ESRC - New Frontiers in Global Leadership Development

• In Event: 9th Annual Emerging Scholars Research Consortium

Short Description

Although study abroad and service-learning are frequently deployed to achieve global outcomes in higher education, few of these efforts have been leveraged in the development of global leadership competencies. This poster brings together global leadership competency development and student development towards an integrated model for socially responsible global leadership development.

Detailed Abstract

The study of global leadership has gained momentum in the last decade driven by multinational firms seeking ways to operate effectively in the global marketplace (Mendenhall, 2013). With the majority of global leadership development research originating in the business world (Osland, 2009) and focused on individual competencies and expatriate assignment management (Bird, 2013; Caligiuri, 2006; Oddou, Mendenhall, & Ritchie, 2000), educators are faced with the question of how to prepare students to enter and succeed in multinational organizations from day one.

Astin was among the first to see leadership development as important and useful in the undergraduate experience due to its potential to empower students and provide greater sense of autonomy (Astin & Astin, 2000). The most widely used student leadership development model is the Social Change Model (SCM). The model approaches leadership as a purposeful, collaborative, values-based process that results in positive social change (Komives & Wagner, 2009). Although the model does not feature values related to global competence, the SCM’s emphasis on social responsibility is one of the major trends that has emerged in the international business field’s search for global leaders (Maak, Pless, & Borecká, 2014).

Global leadership is an emerging field and there is no consensus on global leadership education competencies or outcomes. Attempts to design study abroad to address global leadership development outcomes have included strategies like the addition of special assignments (Montgomery & Arensdorf, 2012; Sandlin, Odom, Lindner, & Dooley, 2012), the creation of personal growth plans (Niehaus, O’Rourke, & Ostick, 2012), collaborative field work (Sroufe, Sivasubramaniam, Ramos, & Saiia, 2014), and service-learning (Engberg, 2013; Engberg & Fox, 2011). Current research points to global leadership development as an emergent, non-linear, personal and transformational process, requiring individuals to engage in constant learning due to the complexity of the global environment (Oddou & Mendenhall, 2013; Osland, 2009).

My poster seeks to draw on original doctoral research into the use of international service-learning to bring together the global competencies identified by Bird (2013) with the SCM to provide a model for socially responsible global student leadership development. This new model contributes to the field of student leadership development by expanding the competencies of the SCM to enhance the focus of relational skill development and address the lack of global competencies of the original model. It contributes to the field of global leadership education by focusing on the development of students in higher education and broadens the global leadership perspective to include a values-based approach that advocates for the development of socially responsible global leadership perspectives.

Participant

• Stephanie Quirk, College of DuPage