A major focus of many U.S. higher-education institutions is to increase internationalization of their campus through, in part, the promotion of study abroad experiences among domestic students and to recruit and retain international students to their institution. This study explored the effects of certain factors on various domains of the Global Engagement Measurement Scale (GEMS) – Cultural Engagement, Ambiguity Tolerance, Knowledge of Host Site, and Diversity Openness – among U.S. students who have studied abroad and international exchange students who have studied in the U.S. There was a particular focus, on determining whether U.S. study abroad students, compared to international students, rate differently on GEMS scales, after controlling for other possible confounding variables. Participants were recruited from three Southeastern, public, 4-year universities and were eligible if they were enrolled at any of those universities in the last five years. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed several factors significantly affected each of the various outcomes on the GEMS. Cultural Engagement and Ambiguity Tolerance were both predicted by the institution of study and the type of student (U.S. study abroad versus international exchange). Knowledge of Host Site was predicted by whether or not the trip was government sponsored, pre-trip familiarity with the host culture, and type of student. The overall regression model for Diversity Openness was not significant. These results provide insights into key factors that affect the overall global engagement of college students and can be used to inform university faculty and staff about features they can add to improve campus internationalization efforts.

In recent years, the role of diversity has become increasingly important and present – both in society and at the workplace. Diversity, that is any attribute that people might use do distinguish between self and others, is a topic that is visible in several areas and that has challenging implications, both for organizations and for society as a whole. It is a multilevel construct that needs a holistic approach - but so far, most of the research on diversity is limited to the team level, without reflecting on implications for other levels and interactions with other levels of diversity. The first objective of this dissertation is to examine whether approaches of organizational diversity research, namely faultlines, are applicable to the societal level and whether they are useful on this level to explain phenomena of societal relevance. Second, we investigate whether diversity trainings on the team-level can help meet these challenges by teaching useful competencies. And third, we explore whether characteristics on the individual level, namely intrapersonal diversity, enable people to overcome the challenges of diversity which will ultimately also contribute to meet the challenges of diversity on the societal level. On the basis of the combination of findings on diversity at three different levels and the introduced multi-level model, new hypotheses at different levels of analyses can be formulated and subsequently tested.:1. Introduction 2. Core Constructs and Conceptual Clarifications 3. Theoretical Framework 4. Status Quo of Diversity Research 5. Overview of the Research Program 6. Does Social Context Predict Voting for Far-Right Parties? A Study on Societal Faultlines and Voting Behavior in East Germany 7. When Diversity is Something New: Enhancing Diversity Beliefs among Apprentices 8. Intrapersonal Diversity: We Like what we are 9. General Discussion / Diversität hat in den letzten Jahren zunehmend an Bedeutung und Präsenz gewonnen – sowohl in der Gesellschaft als auch am Arbeitsplatz. Diversität, also jedes Merkmal, das Menschen dazu nutzen können, sich selbst als unterschiedlich von anderen Personen wahrzunehmen, ist in vielen Bereichen sichtbar und stellt sowohl für Organisationen als auch für die Gesellschaft als Ganzes eine große Herausforderung dar. Es ist ein Mehrebenen-Konstrukt, das einen ganzheitlichen Ansatz erfordert – die bisherige Forschung zu Diversität beschränkt sich jedoch größtenteils auf die Gruppenebene, ohne Auswirkungen auf oder Interaktionen mit andere Ebenen von Vielfalt zu berücksichtigen. Das erste Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es zu prüfen, ob Ansätze der organisationalen Diversitätsforschung, namentlich Faultlines, auf die gesellschaftliche Ebene übertragbar sind und ob sie auf dieser Ebene nützlich sind, um gesellschaftlich relevante Phänomene zu erklären. Zweitens untersuchen wir, ob Diversitätstrainings auf Gruppenebene helfen können, diese Herausforderungen zu meistern, indem sie nützliche Kompetenzen vermitteln. Und drittens untersuchen wir, ob Eigenschaften auf der individuellen Ebene, namentlich intrapersonelle Diversität, Menschen dazu befähigen, die Herausforderungen von Diversität zu bewältigen, was letztlich auch dazu beitragen wird, den Herausforderungen von Diversität auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene gerecht zu werden. Auf Basis der Kombination von Diversitätserkenntnissen auf drei unterschiedlichen Ebenen und dem vorgestellten Mehrebenen-Modell können neue Hypothesen auf unterschiedlichen Analyseebenen formuliert und anschließend überprüft werden.:1. Introduction 2. Core Constructs and Conceptual Clarifications 3. Theoretical Framework 4. Status Quo of Diversity Research 5. Overview of the Research Program 6. Does Social Context Predict Voting for Far-Right Parties? A Study on Societal Faultlines and Voting Behavior in East Germany 7. When Diversity is Something New: Enhancing Diversity Beliefs among Apprentices 8. Intrapersonal Diversity: We Like what we are 9. General Discussion