Autumn News and Events

Gerlinde's roles at SIAST and the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar led to the dissertation topic: educational leadership in bi-cultural initiatives in Arab countries with a focus on the role of the project Integrator. The research explores the importance of cultural intelligence as a characteristic of global leaders who manage educational initiatives in the Arab World:

The importance of Cultural Intelligence in an "Ethno relativity" model of global leadership: managing bi-cultural initiatives in education in Gulf Arab States

In this age of globalization and connected economies, corporations, universities and other organizations often establish operations overseas. The trend of globalization has given rise to the internationalization of education and the proliferation of trans-national college campuses. Leaders who manage higher educational institutions in Gulf Arab States require characteristics and competencies beyond those required of a domestic manager. These individuals are asked to bridge or "coalesce" the different value systems of the host country and the workforce of the organization.

This dissertation intends to more fully develop the "integrator role" of the Adizes complementary management team (Producer, Administrator, Entrepreneur and Integrator). In the context being discussed, the Integrator role becomes the most important role on the leadership team. The ability of global leaders to become "coalescing" leaders depends on a high level of 'cultural intelligence', which in turn corresponds to a higher level of awareness of the needs of the potentially very different value systems existing in the context. The leader must be able to recognize, observe and understand the deeply held values of different groups and then adapt his/her management style as needed to be effective. Leadership is then no longer ethno-centric, but ethno-relative. This is illustrated in the Ethno-relative model or CoLCAPS (Coalescing Leader as the Change Agent for Paradigm Shifts).

This dissertation is a based on a combination of extensive literature review, surveys of global leaders in education, interviews, observations and personal experiences gained by having directly experienced the management context for a number of years.

Although this research concentrates on the leadership competencies required of Western leaders who manage organizations in a bi-cultural environment in post-secondary education in Arab Gulf States, it may also be valuable for any organization with a multicultural workforce or for professionals who need to interact with people from other ethnic and national groups.

Presently, Gerlinde is President and principal consultant of the management consulting firm, GEOMARC Technologies Inc. The company holds proprietary software that uses Geomatics, or satellite imaging, to monitor rice growth and predict the crop yields in the Philippines. In the past year Gerlinde has also consulted with immigration organizations so that they might become more self-sufficient and less reliant on government project funding; and she has assisted a medical firm in Australia with financial planning.

Gerlinde is also active in various women's groups, including the Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW) and the Canadian Federation of University Women. She represented BPW in March, 2010, at the United Nations in New York, where BPW has permanent seats and has consultative status on women's issues.

Gerlinde has worked in Nepal, Philippines, India, Jordan, Egypt and lastly in Qatar. This has provided her with significant insights into her dissertation subject.

In January, 2011, Gerlinde will go to Haiti to work as a volunteer in an orphanage (God's Littlest Angels). This trip had been planned for 2010 but was cancelled because of the earthquake (January 12, 2010), and again postponed because UNICEF kept the children in tents rather than releasing them to the orphanage. All told, she has traveled to over 100 countries. Recent travels have included Kenya, Yemen, Oman, Iran, Jordan, Turkey and South Africa. For Christmas, she will meet her three sons in Egypt.