Exploring Global Leadership and Cross-Cultural Management Dynamics

This literature review delves into the evolving relationship between global leadership and cross-cultural management. It examines the historical context, defining cross-cultural management as a tool for efficiency and innovation, and traces its transformation alongside globalization. The review highlights the importance of global leadership in managing diverse workforces, emphasizing the need for leaders to possess international perspectives and cultural intelligence. It analyzes various research, including works by Thomas and Peterson, Binder, and Henson, which explore the roles, challenges, and attributes of global managers. The analysis emphasizes the significance of communication, cultural diversity, and interpersonal skills in fostering successful global leadership and concludes by underscoring the indispensable role of cross-cultural practices in contemporary organizational management.

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Bird, A. and Mendenhall, M.E., 2016. From cross-cultural management to global
leadership: Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp. 115-126.
Main thesis
Cross cultural management is considered to be an effective tool to extract more efficiency
and innovation from the employees. The practice of cross cultural management is very
significant in the context of organisational set up of a business organisation. It can be argued that
with the elapse of time, the perception and understanding regarding cross cultural practice is
going to be transformed dynamically (Ang and Van Dyne 2015). However, there is a historical
background of this shift in understanding. In fact, there is an array of definition about cross-
cultural management. Nevertheless, the general definition popular among the scholars identifies
the broadest classification of this kind of management with an ample reflection on international
strategy and international human resource. It can be referred as the difference of cultural practice
based on a comparative study of the people from different countries (Reiche et al. 2016). It can
also be argued that the cross cultural management is also defined as international management
(Calvin, Beale and Moore 2017). The cross cultural management system expands the genre of
working dynamic of a country and in respect to this it is able to develop a universal working
system irrespective of nation, ethnicity and gender. At the individual level as well as in
organisational aspect the cross cultural management encompasses psychology, sociology and
anthropology (Moran, Abramson and Moran 2014). In addition to this, the cross cultural
management also comprises the facets of uni-cultural, comparative and intercultural. Unicultural
research focuses on organisational management in a single country where as comparative cross
cultural study reflects a relation between two or more countries. In case of the multi-culture
paradigm, it symbolises the idea of intercultural study is associated with the interaction among

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organisational members from two or more countries (Tjosvold 2017). In course of the discussion
it can be attributed that the core concept of a global leadership is attributed by the understanding,
competency, traits and skills related to maintain a diverse work culture.
Besides this, the cross cultural management is closely linked with the global leadership. It
can be articulated that the nature of the cross cultural leadership is purely focused on the
association of a number of people from two or more countries. Therefore, it requires an effective
and efficient leader to control the diverse workforce. In this context, the leader must have
possessed the notion and perception of international aspects and it is imperative for him to get a
clear idea about the pros and cons of enjoying a multicultural workforce (Lisak and Erez 2015).
As the definition of cross cultural management has been transformed a lot with the growing
nature of globalisation. In response to this the function of the leader has also been changed its
course with the transformation. However, after 2000 with a strong presence of globalisation the
leadership becomes global and ushered a new paradigm in the name of Global leadership (Tuleja
2014). There are a number of factors that can help to establish a good global leadership. In this
context, communicating with the employees and procure some norms and regulations in order to
make it successful are pivotal for the global leader to maintain.
Argument of the book
In this regards, the book is going to underline the important aspects of the global
leadership and find out the interrelation between cross cultural management and global
leadership. Before highlighting the core concepts of global leadership and employee diversity
management the article illustrates the development of the concepts and describes the
transformation of perception about each concept. For instance, in the aftermath of the Second

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World War Untied States was considered as the pinnacle of management approaches and
introduced a new concept in the name of technological imperative. This notion of technological
imperative in return solidifies the way of cross cultural practice. However, from the 1960s
onwards the presence of cross culture could be witnessed in the study of organisational
behaviour and management system. In due course, the very idea was shifted with the advent of
the idea of multi-domestic, regional and matrix organisational structures of the multi-national
corporations. Globalisation further supplies an impetus for understanding the multi faced
activities of cross cultural management. In this, context the article identifies different types of
cross cultural ideas such as bicultural, comparative and intercultural. In addition to this, global
culture fosters an important aspect in the discussion. There is a sharp change in practice related
to the cross cultural idea. In its early phase, the internationalisation had to deal with people with
other countries in both parallel and unilateral manner. However, with the coming of the 21st
century the cross cultural notion reshapes itself and changes its discourses entirely. In the present
case scenario, managers and leaders of different organisations maintain a great deal of interaction
which turns out less linear and becomes non-linear in nature.
In this context, the idea of global leadership increases the significance of the discussion.
The article discussed about the research of global leadership and defined that the process of
global leadership research is multifaceted with an assimilation of intercultural communication
and global management. In this regards, it describes the nature of global leadership research and
categorised it. The first part deals with expatriation. In this part the process of expansion of the
business orientation further facilitated not only the process of transfer the employees from his or
her home country to the host country but also from a part of the business organisation to the
global set up.

