How do modern managers integrate political, legal, and cultural competencies into a global
management mindset? Support your reasoning.
To be effective leaders, to position their firms competitively, and to minimize risk exposure to
their organizations, managers in a global operating environment must integrate political,
legal, and cultural competencies and more in all facets of decision-making and interactions.
The leadership competencies necessary to thrive as a global manager fall into intellectual
competencies, psychological competencies, and social capital competencies (Javidan &
Walker, 2012). Political, legal, and cultural competencies would fall under the knowledge,
cognitive or intellectual competency category. Knowledge competencies can be taught and
learned. Managers can develop political, legal, and cultural competencies by taking a
proactive initiative in their development and experiences. Development could take place
outside of the workplace in the form of formal academic education, which is linked to
increased Global Mindset scores (Javidan & Walker, 2012), or through informal learning
through proactive reading and cultural immersion. Organizations should also encourage and
have resources in place for global managerial development including coaching and mentoring
programs, global assignments, and learning paths through well-rounded, dedicated training
curriculums (Anantharam & Nankervis, 2013). However, to be effective, these knowledge-
based skills must be integrated and used in conjunction with psychological competencies,
which include a passion for diversity, and an innate ability to think broadly and beyond
oneself and one’s society and social capital competencies which include the ability to connect,
engage, motivate, and negotiate with others (Javidan & Walker, 2012).
References
Ananthram, S., & Nankervis, A. (2013). Global managerial skill sets, management
development, and the role of HR: An exploratory qualitative study of North American and
Indian managers.
Contemporary Management Research, 9
(3), 299-321.
Javidan, M., & Walker, J. L. (2012). A whole new global mindset for leadership.
People &
Strategy
,
35
(2), 36-41.
