LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES OF GLOBAL BUSINESS LEADERS
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Abstract
As business landscape changes due to globalization, organizations are seeking new and
innovative ways to remain competitive and one of the ways is practice of effective leadership.
The purpose of this empirical qualitative study is therefore to (i) explore how globalization
affects leadership by identifying the changes and challenges that leaders face, and (ii) identify
the essential skills and competencies required to be an effective leader in this era of
globalization. This qualitative study employs in-depth interview conducted with four executive
level leaders (domestic and expatriate) who lead in multifunctional and multidimensional
organizations. Content analysis was used as a tool for analyzing the data. The study reveals
that effective leadership in this era requires leadership skills and competencies that are
responsive to the global and cross-cultural dimensions of the global context. The study also
provides insights into global leadership competency from the view of expatriate and domestic
leaders which is lacking in current literature. Whilst acknowledging the significance of Bird’s
(2013) three themes of competencies (as cited in Mendenhall et al., 2013) - skills business and
organizational competencies, managing self-competencies and managing people and
relationship competencies - the study reveals the latter as crucial regardless of the leader’s
primary operation – domestic, international or global. In respect to this, maintaining trust and
being culturally sensitive in particular are seen as very important for global leaders.
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