Global Business Today: Asia-Pacific Perspective 5th edition by Charles W. L. Hill Solution manual

 
6. Successful international business managers are often described as possessing a ‘global mindset’. Outline what you think characterises an individual with a global mindset.
 
Answer guide: Specifically, Gupta (2008) defines a global mindset as one that combines an openness to and awareness of diversity across cultures and markets with a propensity and ability to see common patterns across countries and markets. In a company with a global mindset, people view cultural and geographic diversity as opportunities to exploit and are prepared to adopt successful practices and good ideas wherever they come from. The twin forces of ideological change and technological revolution are making globalisation one of the most important issues facing companies today. As such, cultivating a global mindset is a prerequisite to becoming a global company. Companies exhibiting global mindsets include GE, P&E, Nestlé, Unilever and Colgate. (Source: Anil K Gupta, Vijay Govindarajan & Haiyan Wang, The Quest For Global Dominance, Jossey-Bass, 2008.)
 
More broadly, the global mindset concept has been studied and written about for decades. If you search for ‘global mindset’ online you’ll find many books on this topic.
 
Below are three of the many definitions that have been put forward.
 
A global mindset:
 
helps leaders see the world from multiple perspectives, make decisions that work both locally and globally, and increase the ability of their company to compete in the global marketplace (Baltzley & Beechler, 2009)
 
is the ability to influence individuals, groups, organizations, and systems that are unlike the leader’s (Javidan, 2008)
 
is an openness to and awareness of diversity, with a propensity and ability to see common patterns across countries and markets (http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=global-mindset).
 
Based on insights gathered by researchers over decades, additional tenets are as follows.
 
The term ‘global mindset’ designates a constellation of mental, emotional and behavioural competencies. These competencies comprise an openness to engaging with, and an ability to come to completely understand, others from cultural backgrounds with which one is initially unfamiliar; the elimination of, or lessening of, ‘knee-jerk’ judgementalness with respect to the values and behaviour of others from unfamiliar backgrounds; and an eagerness and an ability to view the global marketplace and one’s own challenges within it from multiple value perspectives. These competencies can be learned or, if already possessed, can be further enhanced. Managers who have a global mindset are more likely to remain long term with a company that organisationally also has a global mindset, because in such a work environment the managers’ global competencies are valued and leveraged to provide them with ‘stretch’ global assignments (Grovewell Leadership Solutions, www.grovewell.com/intercultural-communication/global-mindset-development/global-mindset-the-concept).
 
References
D. R.  Baltzley & S Beechler (2009), ‘Developing leaders with global mindset’, Duke Corporate Education, HRPS Webinar, 21 July.
 
M. Javidan (2008), ‘Global mindset: Why is it important for global leaders?’, PowerPoint presentation developed at the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
 
O. Levy, S. Beechler, S. Taylor & N. Boyacigiller (2007), ‘What we talk about when we talk about “global mindset”: Managerial cognition in multinational corporations’, Journal of International Business Studies, 38(2), pp. 231–58.
 
C.A. Bartlett & S. Ghoshal (1989), Managing across borders: The transnational solution, Harvard Business School Press.
 
H. Perlmutter (1969), ‘The tortuous evolution of the multinational corporation’, Columbia Journal of World Business, 4, pp. 9–18.
 
U. Hannertz (1996), ‘Cosmopolitans and locals in world culture’, Transnational Collections: Culture, People, Places, Routledge, pp. 163–93.
 
R.M. Kanter (1995), World class: Thriving locally in the global economy, Simon & Schuster, p. 23.
 

IBGA9: Citizenship

 
7. The internet is reaching further into all parts of the world, including developing countries. Outline how globalisation and international business have been affected by this increased connectivity, and speculate on the additional challenges and responsibilities confronting international business that are likely to arise from being an active participant in the ‘global village’.