Advances in Global Leadership: Volume 3

Subject:

Table of contents

(24 chapters)

Based on feedback received from Volumes 1 and 2, we are reaching these multiple audiences and we believe Volume 3 continues to follow that path. The risk of our broad and eclectic approach is that there will be something of interest for everyone, but not everything will interest everyone. Our hope is that the selection of manuscripts will stimulate, pollinate and challenge practitioners and academics, Westerners and non-Westerners, students and leaders. We encourage you to read and reflect on the chapters that are out of your current comfort zone.

Unless one keeps rowing the boat forward, the current will take you backward. You cannot stand still, only go forward or backward (An Old Chinese Proverb).The currents of globalization continue to accelerate. As the old Chinese proverb says, you cannot stand still in the face of these currents, only go backward or forward. In the face of the multiple currents driving globalization, the accelerated movement toward market economies globally, the continued geo-political flash points and risks globally, the weakening of confidence in corporate governance globally, the continued derailment of leaders globally, all beg for deeper understanding of global leadership processes. All involved in delivering, developing and studying global leadership need to be rowing faster and smarter and with better conceptual, measurement and behavioral tools and processes.

It follows from our definition of global leadership as influence across national and cultural boundaries, that influence may be exerted from many sources including individuals and teams as well as the more macro entities of corporate and societal cultures. This section of Volume 3 considers various foundations of influence. Because a foundation is the ground upon which something is built (Webster, 2000), the foundations in this section speak to key elements necessary for leadership success in both domestic and global leadership arenas. The authors contend that organizational effectiveness depends on leaders establishing trust among key organizational members, defining the most critical issues facing an organization, connecting specific talent within the organization to match strategic organizational imperatives, and developing leadership competence. Of course, the complexity and difficulty of successfully achieving each of these foundations increases when we are dealing with leadership in multinational organizations, as the authors in this section make abundantly clear.

To function effectively in both the near and distant future, leaders in global organizations must understand, develop and exercise trust and social capital. The competitive landscape in the new millennium necessitates that firms develop strategic flexibility. To do so, they must continuously renew their knowledge stock and produce innovations. To implement these strategies, leaders must build effective relationships among members and units in the organization. This relational capital is based on trust and eventually leads to the development of internal social capital. Leaders must also build effective relationships with external constituencies. This is often accomplished through strategic alliances. Similarly, leaders must build mutual trust among alliance partners that over time leads to the development of external social capital. When employees trust leaders, they are more likely to be committed to the organization’s goals, willing to develop firm-specific knowledge and likely to exercise creativity. Likewise, partners in trusting alliances are more likely to transfer knowledge, and contribute to a firm’s innovation. These actions are important in global organizations, but difficult to achieve.

In this paper, we explore a new leadership theory termed “Issue Leadership,” where a leader is considered to be a person who looks for critical issues in the ordinary, involves the audience (i.e. those who are directly or indirectly related to a particular issue) in an effective way, and achieves outstanding performances and desired changes through efficient implementation of a proposed issue. Specifically, an issue leader is required to exhibit three distinctive behaviors: issue-creating, audience-involving, and issue-implementing. Antecedents and moderators of issue leadership behavior are identified, and their interrelationships are proposed in a comprehensive issue leadership model. After a detailed explanation of the issue leadership theory, we researched, and tried to answer the question, “How do we apply the theory to global business settings?”

