Global Perspectives on Leadership

Although the process of globalization began in antiquity, it has greatly accelerated in recent years to the point where the marketplace is increasingly globalized and economic downturns in one country can have profoundly severe rippling effects around the world. Moreover, innovations in transportation and communications have created an environment in which products and services must appeal to a far larger audience than in the past, but many organizations are failing to respond to these changes in timely and appropriate ways. Against this backdrop, it is clear that more effective global leadership is needed by the private and public sectors. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the relevant literature to define and thoroughly explain global leadership and an analysis concerning the importance of competencies in the context of global leader. In addition, the paper also provides a definition and critique of the role of a global mindset in relation to the global competency inventory. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the global leadership issues are presented in the conclusion.

Define and thoroughly explain global leadership

Strictly applied, the term global leadership suggests that someone has been tasked with leading an entire globe, but this eventuality has not yet been inflicted on humankind in the modern era. Although there is no universally agreed upon definition, Tardiff (2017) provides several examples that were drawn from the scholarly literature to define global leadership today. Some of the most relevant definitions of global leadership provided by Tardiff (2017) include the following:

A process of influencing the thinking, attitudes and behaviors of a global community to work together synergistically toward a common vision and common goals;

An emerging group of professionals that are adept at operating in international and multicultural contexts;

A global leader is an individual who inspires a group of people to willingly pursue a positive vision in an effectively organized fashion while fostering individual and collective growth in a context characterized by significant levels of complexity, flow, and presence.

The leadership of individuals who influence and bring about significant positive changes in firms, organizations, and communities by facilitating the appropriate level of trust, organizational structures and processes, and involving multiple stakeholders, resources, cultures under the various conditions of temporal, geographical and cultural complexity; and,

The bridging of people between organizations yet across established demarcations, boundaries, and borders through the reciprocal benefit of culture, resources pooling, and intellectual property.

Taken together, the foregoing definitions provide a useful framework in which to better understand the main characteristics of modern global leadership in a rapidly changing world. For example, according to Javidan, Bullough and Dibble (2018), Gaining such an understanding is critical because not all individuals are equally strong in all global mindset characteristics. Individual leaders rarely encompass all the qualities required for effective leadership in a global context (p. 59). While it is reasonable to suggest that the increasingly globalized marketplace at present will experience some significant changes over the next several decades, these definitions of global leadership will likely remain relevant and appropriate.

Having established what global leadership is, it is also important to determine what effective global leaders actually do that sets them apart from their less qualified counterparts. A study by Caligiuri (2006, p. 220) determined that there are 10 main tasks that are routinely performed by global leaders as follows:

1. Global leaders work with colleagues from other countries;

2. Global leaders interact with external clients from other countries;

3. Global leaders interact with internal clients from other countries;

4. Global leaders may need to speak in a language other than their mother tongue at work;

5. Global leaders supervise employees who are of different nationalities;

6. Global leaders develop a strategic business plan on a worldwide basis for their unit;

7. Global leaders manage a budget on a worldwide basis for their unit;

8. Global leaders negotiate in other countries or with people from other countries;

9. Global leaders manage foreign suppliers or vendors; and,

10. Global leaders manage risk on a worldwide basis for their unit.

The key similarity among the above-listed tasks is the fact that global leaders routinely deal with people from other countries, and in some cases, they should also be able to speak the language or languages that are spoken in these other countries. While English has assumed a near lingua franca status in international commerce (as well as being the universal language of international aviation), the most effective global leaders are increasingly regarded as those who are able to speak two or more languages. Because all leaders and their situations are unique insome fashion, global leaders may or may not perform all or even most of the above-listed tasks but in order for them to be effective at those they do perform, they need a set of core competencies that exemplify effective global...…above that has special relevance for effective global leadership is a global mindset and this issue is discussed further below.

Define and critique the role of a global mindset in relation to the global competency inventory

Even global leaders who possess most or even all of the above-described core competencies and traits will likely fail to achieve optimal outcomes unless they also possess a global mindset (mentioned in Table 1 above). Certainly, the world if a very large place and mere humans tend to struggle to keep track of especially important cross-cultural differences and events on the other side of the world, especially if they have never set foot there personally and experienced these differences for themselves. Although few global leaders manage to visit and work in all of the countries with which they do business, it is vitally important for them to forge a global mindset that takes these fundamental differences into account. In this regard, Avidan and his associates (2016) report that, For global leaders to succeed, they will need a strong global mindset, a multifaceted construct that enables leaders to influence individuals from different cultural, political, and institutional systems (p. 59).

Here again, while a global mindset can be nurtured and developed over time, this attribute appears to be intuitive for some of the more effective global leaders. For instance, according to Mayo and Nohria (2005), The best leaders have an almost uncanny ability to understand the context they live in - and to seize the opportunities their times present. Without an ability to read and adapt to changing business conditions, personality and skill are but temporal strengths (p. 45). This observation suggests that a global mindset, whether it is innate or learned, is an absolutely indispensable core competency for global leaders.

Conclusion

The research showed that while there is no universally agreed-upon definition of global leadership, most authorities agree that it involves the leadership of multinational organizations. In addition, the research also showed that there are a number of different core competencies that have been associated with effective global leadership including most especially a thorough understanding of the cross-cultural differences that are involved. Indeed, some leadership attributes that are highly prized in some countries such as charisma or machismo may be viewed as just so much hubris or affectations in others. Finally, the research was consistent in showing that properly applied, humor can positively impact global leadership, but that a global…