Professional Documents
Culture Documents
a Global Mindset
Jonas Babics
Figures
Tables
Table 3.1. Important Factors for Positions Requiring a Global Mindset................................... 26
IBM is a good example of a company with a global corporate culture. IBM describes itself as
a service organisation and a globally integrated enterprise. Strategy, management and
operations take place in many different locations and are integrated into production of goods
and services to deliver value to clients worldwide. Sam Palmisano, the CEO of IBM said,
“work flows to the places where it will be done best – that is, most efficiently and with the
highest quality”. IBM does not see itself as a US company, but as a global company solving
the customer’s problems wherever they are located. This is only possible because of shared
technologies, global IT systems and global communication infrastructure, as well as HR
activities like talent management and development, which are also globally integrated.
There are different possibilities for a company to work towards a global corporate culture. An
important input from the board of directors that has to take place is developing a global
strategy and formulating a global vision. Employees can be trained in courses and university
programmes and today’s very well advanced communication technology can be used to
bring the people around the globe closer and make them work better together. However, to
develop a global corporate culture, the most important and most effective factor for
companies is to have executives and managers with a global mindset (Paul, 2000). The
management of a global company should be able to feel when to favour global consistency
and when local responsiveness. They have to understand differences in cultures and to be
able to identify the advantages of the complex, interrelated and ever changing global market.
They should have the ability to think global and act global, but also to think local and act
local. This task requires knowledge, experience and the feeling how to behave in other
cultures. Furthermore, companies and their managers have to be flexible, as the market
changes very fast. Having managers with a global mindset is crucial for globally operating
companies and gives them a real competitive advantage. This leads us to the question: How
do companies get managers with a global mindset?
By now, quite a lot of literature has dealt with global mindset. Most of the researches are
about the advantage of global mindset and how individuals can develop it. The difference is
made between individual global mindset and global corporate culture, also called global
identity (Beechler, et al., 1999) or corporate global mindset (Begley and Boyd, 2003). Most of
the academic papers are on the search to find definitions and to put global mindset into the
context of international business management. However, few researches exist when it
Barry Callebaut is a young, dynamic and innovative company. Originated from the merger
between the French Cacao Barry and the Belgian Callebaut, the company Barry Callebaut is
now the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate products. Barry
Callebaut, headquartered in Zurich / Switzerland, has strong roots in Europe, but also has a
global network of around 40 productions sites in Europe, Africa, North and Latin America and
Asia/Pacific. With cocoa the main resource for their products coming from countries around
the equator, employees of the productions sites coming from different cultures and
customers coming from almost all countries worldwide, Barry Callebaut is extremely
confronted with all aspects of globalisation. To be able to face the challenges and profit from
the advantages of a global market, Barry Callebaut needs managers with a global mindset.
I chose the topic of my paper before I started to work at Barry Callebaut and the research is
no direct request from the company. Nevertheless, as Barry Callebaut has grown very fast in
the last ten years and has not been globally integrated for ages, I assumed that they will still
The term of global mindset is not new in the international business literature. Also in daily
discussions, global mindset is mentioned, when it comes to cross-cultural project teams,
international assignments or global talent management. There are a lot of newspaper and
scientific articles that mention or deal with global mindset. The current research makes the
distinction between individual global mindset and the characteristics of a global organisation.
The literature of individual global mindset treats topics like psychology, culture and
To understand global mindset, we first have to deal with the concept of mindset. According to
Gupta and Govindarajan (2002), mindset is about how people make sense of the world in
which they interact. It refers to cognitive filters that select, what we absorb and how we
interpret something. Every Individual has a mindset and the mindset of each individual is
influenced by the mindsets of others. An individual mindset is more a way of thinking, than a
behaviour (Dekker et al., 2005). Paul (2000) links mindset with experience, he states that
mindset is a set of mental images and assumptions and that an individual develops them in a
process of learning from experience. Global mindset has therefore to do with the way we see
the world, the global market, cultures and people. Global mindset is the ability to see the
world through different eyes. People with a global mindset are open minded. It has to do with
curiosity and interest, but also knowledge; the knowledge of different values and value
dimensions. A global mindset is needed to comprehend the complexity of today’s globally
interconnected world of different beliefs, behaviours and attitudes.
