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Global leaders need to navigate increasing complexity in organizational culture, management practices and recruitment of top talent - the very domains human resources professionals are charged with developing. This requires a whole new mindset for leadership: Global Mindset.
Global Mindset includes specific knowledge, skills and abilities that have been defined through scientific research at the Najafi Global Mindset Institute at Thunderbird School of Global Management. This article discusses the critical importance of Global Mindset development for leaders. It also defines and describes each component.
A Whole New Global Mindset for Leadership
In 1969, Howard Perlmutter was among the first researchers to point out that running successful global operations required a whole new mindset. This gives pause for reflection. How did this mindset differ from status quo leadership? Perlmutter found that global leaders needed to navigate increased complexity in organizationalculture, management practices and recruitment of top talent ( 1969) - the very domains human resources professionals are charged with developing. This holds true today. Global leadership is exciting, challenging and certainly complex (see Exhibit 1 ). It has only been recently, however, that the whole new mindset to which Perlmutter referred was scientifically defined by the Najafi Global Mindset Institute at Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Are Your Leaders Prepared for Global Complexities?
Before we dive into the specifics of Global Mindset, take a moment to assess the global leadership needs in your own organization (see Exhibit 2). Chances are that your organization is touched by global complexities, even if it does not have geographically dispersed operations.
In the past 40 years, both the number and impact of multinational companies grew exponentially. Between 1990 and 2003 alone, the number of multinational corporations throughout the world increased from 3,000 to 63,000 (Gabel, Medard and Bruner, 2003). During that same time period, multinationals in the United States created 31 percent of the country's growth in private-sector real GDP and 41 percent of labor productivity gains (McKinsey Global Institute, June 2010).
Despite the exponential growth (or perhaps because of it), leaders continue to be unprepared for global contexts. A recent survey of senior HR executives revealed that a shortage of global executive talent was the primary concern in their firm's global expansion plans (Smith, A., Caver, K., Saslow,...