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External academic researches
While establishing the magnitude of works done by the global leaders or in case of the
business organisation the global managers Thomas and Peterson (2017) pointed out that in the
21st century with the dynamic orientation of business the business managers have to deal with the
cross cultural workforce. As a result of that it is essential for the managers to set some key
planning about managing this diverse workforce (Mittal 2015). They also argued that the impact
of globalisation is considered to be the protagonist of this cross cultural practice. The increasing
habit of incorporating an interconnectedness of economics and organisations the working
environment also becomes very complex. In fact, the perception of managerial functions also
transforms from the traditional plan, organise and coordinate to interpersonal, informational and
decisional categories (Van Dyn, Ang and Tan 2017).
Furthermore, the attributes of the global managers are depicted more complexly in the
writings of Binder (2016). The author tried to create an understanding of the various roles of a
global manager while conducting a business project. Culture plays a pivotal part in the success of
the project. However, for a multi-national company due to its diverse employees there is always
a possibility of communication gap (Reiche et al. 2017). It is the responsibility of the global
managers to identify the loopholes of the gapping and connect the employees through
implementing a good communication. The communication can be build upon interpersonal
relations or any other better communication mechanism (Whitaker and Greenleaf 2017). It
should be the key concern of the global manager to take adequate steps for assimilating the
cultural diversities and produce an effective and skilled workforce.

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The argument of Henson (2016) was quite fascinating because he mentioned some instances
where global leaders in terms of expatriate managers are performing successfully despite of
difference in cultures. In his book Henson (2016) also corroborated the fact that through good
communication and interpersonal mechanism global managers can achieve their goals and lead
the company on the pinnacle of success. However, there are some challenges that the global
managers can face in procuring any decision. The common obstacle is the cultural diversity
(Ang, Rockstuhl and Tan 2015). Therefore, the definition of leadership also changes in course of
time. Now, it can be defined as a process of influence to guide other in order to get the successful
outcomes. In fact, the global leaders possess some unique and distinct features which
differentiate them from general leadership. The distinctiveness is based on some major
components like behaviour, culture, structure and demography (Biermeier-Hanson, Liu and
Dickson 2015).
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be inferred that the definition and idea of
leadership has gone through a significant change from its traditional approach. It is evident that
globalisation plays significantly in shaping the concept of global leaders but the impact of culture
cannot be overlooked. As a matter of fact, culture is seemed to be an impetus in this new feature
of global managers. Hence, the elements of cross cultural practice enhance the importance of
global managers in the present case scenario of corporate organisational management. The article
truly and devotedly amplified the same way by identifying the connection between the global
leaders and cross cultural management. However, the author did not try to highlight any present
case scenario from which the readers can get a glimpse of different activities of the global
managers. Despite of this underlying constraint it can be concluded that the article is very helpful

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to understand the transformation of both cross cultural management and global leadership and
shared a clear perception about the relevance and importance of these two elements in global
business occupation.

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Reference
Ang, S. and Van Dyne, L., 2015. Handbook of cultural intelligence. Routledge.
Ang, S., Rockstuhl, T. and Tan, M.L., 2015. Cultural intelligence and
competencies. International encyclopedia of social and behavioral sciences, 2, pp.433-439.
Biermeier-Hanson, B., Liu, M. and Dickson, M.W., 2015. Alternate views of global leadership:
Applying global leadership perspectives to leading global teams. In leading global teams (pp.
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Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management
across borders. Routledge.
Calvin, J.R., Beale, R.L. and Moore, K., 2017. Acculturation and Allied Contributing Factors
That Further Advance Cross-Cultural Management Learning and Education: A Conceptual
Approach. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 21(2), pp.1-11.
Henson, R., 2016. Successful Global Leadership: Frameworks for Cross-Cultural Managers and
Organizations. Springer.
Lisak, A. and Erez, M., 2015. Leadership emergence in multicultural teams: The power of global
characteristics. Journal of World Business, 50(1), pp.3-14.
Mittal, R., 2015. Charismatic and transformational leadership styles: A cross-cultural
perspective. International Journal of Business and Management, 10(3), p.26.
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.

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Reiche, B.S., Bird, A., Mendenhall, M.E. and Osland, J.S., 2017. Contextualizing leadership: a
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Tjosvold, D., 2017. Cross-cultural management: foundations and future. Routledge.
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