Globalisation is often referred to a process of standardisation. Global mindset, however, is
not seeing everything the same way and trying to standardise everything, but to realize the
differences in the world. The diversity of local markets can be seen as a source of
opportunity and strength (Paul, 2000), but sometimes it makes sense to have a global
consistency in the strategy. Global mindset is the feeling to find the balance between global
consistency and local responsiveness.
Companies stand before a great challenge. The global market has a lot of opportunities and
fast growing markets in East Asia and South America offer huge growth potential. However,
Allocation of responsibility
To counterbalance the push for standardization, companies can strengthen the role of their
regional headquarters (Begley and Boyd, 2003). Giving responsibility to these regional
headquarters allows a company to react better to needs of customers and to respond to the
cultural similarities within a group of countries. A very strong headquarters can lead to a
focus of global consistency and an ignorance of cultural diversity. However, greater
localization should not result in greater isolation (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 2002) and companies
need a strong corporate culture to hold all the national and regional units of the organisation
together.
Barry Callebaut is the result of a merger between Cacao Barry from France and Callebaut
from Belgium, which happened in 1996. Today, the headquarters is in Zurich, Switzerland.
However, most of the line managers are located Wieze, Belgium. After several acquisitions
worldwide, Barry Callebaut owns different brands, which are produced in and mostly oriented
to one region. That makes the whole organisation very interesting from a global perspective,
as there is not a strong headquarters that makes all the decisions. The responsibilities are
more allocated to different locations. A weakness is that Barry Callebaut is very much
Europe oriented, which is mostly explained by its original roots. A lot of newly acquired
factories and brands outside Europe are not yet fully integrated into the organisation.
However, if Barry Callebaut follows the same approach than in Europe, there will be most
likely the chance that it becomes a real global company with a strong global corporate
culture. To be global is a key success factor for a food manufacturer like Barry Callebaut.
With raw materials almost exclusively from developing countries, important consumer
markets in Europe and North America and very fast growing markets in Asia and South
America, their business is truly globally interrelated and also affected. Managers with a
global mindset are crucial for Barry Callebaut to be successful worldwide.
Communication technology
The modern communication technology makes it possible to communicate easily with people
around the world. That brings people closer to each other and gives them even more the
feeling to belong to one corporate culture. Project teams with members from different parts of
the world are only possible, if the project team can communicate without great time and
effort. IBM, for example equips all its employees with a laptop and they have access to their
e-mails and documents wherever there is connectivity to the Internet. The offices provide
different possibilities to held meetings like telephone conferences or training courses over the
internal website “blue pages”. To communicate, employees can choose between instant
messaging, writing e-mails or calling each other. IBM has people all over the globe, but with
the communication technology, the people get closer together.
Important is also the transfer of knowledge between the subsidiaries and the head office, as
well as between the subsidiaries (Paul, 2000). To reach this, companies need the right
communication tools. The Internet has made it possible to flatten the world; companies
should now use the modern technology to make their employees communicate with each
other.
The structural responses to the global market are needed for companies to be competitive.
However, they are inadequate for dealing with the requirements (Beechler et al., 1999).
Companies need managers with a global mindset. The global experience of managers is
difficult to imitate and can create a competitive advantage for a company (Carpenter et al.,
2000). Furthermore, it is a rare resource. Gregersen (et al., 1998:22) interviewed the former
CEO of Brunswick Corporation, who reflected the sentiments of many senior executives:
“Financial resources are not the problem. We have the money, products, and position to be a
dominant global player. What we lack are the human resources. We just don’t have enough
people with the needed global leadership capabilities.”
Therefore, the recruitment and internal development of global leaders is very important. How
companies can select managers with a global mindset to be able to compete in the global
market is the topic of my research, but to understand what the global mindset of managers
contains, we first have to explain the concept of individual global mindset.
Global companies need global leaders. But how do companies realize that someone thinks
and feels globally and how are they able to indicate the mindset of an individual? What are
the characteristics of a person with a global mindset?
Beechler et al. (1999) described an interesting approach to differentiate between two kind of
people: Cosmopolitans that are oriented and open towards the outside world and locals that
are more narrowly concerned with the affairs of the community and exclude the world affairs.
