2015 Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 5-13
Leading international business requires the learning of global leadership competencies that allow managers to flexibly navigate across cultures. This explorative study investigates the mechanism by which global leadership competencies are acquired from a meta-cognitive approach. Indepth interviews and a web-survey were conducted in Asian and Europe. Results confirmed that 1) all managers faced new and difficult challenges during international business assignments, 2) the necessary leadership competencies were both common and idiosyncratic across cultures, and 3) global managers, regardless of their nationalities, experienced “double-loop learning” while acquiring new global leadership competencies though “breakthrough experiences” during international business assignments.
