ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how cultural contexts and diversity shape international leadership research, specifically in-depth interviewing. Multiculturality refers to the variety of individual characteristics including nationality, gender, race, ethnicity or language backgrounds and the combination of two or multiple cultural backgrounds that define people’s identity (Zhang & Guttormsen, 2016; Nguyen & Benet-Martinez, 2010; Schmalenbach & Kiegelmann, 2018). Researchers as well as study participants in global leadership studies embody diverse cultural and social backgrounds. We consider these multicultural backgrounds and diverse cultural settings in which leadership research occurs as methodological issues, highlighting the imbalance of power and multiple dimensions of socio-cultural hierarchies and differences that are at play in research interviews. We consider the unique challenges and opportunities research with bilingual and bi-cultural populations brings to the field of global leadership. This chapter synthesizes best practices to address diversity in international in-depth interviews, including the practice of self-reflective journaling and translation techniques.
