Global managers: challenges and responsibilities

Management Challenge IBM strategic planner Michael Cannon-Brooks observes, “You get very different thinking if you sit in Shanghai or Sao Paulo or Dubai than if you sit in New York.” If managers in different regions of the world think differently, what does this mean for negotiating and building successful partnerships, building global teams, or motivating employees from different cultures? As companies face an increasingly complex global business environment, a logical question arises: can organizations today be managed in the same way they were in the past? In other words, does a changed environment – one characterized by multiple economic and political systems, divergent social norms and values, and highly diverse educational and skill levels – require us to reassess both the managerial role in general and management practices in particular? Indeed, is the very definition of management changing? Moreover, how should today's managers best prepare themselves for greater involvement in global assignments in this new world? Key to success here will be their ability to understand changes in the managerial role as played out across cultures. CHAPTER OUTLINE • Traditional management models page 19 • Context of global management 21 • Rethinking management models 25 • Diversity in global assignments 30 • MANAGER's NOTEBOOK: A model for global managers 38 • Key terms 41 • Discussion questions 41 • Case: Two expatriates 42 APPLICATIONS 2.1 What is a supervisor? page 24 2.2 Dermot Boden, expatriate 33 2.3 Jan Chipchase, frequent flyer 36 2.4 Adhira Iyengar, virtual manager 37 Despite widespread recognition that we live and work in an increasingly interconnected global economy, it is curious how little many people understand about other countries and cultures. When we travel on holiday, we often seek out collective experiences where we can travel with people from our own cultures, eat food that is familiar, and then get back on our tour bus. When we go abroad on business, we often sequester ourselves in meeting rooms in five-star hotels with air conditioning and BBC World News . Then we return home saying that we have been to Thailand or Costa Rica or France. Unfortunately, there is a big difference between having been somewhere and having learned something about where we have been.