Title: Intercultural competencies as antecedents of responsible global leadership

Authors: Christof Miska; Günter K. Stahl; Mark E. Mendenhall

Addresses: Department of Global Business and Trade, Institute for International Business, WU Vienna, Augasse 2-6, 1090 Vienna, Austria ' Department of Global Business and Trade, Institute for International Business, WU Vienna, Augasse 2-6, 1090 Vienna, Austria; INSEAD, Boulevard de Constance, 77309 Fontainebleau Cedex, France ' J. Burton Frierson Chair of Excellence in Business Leadership, College of Business, University of Tennessee, 615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, 37403 TN, USA

Abstract: To date, little is known about the intercultural competencies that enable global leaders to effectively address CSR-related demands of global stakeholder communities. In order to explore this gap in the literature we empirically investigate several intercultural competencies and their influence on Responsible Global Leadership (RGL). In delineating the antecedents of RGL we studied three CSR decision-making approaches: the globally standardised, the locally adapted, and the transnational. We found that different competency configurations were related to each of the three approaches and that intercultural competencies are most critical for the utilisation of the transnational approach. Our study contributes to the CSR literature by delineating some of the antecedents of RGL, and to global leadership research by establishing the scope of intercultural competencies within the domains of CSR and stakeholder management.

Keywords: responsible global leadership; global stakeholder society; intercultural competencies; CSR; corporate social responsibility; culture; globalisation; transnational decision making; stakeholder management; international management.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2013.056477

European Journal of International Management, 2013 Vol.7 No.5, pp.550 - 569

Published online: 10 Sep 2014 *

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