Global Leadership

Global leadership is the study of leadership in the global context. Reiche, et al. 2017 (cited under Theories and Models of Global Leadership) states that the global context forces leaders to influence a wider range of internal and external constituents compared to leaders who operate in a domestic context. Further, these constituents reside in multiple national cultures and jurisdictions, which increases the task and relationship complexity of leaders who work in the global context. In Adler, et al. 2000 (cited under Women Global Leaders), global leadership is characterized as being neither domestic (focused only on leadership theory and practice in a specific country) nor multidomestic (comparing leadership theory and practice between specific countries) in nature. Rather, global leadership focuses on the competencies, processes, behaviors, and roles leaders must effectively engage in when simultaneously leading diverse groups of people and managing stakeholder relationships globally across multiple cultures. The demands, challenges, ambiguity, and unpredictability associated with global versus domestic and multidomestic leadership are argued by scholars in the field to constitute global leadership as being a different type or category of leadership that requires not only higher levels of commonly accepted leadership skills, but also skills that are unique to the demand of leadership in the global context. In Reiche, et al. 2017 global leadership is said to constitute the ways that leaders in a global context influence their constituents who reside in different nations within a milieu that is high in both task and relationship complexity.