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  • 2010
  • Chapter
  • Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice

Leadership in a Globalizing World

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

In this chapter, world-renowned business expert, author, and Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter asks the question, "Is leadership different in a globalizing world--one of broadening horizons and burgeoning sources of ideas and supplies--than in other contexts?" The answer is a resounding yes. Kanter identifies three aspects of globalization--increased uncertainty, complexity, and diversity--that fundamentally reshape the work leaders must perform. Based on field observations of leaders in large global firms, she finds that these forces shape the context of three distinctive tasks leaders face as they guide their organizations and influence the constituencies that surround them: 1) institutional work to deal with uncertainty, 2) integrative work to deal with complexity, and 3) identity work to deal with diversity. With compelling examples of global leadership within international companies such as IBM, Cemex, Procter & Gamble, and Paris-based advertising and communications giant Publicis Groupe, Kanter builds a strong case for making these organizations and their leaders the focus of further research and study.

Keywords

Risk and Uncertainty; Globalized Firms and Management; Leadership; Research; Complexity; Diversity

Citation

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. "Leadership in a Globalizing World." Chap. 20 in Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana. Harvard Business Press, 2010.

About The Author

Rosabeth M. Kanter

General Management
→More Publications

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  • How Miami Can Become a Global Climate Solutions Hub By: Rosabeth M. Kanter
  • Colette Phillips and GetKonnected: Creating Inclusive Ecosystems By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
  • The Case for Having a Boring CEO By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter
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