What Is Global Leadership?

Dealing with Different Languages, Cultures, Time Zones and Rules

Corporate global leadership involves handling multiple national boundaries, different cultures, alternative product lines and other managerial challenges. Running a company’s international operations is far more complex and confusing than managing the same firm’s domestic functions.

Consider the example of Dr. Birgit Masjost, who heads technical development at pharmaceutical giant Roche from the firm’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. She is fluent in German, French and English. Her team members are in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and the US. She also works directly with colleagues in China. Masjost’s technical development staffers in Basel are from Italy, France, Germany and the UK. They have diverse professional backgrounds, including pharmacology, chemistry, physiology, biology and marketing. Masjost manages a tossed salad of cultures, nationalities and areas of expertise, and she has to deal with widely varying time zones that impede coordination. Although many team members speak English, communication often breaks down due to linguistic confusion. Each office operates in its own way, which makes...