Exercise 8A: Do Managers Want Global Careers?
Complete the Careers in Global Management Questionnaire in International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior (text). Describe the most important reasons that you would and would not accept an international assignment at this point in your career.
Exercise 8B: Creating Success for Single-Career Couples
Imagine that you are the spouse of an international manager. You are the primary parent and have chosen to stay home and take care of the children rather than working outside of the home. Your partner has just been offered a terrific position in Casablanca, Morocco. Why would you support accepting the assignment? Why would you reject the idea of your partner accepting the assignment?
Read "The Carpenter Case" in International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior (text).
From the perspective of both roles (Tom or Jane), analyze the situation. Decide if you should move or not and why. If you decide to move, what could you do to make the move most successful for Jane and the family?
Decide what each of the following people could and should do to make an international move such as this more successful:
1.What could Tom do to make the international move more successful?
2.What could Jane do to make the international move more successful?
3.What could Mr. Abbott, or the company, do to make the international move more successful?
Participate in the Forum discussion for this exercise, and reflect on your personal learning in your Global Insight and Wisdom Journal.
Exercise 8C: Creating Success for Dual-Career Couples
Over the past decade, the number of couples with both partners having significant careers outside the home has increased dramatically. And yet historically, most companies selected men for global assignments whose wives either did not work outside the home or who worked in jobs they were willing to give up in order to follow their husband abroad. Companies today select both women and men for global assignments and, in both cases, their spouses often have careers of their own.
When offered a global assignment, dual-career couples must decide for themselves the conditions under which they would accept.
Read the case, "The O'Connors' Story" in International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior (text).
From the perspective of both roles (Kelly or Michael), analyze the situation. Decide if you should move the family back to Hong Kong and why.
Imagine that your are an executive coach working with Kelly and Michael. Come up with a set of recommendations for them that would help them succeed in their professional and private lives assuming (a) they decide to move to Hong Kong, and (b) they chose to remain in Los Angeles.
Exercise 8D: Creating Success for Single Women with Global Careers
About the single most uncontroversial, incontrovertible statement to make about women in international management is that there have been very few of them. The numbers, however, are rising-from less than three percent a decade ago to more than 10 percent today. Whereas the vast majority of men who have been sent abroad on international assignments have been married, often to wives who do not have careers outside the home, approximately half of the women sent abroad by their companies on international assignments are single.
Why do you think there have been so few women working abroad on international assignments?
Based on research, the three most common reasons given for the scarcity of women who are international managers is: (a) women do not want to work abroad, (b) companies are hesitant to send women abroad, and (c) foreigners are so prejudiced against women that they could not succeed even if sent.
Are the three reasons valid, or are they simply myths? In the course Forum, vote true or false for each of the three myths:
- Myth 1: Women do not want to work abroad.
- Myth 2: Companies are hesitant to send women abroad on international assignments.
- Myth 3: Foreigners are so prejudiced that women could not succeed, even if companies sent them abroad.
Participate in a Forum discussion around the questions below, and reflect on your learning in your Global Insight and Wisdom Journal
For the women: What could women do to increase their chances of getting selected for an international assignment? Increase their chances of succeeding once sent?
For the men: What could the company do to increase the women's chances of getting selected for an international assignment? Increase the women's chances of succeeding once sent?
For women: In your journal, note what you will do to make certain that you have the type of international career that you would consider successful.
Exercise 8E: Women's Global Leadership Case
Read the case by Joyce Osland and Nancy J. Adler: "Women and Global Leadership at Bestfoods"
Decide what Laura Brody should do at Bestfoods. Participate in a Forum discussion for this exercise.
After making your recommendations, read what actually happened at Bestfoods in the article by Nancy J. Adler, Laura W. Brody, and Joyce S. Osland: "Advances in Global Leadership: The Women's Global Leadership Forum"
Exercise 8G: Leadership Beyond Career and Organizational Success
After reading the Epilogue in International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior (text), reflect in your Global Insight and Wisdom Journal on what it means to be human for you. What does it mean to be a leader in a global society? Imagine that your great grandchildren were talking about you and what you had accomplished for the world. What would they be saying? What would you be proudest that they remembered about you and your contribution, as a leader, to the world?
Describe what you would be proudest to have your great grand children say about your global leadership to your colleagues. Present the description in the voice of your great grand children: "I am proudest of my great grandmother (grandfather) because she (he) ......"
Exercise 8H: Appreciative Feedback to Colleagues
List the names of each of your colleagues that you have worked with in this class. After each name, write one reason that you really appreciated working with him or her during the course. Then list one thing that you learned from him or her during the course. E-mail the appropriate appreciations to each individual.
Read all of the appreciations that you receive. Then, in your Global Insight and Wisdom Journal, summarize what team members most appreciate about you and what they seem to learn about you. Do not deny any of the feedback. What does your team's feedback tell you about who you are as a leader? What does your team's feedback tell you about what you might contribute in the future as a global leader?
Exercise 8I: Appreciative Feedback, The Course
In your Global Insight and Wisdom Journal, note the three most important skills that you personally gained while participating in this course.
Also note the three experiences in the course that most helped you to learn.
Post your three key skills and three most influential learning experiences in the course Forum.
After everyone has had an opportunity to post their key skills and most influential learning experiences, read through the lists posted by your colleagues.