抄録
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.