ABSTRACT
Most people are so hardheaded that they need a real smack on the head before they are
willing or able to rearrange their mental maps of the world. Executives do not generally
receive in-depth international management training in master of business administration
(MBA) programs, in in-house executive education programs, or from their work
experience (Porter & McKibbin, 1988). Less than a quarter of the CEOs in America have
gone on an international assignment (Carpenter, Sanders, & Gregersen, 2001; Gregersen
et al., 1995). Of the CEOs who have worked abroad, their most common destination by
far was Canada, followed by Great Britain and then Belgium. Very few CEOs have lived
and worked in Latin America or the Far East.
