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.     

Developing a sustainability ethic in leaders

The triple bottom line of fiscal, social, and environmental success considerably alters how organizations (and stakeholders) measure sustainable success. More important, however, is the conceptual shift required to understand and successfully lead organizations within this increasingly accepted paradigm. This article uses a mixed‐methods approach to explore the conceptual development of a sustainability ethic in aspiring leaders. More specifically, the authors report research examining the curriculum and pedagogy of a leadership education effort, in this case a college‐level course, aimed at effecting change in both individual aspiring leaders and their immediate community. The article describes the philosophical and research base for the curriculum and specific activities with their pedagogical approach. Results show evidence of increased awareness, importance, and commitment to sustainability as well as changes in how students conceptualize sustainability leadership. Findings offer insights for further developing leadership education for sustainability.     

Are US multinationals adequately preparing future American leaders for global

Human resource information (HRI) is information such as head count, fluctuation, age distributions or results from employee surveys which is available to an organization. Despite being a high-priority issue for practitioners and researchers, this topic remains far from reaching a level at which the users of HRI – mostly managers and senior executives – are satisfied and perceive HRI as effective and useful for decision making. This is due to a knowledge gap regarding which relevant attributes HRI needs to possess. In order to fill this gap, we built on theoretical arguments from the information systems literature and integrated them into an HRI success model with the key variables ease of use, information quality, perceived usefulness, user information satisfaction and information use. This model was tested among 179 managers in Swiss banks, and structural equation modeling provided clear support for it. In particular, information quality was a key determining factor for both user information satisfaction and information use, and there was a weak link between user information satisfaction and actual HRI use. Both academics and practitioners might benefit from this model by achieving a deeper understanding of the key factors and interdependencies leading to successful HRI.     

央企高管“全球PK”

“全球PK”过后,一支备受瞩目的劲旅诞生,难怪国资委如此“求贤若渴”,套用时下最流行的话,他们个个都“不逊于李宇春”     

Marketing managers need more than forecasting accuracy

In theory, time series models can provide more accurate predictions than econometric models. However, time series models do so by introducing bias. To marketing managers who are interested in planning as well as forecasting, lack of bias is more important than accuracy.     

Developing holistic leaders: Four domains for leadership development and practice

Leadership development and practice have traditionally been quite narrow, with a decided focus on the analytical realm of leadership. However, the contemporary climate of corporate scandal and resultant loss of societal confidence, coupled with the evolving demands, needs, and expectations of employees, point to the potential need for a more holistic approach to leadership. Thus, this article proposes how management education and leadership development programs can develop holistic leaders that are adept at operating in the analytical, conceptual, emotional, and spiritual domains of leadership practice. An integrated model for holistic leadership development and practice that addresses all four of these domains is proposed, and grounded in both established and emerging leadership development theory. Additionally, a leadership development classification scheme is proposed based on classroom, job, and organizational contexts.     

The development of political skill and political capital by global leaders through global assignments

The purpose of this paper is to explain how developing global leaders through global assignments (i.e. in the form of expatriation and inpatriation) may lead to their acquisition of valuable political skill and political capital. First, using the theoretical frame of political influence theory, the benefit of political skill is explained relative to the development and augmentation of global leaders' capital portfolio during global assignments. Second, a distinction between social capital and political capital, as the integral components of global leader's capital portfolio, is made. In conclusion, the value of acquiring political skill and building human, cultural, social and political capital by global leaders is discussed separately for expatriate and inpatriate assignments.     

Developing leaders for creative efforts: A domain-based approach to leadership development

As we move into the 21st century, innovation, sustained innovation, has become a critical determinant of organizational success and survival. Although we know much about potential influences on innovation, little is known about the actions that should be taken to develop the people who must lead these efforts. In the present paper, we present a model of the capacities and capabilities people need to lead creative efforts. A selection, optimization, and compensation model is used to specify the kind of interventions that might provide a basis for developing these capacities and capabilities. The implications of these observations are discussed with respect to both the relevance of available leadership development techniques and the unique needs of people asked to lead creative efforts.     

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).     

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.     

Entry shock,culture shock: Socializing the new breed of global managers

Recent graduates in the field of international business face not only the entry shock of making the transition from school to work, but also the culture shock of working in foreign countries or with joint ventures and foreign subsidiaries. Using survey data collected from 459 recent recipients of masters degrees in international business, this article explores the special problems new entrants into the field of international business face in their first few jobs and suggests organizational strategies for more effectively socializing these new global managers. © 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The career reality of global managers: an examination of career triggers

This study investigates whether the conceptualization of contemporary careers corresponds with the career realities of global managers, a new type of international work in organizations. Based on in-depth interviews with 45 global managers, or managers having worldwide coordination responsibility, we examine whether their different career moves are triggered by factors that reflect a short-term perspective, a non-hierarchical course, self-management, and internal values. The findings have implications for both the career and international human resource (HR) literature. They highlight that a balanced approach better captures the career realities of global managers and suggest an altered meaning of midcareer experience. They further point to the continuing importance of headquarters, question the necessity of an international career anchor, and indicate the opportunities of flexible global work to achieve a stable family life.     

business schools in the marketplace

Professor David Myddelton, of Cranfield Business School, describes the business school courses on offer and outlines some of the problems faced by the schools.     

Text-analytic measurement of effectuation and causation orientations among small and global business managers

We demonstrate how one can measure overall quality in texts gathered from interviews by means of PERTEX text analytic method. We compare text analytic measures and content for locally active Scandinavian small business managers and globally operating Indian IT managers when recapitulating the reasons behind company growth. Using Ward’s clustering method (J Am Stat Assoc 58:236–244, 1963) on a binary matrix for connections between textual components, we suggest using the ESS value from clustering to calculate AFFI as an overall measure of quality. By further splitting the AFFI into three sub-components we are also able to display the degree of fragmentation, focus and integration in the text. We show how AFFI measures differ between managers with a causation or effectuation orientation irrespective of their role as small business manager or as an established global manager. Hence, we posit that effectuation and causation orientations may be generic characteristic of managers in general.