Allen J. Morrison

Developing a global leadership model

Much of the challenge of developing more and better global leaders has fallen on human resource managers who have largely been oriented to domestic leadership models. This article reviews the latest thinking on global leadership and presents a framework for developing company-specific competency models. By embracing a systematic approach to structuring a global leadership competency model, human resource managers can have a huge impact on the globalization of their companies. The article also suggests where additional research can contribute to the understanding of how cultural leadership differences can best be dismantled as companies move along the path to globalization.

Globalization versus regionalization: Which way for the multinational?

ncreasingly, I managers are confronted by calls for dramatic change in the way their businesses should compete internationally. Nowhere is this more apparent than in so-called “global” industries, where managers have been urged to introduce offshore manufacturing, cut costs through worldwide economies of scale, standardize products internationally, and subsidize national market-share battles through international cash flows or other support activities. These actions form the basis of “global strategies” that have been suggested as the emerging pattern of international competition. Two fundamental assumptions drive this thinking. The first is that a sizable number of competitors are indeed using global strategies to compete; the second is that performance can be improved by pursuing global strategies, particularly in an industry that has global structural characteristics. For managers in global industries the message has been, “Either quickly adopt a global strategy or see your competitiveness diminish.” In fact, some observers have gone so far as to suggest that the imperatives to globalize are so great and the benefits so pronounced that globalization is fast becoming the strategic norm rather than the exception. Although such comments are directed toward managers in the front-line global industries (for example, semiconductors, aircraft parts, pharmaceuticals, and heavy machinery), they are also being heard by senior managers in numerous other industries that are beginning to face greater and greater levels of international competition.

Integrity and Global Leadership

This paper addresses the role of integrity in global leadership. It reviews the philosophy of ethics and suggests that both contractarianism and pluralism are particularly helpful in understanding ethics from a global leadership perspective. It also reviews the challenges to integrity that come through interactions that are both external and internal to the company. Finally, the paper provides helpful suggestions on how global leaders can define appropriate ethical standards for themselves and their organizations.

Business-Level Competitive Strategy: A Contingency Link to Internationalization

The contingency fit between the organization and its environment suggests strategic adaptation to contextual conditions. Thus, it may be expected that businesses will use different strategic positioning when confronting an international context. To determine if such a difference does exist, an analysis of the business-level strategy of domestic businesses was compared to businesses engaged in domestic and international activities. Group differences existed suggesting the importance of internationalization as a contingency variable to examining the content of business-level strategy.

Taking trouble:: the key to effective global attention

Many corporations fail to find the Holy Grail of globalization because they have not paid “enough” ongoing attention to the process. Without greater attentional effectiveness in their efforts to globalize, firms waste precious executive resources or decide to standardize their operations to limit the complexity of their international strategies. Neither of these reactions is desirable. While companies can deploy a range of helpful tools in increasing overall levels of global attention, these tools are costly and not every company is in a position to achieve and sustain high levels of global attention effectively. In this article, the authors discuss three dimensions of management attention: aversion/attraction, captive/voluntary, and front‐of‐mind/back‐of‐mind. Each of these dimensions provides an array of tools to focus management attention. By maximizing each of these dimensions, attention effectiveness is increased. In an international business world with abundant information, managers need to focus on their most scarce resource – management attention.