Evolution and Trends in Global Leadership under Cross-Cultural Management

This article sheds light on the history of global leadership under cross-cultural management which states that the process of development portrayed is a misleading pattern. It also looks into how the evolutionary trends are subjective to global leadership.

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CULTURAL MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION
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Introduction
The theme in this article looks into the evolution of global leadership, its nature
and origin as well as the trends in cross-cultural management field. It also looks into
how the evolutionary trends are subjective to global leadership. According to Bird, the
emergence of technology led to business globalization that evolved global leadership.
Globalization led to challenges in leadership development and organizations were trying
to find means to solve this challenge (Bird, 2015).
Cross-cultural management field focused on management systems and
organizational behaviour in foreign organizations. The aim was to find out how legal,
business, political and cultural systems functioned in those countries to enhance more
revenue to the U.S markets. There is existing literature on the association between
cross-cultural management and leadership. It seeks to portray the importance of
leadership in the field of knowledge management.
Cross-cultural management concept suggests that internal leaders should pay
careful attention to integration, differentiation and fragmentation in the management
process of cross-cultural employees in organizations.
Global leadership
This article sheds light on the history of global leadership under cross-cultural
management which states that the process of development portrayed is a misleading
pattern. Globalization has created the need for global leadership. Globalization seeks to
shed light on the interaction of different economies in the market worldwide. Thus, the
topic of global leadership is essential in understanding where the idea of global leaders
originated from. Global leadership is associated with the significant elements that
leaders should adopt in order to learn the concepts of managing organization globally
(Mendenhall et al.,2017). In the intercultural concept, global leadership is involved with
developing cultural awareness, managing social interaction and tolerating risk-taking
activities globally to ensure success.
Global leaders are tested on their behaviour and cultural competency using
global leadership theories to shape their capability in the global context;
i) Intercultural framework model

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This theory is based on cognition, behaviour and affects elements in the
identity of a leader. Cognition constitutes of perception, knowledge and
reflection in the global context. Behaviour is associated with negotiating
global interactions and creating social networks globally (Henson 2016). On
the other hand, affect constitutes how a leader copes with the global economy
as well how emotions are managed.
Cognition
Cognition regarding intercultural competence is based on global knowledge,
basically comprehending the global economy from the world’s perspective. It constitutes
deep cultural knowledge, cultural-specific knowledge, sociolinguistic awareness and
cultural self-awareness. It involves understanding other people’s views, language and
their perspectives in the global context. Cultural self-awareness involves how one’s
cultural views define the identity while deep cultural knowledge constitutes
understanding the different worldviews.
Behaviour
This theory is involved with appropriate and effective behaviour as well as
effective communication in global intercultural context. The behaviour element
constitutes of attitudes such as curiosity, respect and openness in global
leadership. In the global context, curiosity is involved in transforming cultural
differences into opportunities, while a leader communicates respect through
valuing other leaders as well as the global market. Value to other people is
incorporated differently in various cultures such as listening carefully and also
portraying interest to what others are saying. When negotiating global cultural
differences, there is a need for openness in order to have multiple
perspectives regarding any issues arising. Developing Intercultural
competence involves incorporating these three attitudes together.
Affect
This model involves the skills that analyzed the knowledge process. This constitutes
observation, listening, evaluation, analysis, interpretation and connection. According to
Henson (2016), these skills are essential in critical thinking in global leadership where
individuals will use the skills to process the data acquired into meaningful information.

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This significantly helps individuals to be able to cope with the global context and
understand global leadership.
The outcome of this theory is that it leads to more flexibility, empathy and
adaptability into different cultural dimensions enhancing global leadership. This manifest
itself in that individuals are able to understand the world’s view from the elements of the
theory. The outcomes are well demonstrated in terms of the effectiveness of
intercultural interactions among individuals.
ii) Personal investment theory.
Global leadership also involves the motivation of self to become a global leader. The
personal investment theory involves three constitutes of motivation including patterns of
behaviour, sense of self and sociocultural environment. Patterns of behaviour involve
engagement, productivity and involvement in cultural dimensions. The sense of self-
involves an individuals’ sense of purpose, their strengths and abilities as well as
personal goals while sociocultural environment constitutes culture, curriculum and co-
curriculum communities in the global context (Henson, 2016).
The sense of self-enlightens leadership behaviour in terms of individual value,
motivation and beliefs that shape the global leadership. The sense of purpose involves
what an individual puts effort in as well as their investments in being a global leader.
Lastly, socio-cultural environment shapes leadership behaviour in learning the roles,
priorities and norms of different global cultures to be able to understand what they entail
and how to handle situations involving them.
Trends that had impacts on global leadership
This article also pinpoints the way in which cross-cultural management
reviewed the concept of global leadership. Three categories of cross-cultural
management are involved in this approach including comparative, intercultural and
unicultural (Bird, 2015). This category involved analyzing how the challenges of cultural
differences are approved and solved to establish global leadership. This article portrays
that global leadership is mostly based on the intercultural category which involves how

