Global management is the process by which business processes like sales, marketing and an organization or its manager manages finance internationally. The importance of global management has been realized to help companies establish their niche in international business community and expand the business internationally. Global business managers combine the skills and knowledge related to business, culture and social practices and integrates them with technology to conduct business globally (Frynas & Mellahi, 2015). Many companies hire global managers to tailor their business according to local culture (From an international perspective, several marketing, operations and human resource issue may arise in foreign countries and global managers coordinate with different countries of business operations to efficiently manage issues and maintain the objectivity of business (Goerzen, Asmussen, & Nielsen, 2014).
With the rise in new multinational corporations, there is an increasing need of global management capability among managers to evaluate economic growth rates. The managers with global management should have different skill sets such as
Apart from global management capability, personality characteristics are also important to achieve the goals of business management. Personality characteristics predispose humans to behave in a certain way in a particular situation (Caligiuri & Tarique, 2014). The purpose of this essay is to evaluate personal skills and personality factors that could have an impact on global management functions. The essay reviews literature related to global management capabilities and different assessment inventories to understand the skills required for the role of global managers. Secondly, evaluation of personal skills is given by means of Belbin Test, Big Five personality test and the stress management competency test. By this evaluation, personal strength and weakness in each area is identified and the SMART goals help to overcome and strengthen existing skills to achieve competency in global management.
Managerial effectiveness in a global context is dependent on the managerial capabilities, personality, global complexity and experience of individuals. In terms of global managerial capabilities, three skills needed for managers include learning behavior, resilience and business knowledge skills. Learning behavior is reflected from the motivation of the managers to work and learn in different cultural context by exploring cultural difference and perspective of others in business operations and business operation (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). This is also dependent on the willingness to understand other perspective and observing strategies to learn from those experiences. Secondly, the resilience skill of a global manager is dependent on their ability to manage time and stress. Resilience is an important prerequisite for managers who are involved in managing business operations globally (Bullough, A., & Renko, M. (2013). The third and the most important skill is the core business knowledge skills which enable the global manager to understand and analyze different in business practices in different cultural and demographic context (Leslie et al., 2002).
Several literatures has explored the learning behavior of managers and the study by Warhurst, (2016) gives insight into the ways to analyze a managers receptivity to learn. Evaluating the effectiveness of manager’s learning is an important area of attention because of the rapid changes in business environment. The results depicted that identity was created by means of individual’s interest in creating a desired self. From this result, it can be concluded that willingness of global managers to create a desired self in the global context is necessary to engage in global business management (Li, Mobley, & Kelly, 2013)
The study by Townsend & Cairns, (2003) acknowledges that educational programs related to international management is a challenge due to the need to satisfy multi-cultural domestic markets and overseas visitors who have different cultural beliefs. In such situation, future managers need to move beyond basic competence level and adapt new capability framework to strengthen adaptability in the job. Hence, serious global management student can transform into a globally capable managers by means of experiential engagement and learning apart from competence development. Multicultural development is particularly important in this area of job and this form of development occurs by means of reflecting on one’s own culture, willingness to work in diverse culture and learning to balance different perception depending on the context of business (Stevens et al., 2014).
Another important attribute is that of having leadership qualities of planning shared vision for the organization to facilitate operational success. As business of the 21st century is global, independent and rapidly changing, there is a need to have sophisticated leadership skills (Rodríguez-Carvajal et al., 2014). This shows that position and competence of a person determine the authority of leader in particular countries. However, in an international work environment, a leader cannot choose his style at will, they leadership style needs to be moulded according to cultural conditioning of their subordinates. Therefore, global managers need three clusters of leadership competencies, which are interpersonal, intrapersonal and social competencies (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).
Personality may be defined as an individual trait that is developed by means of experience to which a person is interested and his/ her most acquired capabilities and behavior. The experiences are developed by means of demographic variables and other personal or job experience that an individual possess and utilizes them in managing work procedures. Hence, based on the number of experience of an individual, one manager may be comfortable in global responsibilities and another manager may not have the same confidence in dealing with global work. Therefore, experience is an important set of skills for work managers.
