Global managers? Meeting the Transnational Challenge: An Investigation into the Development of Transnational Competencies in the New Zealand Finance Sector

This research focused on the New Zealand finance sector and was designed to answer questions about the preparedness of executives to manage trans national companies, and about the level of capability of firms’ human resource systems of recruiting, developing, retaining and using globally competent managers and executives. The data were obtained via semi‐structured interviews with the human resource director and/or with senior managers from each organization, who were actively involved in the change process. The questions were designed to test for the presence of variables consistent with Adler and Bartholomew's (1992) representation of a transnational manager. The research revealed a significant gap between the level of knowledge, skills and abilities of the managers in this sector and those required of transnational management.