Our database concerning global leadership and the global organization is twofold. First, we obtained field data in the course of a large number of consultations and action research projects in global companies interested in corporate transformation or acquisitions (mindset or attitudinal change among executives being one of the desired outcomes). Second, we gathered much of our material from interviews with over 300 senior executives. A large number of the individuals interviewed were presidents or members of the board of their respective companies. Many of them participated in Manfred Kets de Vries' leadership program at INSEAD, titled “The Challenge of Leadership: Developing Your Emotional Intelligence”—a seminar whose major objective is to provide participants with a better understanding of their leadership style, deepen their awareness of the cross-cultural dimensions of leadership, and help them develop their emotional intelligence. Because participants were self-selected (they approached us for intervention and advice) and highly motivated by a desire to change their leadership style and/or their organizations, we were able to conduct in-depth and quite personal interviews. These open-ended, exploratory interviews were conducted in a semi-structured fashion. Each respondent was asked open-ended questions pertaining to global leadership and organizational practices. Depending on the responses, revisions were made to the questions. Observational data consisted of notes taken while studying the various executives in meetings and during informal discussions, and in many cases by repeated visits to the organizations in question (British Petroleum, Virgin, Nokia, ABB, etc.). In engaging in this kind of fieldwork, we used “grounded theory” to arrive at a set of hypotheses about global leadership practices; in other words, while engaged in the process of hypothesis formulation, we delineated connections, patterns, and themes, continuously modifying the hypothesis depending on emerging material. Through this ethnographic and clinical orientation, ideas were developed and a “thick” description emerged.

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