It is widely accepted that global competitive advantage frequently requires managing such complex situations where traditional organization and job structures are simply insufficient. Increasingly, in order to create a flexible and integrated set of decisions that balance local flexibility with global efficiency, organizations must rely on more social, informal and matrix-based shared visions among managers and employees. Research on global strategic advantage, global organizational structures and even shared mindsets has suggested that dimensions of culture, product and function provide a valuable organizing framework. However, typical decisions about organization structure, HRM practices and talent often remain framed at such a high level as to preclude their solution. We maintain that there is often no logical answer to such questions as, “Should the sales force be local or global?” or “Should product authority rest with the countries or the corporate center?” However, we propose that embedding business processes or value chains within a Culture and Product matrix provides the necessary analytic detail to reveal otherwise elusive solutions. Moreover, by linking this global process matrix to a model that bridges strategy and talent, it is possible to identify global “pivotal talent pools,” and to target organizational and human resource investments toward those talent areas that have the greatest impact on strategic advantage. We demonstrate the Value-Chain, Culture and Product (VCCP) matrix using several examples, and discuss future research and practical implications, particularly for leadership and leadership development.

As we begin the 21st century, evidence abounds that executive and leadership development has failed to meet expectations. Unless we change our assumptions and think differently about executives and the development process, we will continue to find too few executives to carry out corporate strategies, and the competence of those executives available will be too often open to question. The “competency model” of the executive, proposing as it does a single set of competencies that account for success, must be supplemented with a development model based on leadership challenges rather than executive traits and competencies. Executive performance must focus on “what gets done” rather than on one way of doing it or on what competencies executives have. In turn, executive development must be viewed as meeting performance challenges essential to the business strategy rather than attending development programs, with senior executives making development decisions much as they make business decisions today.

The five articles in this section of Volume 3 help us understand the extent to which national and/or corporate culture influences leadership processes. Viewed in their totality it is impressive that while all these chapters report the results of empirical research, each is theoretically based and will likely contribute to both the practice of global leadership as well as theory development. While the chapters vary in terms of theory development from the embryonic to the mature, they all contribute to our understanding of the intersection between culture and leadership. From my perspective, there are quite a few unexpected results. I was also struck by the variety of research topics and methodological approaches. Perhaps I should not have been surprised given the breadth of countries and employment bases of these scholars. They represent universities, institutes and multinational corporations in China, England, New Zealand, Holland, Korea, United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Switzerland.

This chapter summarizes our current knowledge regarding use of managerial influence tactics in international settings, and reports the findings of a twelve-nation study on the relative effectiveness of different influence tactics in business organizations. Rational persuasion, consultation, collaboration and apprising were identified as effective tactics in all the countries. Giving gifts, socializing with the target, exerting pressure, and making influence attempts informally were rated low in effectiveness in all of the countries. Discriminant analysis confirmed that patterns of perceived effectiveness for the influence tactics can distinguish countries in a manner consistent with their known cultural values.

Managers with global responsibilities work across distance, across differences in country infrastructure, and across differences in cultural values and expectations. Although the work of global managers is in some respects the same as the work of domestic managers – they must provide leadership, direct action and manage information – in order to be effective, global managers must adapt how they do their work to the global context. Research indicates that success as a global leader depends significantly on the leader’s ability to interact effectively with others who are culturally different. To do this, leaders must be able to adapt their behavior appropriately to the particular circumstances in which they are working. Cultural adaptability is critical to successful global leadership. Research shows that cultural adaptability is related to a number of different experiences, both on and off the job. In this chapter we review the literature on cultural adaptability and leading across cultures; and building on what we know about learning from experience, we suggest developmental experiences which can help leaders develop their cultural adaptability.

Leaders in different cultural contexts rely on various sources of guidance. Mapping these sources can lead to a clearer understanding of the types of challenges faced by global leaders than can be gained by focusing on their values. In this chapter, a series of clusters of nations are identified, and within each, leaders are found to favor a distinctive profile of guidance sources. When multinational enterprises seek to work across the boundaries defining these clusters, a series of individual and culture-level challenges arise. The best ways of handling these challenges are discussed.