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individuals can bridge cultural gaps to realize effective global leadership. From the
analysis of peer-reviewed journals indicated, it is clear that global leadership has a
causal association with the intercultural category. However, globalization is the primary
factor associated with global leadership as compared to intercultural differences.
Globalization created a need for global leadership to monitor proper use of technology
in building the global economy. Despite there been challenges in the process,
globalization has been the main factor in the creation of global leadership.
According to Bird (2015), global leadership development was influenced by various
factors such as expatriation, comparative leadership, a global management and
intercultural communication. Expatriation was seen as a factor to build global leaders
because it involved working in different countries where different cultures exist. This
was seen as to create the idea of global leadership. Secondly, comparative leadership
was seen to influence the idea of global leaders because there is the belief of culture
affecting the behaviour of leaders. Thus, working with various cultures was seen to
create an opportunity for global leadership development. Thirdly, global management
was considered as an origin of global leadership in that it involved management in the
global context thus it creates the opportunity to create global leaders. Finally,
intercultural communication involves global leadership in that it constitutes
communication among different cultures. Thus, it builds a gap for global leadership to
take place.
However, these are not the main origins of global leadership as portrayed in the
article. Globalization is the primary foundation of global leadership because it first
involves technology and all the other streams mentioned above. For instance, global
management which involves responsibilities across the border would not be in existence
if there was no technology which is brought about by globalization in the first place
(Osland, 2016). Thus, globalization is the main origin of global leadership in contrast to
the idea conceptualized in the article. Despite the much evidence accrued in the article
on the process of global leadership development by the four streams, it runs down to
the concept of globalization for the existences of all the streams mentioned in the
article.
Effective global leadership

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According to Bird, global characteristics are categorized according to
methodologies such as anecdotal reports, case study methods, interviews and other
minor methods such focus groups, personal experiences and observations. These
methods are aimed at finding out the attributes and competencies associated with
global leadership. Global leadership skills come in various categories including
personality, motivational inclinations, cognitive capabilities, behavioural skills, attitudinal
orientation and knowledge bases. Global leadership is seen to be highly associated with
cultural competencies which were enhanced by personal traits including openness and
optimism (Bird, 2015).
There are various challenges associated with identifying the ideal competencies for
global leadership management because it is not possible to identify one competency
approach that applies to all global leaders. Global leadership is associated with different
traits depending on the individual. Just like any other leaders, global leaders should
have the following skills, although they differ in different leaders.
i)Customer understanding
Global leaders should focus keenly on their customer’s needs and aim to satisfy
them. These leaders will show interest in customers concerns and make a difference.
This creates trust among the customers who trust the business.
ii)Strategic approach
Global leaders invest in a deep knowledge of culture and industry in which they
operate in, to be able to predict economic trends in the global economy. Their strategic
approach tends to paint a clear picture of the future of a business and market trends.
iii)risk taker
A competent global leader portrays willingness to venture into risks. This involves
capitalizing on unrealized potential in the business and establishing strategies to
unleash that potential.
iv)Eye for detail
Every global executive leader portrays an eye for detail skill. This means that the
leader is able to recognize unique opportunities in other countries to venture in and

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make a brand name. For a global leader to survive in this competitive global economy,
they must possess this skill.
v) High expertise
With the high level of globalization, global leadership should entail a deep knowledge
of the new technologies in the market in order to thrive in the economy. It is difficult to
run a business around the world, and that is why this skill is required in order to be able
to handle the business in different cultures.
Types of global leadership
The research presented in the main article lacks clarity on the meaning of global in
the economic context as well as the existence of different types of global leadership.
There is uncertainty in defining expatriates and the different types that exist.
Although it is difficult to pinpoint the types of global leadership that exists, attention on
global leadership should be focused towards four primary trends that are proving to be
beneficial to the organization rather than focusing on the types of global leadership.
These trends include;
i) World demographics
The world demographics is undergoing massive changes. Different
countries have different ages of people which have led to various people
moving into other countries while skill shortages are experienced in some
countries (Gehrke, 2014). This has primarily created a large opportunity for
the growth of global leadership. Thus global leaders need to develop
strategies to promote other people as well as attract and retain diverse teams.
ii) Globalization
Globalization has led to economic volatility, where the east is no longer
dependent on the west. Thus, global leaders have the initiative to ensure that
they accelerate globalisation through cultural sensitivity, the capability to cope
with uncertainties, flexibility and good strategic thinking in the global market.
iii) Climate change
This is a trend that is affecting global leadership. The issue of scarce resources and
climate change has become rampant globally affecting the global economy. Thus,
global leaders need to call for environmentally responsible businesses in the

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organizations as well as strategizing on coping with rising competing demands as a
result of scarce resources.
iv) Digital revolution
This the final trend that global leadership should be tuned to. There is a consistent
growth in the amount of computing power globally. This digital revolution has changed
the way global market is categorized. Thus, global leaders should encourage openness
as well as foster a connection with the traditional workers to acquire digital revolution.
Conclusion
Various challenges are facing global leadership in organizations. Therefore, for
global leaders to meet and solve these challenges, they need to embrace change and
learn ways to adapt to the different cultures. Global leaders should shift their focus to
more understanding of the various backgrounds in which their business thrive in.
Flexibility and collaborative, are the essential skills in surviving the global leadership.
They also need to have cultural sensitivity and emotional intelligence in the global
environments. Focusing on the above trends will help global leaders to develop
authentic and cognitive skills to deal with future challenges in different cultural
backgrounds.

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References
Bird, A., & Mendenhall, M. E., (2015) From cross-cultural management to global
leadership: Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2015.10.005. (Accessed April 21, 2018)
Black, S., & Morrison, A. J. (2014). The Global Leadership Challenge. Hoboken, Taylor
and Francis. Retrieved from http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?
p=1734155. (Accessed April 21, 2018)
Gehrke, B., & Claes, M.-T. (2014). Global leadership practices: a cross-cultural
management perspective. Pearson
Henson, R. M. (2016). Successful global leadership: frameworks for cross-cultural
managers and organizations. Retrieved from
http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4716777 (Accessed April 21,
2018)
Mendenhall, M. E., Osland, J., Bird, A., Oddou, G. R., Stevens, M. J., Maznevski, M. L.,
& Stahl, G. K. (2017). Global Leadership: Research, practice, and development.
Retrieved from http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=5087484.
(Accessed April 21, 2018)
Osland, J., Li, M., & Mendenhall, M. E. (2016). Advances in global leadership. Bingley,
U.K., Emerald.