Introduction

This symposium addresses the challenge of educating global leaders through a collection of scholarly perspectives and practices that focus the development of global leadership and intercultural competency, specifically through immersive international contexts. Through this symposium, we addressed the cognitive, behavioral, and affective competencies that aspiring leaders need to be successful in global contexts. It focuses on the importance, issues, and methods of developing global competence as part of leadership education. Although this symposium is timely, global and intercultural competence is not new. Scholars of 19th‐century Europe shaped the original thoughts of global competence. Their focus was internationalization through colonial conquering, and the ultimate goal was to “learn from the West” (Baumgratz, 1995). This globalization piece did not gain much attention on an international scale. In fact, many managers in the 1960s and 1970s did not consider the international piece of business to be of much importance, often with very small specialized operational departments as the sole contributor to globalization within organizations (Morrison, 2000). However, a rapid shift of perspective occurred in the 1980s when the rise of Japanese businesses began to bring to focus the importance of global leadership. The climate of this theoretical foundation has shifted again recently as leadership educators are faced with preparing students to meet the needs of a dynamic and complicated organizational landscape. Expanding these challenges globally comprises a new level of preparedness for aspiring leaders. Globalization, and the technology that increasingly bridges countries and cultures, requires fresh paradigms and new leadership competencies (Bueno & Tubbs, 2004). Global managers will be expected to master an ever‐expanding range of knowledge and skills that will allow them to be successful in international contexts (DiStefano & Maznevski, 2003). Cultural competency development and a globalized curriculum are perhaps paramount to this charge as educators embark upon the challenging journey of providing the next generation of global leaders. The following questions provide educators with opportunities for reflection and discussion as we attempt to develop global competencies in the students we serve.     

Introduction

The new education must be less concerned with sophistication than compassion. It must recognize the hazards of tribalism. It must teach man the most difficult lesson of all—to look at someone anywhere in the world and be able to see the image of himself. The old emphasis upon superficial differences that separate peoples must give way to education for citizenship in the human community. With such an education and with such self‐understanding, it is possible that some nation or people may come forward with the vital inspiration that men need no less than food. Leadership on this higher level does not require mountains of gold or thundering propaganda. It is concerned with human destiny. Human destiny is the issue. People will respond. Norman Cousins The preceding quote provides a powerful message grounded in the idea that our world is becoming increasingly smaller and it is becoming increasingly difficult to make local decisions without global consequences. However, Cousins' quote also indicates the complexity and enormity of the issues facing leadership. To address the development of intercultural communities through humanistic means, leaders will be challenged to create innovative paradigms and practices along with educational curricula that will create the impetus for the development of future global leaders. This scenario is further complicated, as leadership educators will be asked to innovate and attend to the needs of their learners within a system of depleted resources. Higher education and corporate training have been forced to endure the reduction of resources stemming from growing economic concerns. Such diminished resources have created a considerable challenge for leadership educators, as they attempt to develop learners who are competent and equipped with the skills to work with intercultural populations. Parsons (2005) wrote that divisions within the federal government have created the need for new alternatives for learning within higher education, as government funds exacerbated by domestic spending limitations are now, and will be in the foreseeable future, diverted to other priorities. It is unlikely that leaders like Claiborne Pell or Robert Stafford will be walking through the proverbial door and onto the national landscape anytime soon, considering the depletion of the national treasury and the bipartisan struggles facing Congress. Thus, the plight of our learners will fall to the innovative capacities of our educators to create opportunities for growth through alternative means and innovative practice. Where in the past immersion provided the opportunity for the development of these learners, the future will force educators to consider much different methodologies in an effort to develop the necessary competencies for successful interactions with global populations. This symposium addresses the challenge. The symposium provides a collection of scholarly perspectives exploring innovative practices aimed at preparing learners for the work that they do with intercultural communities. With respect to the competing resource limitations, the symposium specifically addresses innovative practices within nonimmersive contexts. Through the symposium, the authors have addressed the cognitive, behavioral, and affective competencies that aspiring leaders need to be successful in global contexts. The following contributions focus on the importance, issues, and methods of developing global competence as a vital piece of leadership education.     

