MANAGING GLOBAL ENTERPRISES: The Critical Developmental Needs of Chinese Executives

Chinese businesses have been integrating into the global economy at an extraordinary pace during the past decade. This large scope of globalization in China has created unprecedented human resource challenges. A chief concern has been the acute scarcity of Chinese leadership talent. Based on our global leadership assessment data, we contrasted Chinese managers with a global sample. It was found that people from around the globe – including China – have very similar views regarding what competencies are important for effective leadership. However, there were noticeable differences between Chinese managers and the global sample on skill ratings. Up to the middle management level, Chinese managers are as skilled as their global counterparts. However, the skill gap significantly widens at the executive level. This paper further identifies five critical development needs for Chinese executives.