The cosmopolitan or the global person is interested in other people; they are open minded
and curious. They are not afraid of experiences that are unfamiliar and they are ready for a
continuous process of learning.
Of course it is difficult to allocate characteristics to global mindset. Nevertheless, there are
some common features or qualities described by the literature. Mansour Javidan, dean of
research at Thunderbird, who invented together with other professors from Thunderbird a
tool to measure global mindset (The Global Mindset Inventory - GMI) states that individuals
with a global mindset share an extensive set of intellectual, psychological and social
characteristics (Swain, 2007). According to the GMI, global mindset is about knowing and
understanding the global business (intellectual capital), to be open for other cultures
(psychological capital) and to be ready to trust people, who are different from yourself (social
capital). Gregersen et al. (1998) mention that successful global leaders are driven by a
sense of adventure and that inquisitiveness allows them to understand people. Furthermore,
this inquisitiveness allows them to maintain integrity and to be able to deal with uncertainty
and to manage tensions.
But why is a global mindset important for companies, or what are the managers with a global
mindset doing differently than others? The mindset shapes the perception of managers and
influences them, which strategy they choose and how the implement it (Paul, 2000). A global
company with a global strategy and a worldwide network of subsidiaries are dependent on
managers, who make the right decisions, who understand the complexity of the global
market and who are able to balance between global consistency and local responsiveness -
managers with a global mindset.
That leads us to my first research question: How does a company get managers with a
global mindset? The literature proposes different approaches to develop an individual global
mindset or to support people, who already have a global view or global thinking. Very simple
formulated is it by Gregersen et al. (1998), who have found four strategies that are effective
to develop global leaders, or leaders with a global mindset: travel, teams, training and
transfers. To have the right effect, travelling requires not staying in western hotels and only
going outside to drive from the hotel to the workplace, but to get in contact with the local
culture. Working in multicultural teams is explained above and is a good way to learn
The HRM cycle describes the whole process that all employees go through from entering a
company to the moment they leave and it is managed by the HR department. The HRM cycle
is a cycle, because this process will start over and over again within a career path of the
individual employees. It does not have a start or an end, as this cannot be defined and will
change from case to case. Since my approach is to incorporate the concept of global
mindset within the whole management of human resources, I will use the HRM cycle to
define the different contents. The HRM cycle shown below is adapted from Tichy et al.
(1981), who described the steps and mentioned the concept for the first time. I will explain
each of the steps in this chapter to be able to integrate the HRM cycle in my research results.
In one of these steps Tichy et al. (1981) speak of development and not of training and
development. For the study of global mindset, training is an important part, as cross-cultural
training and other courses make an important contribution to the development of a global
mindset. Therefore, this step in the HRM cycle below includes also training and not only the
term development. Furthermore, Tichy et al. (1981) do not have a step “recruitment” in their
cycle. The first step, as they indicate it, is selection. I would like to separate recruitment and
selection, as recruitment is a process with a clear interaction with the external labour market,
selecting people can also be a process within the internal labour market, though. Employees,
who already work in a company, are selected for projects, training, international assignments
or jobs on a higher career level.
In the cycle of Tichy et al. (1981) performance and appraisal are two different steps and
appraisal leads then to rewards and to development. This is also a very interesting approach,
which shows that the appraisal of the performance determines, how much someone is
rewarded and if they get the chance for development within a company or not. However, in
the modern corporation I assume that everybody gets the chance for training and
development, which then may lead to performance appraisal. Putting the cycle in connection
with global mindset, this can be different. The costs of the training and development of
people to develop a global mindset are very costly and the selection should be made
carefully. But also in this case, the kind of performance that is measured to make the
decision may be different than in other selection processes. As mentioned before, the HRM
cycle is a cycle because the course of the steps can be different all the time.
Recruitment is the process of attracting people from the external labour market to fill an open
position. It includes the advertisement of the job and also the interviews and the
assessments. Companies may execute recruitment by themselves or outsource it to a
recruitment agency. However, at the end the company will make the selection.
The next step within the HRM cycle describes the selection. This can be the selection of
external people within the recruitment process, but also the selection of employees for
different kind of positions or projects within a company itself.
