Written by Casey Kuman
Dr. Weibo Zheng, professor from Hebei the University of Economics and Business (HUEB), spoke to HUEB students, faculty, and CUC students about individualism and collectivism on October 12, 2018 in CC 260 as part of the 2nd CUC HUEB International Symposium. The Symposium’s theme was “Cultivating Human Capital for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.” Dr. Weibo Zheng studied research about regulating function of campus culture. Dr. Zheng and HUEB student, Shuo Liu, gave a presentation called “Effects of Proactive Personality on the Innovative Behavior of Undergraduates: Mediating Paths of Campus Culture.
They studied research from a professor named G. Hofstede. He is from the University of Limburg, and he did a large study over 116,000 respondents from 70 different countries. He stated that the United States of America has more Individualism and that China has more Collectivism. Individualistic people tend to be more independent, assertive, strong, and self-reliant. Collectivism shown in China displays characteristics of stress toward the importance of social corporation. They emphasize on family and group goals instead of meeting individual needs.
Dr. Weibo Zheng brought the meetings attention to the cultivation of undergraduates cultivating the proactive personalities of students. He wants the students to build good relationships with people on campus. He proposed that in order to achieve success on the job, proactive individuals will take measures to establish good working relationships.
Student Shuo Liu went over data and statistics from qualitative research that used the NVIVO 10 program. He led the presentation and described a table of Proactive Innovation Structure of the College Students in Hebei Province. The table included Innovation Motivation, Proactive Behavior, Teacher-student Relationship, Relationship supporting, and Grade structure.
Dr. Weibo Zheng wants the HUEB students to become more proactive in their relationship building skills in America. Throughout this semester, HUEB students have shown major improvement. ESL professor Dominique Knull has been working with the students during a five week course. In the beginning, the students had a hard time learning English. They could only write to communicate.
“Within the five week course, now students levels have tremendously improved. They are very fast learners and now they can speak, read, and write at advanced levels”, said Dominique Knull.
Knull understands how the students feel because she came to America from France and she really has made many close relationships with the HUEB international students. The ESL course has helped students become more active throughout campus and they have gained more relationships during this semester. They are learning proactive behaviors which will begin to change their innovative behavior.
The Symposium break-out session led by Dr. Weibo Zheng and with help from CUC/HUEB student Shuo Liu was very informative and it helps other people understand the culture and teaching in China. Concordia University Chicago does a great job mixing cultures together and that helps gain relationships and opportunities that can last a lifetime.
