Global Leadership Development Crucial to Government Organizations

ARLINGTON, VA, July 27, 2012 (Press-News.org) A recent study of over 1,000 senior-level business, human resources and management professionals found that only 31% of organizations have implemented some form of formal global leadership development programs. This represents no movement whatsoever since the 2010 edition of this study, even though 16.5% of organizations reported that they planned to implement such a program in 2011. The study was conducted by American Management Association (AMA) Enterprise Government Solutions, in partnership with the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and Training magazine. Nearly 18% of respondents were government professionals.

Although the study shows that most organizations continue to fail to develop global leaders, there now appears to be a greater recognition of the link between global leadership development programs and overall business performance. This recognition is essential, especially in the current government marketplace, with budget cuts being implemented and greater pressures requiring high efficiency.

The 2010 and 2011 studies made clear that there was a wide separation in the existence of global leadership development programs between the percent of high-performing organizations (as identified using an index referred to as the MPI - Market Performance Index) compared to their lower-performing counterparts. In 2011, 58% of high-performers reported that they had a global leadership development program in place, compared to only 34% of low-performers. In addition, there was a statistically significant (.11) correlation between whether an organization reported having a global leadership development program or not and their MPI score.

This year's study found that most (63%) high-performing organizations reported having a global leadership program in 2012, up 5% from last year. Likewise, 44% of low-performing organizations reported having a global leadership program in place in 2012, yielding a 10% increase over last year.

"It seems clear from this year's study that organizations focused on improving their performance are recognizing global leadership development programs as an attractive investment," said Sam Davis, Vice President, AMA Enterprise Government Solutions. "In the current environment, where every dollar counts, it is vitally important that organizations devote enough time and resources to developing and maintaining global leadership development programs in order to boost performance."

About AMA Enterprise
With more than 85 years of experience and headquartered in New York, American Management Association (www.amanet.org) is a global leader of comprehensive talent development. AMA Enterprise, a specialized division of AMA dedicated to building corporate and government solutions, transforms enterprise-wide talent to fuel a culture of innovation, high performance and optimal business results. For more information on AMA Enterprise Government Solutions please visit http://www.amaenterprise.org/gov.