Search results

Based on the tasks and responsibilities of global leaders, the benefits of a holistic view in global leadership talent acquisition are identified. The main areas of this integrating process, such as succession planning, attracting, and mobilizing talents, selection, training and development, and retaining global leadership talents, are described. The success factors and principles of a global talent acquisition process are presented and explained. Furthermore, this chapter shows that a proactive step for global organizations is to build an in-house global leadership talent pool to ensure having the right global leaders in the right places at the right time.

International experience (IE) has been acknowledged to be the most useful method for developing global leaders. However, not everyone benefits equally from IE. During the last two decades, our understanding of why this is the case and how global leaders learn from IE has rapidly increased. Several individual and organizational enablers facilitating global leader learning from IE have been identified in the literature, as have learning mechanisms that make such learning possible. However, the literature remains fragmented, and there is a great need to integrate the findings in the field. Therefore, the present paper systematically examines peer-reviewed studies on global leaders' learning from IE published between 1998 and 2019. The study contributes to the extant literature by identifying and integrating individual enablers, organizational enablers, and key learning mechanisms from global leaders' IE and by suggesting topics for future research.

Answering to calls for further contextualizing global leadership, this study investigates power dynamics and cultural identities in global leadership in an African context. We took a grounded theory approach to investigate how a specific cultural context shapes assets and liabilities of global leaders. Drawing on our data comprising semi-structured interviews of managers of multinational enterprises operating in Ghana, we identified key assets and liabilities for being local or foreign in one’s global leadership role. Furthermore, we theorize four specific styles of leadership leveraging: identity leveraging, power leveraging, juxtapositional leveraging, and temporal leveraging. Finally, we integrated the above-mentioned elements and proposed a framework of contextualized assets and liabilities which illustrates how specific cultural context affects the assets and liabilities of localness and foreignness for global leaders, and how these assets and liabilities constitute the four styles of leveraging in such context. Implications of our findings for research and practice are discussed.

Adapting to, creating, and managing change has become an unavoidable and even central part in today's organizations (Griffin, Neal, & Parker, 2007). At the external level, organizations are constantly seeking opportunities to identify and anticipate clients' needs, switch or expand into new markets, and establish or rearrange strategic alliances. At the internal level, they struggle with recruiting, retaining, and developing a healthy base of best talent, and reorganizing the structure of labor forces to match the organization's growing needs. The internal and external dynamics frequently intertwine, complicating the situations and creating competing demands; therefore, leaders are forced to understand, manage, and react quickly, innovatively, and effectively. Importantly, in order to grow business organically and sustainably, leaders are pressed to constantly identify and develop new products, processes, structures, and solutions. As revealed by Gonin, Napiersky, and Thorsell in their chapter of this volume, innovation has turned out to be one of the biggest challenges in times of crisis. All these challenges become more complex when organizational changes and innovations are conducted across national cultures. This has been illuminated by the three chapters in this volume, respectively focusing on: discussing issues in managing cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), introducing useful tools to assist change initiatives, and tackling the innate paradoxes in engaging in innovative activities across cultures.

One of the biggest challenges facing global organizations is the ability of leadership and International Human Resource Management (IHRM) professionals to capture the positive outcomes of a diverse workforce while fostering inclusion amongst its workers. New theory based upon optimal distinctiveness theory has challenged researchers to approach inclusion in a holistic manner, transcending political boundaries and cultural meanings of diversity to instead promote the uniqueness of individuals within-group belongingness. This chapter proposes a theoretical model that suggests leader capabilities such as global mindset can foster inclusiveness while reaping the benefits of unique backgrounds and diverse ideas. Two important individual-level outcomes of inclusiveness are presented: creativity and psychological safety. Also discussed are implications for strategic IHRM through recruitment, selection, talent management, and performance management activities.