To Be or Not to Be Global : the Answer Already Exists
Clearly, this is one of the most exciting times in Regent's history.
Today’s professionals must be able to build and lead transformative organizations that improve the well-being of all stakeholders—owners, leaders, clients, partners, employees, societies and the greater global kingdom. To be successful, these new leaders must expand their entrepreneurial vision and aptitude. Firmly grounded in a biblical foundation, Regent University’s new School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, the result of combining the School of Leadership Studies and the School of Business, is eminently prepared to equip and train extraordinary Christian professionals for the challenges, opportunities and rewards offered in today’s business world. We believe that leadership and entrepreneurship belong together, especially in those developing parts of the world where economic problems can only be solved by a combination of the two. For this reason, Regent is developing new, innovative curricula that will incorporate classic business disciplines with an expanded entrepreneurial and global emphasis. We are also bringing in global leadership experts who will challenge our students and help us produce graduates who will help change the face of the world for future generations. Regent’s School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship recognizes the global focus that the university has long been developing and exemplifies the entrepreneurial path envisioned from the beginning.
Global Age
I met a friend at the local coffee store. When I sat down, my friend began to complain about all the news reports about immigration, foreign wars, terrorism and the fact that, to him, if everyone just left the United States alone, all U.S. citizens could live the good life. I chuckled a bit as I noticed that he was drinking coffee from Guatemala out of a cup made in Taiwan. His shirt was made in Thailand, and his pants were assembled in Mexico from fabric made in Sri Lanka. His car was a Japanese model assembled in Canada from parts made in the U.S. The gas he put in his car possibly came from Venezuela. The airline tickets he had mentioned to me the day before were probably purchased over the phone from a call center operator in India, and the flight he took was on a French-made Airbus. Later that day, my friend called me and told me about the antique clock he bought on eBay—the clock was purchased from a home-based antique dealer in England. My friend paid for the clock using PayPal, the antique dealer recorded the payment the next day and shipped the clock by DHL a day later. My friend had, by default, become global!
The interesting thing about being global is that we already are. How did this happen, and what will happen in the future? While U.S. citizens lament the loss of jobs to other countries, this job movement is one reason the U.S. developed in the first place. Investors and financiers in Europe sent people to the Colonies to move work to the new country where wages and material costs would be cheaper due to “free” land and an abundance of raw materials—in addition to religious freedom. The movement of jobs from one country to another has occurred throughout history and is part of “being global.” This process is known in business lingo as “comparative advantage.” While a country, nation, location, etc. may be able to produce a wide variety of goods and services, it is to the country’s advantage to produce what it can do best in terms of quality and cost. Shipping of goods to other countries has always been the great leveler—not the military, as might be perceived.
Economics and Peace
Global business is becoming the great peace moderator as Thomas Friedman, in his notable book, The World is Flat, suggests, “No two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell’s, will ever fight a war against each other so long as they are both part of the same global supply chain.” Friedman does note that there will be civil wars and border skirmishes. He goes on to say that this conflict-deterring behavior only works with a country’s political leader since the leader has responsibility for the people. Terrorist leaders, according to Friedman, do not have responsibility for people but, rather, for ideology; thus countries dominated by terrorist leaders would not be included in conflict-deterring behaviors.
Global Values
Does this mean that Dell, Starbucks, McDonald’s, etc. become the new UN? That’s doubtful, but global entrepreneurship has been, and will continue to be, a factor in the global policies that impact our lives. Leadership is a related factor in that common values seem to exist in countries around the world. Robert House led a study of global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness (GLOBE) in 62 countries. This work extended Hofstede’s early work about differences between cultures. A curious global finding is that in the regions in which humaneness was not heavily practiced, people indicated that they valued it and wanted that value. Similar findings that occurred related to gender equality, access to education and support for the poor. There seems to be a set of values that exist in all regions of the globe to make up a set of global values.
When I have presented a seminar on the Beatitudes as a key set of leadership values, whether or not I presented in “stained-glass” or “plain-glass” language, only one audience has told me that the values won’t work—a group of military chaplains. All of the groups, whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu or atheist, agree that the concepts presented in the Beatitudes are worthwhile for all leaders. People who attend the seminar tell me that they wish their current leaders followed those values. It is not surprising that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a global message. It may be worthwhile to have all global leadership development programs look at the Beatitudes for a core set of values.
