Paula Caligiuri - Cultural Agility: Building a Pipeline of Successful Global Professionals

By any standard, cultural agilityin a mosaic of contexts and rolesis critical to compete and win in global markets. Caligiuri delivers valuable talent-management practices that complete the mosaic and accelerate cultural agility.

Wayne F. Cascio, Ph.D., Robert H. Reynolds Distinguished Chair in Global Leadership, University of ColoradoDenver; senior editor, Journal of World Business; and author, Investing in People: Financial Impact of Human Resource Initiatives

In the new global economy, organizations win with talentand global competence and agility are key drivers of workforce success. Based on more than two decades of academic research and consulting experience, Caligiuri provides a practical how-to guide for building a pipeline of culturally agile talent. Executives, business leaders, HR professionalsanyone who needs to build cross-cultural competence in the workforcewill benefit from reading Cultural Agility.

Mark Huselid, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of HR Strategy, Rutgers University; author, The HR Scorecard, The Workforce Scorecard, and The Differentiated Workforce

Ideal for managers, leaders, and HR professionals who understand the complex challenges of globalizationand know the important role cross-culturally competent professionals can play to help their organizations overcome them.

Dan Cable, Ph.D., Professor of Organizational Behavior, London Business School; author, Change to Strange: Create a Great Organization by Building a Strange Workforce

PAULA CALIGIURI

Copyright 2012 by Paula Caligiuri. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Caligiuri, Paula.

Cultural agility : building a pipeline of successful global professionals / Paula Caligiuri.

p. cm. (Jossey-Bass business and management series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-27507-8 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-33337-2 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-33127-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-33054-8 (ebk)

1. International business enterprisesCross-cultural studies. 2. International business enterprisesManagement. 3. ManagementCross-cultural studies. I. Title.

HD2755.5.C365 2012

658.3008dc23

2012022628

With love and appreciation, I dedicate this book to my parents, John and Angie.

If cultural agility could be traded as a commodity, it would be white-hot right now. The current supply of culturally agile professionals is meager compared to the burgeoning organizational demand. In survey after survey, business leaders from CEOs to CHROs express the need to compete aggressively for cross-culturally competent global business professionals.

As a person who has chosen to read this book, you are probably aware of the challenges posed by the global environment. Drawing from your own experiences, you can probably provide some illustrative examples of why a more robust pipeline of culturally agile professionals is needed in your organization. You might tell me about a business unit that has been stalled trying to enter an emerging market, mired in bureaucracy and draining valuable resources. You might cite a costly example of a high-profile global innovation team whose members cannot catch a collaborative stride and are missing critical performance goals. You might share stories of international assignees who were brilliant in their functional roles domestically but unsuccessful when living or working internationally. You might also have a story about a bungled global technological implementation, a misguided attempt at offshoring, or a high-profile foreign acquisition that ultimately fell far below its expected return on investment.

If any of these challenges sound familiar, you are not alone. They are playing in an almost continuous loop in organizations around the world. This book is for managers and leaders who understand all these challenges and know that building a pipeline of culturally agile professionals within their organizations will help address them. The book is also for HR professionals tasked with delivering talent with increased cross-cultural competencies and cultural agility to their organizations, but concerned about their lack of available developmental options. These HR professionals understand that cross-cultural training and international assignments cannot build cross-cultural competencies effectively or efficiently enough to provide a workable solution.