How can global organizational leaders successfully carry out their work while dealing with ever-changing business issues and managing multiple tasks and responsibilities? Social capital construction is seen as one of the critical success factors to these executives. This exploratory case study was to examine what factors impact organizational leaders' social capital building. This study also sought to examine the effects of participating in an annual leadership development seminar toward the creation of social capital in global contexts. The factors identified in this study were: perceived interactive opportunities, individual-owned resources, and motivational interactivity constraints. The research site for this study was a global professional services firm. The sample was a total of 520 organizational leaders from 51 countries that were promoted within the last 5 years. Online surveys were the main tools for this study. As a supplement, qualitative data obtained from 15 telephone interviews, field observation, and archival documents were collected.

The major findings of this study highlight the effects of the identified three components: interactive opportunities, individual-owned resources, and motivational interactivity constraints toward leaders' social capital (advice ties and network relations). Cultural orientation factors (embeddedness, hierarchy, and mastery) impacting leaders' social capital formation reveal interesting results among this diverse research population. Further, drawn from the interview data, leaders' motivation toward constructing social capital is discussed. The leadership development seminar's impact on leaders' social capital is discussed as well. Given the results, this study presents an organizational leaders' social capital growth model. The model indicates how the identified three components can expand advice ties and network relations as organizational leaders' social capital. Theoretical and practical implications and future research are discussed.