Personality data of global managers can tell a lot about them. Individual managers can understand their personality characteristics by means of the Big Five personality test. Each of the five personality characteristics can help global managers to accomplish and achieve their job responsibilities (Leutner et al., 2014). People who are extroverts can have natural ease with social demands and they can actively engage in interaction with people from different cultural background. Another positive personality characteristic is that of agreeableness which facilitates global leaders to smartly deal with conflict and engage in cross-cultural adjustment. On the other hand, individuals who have the quality of conscientiousness can easily understand the complexity of global work and demonstrate greater effort and commitment in their job responsibilities. In addition, some person may display personality trait of emotional stability, which might help them to cope with stress in the context of unfamiliar global business environment. The fifth personality characteristics is that of openness and individuals with openness held very few rigid views of right and wrong and they can easily accept and adapt to diverse cultures (Awais Bhatti et al., 2015).
Analysis on the link between agreeableness and leadership traits reveals that agreeableness can act as a strength or weakness depending on the situation. Agreeablenss is the quality of warmth, cooperation, trust and acceptance, however is situation where competitive approach is needed, this form of quality may not work (Judge et al., 2015).
Ramesh, Hazucha, & Bank, (2008) reports that multi-national companies are facing challenges in comparing managers from different parts of the world. This is because both practical and psychometric context of individual differs according to demographic context. The study proposed three steps to enhance the global competitiveness of managers. The first step included analyzing psychometric aspects by means of global personality test. Secondly, it proposed examining the relationship of personality scales from external variables of environment. The final step was to use global norms to evaluate the performance of global managers coming from different countries. Another study gave insight into the evaluation of skills by means of Belbin test which helped in studying the impact of different group roles balance of team work quality and performance. Group members have different behavioral patterns in interpersonal interaction and this has impact on the task achievement (Meslec & Cur?eu, 2015). Therefore, Belbin test helps to capture individual group preference and stability in the group.
Extraversion is also an important trait according to the big five personality theory. It is related to the high enthusiasm of a person in work. In relation to the global managers, having the quality of extraversion will help to engage with external world and stimulate the team to work (Cobb-Clark & Schurer, 2012). The study by (Grant, Gino, & Hofmann, (2011) explains that extraversion helps to predict effectiveness of leaders. They have the role in enhancing a group performance particularly when members are passive. However, the same thing reverse when a manager has proactive employees. This reveals that extraverted leaders are less receptive to proactivity.
To determine my ability to successfully engage in global management, I have analyzed my personality and skills through the Big Five inventory test, the stress management test and the belbin test. The literature review on big five personality traits had revealed that different aspects of personality may support an individual to engage in global task in different ways. To identify my own personality traits that I could exploit in my future role as a global manager, I completed the Big Five inventory consisting of 44 item questionnaire. The score obtained from the questionnaire helped to identify personal dimension of personality and their associated characteristics. The description regarding the Big Five dimension and their main correlated traits is given in Appendix 1. After completing the test, I got the maximum score for the personality trait of agreeableness (Results provided in Appendix 2). I am satisfied with this result because literature review has shown that this personality characteristic enables global leaders to adjust and manage cross cultural conflicts.
I have an altruistic attitude, which is relevant to the personality trait of agreeableness, and this will have positive implications for my role as a global manager. However, the quality of agreeableness might also turn out to be a threat for global managers. This is because leaders should give frank feedback to team and engage in true criticism to improve current work practice. However, agreeable people can face difficulty in providing criticism (Fischer & Wildman, 2016). Hence, I would like to work on this weakness and try my best not to hampers my progress in the role of global managers. Agreeableness can act as a positive trait for leaders when they have a right team in place and shared decision-making is encouraged. However, the same trait may hinder the work of global managers when competitors are aggressive and complex decisions needs to be taken (Judge et al., 2015). Hence, I will keep this aspect in my mind while planning my development as global leader. Secondly, I have got very low score in the personality trait of extreversion. However, this trait is necessary for global managers to engage with diverse people and stimulate people to perform. Hence, I would like to work on my introvert nature because this can be threat for a job in this position. Keeping to myself may not help in professional development in any ways and I would work on the extraversion domain of friendliness, assertiveness, activity level and cheerfulness to improve my professional skills.
