The Global Manager



When I was heading to Queen's to do my MBA, a lot of folks asked me - "Why an international MBA."

Because I want to be a global manager.

I strongly believe that in the coming years, geography would hardly be a barrier for an organization. The mark of a leader would be to lead teams where his work force would be located in different parts of the world. He will have to be on the move, interact with a different set of people in different parts of the world and ensure that all of them work towards the desired goal of the organization.

Moving to a new place, understanding different culture, interacting with people from more than 15 nationalities in the class and attaining an international MBA at Queen's is a step towards achieving my goal of becoming a “Global Manager”.

Today was the last class in the HR & OB and we discussed about "Managing in a Global Environment”. Most of the folks in our class want to become "Global Managers”. So, it was great to get some good insights from the class.

The team assigned to facilitate the discussion did a good job. We took a short test to see if we understood different cultures. Folks from the countries discussed in the case study talked about how people would behave in Saudi Arabia, Japan, Turkey,Peru, Russia and France etc.

The professor,Dr Jana Raver, who has a great command on the subject, talked about Hofstede’s Dimensions of Cross-Cultural Variation'

We talked about how to adapt High performance work systems to Other Cultural Contexts.
For eg:
-How should trust and respect in others be demonstrated?
-Should rewards be based upon equity or equality? Do non-monetary rewards matter as much (or more) as $$?
-Are employees willing to put in extra effort to earn monetary rewards?
-What motivates people in different areas?,Do employees accept reduced status differentials?,
-Is employment security expected from the org?
-How should trust and respect in others be demonstrated?

This HR class will stay in my memory for quite a long time coz it gave me a good understanding of what I need to do to become what I want to be .

This class puts an end to the stage 1 of my MBA program- A stage where I was exposed to a new set of people, new country, new educational practices and new style of thinking.
We have a Point 4 tomorrow where the faculty has been invited.

Perhaps, once the exams are over, I'll re-read the Harvard Business artciles and the text books chapter on Global Managers to make sure that I haven't missed anything.

Exams start on Monday. More later. It is 03.30 am and I desperately need some sleep!!
I liked the class today, so had to blog about it.