Global Leadership Producing Global Leaders.
This is especially a prescient question and gives one pause when one examines the dismal record for most countries in foreign affairs and in foreign business. Weaving people together whether politically or in international business relationships is a tough task. For this reason, strategic human resource management is so important and it is businessmen that are usually engaged in foreign relations before governments (Sparrow, 2009, 463).
Globalization has made this difficult quest an absolute necessity in both the spheres of businesses and government. In an article that appeared in 2009 in the Journal of International Business Studies, businesses are increasingly depending upon offshore operations as areas where they can remake themselves. This is done particularly in the area of technology innovation where much innovation is happening offshore in outsourcing operations and projects. While innovation in this one sector is critical, there is a shortage of U.S. leaders, therefore, much of the leadership is also being recruited offshore to insure that U.S. companies occupy a level playing field overseas (Lewin, Massini & Peeters, 2009, 1406).