For global managers, team role is also important to effectively connect with geographically diverse workforce. Global manager’s role is important to build a team that offers the best functional expertise around the world (Global Teams That Work, 2017). Hence, to evaluate my capability and skills to bring together people from diverse culture and varied work experience, I conducted the Belbin test.
The Belbin team inventory is a behavioral test that measures an individual’s preference for nine team roles. I scored myself in different sections of the inventory such as the involvement in a project with other people, seeking satisfaction through my work, my role in solving complex team problem, carrying out day-to-day work, ability to handle difficult task with unfamiliar people, the need to consider a new project and contributing to group projects. After completing the test, I got to know that my primary preferred team role was that of the resource investigator and the secondary preferred team role was that of shaper or complete coordinator (The results of the test are mentioned in the appendix 3). I agree with my results because I do have an investigative nature, which helps me to solve complex problems within a team. Hence, team role of resource investigator will be strength for me during my global management responsibilities as with this quality, I easily explore opportunities and develop contacts with diverse team members. Furthermore, my secondary team role of shaper will help me to overcome my weakness and motivate the team not to lose focus midway (Meslec & Cur?eu, 2015). As reviewed in literature too, having adequate leadership skill will to move the team towards operational success (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).
Apart from personality traits and team behavior role, the stress management competency of global managers is also important to determine to manage stress and conflict in work environment. The third test that was done to evaluate my personal competency in stress management. My personal stress management behavior was evaluated by means of questionnaire in the area of managing emotions, communicating existing and future work, managing individual within a team, handling difficult situations. The response for each area and the result is given in the appendix 4. I got the highest effectiveness in the area of managing emotions and having integrity. However, in future, I will focus in the areas where I had got low score and plan to work on them.
Based on evaluating the personal capability and skills in global management, I have a set of plans to strengthen my positive traits and improve my weak points. My SMART objectives for my future role as global leader are as follows:
Personality is an important attribute for global managers apart from work experience and having the right experience. During my evaluation, I got to know that I have an agreeable personality. I would utilize this trait in a positive manner. With this trait, I can seek and drive consensus within a team having different culture and work expertise. This positive attribute of agreeableness can help me to adapt to diverse work environment and build an inclusive culture at the workplace. The use of right strategy will help me to promote harmony in the workplace. Despite this positive result, agreeable personality also has the threat to work in situations where I need to provide constructive feedback. I would like to take steps in this situation and check not to allow my personality to take control of the situation. In such case, I would like to achieve balance by not being too friendly but giving constructive feedback to the teams so that they identify the need for change.
Secondly, in the area of stress management competency, my top priority will be to develop my skills in managing difficult situation. Strengthening this area is very important for my future role as global manager as this is the primary job of management. I would like to improve this skill in the future by effectively utilizing organizational resources to deal with problems. As I am particularly weak in regular follows up with team, I will prioritize my work in such a way that managing conflicts and resolution process becomes easier.
Conclusion:
The essay focused on evaluating the skills and capabilities of global manager. The paper particularly analyzes current literature related to the key skills and attributes required for global management. This analysis was important to develop my competencies in global management in the future. By means of evidence I got regarding the global management capabilities, I evaluated my personal score in these areas by means of Big Five inventory test, Belbin test and the stress management competency test. From this evaluation, I learnt about my weakness and strengths in relation to the skills required for global management. With this knowledge and the plan that I had made for overcoming my weakness, I aim to get recruited and renowned as top manager for multinational firms.
References:
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