For businesses, the reality of globalization is an increased need to cope with cross-cultural employees, suppliers, and competitors. However, executives often fail to consider cross-cultural perspectives and the impact of business strategy on people. This oversight can result in failed strategies, limited growth, and financial losses. Recently, Human Resource Development (HRD) scholars have taken an interest in the challenges faced by executives of global organizations. HRD professionals are trying to prioritize their efforts to have the greatest impact. Learning how executive competencies interact with country-based cultures may reveal why some global companies succeed and others do not. To understand the roots of executive success in the global marketplace, this exploratory study compared and contrasted the importance placed on executive competencies across four country-based cultures.

Secondary data analysis was conducted on data collected through Personnel Decisions International's PROFILOR^® for Executives multi-rater development tool. A MANOVA was used to explore country-based culture group mean differences across 22 variables. The multivariate F-statistic was highly significant. As the MANOVA assumptions could not be verified with certainty, 125 subjects who responded to all 22 items from each country were randomly selected. A Chi-square analysis confirmed that the distribution was similar between the random and non-random samples. A Tukey's HSD showed that 11 variables were not significant and 10 variables were significantly different between Japan and Canada, the U.K., and the U.S.A. Also, one variable was significantly different between Canada and the U.K. Even though Inspiring Trust showed significant difference in the multivariate analysis, the Tukey's HSD did not generate a significant between-country difference. Principle limitations in this study included: the instrument was primarily developed for a U.S. American clientele, there were unknown effects of culture on rating behavior, the convenience sampling method and the restricted country sample limit the potential for generalizing this study, there were restricted definitions of culture and competency, and the data collection spanned 15 years. Practitioner recommendations included considerations to steer organizations and executives to become more globally literate.