Javidan, the dean of research and Garvin Distinguished Professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz., said most people grow up with one national and cultural identity and never learn how to work with people different from themselves. Yet corporations with global ambitions need managers who know how to influence people across cultures.

"We’ve got to make sure that we compensate for that lack of developmental experience," he told executives from about 65 business schools in the United States, Canada and Europe. "We’ve got to help them out, coach them and teach them to be able to work with people who are different from themselves."

An MBA Roundtable survey of 72 programs found that nearly all identify global mindset development as a "strategic priority." Yet only six programs in the survey use any type of instrument to measure outcomes.

Javidan said Thunderbird gives its Global Mindset Inventory to students when they first arrive on campus and then a second time before they graduate. Thunderbird students scheduled to graduate in December will receive their before-and-after results on Dec. 3.

"The whole purpose of this is not to evaluate and give you a grade or a pay raise," he said. "The whole purpose is for you to understand what your own strengths and weaknesses are."

Javidan said the Global Mindset survey of 91 questions is the first of its kind designed to help students and global managers identify their strengths and weaknesses before venturing onto the world stage.

"Don’t get me wrong," he said. "There are many instruments out there. A lot of people will tell you they have instruments that can assess global leaders, and we looked at them. None of them takes a rigorous, empirical, scientific approach. The Global Mindset Inventory does."

Read more and watch videos from the MBA Roundtable at http://knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/research/category/thunderbird-thought-leaders/javidan-mansour/.