Leadership Convergence and Divergence in the Era of Globalization

Abstract

To sustain or enhance corporate competitiveness in the 21st century, it is important for organizations to comprehensively understand the influences of globalization on their businesses. The purpose of this study is to review and analyze existing literature about globalization trends and their impact on leadership, and to integrate major themes to present what constitutes effective leadership behaviors emerging as convergent and universal, or divergent and contingent. This chapter provides an overview of global convergence, divergence, and crossvergence in Human Resource practice and leadership. It also suggests a definition of global leadership and reviews global leadership competency models in the current literature. Utilizing content analysis, this chapter analyzes the existing literature and presents emerging themes for effective leadership behaviors that include universal and converging, and contingent and diverging. Finally, future research directions as well as practical implications are presented.