Two interrelated theoretical schemes on leadership are presented in this paper. One is the Chinese CPM leadership behavior model, and the other, the Chinese implicit leadership theory. The CPM model recognizes three factors: Moral Character (“C” factor), Performance (“P” factor) and Maintenance (“M” factor). The Chinese implicit theory on leadership differentiates four trait factors: Personal Morality, Goal Efficiency, Interpersonal Competence, and Versatility. As such, it corresponds well with the CPM theory’s three-factor model. Both of these studies point to the salience of a cultural aspect. It has been demonstrated in the Chinese cultural context that the Chinese still place key importance on the moral character of their leaders and their behavior.

This chapter presents two studies that examine the link between corporate culture and effectiveness in a variety of national settings. The first study compares results from 230 organizations from Europe, North America and Asia and reveals a surprising level of similarity in results across these regions. The second study presents the results from targeted samples of 218 supermarkets from Canada, Australia, Brazil, the U.S., Japan, Jamaica, and South Africa. These results show a common pattern in five of the countries, and a divergent pattern of findings in Jamaica and Japan.

The results suggest that it is quite possible to measure and compare the cultural traits of organizations and their impact on business performance across nations, and to find empirical support for a general framework. But how can these findings be reconciled with the vast literature on cross-cultural differences? Discussion of this point reaches an interesting conclusion: Perhaps there is a common set of cultural traits that can be used to understand the effectiveness of organizations, but that are expressed quite differently in different national settings.

In the preceding two sections of this volume, we have examined some of the foundations of global leadership as well as cross-cultural perspectives. In this section we examine some of the processes, practices and developmental issues surrounding global leadership. As noted in the introduction to this volume, the placement of chapters in one of the three sections was somewhat arbitrary since all three sections are interrelated. The chapters in this section – by Elaine B. Sloan, Joy F. Hazucha and Paul T. Van Katwyk; John Hofmeister and Sarah Parker; and by Don D. Davis and Janet L. Bryant – could easily have been included in the Foundations section. The chapters by Joseph J. DiStefano and Martha L. Maznevski and by Linda E. Laddin could easily have been included in the Cross-Cultural Perspectives section. As we review these chapters, we will draw attention to the interrelationships with the other two sections.

Senior line managers and their HR business partners need to make sure they have the right leadership talent, at the right time, in the right place. Our aim in this chapter is to weave together some of the best conceptual models and most useful research findings we have found to create a guiding framework for managing global leadership talent strategically. The guiding framework addresses three primary phases of global talent planning and development: clarifying the globalization strategy, defining global leadership roles and requirements, and designing the talent management system.

Global businesses create and sustain operational success and create value by balancing the centripetal and centrifugal organizational forces they generate. Productive efforts to achieve strategic and operational success are enabled by the balance of competing tensions not their oscillations. Internal regulators contribute to this balance when they are understood and systematically integrated into both short and long-term decision-making. Inattention to the intricacies of interactive regulating dynamics and systems dilute value creation, or worse, destroy it. The whole business organization must be greater than the sum of its parts to deliver optimum value. Anything less creates gaps which competitors will exploit to the detriment of shareholder value creation. The business landscape is replete with companies that failed to create or sustain balance. There are also examples of great companies that nurture tensions to promote proper balance.

Global virtual teams include members from multiple nations and cultures who must work together while being separated by time and space. We discuss leadership in global virtual teams and how distance influences the full range of leadership required at multiple levels of the organization. We use research literature devoted to virtual teams as well as our own data collected from interviews with leaders and members of global virtual teams to highlight factors related to global team effectiveness, satisfaction and commitment. We provide a model of leadership in global virtual teams that integrates previous research findings and may be used to guide future research and practice.

This chapter addresses the challenge of designing and executing educational curricula to develop global leaders, especially focusing on how they work with and influence people. Today’s global managers are expected to master an ever-expanding range of knowledge and skills, and educators are faced with the challenge of preparing them to be as effective as possible. We argue that educators must combine multiple methods carefully to achieve their objective. The chapter illustrates how to mix concepts, data, projects and behavioral exercises to help global managers develop team and leadership skills. The processes we outline are designed for students in undergraduate, MBA and Executive programs.