People and Culture
Leaders who work with followers/employees who represent a diversity of cultures learn that, while a single organizational culture develops, there is a need to consider and honor the individual person’s culture to the extent that it does not detract from the unity of organization. For example, as organizations build operations and activities in a country/region different from the home country/region, adjustments to operations and communication must occur. By region, I mean that there are variations in culture within a country. During the time I lived in Alaska, a friend of mine who owned and operated a business that made Alaskan souvenirs received a large sum of money earmarked for firms that would build operations in rural Alaska where little employment opportunity existed. After his first season of operation, my friend lamented to me that most of his employees would stop working and stay away from the plant for up to a week at a time when the salmon were running in the river. To my friend, this was inconceivable; but to the employees it was quite natural. For generations, the local village inhabitants had caught fish when the fish were there. To the employees, the manufacturing plant would still be there after the fish were gone. No sooner had my friend understood that he needed to close the plant when the fish were running and consider the time as “vacation” for everyone, than he noticed that employees were beginning to only come to work three or four days a week instead of five. To my friend’s dismay, he learned that in a subsistence-culture such as was the culture of the village, the village inhabitants only worked the amount necessary to gain the basics that they needed to live on.
To my friend’s credit, he adapted his operation to include hiring more people than he needed and letting employees “set” the number of days that each employee “needed” to work each week. The end result was a functioning plant that fit into the local culture. My friend learned, the hard way, what the developers of transformational leadership theory meant by the concept of individualized consideration. An advantage of education is that we can learn, in a short time, what it might take years of mistakes to teach us.
Global Principles
Global organizations, as evidenced by H.J. Heinz, need to develop a set of principles that guide the decision-making process. These principles should show a balance between global concepts and local-context laws and culture. As new employees join the firm worldwide, each employee should agree to abide by the global- and local-context principles.
Working Globally, but Operating Locally
While we, in English-speaking countries, are blessed in that English is the commonly accepted language of commerce and education, global leaders need to be sensitive to the importance of local language. Leaders need not be fluent in the local language, but should be conversationally proficient to meet the needs of greetings, ceremonies and special events. Local employees, clients and vendors demonstrate greater concern for global leaders when the leaders show greater concern for local language.
Leaders Change to Fit the Local Culture
During a research visit to South Africa, I had the opportunity to interact with a South African retail food-service company formed by a group of people from around the world. The key operations leaders were white South Africans who wanted to be the employer of choice in the local areas. This required the firm to recruit employees who might never have held a part-time job before; as a result, more time had to be spent in training in order to build the work skills that would be taken for granted in a country like the U.S. or Canada. In addition, the company realized that the long commute between housing settlements and workplaces meant that the company had to assist employees with transportation. Of interest to me as I observed how the company operated was the finding that when an employee needed to take a week off for a family member's funeral (a local cultural custom), the food-service leaders not only approved the time off, but took food to the employee’s home to help defray the high cost of feeding all of the relatives during that time. Sometimes “global” means recognizing and operating within the local diversity. This service by the leaders was not something that was a common practice for white South Africans. The leaders adapted themselves to fit the culture.
Global Leadership Wisdom
Black, Morrison and Gregerson, in their book Global Leaders—The Next Generation of Leaders contend that global leaders possess these four characteristics: (1) inquisitiveness, that drives the desire to learn and understand; (2) perspective, of varying views of the world and the contrasts that might exist between local cultures; (3) character, as the base of strength and consistency of behavior that generates goodwill and trust in both the global and local context; and (4) savvy, which is a clear sense of knowing what needs to be done. A doctoral student in the School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship suggested that these four characteristics might be summed up as being akin to wisdom. This makes sense in that these four characteristics show a sense of observation, discernment, interpretation and application.
As a means of gaining wisdom, up-and-coming global leaders may need to blend education with multiple experiences in different cultures, along with debriefing/education sessions with seasoned global leaders, in order to gain a wide range of experiences.
To Be or Not to Be . . .
In summary, the question is not a question when the answer is obvious. We have already become global in all we do—day in and day out. Global leadership is about understanding the local and seeing how it fits the global—and vice versa. Global leadership is about wisdom, seeing the obvious, and finding the principles that govern success and satisfaction, for both the employee and the organization. Global leadership is about building global cultures based on core values, such as humaneness, that are valued by people around the globe. Global leadership is about respecting the local culture, norms and language while not losing the value of the global “whole.” Global leadership can be enhanced through education, experience and mentoring.
Local economies can benefit through entrepreneurship and determining what comparative advantages the local country/region might have. Through the blend of entrepreneurship for economic gain and leadership for relational value, the world can gain in peace and prosperity. 
Bruce E. Winston, Ph.D., is dean of the School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship at Regent University.
