Epistemological Beliefs and Cultural Diversity Matters in Management Education and Learning: A Critical Review and Future Directions

Global business environments and the internationalization of education have positioned management education as a global phenomenon. However, the cultural mixing effects of globalization are complex, with the increasing mobility of academics and students in higher education programs offered by different countries, virtual environments, and global organizations. This presents challenges as to how we can best make our programs, pedagogic efforts, and learning environments responsive to multiple cultures given that they are largely imbued with Western or Anglo-American values tied to business schools. We argue that these matters bring into focus the impact of culture on individual beliefs about knowledge and learning behaviors. Our contention is that important insights can be distilled from the well-established field of research on culture and epistemological beliefs. We synthesize the extant research, and building on this synthesis, we analyze the potential of this scholarly work to augment culture and management learning, education, and development (MLED) research and point toward promising areas for future research.