I am not a scholar and this is not a scholarly article. This is a reflection on what I’ve observed and learned about leadership development during many years of living and working in Asia. I tell some stories, make shameless, sweeping generalizations, give highly opinionated views and offer totally subjective insights. I also do some lecturing. There are no charts or graphs and very few notes. I write mainly about American companies (with a bit about Japanese companies and a nod to the Swiss), because these are the organizations with which I am most familiar. By doing this I do not mean to let other companies and countries off the hook.

A bit about me – I am a learning and development practitioner who has been in Asia since 1981, so I have had the opportunity to observe a lot. The first 16 years of that time I spent in Japan, working for Matsushita Electric Industrial, Arthur Andersen, Union Bank of Switzerland and Morgan Stanley. In 1998 I moved to Hong Kong to join Merrill Lynch. I’m now an independent consultant. Since 1981 I have worked in China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.

My premise is that many American (and other) companies, whether they realize it or not, are approaching leadership development in Asia (and probably elsewhere) in a narrow and parochial way that limits the contributions of their Asian managers, and thus is not good for business. Instead of accepting and exploiting cultural differences, companies are either ignoring them or trying to expunge them. Instead of the lockstep global systems of performance management, training and review, I argue for using something called indigenous design in which people get to help design the criteria by which they are evaluated. Their contribution becomes part of the global performance management scheme. Indigenously designed training programs can be used in conjunction with corporate programs to fill in the bits that are missing from one-size-fits-all global leadership development. Indigenous design is happening in architecture, technology and social welfare programs – so why not in corporate learning and development?

Unless one keeps rowing the boat forward, the current will take you backward. You cannot stand still, only go forward or backward. An Old Chinese Proverb.Our objectives in this series include discussing new and refined theories, models, metrics, insights and approaches, i.e. “oars and rudders” that will enhance our individual and organizational effectiveness in leading into the rapid and dynamic currents of globalization. Our objectives also include hearing from academics and practitioners from multiple cultures and settings. We believe we have accomplished these objectives. Our authors include leading researchers and theorists from universities in China, England, Hong Kong, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States. Our authors also include thought leaders from leading global corporations such as Royal Dutch Shell and Merrill Lynch, and leading leadership development organizations including Personnel Decisions International (PDI) and the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). Such diversity of perspectives has provided a needed and stimulating set of new or refined “oars and rudders” for our ongoing voyage in global leadership.

William H. (Bill) Mobley is Professor of Management at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai where he teaches the MBA and EMBA leadership and strategic HR modules. He also serves as President and Managing Director of the Global Research Consortia (GRC), a consortium of multinational firms that sponsors organizational, I/O psychology and strategic talent management research in emerging markets by awarding grants to university faculty globally.

