Sometimes the absence of change can herald change on the horizon—and that just may be the case when it comes to creation of global leadership development programs. The percentage of companies that have implemented global leadership development programs has remained the same since 2010, according to the third annual Developing Successful Global Leaders Studyconducted by Trainingmagazine, the American Management Association (AMA), and The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). But the key here is that the figure (31 percent) did not decline.
The peak for introducing new programs over the last decade occurred in 2008, with 19 percent of companies reporting they introduced them just as the global economy was sinking into recession. Since then, only 11 percent of new programs were introduced in 2009 and 8 percent in 2010. However, as of December 2011, when this 2012 survey was fielded, 8 percent of companies with global leadership development programs indicated they had introduced their programs during 2011. This suggests the downward trend is beginning to reverse, and as the global economic recovery gains traction, new programs will be launched.
Other highlights of this year’s study:
- Change management, critical thinking, and the ability to build coalitions and informally influence others continue to be viewed as high priorities, as well as key opportunities for improvement of global leadership development programs.
- While quantitative measures increasingly are being used to evaluate global leadership development programs, two trends are emerging:
1. High-performing companies are utilizing a much wider array of evaluation metrics.
2. Formal performance reviews of program participants are becoming less important—particularly among low-performing companies—for evaluating the effectiveness of global leadership development programs.
- Companies are increasing their dependence on outside vendors for assistance in designing and executing their programs, with a particular focus on vendors’ global capacity to execute anywhere in the world.
Visit http://www.trainingmag.com/sites/default/files/trg0512AMA.pdf to download a PDF of the full article with all the key findings.
