Keys to Global Leadership

Marcos Dutra, MBA - Editor

10 Keys to Global Business Leadership

Por Robert Moran, PhD

Robert Moran, PhD

O canadense Doutor Moran é Professor Emeritus da área de International Business na escola de negócios Thunderbird e a maior autoridade mundial em Comunicação Inter-Cultural em negócios. É autor de mais de 20 livros, entre eles o clássico Managing Cultural Differences.

O Doutor Moran viveu na Ásia e na Europa por muitos anos e ainda viaja o mundo todo dando palestras, consultoria e cursos para grandes empresas.

Site da Thunderbird:

www.t-bird.edu

What key competencies do you need to excel in global business? Fact is, just having an MBA does not mean you will succeed in global business situations. In fact, it may hurt you: you will have just enough knowledge to make yourself dangerous, but not the cross-cultural knowledge that you need to make yourself effective!

See how you and your company rate at the "10 Concepts Critical to Successful Global Performance":

1. Flexible Leadership - being capable of operating effectively in a global environment while being respectful of cultural diversity. This is an individual who can manage accelerating change and differences. The global leader is open and flexible in approaching others, can cope with situations and people disparate from his or her background, and is willing to reexamine and alter personal attitudes and perceptions.

2. Cross-Cultural Communication - recognizing what is involved in one's image of self and one's role, personal needs, values, standards, expectations, all of which are culturally conditioned. Such a person understands the impact of cultural factors on communication and is willing to revise and expand such images as part of the process of growth. Furthermore, he or she is aware of verbal and nonverbal differences in communication with persons from another culture. Not only does such a person seek to learn another language, but he or she is cognizant that even when people speak the same language, cultural differences can alter communication symbols and meanings and result in misunderstandings.

3. Cultural Sensitivity - integrating the characteristics of culture in general, with experiences in specific organizational, minority, or foreign cultures. Such a person understands the cultural influences on behavior. This individual translates such cultural awareness into effective relationships with those who are different.

4. Acculturation - effectively adjusting and adapting to a specific culture, whether that be subculture within one's own country or abroad. Such a person is alert to the impact of culture shock in successfully managing transitions. Therefore, when operating in an unfamiliar culture or dealing with employees from diverse cultural backgrounds, this person develops the necessary skills and avoids being ethnocentric.

5. Cultural Influence on Management - understanding that management philosophies are deeply rooted in culture and that management practices developed in one culture may not easily transfer to another. However, this insight can be used to appreciate the universal character of management and to identify with the subculture of modern managers. In the global marketplace, all management is multicultural.

6. Effective Intercultural Performance - applying cultural theory and insight to specific cross-cultural situations that affect people's performance on the job. Such a person makes provisions for the foreign deployment process, overseas adjustment and culture shock, and the reentry of expatriates.

7. Changing International Business - coping with the interdependence of business activity throughout the world, as well as the subculture of the managerial group. There is an emerging universal acceptance of some business technology computers, and management information systems, for example. Yet, the global manager appreciates the effect of cultural differences on standard business practice and principles, such as organizational loyalty.

8. Cultural Synergy - building upon the very differences in the world's people for mutual growth and accomplishment by cooperation. Cultural synergy through collaboration emphasizes similarities and common concerns and integrates differences to enrich human activities and systems. By combining the best in varied cultures and seeking the widest input, multiple effects and complex solutions can result. Synergy is separate parts functioning together to create a greater whole and to achieve a common goal. For such aggregate action to occur, cross-cultural skills are required.

9. Work Culture - applying the general characteristics of culture to the specifics of how people work at a point in time and place. In the macro sense, work can be analyzed in terms of human stages of development - the work culture of hunter, farmer, factory workers, and knowledge worker. In the micro sense, work cultures can be studied in terms of specific industries, organizations, or professional groups.

10. Global Culture - understanding that while various characteristics of human culture have always been universal, a unique global culture with some common characteristics may be emerging. The influences of mass media and telecommunications, including the fax, e-mail, the Internet, and CNN/TV, are breaking down barriers between peoples and their diverse cultures. Global managers are alert to serving this commonality in human needs and markets with strategies that are transnational.