Global and Cross-Cultural Leadership

Catalog description

Students will examine the relation of cultural variations in psychological and social factors affecting the effective leadership of individuals and groups in work organizations. PSY 811 Global and Cross-Cultural Leadership (3) Contemporary organizations have become increasingly focused on both the global marketplace and global competition. Large organizations frequently have physical locations and employees in numerous countries around the globe, but many relatively small organizations compete on a global scale even if physically located in one or a few countries. One consequence of the global marketplace is that organizational leaders need a global mindset in order to be effective in their leadership roles, that is, an awareness of the impact of culture on factors such as work-related values, norms, and expectations such that cultural differences are an automatic part of leader and organization decision-making. This course provides a comprehensive examination of the psychological, social, and cultural factors that underlie expectations, preferences, and judged effectiveness of leadership practices and styles in organizations and work groups in the major cultural regions of the world. The course will focus on the development of the students' ability to think critically about the complexity of the direct, indirect, and interactive impact of these factors on leading within multinational organizations that operate worldwide. Considerable attention will be placed on the extensive findings of the major research effort related to global leadership, Project GLOBE, that assessed the expectations, preferences, and perceived effectiveness of a comprehensive set of leadership styles and behaviors in 3 industrial sectors in a total of 60 cultures located in all geographic regions of the world. Students will be able to use the Globe Project's framework of cultural differences and similarities related to organizational leadership to analyze specific cultural settings in terms of desired leadership approaches. Students will understand the paradoxical needs for both flexibility and consistency when attempting to lead with a global perspective. They will also be able to develop leadership approaches in their organizations that can achieve sufficient levels of both consistency across various global and cultural settings (needed for perceptions of fairness and predictability) and flexibility (necessary for adaptation to cultural and social differences). Students will also be exposed to research on the challenges faced by expatriate leaders who are given international assignments outside of their native cultures. Over the semester students will explore relevant examples, cases, and discussions that emphasize the application of psychological theory and research findings from varied cultural settings to the practice of leadership functions in global organizations and work situations. Some examples of the course material that will be addressed include: dimensions of national culture relevant for work organizations; research on the differences and similarities of preferred and effective leadership across dimensions of cultural differences; developing a global mindset and global leaders; leading multinational and culturally diverse teams; challenges of expatriate leadership assignments.