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Global leadership competencies:
a review and discussion

Global
leadership
qualities

Tiina Jokinen
Department of Management, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland
AbstractPurpose – From the competency point of view, this article aims to review and discuss existing global
leadership and other related literature, and to combine findings and suggestions provided in previous
literature in a more integrative framework of global leadership competencies.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews and discusses the terminology used in the
international globalleadership literature. This is followed by a review of the main outcomes of
previous research. Finally an attempt is made to combine these outcomes into a more integrative
framework of global leadership competencies, offering suggestions for further research.
Findings – This paper provides information about previous research, integrating earlier findings
into a more comprehensive framework ofglobal competencies. It also discusses deficiencies in use of
terminology and research methods used in earlier studies giving suggestions for further research.
Research limitations/implications – The references used for this review are not an exhaustive
list and majority of them are drawn from American journals publishing within the topic area. Relevant
sources of information may also exist inother domains of scientific inquiry.
Practical implications – The framework provided in this paper incorporates main findings of
previous research and, as such, it may serve as a starting point for practitioners in planning of
different selection, training, and career development activities, and for academics in starting their
research.
Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identifiedinformation/resource need.
Keywords Leadership, Globalization, Competences
Paper type Literature review

Introduction
Understanding international interaction is essential for transnational organizations
to work effectively in today’s global business environment. The level of this
understanding is related to possession of international competencies within an
organization (Gupta and Govindarajan,2002). Although the need to develop leaders
with adequate competencies has become obvious in recent years (Adler and
Bartholomew, 1992; Brake et al., 1995; Brake, 1997; Morrison, 2000; Bonnstetter,
1999; Suutari, 2002), there is still a significant gap between the international
human resource requirements of global strategies and their realization (Adler and
Bartholomew, 1992; Engle et al., 2001,Morrison et al., 1999). Furthermore, diversity
and complexity increase also in a domestic working environment as business
operations become more international. The dynamics, complexity and diversity,
now characteristic of global environment, are diffusing into the domestic
environment (Gregersen et al., 1998; Harvey and Buckley, 2002) making increasing
demands on management and leadershipcompetencies at all organizational levels.
Therefore, increasing understanding of different aspects of globalization and
interrelationships of various factors and their changes will help organizations to

199
Received January 2004
Revised October 2004
Accepted October 2004

Journal of European Industrial
Training
Vol. 29 No. 3, 2005
pp. 199-216
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0309-0590
DOI 10.1108/03090590510591085

JEIT
29,3

200

meet the new challenges brought by globalization, whether their primary operation
environment is domestic, international or global. “Employees need to learn about
culture and cross-cultural communication if they are to work effectively with
minorities within their own society or with foreigners encountered at home or
abroad” (Harris...