Global Management Capabilities: An In-Depth Review

Literature Review

In the contemporary era of business, with the dawn of digitalization and internet, domestic organizations around the world are attempting to reach out to customers all over the world. Therefore, in order to run an organization successfully as well as economically in the international premise, there is the need for global management. The phrase “global management” is indicative of the responsibility of protecting the well being of an organization as well as functioning as the quality assurance for both the international and global customer around the world.

Considering the aforementioned responsibilities of global management and its importance, it is to mention that the fundamental attributes required from the designation of global management are overseas experience, strong self-awareness, global strategic thinking, curiosity, sensitivity towards cultural diversity and power of negotiation. Furthermore, communication skills, which are essential for any level of management is another basic required skills from a global manager. Personality is considered as a constant pattern of thinking, feeling and thereafter acting or behaving. In other words, personality is a product of interaction within a social group. Therefore, it can be contemplated that a personality is the key that is required to be formed by the incorporation of the aforementioned global managerial skills to handle global business responsibilities.

The thesis, which the following assignment is going to concentrate on, is, without having an appropriate personality coupled with particular capabilities, it is not possible to become a successful global manager. In order to accomplish the above-mentioned thesis statement, the following paper is going to make an in-depth and critical review of the relevant literatures about global management capabilities. Thereafter, the paper will evaluate the skills and competencies relevant to become a global manager will be pursued. In this section, those skills and capabilities will be evaluated, which have identified through three particular tests – Belbin, Stress management and the big five inventory. Finally, the paper will design convenient objectives, which will help the concerned one in improvising his/her present skills and competencies for global management.    

Management capabilities are an umbrella term that encompasses a diverse group of terms and concepts that are rewired and utilized multiple times and multiple ways in the business management scenario every day. It is the amalgamation of a lot of attributes that sometimes are contradictory and sometimes are complementary. The globally recognized competent management attributes that make the managerial staff to ensure that the business processes are running smoothly include leadership, effective communication, motivation, persuasion, conflict resolving and perseverance (Rao, 2013). Various research articles have discussed in detail the factors associated with a highly competent globalized management capabilities.

Hard Skills:

Hard and soft skills are considered to be very common sets of business management competencies that help the business management employees float through the challenges and complications that continues to arise every day. Business management hard skills are considered to be tangible attributes in the life of the management staff, that allows him of her to participate and excel in the tasks like scheduling and software process management. Rangnekar has discussed about planning and scheduling to be one of the most important management skill required for attaining the management success that is beneficial (Rangnekar, 2011). Other than that budget preparation and planning the financial backbone of the company, other than that risk management and critical decisions are also mentioned as few of the most important managerial hard skills that will easily take the standards of the business management to the global standards.

Other than the hard skills that have been discussed above, there are soft business management skills as well, these are largely intangible interpersonal skills that help a corporate professional progress through the daily challenges. Marando has discussed that communication is considered to be one of the most vital soft required for excellent managerial leadership, which is strongly rivalled by the attribute of motivation (Marando, 2012). A business professional that has effective and assertive communicational prowess and a highly motivational and inspirational approach, the other employees are influenced by the dedication and determination. Furthermore in order to survive in the world of cut throat corporate, without the soft skill of negotiation, a management professional cannot survive. Hendarman & Tjakraatmadja in their article have discussed the value of persuasion and negotiation as a prime duo of soft skills to take the organization to the pinnacle of success (Hendarman & Tjakraatmadja, 2012).

Other than the managerial attributes, the innate personality of the professional is another important sector for attaining corporate success in this world. Cobb-Clark & Schurer, have said in their article that business is a profession associated with people and without a charismatic go-getter personality, the chances of them getting the chance for attaining success is dim (Cobb-Clark & Schurer, 2012). Extraversion is considered to be the first factor for business professionals to attain excellence in the business sector. The positive energy and assertiveness of this attributes allow the professional to headlong a situation and do not back down out of it. Openness is the second big personality trait associated with business which allows the professional to be imaginative and aspiring. The conscientiousness is the third big 5 personality trait and coupled with the fourth trait agreeableness allows the professional to always maintain an ethical and justified business practice as mentioned by Fagley (Fagley, 2012). Lastly neuroticism or extreme nervously is the last big 5 personality trait that has a negative impact on the business practice on the individual, as nervousness and mental breakdown will never allow a person to survive the dynamic corporate world (Fagley, 2012).

