Global Mindset and leadership behavior

Abstract

Global Mindset, set of attributes and characteristics that help global leadership to influence individuals, groups and organizations that are anywhere in the world has been described as a critical factor for organizational development. In order to identify factors that affect the Global Mindset of leaders, an on-line survey based on Konyu-Fogel (2011) model was applied to a sample of 163 leaders that work in positions that require international activities in organizations in twenty-two product lines (industries) in Africa, Asia,, South and North America, Europe and Middle East. We conclude that Global Mindset is responsible for 39,1% of variability on leadership behavior, confirming previous studies which identified that global leaders with high Global Mindset are more likely to exhibit leadership behaviors which present understanding on differences across cultures and countries in response to the global environment. Specifically related with demographic factors such as age, gender, number of foreign languages spoken, number of countries worked in and raised/lived in bilíngüe/multiethnic family, the results showed that they do not affect Global Mindset score, different from the factors such as local of employment and posicion. Finnaly, on assessment of organizational factors effects on Global Mindset, we identified a weak relationship under total number of employees, percentage of employees working overseas, location/country of headquarter’s and Global Mindset. On the other hand, product line and percentage of revenue from foreign operations significantly affect business leaders Global Mindset.