Induction corresponds more to new recruited employees that have to be integrated into the
company. Of course new team members or new employees within a department are also
inducted, but they already are part of the organisation. Furthermore, one can ask the
question, if induction really does have an end or if it is an ongoing process. In the induction
step of the HRM cycle, the new hired employees are confronted with the values and the
strategy of a company. The more effective the induction is, the faster employees get part of
the corporate culture.
With regard to global mindset, selection is the crucial step within the HRM cycle. The
development of global mindset is a long process. Therefore, it is important for companies to
choose the right people in the recruitment, for training or for global positions. The employees
still can further develop their globally oriented mindset, but it is an advantage, if they bring
the preconditions before they enter the company or the position requiring a global mindset.
Selecting managers with a global mindset should get the right attention by globally operating
companies.
The most effective way to develop a global mindset is international assignment experience
(Gregersen et al., 1998). The experience of living and working in a foreign country for a
longer time brings a lot of advantages that are also important for the global mindset
development process. In my interviews, international assignment experience was often
mentioned regarding the development of a global mindset. Furthermore, many companies
recognised that personal experience was the best way for their managers to develop a broad
international perspective (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 2002).
The examination of other cultures and other values will broaden the mind and bring a
different view of many things. Hopefully, it also arouses interest and supports curiosity. The
knowledge of other cultures and behaviours is of course very important and can be learned
in cross-cultural trainings. However, to be really effective as a global leader, someone has to
feel how to behave in another culture. Immediate reactions cannot be learned in courses,
3. Research Results
The aim of this report is to suggest a framework for companies to be able to select managers
with a global mindset or to select people with the potential to develop a global mindset. A
question that arises at this point is, if it is really possible to have a global mindset or if it
always will be a development, an ongoing process. It is actually a process that can take
years (Gupta and Govindarajan, 2002), and can also continuously be improved. From a
certain stage on, however, I would speak of having a global mindset. If the person has the
global experience, understands global interconnected issues, thinks globally and is able to
work with or to lead other employees and customers from different cultures, it makes it
easier, if we can talk of a person having a global mindset and give a name to this
competence and way of thinking.
A global company does not need to have all employees with global mindsets. For certain
positions it can even be an obstacle, for example a sales representative, who is responsible
for a local market. These employees need the focus on the local market conditions and
customer needs. They should know what the company is doing outside this specific country,
but they do not have to understand all global strategic issues. A global perspective is not
needed and could also bring his focus away from the local country. Furthermore, a person
with a global mindset would soon be unsatisfied with a job only focusing on one country,
rather than different countries and cultures. This could make global mindset as a
disadvantage for some positions, even within globally operating companies.
Before we come to the selection process, I would like to answer the first research question,
how a company gets managers with a global mindset. My thesis is, that the concept of global
mindset should be integrated in the whole HRM cycle. The results of my interviews and also
the results of the literature review have shown that most of the suggestions, how a global
mindset could be developed, can be aligned with the HRM cycle. As it is mentioned in the
earlier chapters, companies can also build structures and develop strategies and a vision to
support global mindset. However, at the end it is a process that happens individually. Each
individual starts themselves the development of a global mindset. Therefore, I would like to
allocate possible “global mindset activities” around the HRM cycle.
Recruitment
Global mindset should for certain positions be a core element in the recruitment process.
Among other skills and competencies, global mindset could be an integral part of a job
description, which will also be mentioned in the job advertisement or will be a demand for the
recruitment company. For a job that deals with different cultures and different countries,
global mindset should be regarded. A company can advertise in a way to attract the right
people. To attract people with a global mindset, they should advertise in a diverse way.
Furthermore, companies can already include global mindset when recruiting young talent,
although they might not yet have it or need it for their first job. This will fill the pool of potential
employees for global positions and international assignments.
Selection
In the selection process, global mindset might be one of the core arguments to select
someone for a position. This is the crucial step within the whole HRM cycle. Gregersen et al.
(1998) state that global leaders are born and then made and that not everyone has the ability
to become one. Therefore, they state that companies should not give opportunity and
education to just everyone, but to select the people with the right talent. Based on my
interviews, I would not see it that tight. I believe that intercultural training and cross-cultural
experience does not harm anyone and could support all employees to be more open minded.
However, the chance that someone succeeds in a position or project, where global mindset
is important, is much higher, if global mindset is already part of the selection process.
