Leaders today must navigate a world of increasing complexity and interconnectedness. Social science and business research, however, has not kept pace with the challenges leaders face in the midst of these changes. This gap presents a unique opportunity to develop the science of global leadership. GLeaM intends to offer an interdisciplinary mechanism to develop that science. GLeaM draws on multiple theories and methods from the fields of psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, economics, and political science among others. In addition to its efforts to develop a global dataset via it’s free-content website, GLeaM is currently working on two major research initiatives in partnership with faculty from Columbia University and scholars from institutions around the world:

Columbia University President’s Global Innovation Fund

Leadership research too often occurs in geographical silos and GLeaM is currently working to build research collaborations that break down these silos. With generous funding from the President’s Global Innovation Fund, GLeaM is establishing educational partnerships with the University’s eight Global Centers around the world. These partnerships expand the subject pool across six continents and facilitate new opportunities for research collaboration with local and regional universities, businesses, Columbia alumni, media outlets, and other organizations. Studies in development include an examination of the correlates of effective leadership in the non-for-profit sector in Brazil and the organizational network make-up of Indian businesses. GLeaM is also partnering with faculty members at local and regional universities to integrate GLeaM tools into their curricula and working to translate online leadership assessments in key languages such as Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish and Arabic.

MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Opening Governance

The first years of the 21st century have been characterized by seemingly intractable global challenges. Complex problems, from climate change to global inequality, threaten the stability of global economies, the health of the planet and the well being of people around the world. Traditional societal institutions have as yet been unable to act effectively against these challenges and their solutions will require innovation in the very design of democratic institutions. In partnership with the Governance Lab at New York University, and with the generous support of the MacArthur Foundation, GLEaM is part of an interdisciplinary research network aiming to gain fundamental understanding of how leaders govern and identify new paradigms for making government more effective and legitimate. Working with a core network of ten experts and numerous scholars in the fields of political science, law, psychology, behavioral economics, strategic management, information science, and design, this initiative – called “opening governance” – is utilizing new technology, together with research on collaboration, participation and complex problem solving, to propose new models for governance at the national, state, local, and institutional level.

GLeaM further builds on its research agenda and expands its educational reach by arranging conferences, symposia, and workshops at Columbia Business School each year. These events bring together renowned thought leaders from academia and the private sector to discuss GLeaM research and other timely issues related to global leadership.