Global Competence

Objective:

Global Competence:

Develop in-depth knowledge and understanding of the organizational implications of issues affecting modern global organizations and demonstrate an appreciation of diverse perspectives and an ability to function effectively in global situations.

Reflection:

Global leadership was presented as a concept in the first course of this program. Prior to my graduate program, I had the privilege to complete my Certificate in Global Leadership which equipped me with the knowledge, skills, and appropriate attitudes to lead change in complex global environments. Participants who have completed this certificate program learn to facilitate change within their local, civic, and organizational surroundings while acting with a social responsibility to address world issues. As society becomes more advanced, leaders are now placed in the position to serve global teams, facilitate global projects, and maintain global operations from any location. However, “the term ‘global’ encompasses more than a simple geographical reach in terms of business operations. It includes the notion of cultural reach in terms of people and intellectual reach in the development of a global mindset and global skills” (Osland, Bird, Mendenhall, & Osland, 2006). As organizations strive to remain competitive, global leaders are responsible for navigating the international landscape, developing cross-culture connections, and fostering the productivity and growth of teams that span national lines.

Foundations aside, one of the most prominent topics to me during this program was Intercultural (IC) communication competence. To better define this concept, IC competence is the “ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes” (Deardorff, 2006, p. 249). As an opportunity to practice communication mindfulness, I completed a research paper in my COMM 642 course that attuned to the assumptions, cognitions, and emotions of those in another culture with a varying set of norms, values, ethical challenges, learning environments, and government structure. I chose to evaluate the Australian Bushfires that occurred from September 2019 through March 2020. I explored past occurrences, social media platforms that were utilized to discuss testimonials, emotions, thoughts from stakeholders that were impacted, recovery efforts, instrumental organizations, communication from key leaders, and provided a detailed analysis of steps that could have been taken to make recovery efforts more successful. This crisis was detrimental to their country and damaged their reputation. However, the incident sparked conversations about climate change around the world. In fact, after the event, political leaders introduced new legislation that appealed to these concerns. Interestingly, this crisis took non-profit organizations, volunteers, residents, and support from other counties to help mitigate the damage. This paper demonstrated that it took intercultural communication from multiple national cultures and jurisdictions to solve a problem that had a significant level of task and relationship complexity. Now, I have a different worldview and perspective on how other cultures communicate and solve crises on a large scale.

Moreover, while taking my communication studies electives, I became interested in learning about family conflict. “Families are incredibility complex—complex in their structure, complex in their communication patterns, and complex in their emotions” (Cupach et al., 2010, p. 192). Specifically, I spent a significant amount of time focusing on the triangulation between the daughter-in-law, spouse, and mother-in-law relationship. In my second artifact, I compare two articles and provide constructive criticism focused on this kind of relationship. Both articles that I compared focused on Western relationships. In the United States, we tend to be more autonomous from our in-laws and give high priority to our spouses. In other countries, in-laws hold more power and are treated with a higher level of respect. The married couple is expected to provide care and support for their parents and in-laws in their elderly age. As I learned about in-law relationships by participating in the research process, I concluded that a lot of the theories and articles that I critique are Eurocentric. Especially, when it comes to my education in leadership studies. Although the information is beneficial to me and applies to European and Anglo-American values and experiences, it is important to recognize that this information about family relationships may not be relevant in other parts of the world. As a rule, I can communicate more effectively across cultural and geographical boundaries if I explore research that is from different worldviews in hopes that I can be more empathetic and accurate in my communication with others.

One of the ways in which I apply my global leadership education is by working on a global, virtual team. At CivicPlus, I work with a group of individuals who work across the boundaries of time, geography, language, and culture and sync professionally on a virtual platform to accomplish our organization's goals. As of now, we have staff in every portion of the United States, and through our acquired organizations we now have staff in Australia, England, and Denmark. As we grow internationally, we are gaining more geographically diverse talent and have the potential to cater to a wider range of clients. Our approach to setting up and executing projects using successful teams stems from De Rosa and Lepsinger’s (2010) stepwise approach. Prior to creating a team, we determine the group size, ensure that members have a delicate mix of virtual and technical skills, adopt the type of virtual technology platforms we plan to utilize, and determine how to recognize and reward team members for their participation. To launch the team, we hold a kick-off meeting, create a sense of purpose, clarify roles, develop a communication plan, and work together to develop the virtual skills of all team members. After the execution and launch of the project, the team monitors and assesses team task and virtual performance.

As I transcend the classroom environment, I have two goals to help me succeed in my professional career. First, I am going to work diligently to improve my cultural intelligence. Essentially, it is not about learning the ins and outs of every culture. Rather, it is about taking a specialized approach regarding the ones that I am most accustomed to working with daily. Taking a deeper dive to understand cultures, their influences on thinking and behavior, and the primary ways they differs from ours is crucial information to be more effective cross-culturally in the workforce. Importantly, “it begins with a strong sense of your own cultural identity and the way the cultures of which you’re part shape your behavior” (Livermore, 2011, p.73). Hence, to further my knowledge I can travel to other countries to help me make accurate assumptions, attend cultural celebrations and learning events, study a new language, seek diverse perspectives from my coworkers, and explore my own cultural identity. “When you have high CQ knowledge, you possess a repertoire of understanding about how cultures are alike and different. You can encounter unfamiliar cultures and begin to understand them utilizing your overall cultural cognizance” (Livermore, 2011, p.74). Developing cultural intelligence and understanding virtual teams can establish high organizational performance and for creating an important impact within organizations, economies, and societies.

Second, “members of multi-cultural teams tend to be very motivated to work in these teams and enjoy the team experience, yet still find it difficult to develop strong cohesion, identity, and psychological safety” (Mendenhall et al., 2018, p. 287). My goal is to create a team culture that brings people together to accomplish high-level goals and objectives. A few ways that I can accomplish this is by creating a hybrid culture that includes a combination of norms from each team member's “home” identity. Furthermore, I can create mutual trust by setting quick deliverables and communication norms. For instance, “the more quickly team members are assigned different aspects of information-gathering then come together to share initial results, the more ‘data’ team members have about each other to build roles, processes, and eventually trust” (Mendenhall, 2018, p. 288). In addition, I want to ensure that those within my organization have the basic needs to be successful. Deficiency needs (phycological and safety) must be met for someone to achieve their growth needs (love & belonging, esteem, self-actualization) to their full potential. Although building and maintaining global and virtual teams remains a difficult task for a leader, teams that overcome the challenges created by their composition and dispersion have the opportunity to outperform homogenous teams and achieve complex outcomes.

References:

Cupach, W. R., Canary, D. J., & Spitzberg, B. H. (2010). Competence in interpersonal conflict

(2nd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Deardorff, D. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of studies in International Education, 10, 241-266).

De Rosa, D., & Lepsinger, R. (2010). Virtual team success: A practical guide for working and leading from a distance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint.

Livermore, D. (2011). Cultural intelligence difference: Master the one skill you can't do without in today's global economy. AMACOM.

Mendenhall, M. E., Osland, J. S., Bird, A., Oddou, G. R., Stevens, M. J., Maznevski, M. L., & Stahl, G. K. (Eds.). (2018). Global leadership: Research, practice, and development (3rd ed.). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Osland, J.S., Bird, A., Mendenhall, M.E., & Osland, A. 2006. Developing global leadership capacities and global mindset: A review. In G. K. Stahl & I. Bjorkman (Eds.), Handbook of research in international human resource management: 197-222. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.