment she has given her students is to investigate a religion or faith through library research and interviews and then examine its role on the values, attitudes and behaviors of people in the workplace. This type of assignment prepares Rao's students for potential conflicts they may one day encounter as managers. Rao's time in India on her Fulbright grant undoubtedly will benefit her students back in the United States. "I learned a lot about Indian firms and their management that definitely expands my global perspective. I have rich data and teaching material for my students in California," Rao reports. Further, the educator notes that pedagogical material in U.S. business schools on management issues in developing countries is scarce and outdated. To remedy this, while in India she videotaped interviews she conducted with Indian CEOs, managers and workers "to understand the challenges they face and their solutions." Rao explains that she translates these videos into powerful teaching tools by using them to bring light to cross-cultural management issues for her students.

As a scholar of international styles of conflict resolution, Rao herself also benefited greatly from her time in India. "India has been a society of many cultures for centuries. I'm hoping to take the strategies of Indian firms back to U.S. businesses so we can learn from India's historical experience," Rao says.

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