21: Global Leadership

The concept of global leadership emerged during the late 1980s when the world entered a period known as globalization. Scholars began focusing their studies on learning the best way for managers and leaders to work with ever-present, ongoing interactions with people from multiple countries. Six broad categories of competency dimensions key for global leaders: visioning, global business expertise, global organizing savvy, traits and values, cognitive orientation, and cross-cultural relationship skills, are discussed in this chapter. Global leaders need intercultural communication skills in which individuals understand and negotiate each other’s cultural identity to co-create a global culture within groups. This chapter explores the history and context around global leadership, defines it, and concludes with strengths and opportunities of this area.