Transnational Leadership Development: Preparing the Next Generation for the Borderless Business World - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Beth Fisher-Yoshida, Ph.D. (Teaneck, NJ) is the Founder of Fisher-Yoshida International, LLC, and works globally with organizations on organizational development and intercultural competency.

Kathy Geller, Ph.D. (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is Managing Director of Areté Leadership International Limited, an international consultancy working with Fortune 500 leaders in Asia.

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As the global business world changes, so do the cultures that compose it. But many traditions and cultural mores are long standing, and their influence on business practice does not come and go with new developments even the kind of sea change that is rendering much of the business landscape borderless.

As a business leader in this new world order, it is just as important for you to recognize and respect cultural differences as it is to find common ground with your counter parts across the world.

With Transnational Leadership Development, authors Beth Fisher-Yoshida and Kathy Geller introduce a new philosophy of managing, what they have identified as the five paradoxes of cross-cultural interaction. Although rife with substantial challenges, these paradoxes are hardly problems with easily packaged solutions. (Such simplistic approaches most often lead to misguided initiatives, lost productivity, and long-term unease within a company s global family.) But by understanding these paradoxes, you will learn to view the world through different lenses, find new and more effective ways to communicate, and move forward in a global context quickly and confidently while still taking the critically necessary time to reflect upon the effects of your actions.

Whether your leadership role takes you to far flung locations throughout the world or has you managing culturally diverse teams right in your own neighborhood, Transnational Leadership Development with its revealing assessments, challenging exercises, and genuinely illuminating case studies is a practical and engaging tool for laying the groundwork for the continued growth of your business in the global arena.

Aus dem Klappentext

As your business s universe becomes increasingly more global, it s tempting to say that as borders seem to disappear so do cultural differences. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, as we do more and more business in other lands and with people raised in different cultures, it becomes increasingly evident that global is not a synonym for melting pot.

Beyond obvious issues like basic communication, deep rooted cultural differences present an array of challenges that must be considered in order for global leadership to be effective.

The idea of transnational leadership is purposely distinguished from international leadership, which implies a uniform, blanket relationship with all your constituents worldwide; and from multinational leadership, which indicates leading within each nation or culture as a discrete function apart from your company s other entities. Transnational leadership allows you to establish broad consistencies across all of your worldwide operations, while respecting, embracing, and leveraging local cultural differences toward better performance, teamwork, employee satisfaction, and results.

In order for transnational leadership to be effective, it is important to recognize cultural differences not as problems to be solved, which implies a right and wrong way to do things. It is better to regard such differences as paradoxes, where the issues related to culture and communication can be positioned on continuums with contradictory characteristics, without the misguided notion that one way should somehow trump another.

In Transnational Leadership Development, authors Beth Fisher-Yoshida and Kathy Geller identify five overarching considerations that can be seen as bridges by which to connect disparate cultural outlooks:

Knowing Self and Honoring Others. Recognizing our own worldviews and assumptions and how they affect our interactions with others.

Focus ( I -centric versus We -centric). How heavily should leadership focus on indivi­duals? On the group?

Communication. Recognize and use appropriate levels of direct and indirect communication relevant to the particular cultural context, and consider how today s communication impacts tomorrow s relationships.

Action (Doing versus Reflecting). Constantly striving for results while taking the time to reflect meaningfully on the effectiveness of actions.

Response (Short- versus Long-Term). Understanding and reconciling different perceptions of time across cultures; identifying the advantages and implications of both long- and short term goals; and juxtaposing current gain with future ramifications to arrive at responsible courses of action.

Each of these five topics is examined in depth, and illustrated with examples taken from real global business settings. Each chapter includes thorough self assessments and probing questions with which to gauge your own and your organization s transnational competencies. In all, Transnational Leadership Development becomes not only a frank and thought provoking analysis of the cross cultural business landscape, but also a practical and precise instrument with which to prepare your organization s future global leaders.

Beth Fisher-Yoshida, Ph.D., is the Founder of Fisher-Yoshida Inter­national, LLC, consulting globally on organizational development and intercultural competence and diversity. She lives in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Kathy D. Geller, Ph.D., is presently Dir