Nicola M. Pless

Developing Responsible Global Leaders

Abstract Two major trends have shaped the international business field over the past decade: globalization and the quest for responsible leadership. Yet, what are the qualities that predispose business leaders to act responsibly in an increasingly complex, interlinked world, and thus to meet new social, environmental, and political responsibilities? How can organizations develop these qualities in their current and future leaders? In this chapter, we provide tentative answers to both questions by fleshing out some of the qualities global leaders need to succeed in a connected world and by comparing three innovative executive development programs that use international service learning assignments as a way to instill these qualities in their executives. These programs are PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Ulysses Program, Pfizer’s Global Health Fellows Program, and IBM’s Corporate Service Corps.

Comparative analysis of International Service Learning Programs

Purpose – International service learning is a new trend in management development and a new field of research. International Service Learning Programs (ISLP) are experiential corporate volunteering initiatives designed to give employees the chance to work for a short spell abroad (often in a developing or emerging market) on a service assignment with a partner from the social sector (e.g. NGO, social enterprise). The service assignment is a project defined with a social-sector partner on which the corporate employee works full-time on a pro-bono basis and contributes his/her knowledge and expertise in exchange for a rich learning experience. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the use of ISLP in business firms and conducts a comparative analysis of six programs set up by multinational corporations from three industries (health, technology, and accounting and professional services). It identifies characteristics and similarities among programs, discusses differences, offers criteria for program classi...

Neurophysiological Predictors of Team Performance

Objective: To identify benchmark neurophysiological measures that predict performance at a teaming level. Advanced Brain Monitoring has a track record of success in identifying neurophysiological metrics that impact expert behavior. For example, we characterized negative and positive predictors for marksmanship skill; persons with higher HF:LF Norm metrics of Heart rate variability (HRV, an indication of anxiety) during a benchmarking auditory passive vigilance task did not achieve expert marksman performance while those with above average visuospatial processing ability achieved greater levels of expertise. In the current research, we explored the ability of benchmark neurophysiological metrics to predict team performance in two large scale studies. Significance: Identifying neurophysiological metrics of teaming ability and performance as part of a team can provide potential screening mechanisms or developmental data to help build optimal teams and improve team interactions for different types of contexts in which teams may operate.

Women Leading a Responsible Global Business

We end the collection with a study of Dame Anita Roddick, the founder and former CEO of the Body Shop. After having been exposed to Collier and Esteban’s description of “systemic leadership”, and Uhl-Bien, Marion and Kelvey’s analysis of “complexity leadership theory”, as well as some of the more practical exposes of these dynamics in various contexts, we would like to challenge the reader to track some of these dynamics in the life of Anita Roddick. In this paper, it becomes clear that Roddick exemplifies what Pless and Maak identify as “responsible leadership,” which certainly displays certain parallels with what the other authors call “systemic leadership” or “complexity leadership theory”. Roddick managed to read and navigate a very complex set of dynamics, taking into account the global environment in which the Body Shop interacts, providing outlets for indigenous products, and being profitable as well. Pless argues that Roddick is an exemplar of the female archetype of leadership. Here we seem to have come full circle… The question that emerges once again is: Is it wise to maintain the notion of a “female archetype” of leadership? Does it not do more damage by entrenching dangerous stereotypes that continue to undermine women’s leadership capacities? Well, yes, and no. The “female archetype” at least indicates that there is an alternative to patriarchal leadership theories, and as such, it creates the possibility of change. All of the authors in this volume will agree that this archetype has been socially constructed, but that does not make its effects, both positive and negative, less real. Maybe the best we could hope for is that “systemic leadership” may offer an alternative to both male and female archetypes that would allow both men and women, to lead in different, more relational and more contextually sensitive ways.

PROMOTING CSR AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAMS

In this article we discuss how HR can support corporate sustainability strategy by designing and implementing leadership development programs incorporating international service learning assignment...

Mindfulness, Reperceiving, and Ethical Decision Making: A Neurological Perspective

Abstract Recent years have brought significant advances in research on behavioral ethics. However, research on ethical decision making is still in a nascent stage. Our objective in this paper is twofold: First, we argue that the practice of mindfulness may have significant positive effects on ethical decision making in organizations. More specifically, we will discuss the benefits of “reperceiving” – a meta-mechanism in the practice of mindfulness for ethical decision making and we provide an overview of mindfulness research pertaining to ethical decision making. Subsequently, we explore areas in which neuroscience research may inform research on ethics in organizations. We conclude that both neuroscience and mindfulness offer considerable promise to the field of ethical decision making.