Leadership coaching towards intercultural competence

Abstract: Orientation: Globalisation has increased multi-cultural and cross-cultural engagements within the modern workplace which, in turn, has led to various challenges in contemporary leadership. In order to manage, amongst others, multinational subsidiaries, global projects, and to lead a culturally diverse workforce, business leaders increasingly have to demonstrate intercultural competence. There is however fragmented research and widely differing scholarly opinion regarding the development of intercultural competence. The disparate opinion includes a lack of clarity regarding what intercultural competence is. Furthermore, the lack of clarity extends to ambiguity regarding the most effective methods for the development of intercultural competence for business leaders. This is particularly so for business leaders working in an African context. Research Purpose: In an attempt to address the gap in evidence-based leadership coaching for the development of intercultural competence, the aim of this study was to explore, describe and understand the development of intercultural competence, utilising leadership coaching as a developmental approach. Research Method: A qualitative research approach utilising case study, ethnography, narrative research and thematic analysis was deployed to achieve the research aims. The experiences of seven African business leaders from five different African countries as recipients of leadership coaching towards intercultural competence provided the deep and rich narratives for the first order constructs for this study. A literature review of the development for intercultural competence, leadership coaching in general and cross-cultural leadership coaching specifically provided the second order constructs for the study. Main Findings: The following significant findings emerged from the research (i) Six of the seven participants developed intercultural competence after participating in a cross-cultural leadership coaching programme for 12 months. (ii) The participants acquired intercultural competence through an action – reflection learning based coaching model which led to transformative learning on a cognitive, affective and behavioural level. (iii) The participants had to be prepared to engage in active...D.Phil