Critical Review of Global Leadership Literature: Toward an Integrative Global Leadership Framework

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to critically examine the literature on global leadership competencies and behaviors, and present an integrative global leadership framework. For the literature review, we examined 14 global leadership competency models and 11 indigenous studies on effective leader and manager behaviors in various countries published between 1995 and 2016. We adopted Yukl’s effective leader behavior framework, which identified four meta-categories (i.e., task, change, relation, and external conditions) and 15 specific behaviors within each category (e.g., planning, scheduling, monitoring, and problem-solving for the task-orientation). By reviewing the competency models, we found five research themes: intercultural, interpersonal, global, change and vision, and personal traits and values, which included ethics and openness/flexibility. Finally, we proposed a conceptual framework based on our review which demonstrates core dimensions, competencies, and behaviors of effective global leaders.