Otherwise it can be a long way that is costly and consuming for all the involved parties. How
global mindset can be integrated in the selection process will therefore engage us again in
the next chapter.
Induction
At this stage, a new employee is confronted with the corporate culture for the first time. When
a company emphasises diversity, tries to integrate global operations and supports the co-
operational teamwork of people from different cultures, employees entering the organisation
will feel it immediately. If a company has a global corporate culture, the employees will most
likely also develop a positive attitude towards a global approach. They should take over the
corporate vision and become a part of it.
Performance appraisal
Measuring the performance of individuals and teams has become an important tool to ensure
the performance of the whole organisations and to be able to identify and close possible
gaps (Briscoe et al., 2009). For companies that are globally integrated, their performance
relies heavily on the ability of individuals to handle global tasks and issues. Therefore, the
success of multicultural teams or the success of someone leading a global project should get
weight in their performance appraisal. This is also an opportunity to identify employees with a
global mindset. Leaders of multicultural teams and projects crossing borders that are highly
successful will most likely have the ability to understand global issues and to work with
people from different cultures.
Compensation management
Should global mindset be rewarded? Carpenter et al. (2000) propose that international
assignment experience should receive substantial benefits. However, how can be measured,
if an international assignment leads to a better understanding of the culture, to an open
mindedness and curiosity? To be able to directly reward global mindset, it should be possible
to measure it. I suggest, that it should not be tried to comprise global mindset into numbers,
as it is highly subjective. However, based on my interviews, I came to the conclusion that
people with a global mindset will get the chance to achieve a higher position within a
company very soon, which also includes higher compensation. Furthermore, giving someone
with a global mindset a globally integrated task can be a greater benefit than a bonus.
Having a global mindset is a condition or a characteristic and should not get a reward.
However, results should be rewarded, which are expected to be higher for managers with a
global mindset. That gives an indirect reward to managers with a global mindset. For some
jobs, global mindset is a precondition and not an additional advantage.
Selection is about choice. This choice has consequences; often it has critical consequences.
Therefore, the choice has to be made well reflected and prepared. We will deal with three
choices that arise in different selection processes: Who to send on international assignment,
who to recruit externally for an international oriented management position and who to
choose as team leader for a multicultural team. These three selection processes have in
common, that the companies should choose managers with a global mindset or at least
someone that is thought of being able to develop one. Why is it important to have a global
International assignments:
As mentioned before, the failure rate of international assignments is high, which costs the
companies a lot of money. It could either be the case, that international assignees return
home earlier than planned or that they even leave the company at all. Until recently, most of
the employees sent abroad were chosen regarding their technical expertise in the home
country (Briscoe et al., 2009). This, however, disregards all the “soft factors” that are
important for the success of international assignments. Employees and also their families
have to be well prepared before they leave their country for the challenging task abroad.
European companies are known to better include cultural and personal issues into the
preparation or training of international assignees and therefore do not experience the high
failures rates as their American counterparts (Briscoe et al., 2009).
Training and preparation is one thing, the mindset of the candidate is the other. Conditions
described by Briscoe et al. (2009), which are said to lead to a higher probability of a
successful international assignment, are very similar to the characteristics of a person with a
global mindset. Therefore, I suggest that global mindset should be a criterion in the selection
process of choosing managers, who are sent abroad. However, as stated by Gregersen et al.
(1998), international assignment experience is also the most effective way to develop a
global mindset. Do you now send managers abroad because they have a global mindset or
that they develop one? The determination has to be made with the motive that lies behind
the international assignment. With the motive to control foreign operations or with the motive
to fill in positions that cannot be covered by the local labour market, companies should select
managers with a global mindset and at the same time take into consideration technical skills
and competencies that are needed for the job abroad. With the learning driven motive,
Multicultural teams
Being part of a multicultural team may be positive for individuals to develop a global mindset.
