Leadership and Ethics

Individual Project

Leigh M. Oliver

Global Leadership and Ethics

February 27, 2017

Steve Turner

Individual Project: Developing My Global Mindset

Introduction

If we want to succeed in today’s global economy, we must be prepared to do business all around the world.  In our Global Leadership and Ethics class, we studied steps and learned how to incorporate them in our everyday business routine to help prepare us to be successful global leaders.  One main take away from the course was learning how to develop our global mindset.  In our reading, Developing Your Global Mindset: The Handbook for Successful Global Leaders (Javidan & Walker, 2013) states that, “Global Mindset is a set of attributes and characteristics that help global leaders better influence individuals, groups, and organizations unlike themselves” (location 260, kindle version).  As we develop our global mindset, we are able to absorb information, traditions, and different cultural norms from around the globe and able to make an impact in all environments. Before taking the Global Leadership and Ethics course, I didn’t know the importance of how a global leader and global mindset could benefit a company, however, through the many discussion boards, lessons, and conversations we’ve had over the 8 week course, the professional and diverse communication the class and instructor has provided has given me a personal and professional vision on becoming an impactful global and ethical leader.

Developing your Global Mindset: The Handbook for Successful Global Leaders

        In reality, many people don’t have a global mindset.  There is such a huge disconnect in the workforce between employees.  As we learned in our reading, the majority of the workforce are socialized to work with people who are just like them. There are three “capitals” that authors Javidan and Walker defined to help develop and increase our global mindset:

• Global Social Capital – Intercultural empathy, Interpersonal impact, diplomacy, ability to build trusting relationships with and among people are different from you
• Global Psychological Capital- Passion for diversity, quest for adventure, self-assurance, openness to differences, and compassion to change
• Global Intellectual Capital – Global business savvy, cognitive complexity, cosmopolitan outlook, capacity to learn

One of the discussion questions that stood out to me in this section was, “How does your Global Mindset reading agree with or conflict with JBU's goal to educate the whole person- "head, heart, hand"? I agree with the global mindset of the reading with JBU’s goal to educate the whole person- head, heart, and hand with Global Social Capital (GSC) – wanting to build relationships with people who are different from themselves (Building relationships = Hands), Global Psychological Capital (GPC) –  leaders are able to feel comfortable in uncomfortable surroundings and have passion for diversity (Passion = Heart), and Global Intellectual Capital (GIC)- leaders have the ability to want to learn and research about other cultures (Cognitive learning = Head). I believe this sums up the global mindset of how leaders can make an impact, build, and maintain work relationships in a global economy.

Strange Virtues: Ethics in a Multicultural World

        I found Adeney’s book quite thought provoking.  It reminded me of the scripture, Luke 6:37, which reads, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (New Living Translation). A multicultural world is the diversity of cultures that exist in society today. It is easy to say that our world is absolutely a melting pot of diversity. As we interact with different cultures, it is important that we are taught to be able to interact with people of different races, ethnicities, and cultures.  It is important that we as Christian’s not judge and condemn others just because we don’t believe or understand their background.  Adeney explained that no one in this world is exactly the same. Some of us may share similarities with other people, but in the end, we are our own person. Everyone has his or her own personality, background, values, beliefs, and also ethics. With that being said, it is very important that we understand that we are made in God’s image and lead by example.

Team Project (China)

 I can honestly say that as I get older the concept of a group project is less and less appealing every time one is assigned.  It is always a huge nervous feeling I get in the pit of my stomach that I will mess up my part of the project and the whole team will miss out on points because of me.  We were assigned a group project in which we had to research another country. My group chose China.  My portion of the project was to research China’s national diversity, business protocol, local business environment, and how China’s business environment communicate effectively.  At first, I thought the project was going to be difficult to work on because this is an online class, but it made me stay grounded and as a team communicate effectively through email, texts, and phone calls.  Not only did the project make me more aware of how other people in another country live and communicate, but it also made me aware of how I can effectively work on a team without being in an actual classroom.