Developing Effective Global Leadership

The main purpose of this paper is to answer the question: how can we develop an effective global leadership? It is based on a research conducted using a qualitative method involving in-depth interviews of selected participants who have the experiences in the field of leadership in a selected university. The interviews were then transcribed verbatim, coded and analyzed. Going to the future Malaysia will intensify its efforts to become a developed nation by 2020. Transforming the nation from middle to higher income will require leaders who are robust enough to face diverse and complex environment. With rapid globalization, there is recognition for more global leadership development. Global leadership is defined as a leader who operates on a global stage with a open mindset in a complex and diverse environment. Currently, there was a shortage of global leaders. Organizations accept this situation and need to improve in developing global leaders. As organizations’ operations expand across the world, the demand for global leaders is increasing. However, many organizations are struggling with a critical shortage of effective global leaders. They need the right opportunity to develop their knowledge, skills, abilities and other personality characteristics (KSAOs) to perform effectively as leaders on the global stage. There were various approaches in developing competencies for global leaders. Much emphasis was given to experience-based and action learning such as international assignments, working with multicultural teams and first hand global leadership experience. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for developing effective global leadership. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n3p1