Soft Skills:

Therefore, it can be said that in case of a business corporate situation the personality traits can have a significant impact, be it positive and progressive or negative. The business professional needs to distinguish the attributes that are going to help him move forward towards the success and attaempt to hone those skills further. Similarly the business professional needs to figure out the negative attributes that he or she might contain that can be a contributing factor leading to failure in this cut throat corporate world. It has to be understood that business does not show mercy to the ones that do not put forth optimal effort and dedication, and these attributes are way of assuring that those efforts are being channelized in the right way and in the right manner. Hence, care should be taken by the business professional to distinguish the attributes that are going to help and leave out the ones that are going to be detrimental for him (Rao, 2013).

As per Martínez?Ortiz et al. (2016), among the aforementioned five prime attributes set by the “big five personality factors”, one of the most essential one to concentrate on is found out to be “openness”. The term – “openness” in the premise of “Big five personality theory” is indicative of the feature of open mindedness of a person. A person with an open mind means, the person would possibly experience new things or will try to experience new aspects as they have the capabilities of being imaginative and curious. However, a person who always wants to maintain a strict routine would never be able to acquire one of the pre-dominant attributes designed by the “Big five personality theory”. However, the importance to have the attribute does not implicate that a manager on an international premise should not maintain punctuality and a systematic life.

Openness does not mean leading a life of a manager without having plans and organization for future. As rightly asserted by Blades (2016), openness is the most essential accompanying aspect of management, that helps an individual to accomplish all the corporate success by being creative and open to new ideas. Therefore, it can be said that the high openness of a manager means the capacity of the manager in adopting creative and new ideas instead of the conventional ones. As per Tjosvol et al. (2014), the essential sub-traits, whose combine effort produces the attribute of openness in a person are imagination, artistic interest, emotionality, adventurousness, intellect and liberalism. In order to acquire success as a manager in a foreign country, an individual needs to have the basic strength of embracing new and contemporary corporal style and along with that should hold the ability to implement those ideas in their individual position. Henceforth, it can be said that “openness” is one of the potential and predominant characteristics needed from a global manager.

Big 5 Personality Factors:

After having an in-depth understanding about the designation and importance of global management and the fundamental attributes required becoming a successful global manager, it is essential now to evaluate whether my present skills are worth enough in supporting me in future in becoming an efficient global manager or not. In order to understand whether I am worthy enough or not, I have pursued three distinct skill tests, which are “the big five inventory”, “Belbin” and the “stress management” tests. I should contemplate here that each of the aforementioned tests has enlightened me about my capabilities and personality for the designation of a global manager.

The above-mentioned test result is indicative of the fact that I have a highly open-minded personality, which as per the literature review section is one of the potential aspect to become a global manager. The literature review section has elaborated the fact that in order to get adapted in new culture and to be an efficient manager, an individual should be creative and should have the ability to adopt and implement new ideas. Moreover, to achieve such capabilities, a manager needs to have a highly open-minded self. Henceforth, I can say that the test result is indicative of the fact that I can be a manager who can easily adapt a new corporate culture and can bring creativity in my work. It is to keep in mind in this context that, too much open-mindedness does not always prove effective for the designation of a global manager. As per Rao (2013), open-mindedness can lead to have receptivity, which is not considered to be a convenient feature for a global manager. Receptivity that is a product of excessive open-mindedness creates unoriginality, conformity, distractibility and passivity. The test result says that I have acquired highest score in the attribute of open-mindedness, which means in future there is the possibility to have the negative impact of receptivity in my career as a global manager. On the other hand, I should also consider the fact that with too much of open-mindedness, there is the possibility to grow negative attributes of flexibility. It means in future, there is the possibility to have lack of commitment and in the management level; extreme openness to sudden transformation can take a disastrous form. Therefore, I have to make plan for adjusting my attribute of open-mindedness with other significant managerial attributes like extraversion, which I need to sharpen as well.       

