Pioneering New Fields of Study:
Lessons and Reflections from the Nascent Field of Global Leadership
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59319/arete.v4i1.1086Keywords:
Global leadership, evolution of scientific fields, history of global leadership field, global leadership research, trends in global leadershipAbstract
Background and Objectives: In the hope that other scholars can learn from our experiences, we share the strategies and steps we have taken to advance the nascent field of global leadership over the past two and a half decades. Approach: We begin by discussing the meaning and requirements of a field of study. After identifying the external drivers that enabled global leadership’s growth, we mention the individual champions who devoted time and effort to growing the field. We acknowledge global leadership’s multidisciplinary roots and the challenges of creating a construct definition that distinguishes global leadership from related fields. Results/Conclusion: We acknowledge the major contributions that emerged from a partnership with Emerald Group Publishing’s Advances in Global Leadership series and discuss the variety of approaches we took to expand the field’s reach within the social sciences.
Author Biographies
Joyce S. Osland, Lucas School of Business, San Jose State University
Joyce Osland’s master’s degree in social work led to community development work and supervising the social work program in Peace Corps Colombia. She spent several years working in international development doing baseline studies, employee training, and supervising departmental turn-arounds in African and Latin American countries.
Her interest in organization development led her to Case Western Reserve’s Ph.D. program in Organizational Behavior where David Kolb invited her to update his experiential OB textbooks. This greatly influenced her approach to teaching and training. As a professor at INCAE in Costa Rica, she taught and consulted throughout Latin America. Her focus on developing the new field of global leadership was also influenced by teaching at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. The exposure to top scholars in that field helped her work with global leaders.
Joyce’s final academic position was Lucas Endowed Professor of Global Leadership and Executive Director and founder of the Global Leadership Advancement Center at San Jose State University. She was a visiting professor in various doctoral programs and an active consultant. After retiring, she continued to serve as senior editor of Advances in Global Leadership (Emerald). and to co-author the Global Leadership: Research, Practice and Development series (Routledge) and other publications.
Joyce was president of the Western Academy of Management and received various service, research and teaching awards throughout her career. As a former senior partner of The Kozai Group, she was an expert on using assessment instruments to build global competence in general and specifically in global leaders.
Mark Mendenhall, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
Excellence in Business Leadership in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. He received his B.S. degree (1980) in psychology and his Ph.D. degree (1983) in social psychology, both from Brigham Young University. Dr. Mendenhall is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of global leadership and international human resource management. He has held the Ludwig Erhard Stiftungsprofessur endowed chair at the University of Bayreuth and has been a visiting professor at the University of Saarland, Vienna University of Economics and Business and Reykjavik University. Dr. Mendenhall has co-authored or edited 34 books, the most recent being Global leadership: Research, Practice, and Development (4th edition, Routledge). He has authored numerous journal articles/scholarly book chapters in a variety of publications, including Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Human Relations, Organizational Dynamics, Sloan Management Review, Human Resource Management, and Advances in Global Leadership. He is a past president of the International Management Division of the Academy of Management and a partner in The Kozai Group, a consultancy specializing in global leadership and intercultural competency identification, assessment, and development.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Joyce S. Osland, Mark Mendenhall
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