Developing a global leadership perspective through the use of student‐created reusable learning objects

Study abroad programs have been identified as one of the most effective methods of globalizing curricula and students. The purpose of this study was to examine the current framework of the Leading Change in Costa Rica Study Abroad Program and its ability to diffuse leadership theory to the participating students and to students who are not able to take part in a study abroad opportunity. This study abroad program used reusable learning objects (RLOs) as an assignment to develop global leadership competencies by applying the learned leadership theory in an international context. Students were impacted by the experience. They gained knowledge of the course content, developed and expanded their cultural competencies, and expanded their views of developing countries. The Leading Change in Costa Rica Study Abroad Program also made an effort to develop the intercultural competencies and global leadership abilities of students who are unable to study abroad. The student‐created RLOs have been used in class presentations and made available to interested faculty to use in classrooms across disciplines.     

Trending Now: Digital Leadership Education Using Social Media and the Social Change Model

The current article examines social media applications as a tool for positive social change. The number of users on applications from Facebook to Twitter and Instagram continues to increase in all demographics. These tools are being integrated into our daily activities and challenging boundaries, roles, and even possibilities globally. Currently, there exists a gap in developing competent leaders capable of leading change using social media. Education leaders and leadership education programs can adapt the values of the Social Change Model to reflect and apply digital competencies to their practice. Digital leadership requires reflection on online self‐awareness and congruence, grappling with the controversy that comes with cyber civility and how to be a digital citizen prepared to inspire positive social change.     

The Common Language of Leadership

As our complex society continues to call for leadership across all career fields, preparing leaders at the college level can be challenging. This article outlines the results of a comprehensive examination of learning outcomes of 475 academic programs within 72 academic accrediting organizations in regard to student leadership development. The purpose of the current study was twofold: (a) to understand better what competencies college students need to develop in order to engage in leadership in their respective career fields and (b) to use research findings to develop a list of leadership competencies across academic disciplines, serving as a “common language” for use in program planning, course development, as well as individual student advising and mentoring. The Student Leadership Competencies have been translated to contemporary leadership models such as the Relational Leadership Model, the Social Change Model of Leadership Development, the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, Emotionally Intelligent Leadership, and the CAS Standards. Implications for the use of the Student Leadership Competencies in program development, program assessment, and the development of strategic partnerships are also discussed.     

Global critical leadership: Educating global leaders with critical leadership competencies

Global critical leadership competency means espousing critical thinking skills in all aspects of leadership decision making in the global context. This paper reviews the actions of critical thinking, argues that global leaders too must lead critically, and draws attention to the deficiency of critical thinking curricula in higher education and subsequent lack of recent graduates with critical thinking competencies. Leading critically is defined as applying critical thinking skills to decisions about leadership actions in different situations and is a challenge for leaders, followers, and educators. Nevertheless, global leaders, stakeholders, and educators in global leadership programs must embrace this challenge in order to make informed decisions in global contexts.     

Developing global leaders

With respect to global leadership development, this article suggests that managers differentially benefit from a given intercultural training or developmental experience — depending on their individual aptitudes (i.e., knowledge, skills, abilities, and other personality characteristics). The main premise of this article is that offering the right people (those with the requisite individual aptitudes) the right developmental opportunities will produce leaders who can effectively perform global leadership tasks and activities.     

Storytelling as a vehicle for self‐awareness: Establishing a foundation for intercultural competency development

Intercultural competence and the ability to work with diverse populations are critical for successful experiences abroad. Immersion has been identified as a strong preparatory and developmental opportunity for learners engaging in these experiences. However the increasing cost of higher education and the depletion of federal support for these programs have forced educators to employ innovative means to prepare students for international experiences. The authors address this charge via theoretical perspectives suggesting the inclusion of storytelling and narrative as a means of developing self‐awareness and a pathway towards intercultural competence. This perspective provides the foundation for global competency development in non‐immersive contexts with respect to the underlying financial limitations in the current higher education landscape. The authors provide an educational framework that has the potential for a renewed emphasis on self‐development and ultimately, the creation of more globally conscious study abroad learners.     

