Leadership and Multicultural Environments in Mexico: The need for International Leaders

Abstract

Mexico needs leaders that understand the multiculturalism of international relationships and that are able to apply innovative strategies, which help them to cope, respond and adapt to global challenges, in order to become a more competitive country and to boost local development. To have a general overview of what leadership means, this document will review the main concepts associated with leadership, the differences between managers and leaders and will present a leadership model for Mexicans that want to become International Leaders. Other concepts of high relevance considering the need for International Leaders in Mexico are the effects of globalization and internationalization since they are two of the main drivers that promote the development of International Leaders. The focus of this paper is on Mexican society, which is why it will be critical to understand the Mexican culture, in order to analyze some key characteristics of the Mexican population and gain an insight into the current situation of Mexico. This research presents the results of a survey about the perception of leaders in multicultural environments in Mexico, from the Mexican point of view. It identifies the main challenges when working with foreigners, the type of communication that is used, the main differences that exist, who are the leaders that the Mexicans admire and their sectors of development. Finally, a model for International Leaders will be presented, this model was constructed with the information obtained from the survey and the real needs of Mexico in order to propose a solution to the problem.