The Global Leadership Development Level (GLDL)

This study explores the phenomenon of contemporary integrative Western-Chinese organizational leadership building on the constructive development theory of Kegan (1982) and its application to constructive leadership development. Proposals are made to extend this theory adding a qualitatively different leadership development level named here the Global Leadership Development Level (GLDL). On the basis of the GLDL construct Western-Chinese integrative leadership and transcultural integrative leadership in general are understood and explained. There have been no explicit studies published in the leadership literature that directly link global leadership development to the constructive development theory of leadership. This seems overdue given the growing attention global leadership development is receiving in the literature. Here, GLDL leadership is proposed as a starting point for a comprehensive approach to the study of global leadership and transcultural integrative leadership.