Exploring Facilitating Factors in the Development of Global Leaders

Abstract

 A high degree of interconnectedness has resulted as a direct effect of technological advancements, information sharing and knowledge creation. In turn the creation of a globalized economy that is borderless, highly dynamic within a multicultural context has emerged. To this effect, the development of successful globalized leaders who are not only culturally competent but are also able to lead international sales efforts for multi-national corporations are in high demand. This paper is aimed to investigate facilitating factors which facilitate and mediate the development of successful global leaders. An extensive review of global leadership literature is provided with a comprehensive overview of acculturation within a multicultural perspective. The conceptual complexities of the theoretical and empirical work of The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) project in relation to global leadership traits is integrated with the ideological complexities of acculturation to create a framework used to examine mediating factors of the development of successful globalized leaders. Methodology used in this study was a snowball sampling method administered via the internet. Participants were given a survey with collected self-reported data. Respondents included 156 participants with a total of 75 women and 81 men. Results of the study showed a statistically significant difference in acculturation level in participants who had overseas managerial experience. It appears that overseas managers have an integrated acculturational level. Results of the study also revealed that professional employees have higher levels of global leadership traits that non-professional employees.