Kibok Baik is a professor of management at the College of Business and Economics, and Head of Strategic Leadership Center, Kookmin University, Seoul, Korea. He earned his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the University of Houston. His research interests focus on leadership, cross-cultural issues, and human resource development in multinational corporations. He currently advises dozens of firms in Korea.John W. Boudreau, Ph.D., Professor of human resource studies at Cornell University is recognized worldwide for breakthrough research on the bridge between superior human capital, talent and sustainable competitive advantage. His research has received the Academy of Management’s Organizational Behavior New Concept and Human Resource Scholarly Contribution awards. He consults and conducts executive development with companies worldwide and has published more than 40 books and articles, including the best-selling Human Resource Management (Irwin, 1997), now in its eighth edition in multiple languages worldwide. In addition to HR metrics, Dr. Boudreau’s large-scale research studies and highly focused qualitative research have addressed decision-based HR, executive mobility, HR information systems and organizational staffing and development. Winner of the General Mills Award for teaching innovations, Dr. Boudreau also founded the Central Europe Human Resource Education Initiative, and directed the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS).Janet L. Bryant is a doctoral student in the Ph.D. program in industrial and organizational psychology at Old Dominion University. Her research interests include leadership, virtual work and cross-cultural issues. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.Maxine Dalton is an industrial/organizational psychologist who received her education at the University of South Florida. Her research interests include adult learning and executive development. Her current research is on leadership and social identity conflict in organizations. She has published numerous book chapters, articles and a recent book on global leadership.Donald D. Davis received his Ph.D. in psychology from Michigan State University in 1982, where he also served as assistant director of the Center for Evaluation and Assessment. He has been a professor of organizational psychology at Old Dominion University since that time. He served for seven years as director of the Ph.D. Program in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and has served as a member of the board of directors of the Institute for Asian Studies since its creation in 1989. He has been awarded two Fulbrights – Asian Scholar in Residence (with Zhong-ming Wang, Hangzhou University – now Zhejiang University – Hangzhou, China) and Senior Scholar (Wuhan University, Wuhan, China). He has also held a visiting appointment at the University of Virginia. His research interests include virtual organizations, organization change, technological innovation, cross-cultural organization and management practices, and Chinese organizations. He has published one book and a number of papers on these topics.Jennifer J. Deal is a Research Scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego, California, concentrating on global leadership and managing the Emerging Leaders project, which focuses on generational issues in the workplace. She has published a number of articles on topics including generational issues in the workplace, working globally, executive selection, and women in management, and a recent book on global leadership. She holds a B.A. from Haverford College, and a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from The Ohio State University.Daniel Denison is Professor of Management & Organization at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland and is the Founder of Denison Consulting in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. He is former Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is the author of Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness (1990) and a number of articles on the link between culture and business performance. His survey assessments of culture, teams, and leaders are widely used by many organizations around the world. His website, www.denisonculture.com has extensive information on his work.Joseph John DiStefano is Professor of Organizational Behavior and International Business at IMD International Institute for Management Development (Lausanne, Switzerland) and Professor Emeritus of the Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario (London, Canada). He was educated at R.P.I., Harvard Business School and Cornell University and has been active as a teacher, researcher and consultant on issues of cross-cultural effectiveness since the early 1970s.Peter J. Dowling (Ph.D., The Flinders University of South Australia) is Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of International Management & Strategy in the Division of Business, Law & Information Sciences, University of Canberra. Previous appointments include Foundation Professor of Management at the University of Tasmania, Monash University, the University of Melbourne, and California State University-Chico. He has also held visiting appointments at Cornell University, Michigan State University, the University of Paderborn (Germany) and the University of Bayreuth (Germany). His current research and teaching interests are concerned with International HRM and Strategic Management. His co-authored text International Human Resource Management: Managing People in a Multinational Context, published by South-West, is now in a third edition. He is a former national Vice-President of the Australian Human Resources Institute, past Editor of Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources (1987–1996), and a Life Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute.Chris Ernst is a Research Associate at the Center for Creative Leadership with an international background, and a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from North Carolina State University. His work centers on advancing the capacity for leadership in a diverse and globally interconnected world.Ping Ping Fu is an assistant professor of management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are mainly in leadership and cross-cultural areas. She was the coordinator for the Chinese part for the Global Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (GLOBE), and is now leading the CEO study in China. She has published in Journal of Organizational Behavior, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of International Applied Psychology and Leadership Quarterly.Paulo Goelzer is President of the IGA Institute, an educational foundation providing training to 40 countries in five languages and oversees their international operations. He began his career in the food industry very early, working in a family food business. He has also worked as a senior consultant for Strategy and Food Package Goods Industry Practice for a German/Brazilian consulting company, a researcher and consultant for the Brazilian Wholesaler Association (ABAD), and as a Marketing Director for a grocery wholesale company.

DOI
10.1016/S1535-1203(2003)3
Publication date
Book series
Advances in Global Leadership
Series copyright holder
Emerald Publishing Limited
ISBN
978-0-76230-866-8
eISBN
978-1-84950-146-0
Book series ISSN
1535-1203