Preparing globally competent leaders through innovative study abroad experiences

No one could argue with the fact that our world is changing at an exponentially rapid pace. As leadership educators, it is our role to prepare students for change in the global workplace and communities. This article will focus on one university's experiences taking leadership students abroad and using unique activities/discussions to study and build global leadership competencies.     

Seamless Leadership Learning in Curricular and Cocurricular Facets of University Life: A Pragmatic Approach to Praxis

The development of curricular and cocurricular leadership experiences is often a complex undertaking, second only to the complexities of learning how to lead effectively. The current article outlines the shared and diverse experiences of two leadership faculty charged with coordinating academic leadership programs at separate institutions. Both faculty members were previously student affairs professionals and chose to educate undergraduate leaders in the classroom while providing research for the leadership consortium. Additionally, both faculty members continue to partner with student affairs to facilitate strong curricular and cocurricular student experiences. The current article shares a practical approach to providing ongoing strategic practice opportunities for future leaders enrolled in academic, undergraduate leadership education programs while suggesting the creation of a common leadership language for both academic and cocurricular programs.     

Peak performance for the political leader

In the corporate world, leadership development programs are standard fare. Such programs often include well‐defined competencies and performance metrics, as well as regularly scheduled feedback and mentoring sessions, especially for those employees designated “high potential” performers. Not so in the public sphere. There are no defined career paths or standardized training curricula for heads of state. There are, however, requisite competencies for effective public sector leadership. As Gardner (1990) observed, “Leadership is not a mysterious activity. It is possible to describe the tasks that leaders perform....[But] we have barely scratched the surface in our efforts toward leadership development” (p. xix). The learning curve is steep for a newly elected leader, and fraught with potential landmines. Speaking with the candor of someone no longer seeking public office, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said recently, “When I came to office, prime minister was the only job I'd ever held; I'd never been a government minister before....The business of running a government is like anything else: You get better the longer you do it. And there are lessons out there that, had they come to me in an identifiable form, would have been useful to know” (talk given on December 16, 2010b). Both Gardner and Blair are emphatic that leadership is not something one is born with but something learned over time. And as Blair (2010a) put it, “Government is a race between expectations and capability.” In the essays that follow, several leadership coaches discuss the unique challenges and effective approaches they are using to help government leaders build the competencies that will enable them to govern effectively—and win that race between their constituents's expectations and their own capabilities.     

Political leadership and relationship systems intelligence

In the corporate world, leadership development programs are standard fare. Such programs often include well‐defined competencies and performance metrics, as well as regularly scheduled feedback and mentoring sessions, especially for those employees designated “high potential” performers. Not so in the public sphere. There are no defined career paths or standardized training curricula for heads of state. There are, however, requisite competencies for effective public sector leadership. As Gardner (1990) observed, “Leadership is not a mysterious activity. It is possible to describe the tasks that leaders perform....[But] we have barely scratched the surface in our efforts toward leadership development” (p. xix). The learning curve is steep for a newly elected leader, and fraught with potential landmines. Speaking with the candor of someone no longer seeking public office, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said recently, “When I came to office, prime minister was the only job I'd ever held; I'd never been a government minister before....The business of running a government is like anything else: You get better the longer you do it. And there are lessons out there that, had they come to me in an identifiable form, would have been useful to know” (talk given on December 16, 2010b). Both Gardner and Blair are emphatic that leadership is not something one is born with but something learned over time. And as Blair (2010a) put it, “Government is a race between expectations and capability.” In the essays that follow, several leadership coaches discuss the unique challenges and effective approaches they are using to help government leaders build the competencies that will enable them to govern effectively—and win that race between their constituents's expectations and their own capabilities.     

