Cross-Cultural Leadership in Global Creative Teams: Challenges and Opportunities

Globalisation and digital collaboration have transformed the creative industries, enabling cross-border teamwork that merges diverse cultural perspectives. However, managing creativity in culturally heterogeneous teams presents significant leadership challenges. This study investigates cross-cultural leadership within global creative teams, focusing on how leaders navigate diversity to foster cohesion and innovation. Adopting a qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with creative leaders and members from multinational organisations in design, media, and advertising. Thematic analysis revealed three interrelated dimensions: cultural adaptation in leadership, communication and trust building, and creativity through cultural synergy. Findings highlight that culturally intelligent and transformational leadership styles—marked by empathy, flexibility, and shared vision—are critical to turning cultural diversity into creative strength. The study proposes the Culturally Intelligent Transformational Leadership (CITL) framework, integrating cultural intelligence with transformational behaviours to enhance global collaboration. The paper concludes by recommending leadership development strategies centred on cultural competence, emotional intelligence, and inclusive creative facilitation for sustainable innovation in global creative industries. Keywords: Cross-cultural leadership, creative teams, global collaboration, cultural intelligence, innovation, qualitative research