Adult Third Culture Kids

Leaders of multinational organizations require a global mindset due to an increasingly global society that necessitates them to conduct business cross-culturally and virtually (Beechler, Boyacigiller, Levy, & Taylor, 2007; Gupta & Govindarajan, 2002; Lovvorn & Chen, 2011; Osland, 2011). This complex international business environment means there is a greater need for leaders and followers who are globally minded and equipped with global leadership skills (Bikson, Treverton, Moini, & Lindstrom, 2003). Additionally, research indicates a limited hiring pool (Lam & Selmer, 2004) and that more effort needs to go into the selection of global leaders (Cappellen & Janssens, 2008). The purpose of this study, which used a descriptive mixed-methods approach, was to explore the global mindset of Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs), adults who spent at least one of their formative years growing up in a foreign country, for their potential as ideal global leaders as is suggested in existing research (Lam & Selmer, 2004; Tarique & Takeuchi, 2008). The participants (ɳ=257) completed the Global Mindset Inventory (GMI) developed by the Najafi Global Mindset Institute, and 13 (ɳ=13) participated in qualitative interviews. The findings suggest ATCKs have a higher likelihood of a change in the score on the GMI for three elements of global mindset, Passion for Diversity, Intercultural Empathy, and Cosmopolitan Outlook, than the normative population. The interview analysis resulted in four emergent themes: changers, communicators, creative problem solvers, and global citizens, which supported the findings from the GMI analysis. The research informs Human Resource professionals concerning a promising population to draw from for recruiting international employees as well as discusses the viability of options for developing global mindset, such as mentoring and overseas assignments. Recommendations for further research include global mindset and diversity, development of global mindset, antecedents of global mindset, and the effect of ATCKs diverse life experiences on their development of global mindset.