Guest editorial

In the corporate world, leadership development programs are standard fare. Such programs often include well‐defined competencies and performance metrics, as well as regularly scheduled feedback and mentoring sessions, especially for those employees designated “high potential” performers. Not so in the public sphere. There are no defined career paths or standardized training curricula for heads of state. There are, however, requisite competencies for effective public sector leadership. As Gardner (1990) observed, “Leadership is not a mysterious activity. It is possible to describe the tasks that leaders perform....[But] we have barely scratched the surface in our efforts toward leadership development” (p. xix). The learning curve is steep for a newly elected leader, and fraught with potential landmines. Speaking with the candor of someone no longer seeking public office, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said recently, “When I came to office, prime minister was the only job I'd ever held; I'd never been a government minister before....The business of running a government is like anything else: You get better the longer you do it. And there are lessons out there that, had they come to me in an identifiable form, would have been useful to know” (talk given on December 16, 2010b). Both Gardner and Blair are emphatic that leadership is not something one is born with but something learned over time. And as Blair (2010a) put it, “Government is a race between expectations and capability.” In the essays that follow, several leadership coaches discuss the unique challenges and effective approaches they are using to help government leaders build the competencies that will enable them to govern effectively—and win that race between their constituents's expectations and their own capabilities.     

Coaching as thinking partnership

In the corporate world, leadership development programs are standard fare. Such programs often include well‐defined competencies and performance metrics, as well as regularly scheduled feedback and mentoring sessions, especially for those employees designated “high potential” performers. Not so in the public sphere. There are no defined career paths or standardized training curricula for heads of state. There are, however, requisite competencies for effective public sector leadership. As Gardner (1990) observed, “Leadership is not a mysterious activity. It is possible to describe the tasks that leaders perform....[But] we have barely scratched the surface in our efforts toward leadership development” (p. xix). The learning curve is steep for a newly elected leader, and fraught with potential landmines. Speaking with the candor of someone no longer seeking public office, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said recently, “When I came to office, prime minister was the only job I'd ever held; I'd never been a government minister before....The business of running a government is like anything else: You get better the longer you do it. And there are lessons out there that, had they come to me in an identifiable form, would have been useful to know” (talk given on December 16, 2010b). Both Gardner and Blair are emphatic that leadership is not something one is born with but something learned over time. And as Blair (2010a) put it, “Government is a race between expectations and capability.” In the essays that follow, several leadership coaches discuss the unique challenges and effective approaches they are using to help government leaders build the competencies that will enable them to govern effectively—and win that race between their constituents's expectations and their own capabilities.     

Coaching government and political leaders in complex environments

In the corporate world, leadership development programs are standard fare. Such programs often include well‐defined competencies and performance metrics, as well as regularly scheduled feedback and mentoring sessions, especially for those employees designated “high potential” performers. Not so in the public sphere. There are no defined career paths or standardized training curricula for heads of state. There are, however, requisite competencies for effective public sector leadership. As Gardner (1990) observed, “Leadership is not a mysterious activity. It is possible to describe the tasks that leaders perform....[But] we have barely scratched the surface in our efforts toward leadership development” (p. xix). The learning curve is steep for a newly elected leader, and fraught with potential landmines. Speaking with the candor of someone no longer seeking public office, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said recently, “When I came to office, prime minister was the only job I'd ever held; I'd never been a government minister before....The business of running a government is like anything else: You get better the longer you do it. And there are lessons out there that, had they come to me in an identifiable form, would have been useful to know” (talk given on December 16, 2010b). Both Gardner and Blair are emphatic that leadership is not something one is born with but something learned over time. And as Blair (2010a) put it, “Government is a race between expectations and capability.” In the essays that follow, several leadership coaches discuss the unique challenges and effective approaches they are using to help government leaders build the competencies that will enable them to govern effectively—and win that race between their constituents's expectations and their own capabilities.     

