Here are some example questions/issues that
you might consider.
1. How important are global issues and challenges to your future
career aspirations?
2. What principal skills do you currently
bring to a global manager’s job?
3. What skills do you believe you need to
acquire or further develop in order to succeed in today’s increasingly
competitive business environment?
4. What multicultural competences do you currently possess?
5. For you personally, what are the pluses and minuses of
working for a “foreign” company–that is, a company headquartered
outside of your home country?
6a. What would be your biggest hurdles or challenges of accepting
such a job?
6b. What might you do to overcome these hurdles?
7a. What type of global assignment do you believe you are best
suited for? Why?
7b. What are your greatest challenges in achieving this plan?
8a. How does your personal background and life
experiences influence your approach to problem-solving?
8b. Is any of this related to your culture?
9. Stereotyping
a. Do you personally have any stereotypes about people from other
cultures?
b. What concrete steps can you take to:
– Avoid cultural stereotyping?
– See cultural differences in neutral terms?
– Go beyond the superficial differences between people and
understand the motivational bases of individuals and groups from different
cultures?
10. What is your decision-making style?
a. In you view, are you basically more of an autocrat or
participative decision maker? Why?
b. How comfortable are you switching from one decision style to
another depending upon circumstances?
c. What would you do if your company strongly supported employee
involvement in decision-making, but you found yourself repeatedly disagreeing
with the kinds of decisions that were emerging?
11. Suppose you have been assigned to lead a new
multicultural team of regional managers who are collectively responsible for
developing a long-term business strategy for your firm.
a. What might be your biggest anxieties about accepting this
leadership assignment?
b. How would you deal with these anxieties?
12. What motivates you?
a. In rank order, list the five most important incentives or
rewards that you seek in a job?
b. Are these rewards largely extrinsic or intrinsic?
c. How do you plan to pursue these rewards in the workplace?
d. Would working in a global environment (as opposed to a local
one) enhance or impede the pursuit of these rewards? How?
13. Your company is currently negotiating with three local
companies to help your foreign operations. During the meeting with your
leading candidate, your host hands you an envelop containing two hundred euros
and suggests you use it to go shopping this afternoon since his superiors are
unavailable to meet and it’s a sunny day.
a. Is two hundred euros a bribe or a gesture of friendship?
b. What would accept or reject the envelop? Why?
14. All managers are global managers, and all managers face
a multicultural and multinational future. The question is how they will
best prepare themselves for this reality.
15. Based on what has been discussed, outline a learning strategy
to further your own particular multicultural competencies?