However, multicultural teams are not at first training fields for individuals, but a crucial part for
MNEs to be competitive in the global market. Multicultural teams have the ability to achieve
very positive results for complex tasks, where different opinions, views and also creativity are
needed. The broad cultural knowledge within a multicultural team helps making important
and difficult decisions, especially when different markets and countries are involved. The
success of multicultural teams is controversial. In my interviews, I found out that some
companies stop to pursue cross-border projects, as the time and effort is too high. They still
support multicultural teams, but only within the headquarters or in one specific country. The
time difference, geographical distance and the major cultural differences can therefore be
avoided. Foreign employees working in the headquarters may still have some cultural
differences, but they are more or less adjusted to the local culture. A study from van den
Bergh and Lehmann (2004) showed that multicultural teams are either much more
successful than single cultural teams or much less successful. The factor, which makes the
critical difference, is how the team is leaded.
Multicultural teams need a leader, who can deal with people from various cultures, who finds
the balance between the needs of the team members and who is able to get the best results
out of this diverse team. Diversity can be an opportunity and an advantage, but the risk of
dissonance within the team is also high. Some skills how to lead multicultural teams may be
learned in leadership courses. However, the feeling how to deal with different people is much
more important. The leader of a multicultural team needs to have a global mindset. This is
not a guarantee for a positive project result, but the likelihood that the team performs well, is
high. In the selection process of choosing a team leader, global mindset should be
integrated.
One of the most important factors will be previous experience with leading multicultural
teams or with being member of a multicultural team. The opinions of other team members
4. Implementation
Almost all interviewees I interviewed, have heard or read about the concept of global mindset
before. For some it is a topic in the daily work, others have read about it in journals or
newspapers. Current textbooks of International Human Resource Management dedicate at
least a small chapter to global mindset. However, to make it a part of a company’s culture, it
has to be integrated in HR processes and policies. The world economy gets more and more
interconnected and differences of cultures cannot be ignored anymore. For MNEs, that have
their business allocated on all continents and also make a growing part of their sales in
emerging markets in Asia and South America, global mindset or the global corporate culture
must even be part of the vision. Not every employee within a company needs a global
mindset, but everybody should be aware of the opportunity of diversity. Therefore, global
To succeed in today’s interconnected, multipolar and diverse global market, companies need
a global response to global issues. They need a global strategy and vision to meet the needs
of customers, suppliers and employees worldwide. Implementing a global strategy does not
mean doing everything in the same way everywhere in the world. It includes the knowledge
and sensitiveness that there are differences. Bartlett and Ghoshal (2002) wrote about the
transnational corporation (TNC) that draws upon global expertise, technology and resources
and in addition works hard to localise in order to be seen as a local and not only as a global
company. This approach allows companies to save costs and profit from technology transfer
with global consistency and at the same time react to differences of cultures and behaviours
through local responsiveness. Global strategy and global thinking is by no means the
American way, as some people may see it. It is neither to favour global consistency over
local responsiveness. It is rather the balance between global and local. The global market
does not need a “one size fits it all” solution, but instead companies that realize the
differences and which are able to respond to them. Bolgar (2007) suggests to standardise
inside operations and on the other hand to localise outside operations. In general this might
work for companies most of the time. However, in reality a lot of cases also need an
individual judgment.
To be competitive in the global market, companies need a corporate global culture, a culture
that allows and even supports diversity and at the same time profits from common corporate
values. The global market is growing, especially in emerging markets like China, India and
Brazil. These countries are not only attractive consumer markets, but also origin of very
competitive new global players. More and more MNEs from developing countries enter the
market. All companies from developed and from developing countries are confronted with a
new, dynamic and ever changing environment. They have to be able to find solutions to
complex issues.
To find this global response or strategy, companies need managers with a global mindset,
who are capable of finding the balance between global consistency and local
responsiveness. They need global leaders, who can manage employees from different
cultures and who can adapt to these cultures, while working in other countries during
international assignments. These global leaders have to make decisions that influence
different people from various places and therefore they must understand the diversity of
these people worldwide. The global market brings with it a lot of opportunities, but also many
risks. Managers with a global mindset should be able to exploit these opportunities and
simultaneously be aware of the risks and find global solutions to confront them.