I Don't Need Leadership: An Exploration of the Societal Discourse of Leadership

Even with a myriad of definitions of leadership, we still know little about the discourse of leadership in which those of us without formal leadership education and development are embedded. Through a discourse analysis of interviews with a broad cross‐section of 12 “followers,” the current study begins exploring the idea of a societal discourse of leadership and how that discourse complements and conflicts with the academic and workplace discourses. Analysis shows that although individuals define leadership in a similar fashion to the academic discourse, they identify heroic figures as leaders, and they neither look for, nor feel they need, leadership in their own lives.     

Enabling Shared Leadership in Virtual Project Teams: A Practitioners' Guide

Many virtual project teams perform better when leadership is shared (rather than centralized with the formal team leader); however, team leaders are often neither prepared to identify shared leadership potential nor to actually share leadership responsibility. Based on a study of 96 globally dispersed software development teams we show that team leaders tend to underestimate the team members’ capacity to lead themselves. As a consequence, these leaders monopolize decision‐making authority and provide insufficient levels of autonomy for team members to tackle their tasks. Preventing the team members from unfolding their true potential, these leaders unconsciously jeopardize virtual team performance. Paradoxically, it is thus team leaders themselves hindering leadership effectiveness in virtual teams.     

When do Non‐Family CEOs Outperform in Family Firms? Agency and Behavioural Agency Perspectives

Family firms represent a globally dominant form of organization, yet they confront a steep challenge of finding and managing competent leaders. Sometimes, these leaders cannot be found within the owning family. To date we know little about the governance contexts under which non‐family leaders thrive or founder. Guided by concepts from agency theory and behavioural agency theory, we examine the conditions of ownership and leadership that promote superior performance among non‐family CEOs of family firms. Our analysis of 893 Italian family firms demonstrates that these leaders outperform when they are monitored by multiple major family owners as opposed to a single owner; they also outperform when they are not required to share power with co‐CEOs who are family members, and who may be motivated by parochial family socioemotional priorities.     

The intercultural communication cultural immersion experience: Preparing leaders for a global future

The dynamics of globalization mean we face a reality wherein leaders are called upon to communicate effectively in cultural situations unfamiliar to them. This situation brings new challenges for communication and leadership educators. Our article describes a cultural immersion experience called The Cagli Project, where communication and leadership students learn effective intercultural communication skills for leadership formation while studying in Italy. The philosophical and experiential aspects of the program are described along with leadership outcomes. The article ends with a discussion of the transferability of this model to alternative programs. Perhaps nothing has had a more profound effect on human communication and hence leadership in the past half century than the movement of people around the globe and the growing diversity of world society. Globalization is the mantra that seems to be driving much that is new in higher education today. It has its roots in the “global economy” and seems most relevant to the business disciplines, but there is a sub‐text to globalization that resonates throughout all our institutions, and that is diversity (Caputo, 2011).     

The Emerging Role of Higher Education in Educating and Assessing Future Leaders for Disaster Relief

As the frequency and intensity of disasters throughout the world increase, so do the demands for humanitarian relief and the need for effective disaster‐based leadership training. Numerous organizations are poised to act in response to disasters that necessitate a significant amount of leadership and logistics support. Although there are many entities often involved in disaster relief, the symposium outlines the emerging role higher education can play in improving response outcomes, not only by providing “boots on the ground” but also by developing skilled disaster relief leaders in both curricular and cocurricular venues. Institutions of higher education provide experiential learning opportunities offering critical service for immediate disaster relief while developing the skills of future leaders. During these experiences, students develop disaster‐based leadership and logistics acumen. Similarly, programmatic assessment is critical in measuring student leadership growth during the experiential learning process of providing disaster relief. The education and assessment of these trainings provides an important dimension of disaster leadership as it examines the leaders in action and fosters a commitment to adequately prepare them to lead in a time of disaster. A qualitative approach is recommended for assessing experiential leadership learning to better inform teaching and to cultivate future disaster leadership that meets ongoing global needs.