ABSTRACT
SUMMARY. Frustration with didactic methods in teaching Ameri can students about European-style “participation” led to the use of a semester-long simulation of a European works council in a graduate cross-cultural course. Students shaped in the American culture of person-centered, direct participation learned by living an institution alized, representational participation system. A written class council charter contractually bound both instructor and students to powersharing via redefined roles in the management of the class. Student testimony documents the effectiveness of this simulation in driving learning to previously unreached levels. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: getinfo@haworth.com]
INTRODUCTION
Anyone who has tried to teach cross-culturally about employee “partic ipation” has undoubtedly found the word to be heavily value-laden. Hav ing split my teaching career between the U.S. and Europe, I have encoun-
tered no slipperier concept. The differing values and beliefs underlying the concept often don’t show on the surface. Heads nod knowingly on each side of the Atlantic, but appreciation for the shared meaning comes with great difficulty. Lecturing about the differences in meaning may achieve some knowledge transfer but leaves unchanged the students’ capacity to explain, much less to critique or evaluate “participation” as understood and practiced on each side of the Atlantic. Certainly, lecturing does little if anything to help the students to become more effective in behaving “participatively” outside their own cultural context. After years of under achievement with these deeper and more challenging learning objectives, I successfully invested in a semester-long experiential method with gradu ate students in the U.S. taking a cross-cultural comparative management course. Our learning community simulated “participation,” European-style, as the chief vehicle for reaching meaningful knowledge, attitude, as well as skill objectives.