Environmental and social issues get a more and more global dimension and are not local
6. Discussion
This report addresses globally operating companies independent of their size. Both, small
MNEs and big MNEs need managers with a global mindset and they should gain an
advantage by reaching towards a global corporate culture. However, whether a global
corporate culture and the individual global mindset of the company’s managers is really a
competitive advantage, depends on the objective a company wants to achieve. Small
companies that serve only the local market do not have to think globally. Of course, they will
be affected by globalisation and at least the top management should be aware of that, but
they do not need a global strategy. It could even be a disadvantage as many local customers
are very happy to be served by a local company. Although, the global risks of a changing
market and new competitors should be taken into account, managers should particularly
focus on the needs and opportunities of the local market. On the other hand, internationally
operating companies cannot come around to concern themselves with the differences in the
world.
Global mindset has to be seen in a context. In the selection process, global mindset could be
an integrated part, but other factors are also important like business experience, leadership
competence, technical skills and knowledge of the products and markets. Only focusing on
global mindset might be the same mistake as ignoring global mindset. However, as the
development of global mindset includes a lot of the above mentioned factors, managers with
a global mindset will most likely bring the other skills and competencies with them.
As already mentioned, not all positions within a company require a global mindset. A lot of
job profiles need other mindsets. However, a globally oriented workplace demands an
understanding of globally connected issues. These positions are quite numerous in big
MNEs. The selection processes to find people to fill these positions should include the
consideration of global mindset. In this paper I concentrated on three selection processes:
The selection of international assignees, the selection of leaders of multicultural teams and
the selection of external candidates for global positions. Global mindset might be equally or
even more important for other selections as for example the selection of executives,
members of the board of directors or selecting managers to be promoted. These selection
processes are interesting to be dealt with by further research.
Barry Callebaut (2009) “Innovation and growth” (online) (cited 25th October 2009). Available
from <http://www.barry-callebaut.com/70>
Bartlett, C. A. and Ghoshal, S. (2002) Managing Across Borders (2nd edition), Boston,
Harvard Business School Press.
Beechler, S., Taylor, S., Boyacigiller, N. A. and Levy, O. (1999) “Building global mindset for
competitive advantage”, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of
Management Meetings, August, Chicago.
Begley, T. M. and Boyd, D. P. (2003) “The need of a Corporate Global Mind-Set”, MIT Sloan
Management Review, Winter, pp. 25-32.
Berdan, S. N. (2009) “Cultivating a Global Mindset within MBA Studies”, The Greentree
Gazette, March/April.
Gregersen, H. B., Morrison, A. J. and Black, J. S. (1998) “Developing Leaders for the Global
Frontier”, Sloan Management Review, Fall, pp. 21-32.
Kedia, B. L. and Mukherji, A. (1999) “Global Managers: Developing a Mindset for Global
Competitiveness”, Journal of World Business, 34:3, pp. 230-251.
Paik, Y. and Sohn, J. D. (2004) “Expatriate Managers and MNC’s Ability to Control
International Subsidiaries: The Case of Japanese MNCs”, Journal of World Business,
39:1, pp. 61-71.
Paul, H. (2002) “Creating a Mindset”, Thunderbird International Business Review, 42:2, pp.
187-200.
Swain, G. (2007) “Is a global mindset in your DNA?”, thunderbird Magazine, Fall 2007,
pp. 1-9.
Tichy, N., Fombrun, C., Devanna, M. A. (1981) “Strategic Human Resource Management”,
University of Michigan Working Paper No. 279, September.
UNCTAD (2002) “Transnational Corporation (TNC)” (online) (cited 6th December 2009).
Available from < http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=3148&lang=1>
Van den Bergh, S. and Lehmann, R. (2004) Die Dynamik von multikulturellen Teams als
Wettbewerbsvorteil, Chur, KTI.
1. How often have you come across the term / concept of global mindset?
very often
sometimes
rarely
never
______________________________________________
3. a. How strong is the relation for the following areas with global mindset?
(1 weak / 5 very strong)
a b
cross cultural teams 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
international marketing 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
global strategies 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
HR policies 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
cross boarder mergers & acquisitions 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
global environmental and social issues 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
international finance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
foreign languages 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
cross cultural leadership 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
global social network 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
macro environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
foreign markets and consumer behaviour 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
global talent management 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
4. How important is a global mindset for your position? (1 not important / 5 very important)
1 2 3 4 5
____________________________________________________________________
Surname:___________________________
Name:______________________________
Organisation:_________________________
Position:_____________________________
E-mail:______________________________