Developing leaders' strategic thinking through global work experience: the moderating role of cultural distance.
To respond to the challenge of how organizations can develop leaders who can think strategically, we investigate the relation of leaders' global work experiences--that is, those experiences that require the role incumbent to transcend national boundaries--to their competency in strategic thinking. We further examine whether leaders' exposure to a country whose culture is quite distinct from the culture of their own country (i.e., one that is culturally distant) moderates these relationships. Our analyses of 231 upper level leaders reveals that the time they have spent in global work experiences positively relates to their strategic thinking competency, particularly for leaders who have had exposure to a more culturally distant country. We discuss these findings in light of the research on international work experiences and leader development.
Department of Human Resource Studies, ILR School, Cornell University.
Lisa
L
Dragoni
Department of Human Resource Management, Fox School of Business, Temple University.
In-Sue
IS
Oh
Department of Organization and Human Resources, School of Management, University at Buffalo, State University of New York.
Paul E
PE
Tesluk
Department of Human Resource Studies, ILR School, Cornell University.
Ozias A
OA
Moore
Korn Ferry.
Paul
P
VanKatwyk
Korn Ferry.
Joy
J
Hazucha
D000328:Adult; D054521:Cultural Competency; D004651:Employment; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D007857:Leadership; D011361:Professional Competence; D013192:Staff Development; D013850:Thinking