The Future of an Illusion: In Search of the New European Business Leader

The New Europe brings both great expectations and considerable anxiety for organizations and their members. Seen as both an opportunity to develop a powerful economic entity and a danger of diluted national identities and incompatible work practices, it calls for a new type of European leadership. In this article we argue that European organizations face an unprecedented challenge of diversity along the dimensions of culture, language, religion, values, education, political systems, socio-economic experience, and early family and socialization practices. These differences can lead to a plethora of varying and often conflicting preconceptions and attitudes that organizational members bring to work. If the differences are ignored, the development of successfully truly European organizations will remain an illusion. To deal with these challenges, executives have to develop a new, "glocal" approach to leading companies that will combine the features of global and local leadership. This article offers suggestions for corporate executives on how they can develop themselves for the new European leadership roles and successfully deal with the leadership challenges of the New Old World. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]