The State of Global Leadership Research: Investigating Competencies, Complexity, Cognition, and Behavior

• In Event: Global Leadership Excellence: Thinking, Doing, and Core Competencies

Short Description

The study of global leadership is relatively new. Most studies to date have focused on competencies — finding over 200. The presenter will synthesize the current research, focusing on the factor of complexity, and will suggest new areas of study to understand global leader behaviors and thought.

Detailed Abstract

Study of the young field of global leadership began only recently, in the 1990s. This session will overview the current research, with a specific focus on the factor of complexity, and point toward new areas of study to understand global leader behaviors and thought.

Perhaps because of the field’s nascence, scholars have not yet reached consensus on a construct definition. Mendenhall, Reiche, Bird and Osland first tackled this issue by analyzing the various definitions in use and proposing the following definition of global leadership: “The process of influencing others to adopt a shared vision through structures and methods that facilitate positive change while fostering individual and collective growth in a context characterized by significant levels of complexity, flow and presence” (2012, p. 8).

This definition points toward a global leader’s competencies in alignment with the current body of research into global leadership, which has focused almost entirely on competencies (Osland, 2013; Mendenhall, Li & Osland, 2016). According to a review that aimed to map the domain of global leadership (Bird, in press), scholars have identified over 200 competencies.

In evaluation of these competencies, we must ask the question, “How is global leadership different from leadership in domestic circumstances?” In other words, how do we define the “global” in “global leadership”?

One possible explanation is that global leadership is defined by its complexity. Complexity is the natural habitat of global leaders. Domestic leaders transitioning into global roles may find that their familiar and experienced mindset may not readily accommodate the complexity of global leadership challenges in business (Levy et al., 2007). The rich capacity to learn in the face of complexity is a hallmark of global leadership. Leaders in these global environments must acquire new knowledge about the different geographic and business contexts in which they work (Levy et al., 2007).

Managing this complexity is not an easy task. In a 2010 study by IBM, 1,500 global leaders (CEOs representing 33 industries across 60 countries) reported that complexity is their single most significant business challenge, of all variables considered (IBM, 2010). Complexity is created by the realities of multinational organizations working in multiple geographical markets, each with their own legislative polices and corporate and regional cultures. Additional complexity is found in the specific work of global leaders, who may be tasked with leading multiple initiatives or product lines, with different needs and solutions emerging for different business units, nations and tasks. Furthermore, many global leaders also work across organizational boundaries (Harvey & Novicevic, 2006).

Lane, Maznevski and Mendenhall (2004) identify four dimensions or conditions of complexity in the global context that continuously interact in a nonlinear process (adding further complexity). These four conditions are multiplicity, interdependence, ambiguity, and flux. Global leaders must manage the ongoing multiplication effect of these complexity factors, which this presentation will explore.

Implications for Future Study

Despite recent growth in global leadership publications over the past five years (Mendenhall, Li & Osland, 2016), there are still large empirical research gaps in the field, especially in the areas of global change (Osland, 2013) and global leader expert cognition (Osland, Oddou, Bird, & Osland, 2013). In other words, to meet the complexities and challenges of our turbulent times, we must better understand how effective global leaders think, and what they do, particularly when leading change. The second and third presentations in this symposium will expand on the concepts of change, cognition, and behavior in the global leadership context.

This presentation will conclude with recommendations to advance the field of study. The researcher suggests that scholars need to employ a more interactive approach that attends to cognition and behavior, moving beyond mere competencies to understand the rich interweaving of competencies into belief, thought and behavior. Better understanding these factors will enable business schools and corporations to develop future generations of global leaders.

Participant

• Joyce Osland, San Jose State University