From the Belbin test, I have understood that I am a person with high open-mindedness as section A of the test has indicated that I am interested in finding out new ideas and plans for development. However, the test has indicated the fact that I have a supportive nature and the sense of responsibility and the test has implied that I have the ability to work along flexibly with others in a team. Henceforth, it can be said that I have the ability to work successfully in a team though the marks do not indicate that I do not need to sharpen them. However, from the Belbin test has helped to understand that my greatest weakness is I easily get frustrated when my imagination does not get along with other team members. Therefore, it is a hint that I need to have the ability to accept such consequences.  

However, from the third test, which has been the “stress management” test, it has been understood that I cannot act properly in the conflict situations and I do not possess the ability to follow up any problem on behalf of my entire team. It means I could not manage conflicts and resolute them. However, it is fortunate to know that I have some of the predominant features of evaluating a situation.  Therefore, it is indicative of the fact that I need to work on my existing potentialities and at the same time needs to achieve the power to manage conflict and mitigate them right away.      

After evaluating the test results, those I have pursued in order to understand whether I have the potentiality to become a global manager in future or not, it is now essential to make a plan to overcome the flaws identified through the tests. The tests have indicated the fact that I have emotional intelligence as well as the power of working in a group and make active plans for accomplishing the group’s objective. However, the evaluation and the tests have also indicated that my imagination gets frustrated when they do not match with others. Moreover, I have gained low score in extraversion and most importantly, the stress management test has implied that I do not have the power to manage conflict and could not follow up any problem on behalf of my group. Therefore, my goals and an action plan to accomplish them would be –

The above-mentioned personal goals indicate that I need to acquire skills for identifying and evaluating the issues. Further, the objectives imply that I should sharpen my time management and communication skills. I believe there should be a list of key performance indicators, which would help in understanding whether I have appropriately accomplished every objective, which I have designed.

Conclusion

The above paper has evaluated the results, which have been acquired from three managerial tests, which are stress management, Belbin and the big five-inventory test. From the evaluation, it can be deduced that I am an open-minded person who can flexibly work with others in a group and prepare action plans. Further, it has been understood that I cannot resolute conflicts and follow up problems on behalf of a team. The plan, which has been made considering the flaws identified in the evaluation section, says that I need to practice on my communication, time management skills. Most importantly, according to the plan, I need to acquire the skills of identifying and evaluating issues and thereafter mitigate them. Moreover, according to the plan, in order to acquire conflict management skills, I need to acquire a persuasive nature and should make thorough secondary research to have a firm idea regarding managerial issues and ways to resolve them.  

References

Blades, M. (2016). An Experimental Test of Whether Mortality Salience can Motivate Open-Mindedness among Individuals with Intrinsic Goal Orientations (Doctoral dissertation, Cleveland State University).

Cobb-Clark, D. A., & Schurer, S. (2012). The stability of big-five personality traits. Economics Letters, 115(1), 11-15.

Fagley, N. S. (2012). Appreciation uniquely predicts life satisfaction above demographics, the Big 5 personality factors, and gratitude. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(1), 59-63.

Hendarman, A. F., & Tjakraatmadja, J. H. (2012). Relationship among soft skills, hard skills, and innovativeness of knowledge workers in the knowledge economy era. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 52, 35-44.

Marando, A. (2012). Balancing project management hard skills and soft skills. Rabb School of Continuing Studies Division of Graduate Professional Studies Brandeis University.

Martínez?Ortiz, P. J., Moffett, S., Cegarra?Navarro, J. G., & López Hernández, F. A. (2016). Modelling the relationship between counter?knowledge and open?mindedness for policy development. Journal of Public Affairs.

Rangnekar, S. S. (2011). Soft Skills in Management. Indian Journal of Higher Education, 2(2).

Rao, M. S. (2013). Blend hard and soft skills to fast-track a management career. Human Resource Management International Digest, 21(7), 3-4.

Tjosvold, D., Wong, A. S., & Feng Chen, N. Y. (2014). Constructively managing conflicts in organizations. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav., 1(1), 545-568.

Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:

Turnitin Report

Formatting

Title Page

Citation

Outline

Place an Order