A
special issue of
European Journal of International ManagementThe construct of global leadership was born out of the need for corporations in the 1990s to adopt global strategies, expand internationally, and compete in the global marketplace ( Black, Morrison & Gregersen, 1999; Mendenhall, 2008; Osland et al., 2006). Corporations realised that their managerial cadres were not prepared for operation in a global business environment and that people with global capabilities were needed to develop and implement new strategic initiatives.
As a result, they created company-specific global leadership models to guide their management development efforts . Following firms’ needs, scholars began to conduct research in this area; the rate of publication throughout the 1990s dramatically increased and this trend has continued to the present.
Since global leadership is a young field of study, no rigorous or collectively accepted definition of global leadership has yet emerged (Osland, 2008). Much progress has been made in the field, yet much research remains to be done. For example, there is a need to clarify the construct of global leadership, test existing models of global leadership empirically, and to develop more robust measures of the various dimensions that constitute the multi-dimensional nature of the global leadership phenomenon.
To influence the practice of global leadership, we must develop richer developmental models of global leadership, continue to capture insights from expert global leaders (“positive deviants”), and integrate more nuanced insights from these experts into current models. The field must also delineate the relationship between corporate responsibility and leadership in the global context, to address issues of overlapping constructs and ambiguity in these areas.
The aim of this special issue is to be a conduit for scholars who wish to explore the above and related issues in the field. The editors are especially interested in papers that apply unique perspectives and analyses to the phenomenon. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are encouraged, as well as papers that integrate findings in other fields in the social sciences with various aspects of the global leadership phenomenon.
In preparation for the special issue, a pre-publication conference will be held at IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland) on November 11-12, 2011 . The editors invite you to submit proposals for papers for the special issue as a prerequisite for conference attendance. The purpose of the conference is to collectively explore the ideas of the final papers submitted for the conference in order to provide authors with useful ideas and guidance when fine tuning their papers for submission to the special issue. Global leaders from industry will also attend the conference to provide their perspective on our research efforts. After the conference, authors will revise their papers and submit their manuscripts to the editors as final paper submissions.
It is not necessary to attend the conference in order to submit papers for the Special Issue. Authors who cannot attend the conference may submit full papers directly to the editors by the final submission deadline (see below).
References:
Black, J.S., Morrison, A., & Gregersen, H.B. (1999).
Global explorers: The next generation of leaders. New York : Routledge.
Mendenhall , M.E. (2008). Leadership and the birth of global leadership
in Mendenhall , M.E. , Osland, J.S., Bird, A., Oddou, G.R., & Maznevski, M.L. (2008).
Global leadership: Research, practice, and development. London : Routledge.
Osland, J.S. (2008) Overview of the global leadership literature
in Mendenhall , M.E. , Osland, J.S., Bird, A., Oddou, G.R., & Maznevski, M.L. (2008).
Global leadership: Research, practice, and development. London : Routledge, 34-63.
Osland, J. S, Bird, A., Mendenhall , M.E. , & Osland, A. (2006) Developing global leadership capabilities and global mindset: a review
in Stahl, G.K. & Bjorkman, I (eds)
Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management. Cheltenham , UK : Edward Elgar, 197-222.
Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
- Definition, clarification and operationalisation of the construct of global leadership
- Psychometric and qualitative assessment and measurement of global leadership
- Global leadership competencies
- The relationship between global leadership and global talent management
- Global leadership needs analysis projections across nations, governments and industries
- Inductive methodologies aimed at surfacing global leadership knowledge from “expert” global leaders
- Corporate social responsibility and its connection to global leadership: “responsible global leadership”
- Theoretical, conceptual and empirical investigations of the development process of global leadership expertise
- The influence of corporate culture on global leadership within a firm’s managerial cadre
- Ana lyses of best practices of global leadership development programmes
- Leading global teams
- The role of global leaders in cross-border alliances, mergers and acquisitions
- New theoretical models of global leadership or extensions of existing theories
- Cross-national perceptions of global leadership
- The role of higher education in developing global leaders
- Effectiveness of external-to-firm programmes in developing global leaders (executive education, executive MBA, custom-programmes).
Important DatesPaper proposal submission deadline: 20 May, 2011
Notification of proposal acceptance for conference: 20 June, 2011
Full drafts of papers for the conference submission deadline: 1 October, 2011
Prepublication conference at IMD in Switzerland : 11-12 November, 2011
Final full paper submission deadline for special issue: 15 February, 2012
First reviews completed and papers conditionally selected for special issue: 1 May, 2012
Authors’ revisions (final papers) submitted: 1 August, 2012
Final confirmation of publication: 15 August, 2012
