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Management and Change in Africa:

A Cross-cultural Perspective

Published by Routledge (London), February 2004

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Good organizational management is essential for the well being of human kind. This is not least the situation in sub-Saharan Africa, which has long suffered from varying degrees of mis-management, poor management and inappropriate management. Effectively managing resources (Africa has a wealth of resources) would seem a logical way of alleviating human hardship and poverty, and ensuring the welfare and dignity of all people within the sub-continent, and creating wealth. This can only be driven by a firm understanding of the multicultural context of African countries, based on empirical research and a cross-cultural methodology, and a development of cross-cultural competences in conjunction with local and international stakeholders.

These stakeholders, for whom this book is intended, and who may have different purposes in mind, are as follows:

• The growing numbers of management teachers, researchers and students (including practicing managers) with an interest in international and cross-cultural management around the world;

• Development scholars and policy makers interested in the issues of governance, institutional development and management;

• Students and managers in African countries who are studying in increasing numbers on MBA and other management courses, and require management texts that are relevant to the African context.

For the first group, sub-Saharan Africa is a neglected area. What possibly can we learn from a continent that is so bound up with its own problems? It has nothing to offer management theory and practice in the rest of the world! Yet this perception is changing. Interest in Africa has increased significantly over the last ten years, especially with events in South Africa. Scholars in the high-income countries are perhaps beginning to realize that there is much to learn from managers who are actually highly skilled in managing cultural diversity and multiple stakeholders. Mindsets are also changing to incorporate something of the humanism of Africa within management practices. Yet the hegemony of Western management ideas and practices is a heavy burden, not least under the influences of multilateral agencies. There is still a long way to go to realize the potential of an African Renaissance in the area of management.

For the development community, there is a heighten interest in cultural and management issues. UNESCO’s World Decade for Cultural Development led the way in highlighting the need for an awareness of the cultural appropriateness of development initiatives. Also driven by a move away from purely economic solutions, the World Bank published in 1996 Dia’s Africa’s Management in the 1990s. This posited the disconnect thesis, that institutions were imposed inappropriately on African societies, and provided limited discussion of cultural issues that impact on management.

For the management community in sub-Saharan Africa there are few alternatives to Western textbooks. There is a thirst for management knowledge and management education in Africa, but this is being satisfied mainly through MBA and other Western driven programmes with varying degrees of appropriateness.

Despite the growing interest from the various stakeholder communities there is a paucity of literature in this area. This book is intended to fill this gap through generating theory that is related to the multicultural context of African countries; to thus develop cross-cultural theory generally; and, to provide an empirical base for extending our knowledge in this area.

It is based on extensive multi-method/multi-level empirical research in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In each of these countries a management survey has been carried out across a sample of managers using local databases through local collaborators. In depth organizational surveys have also been carried out with local partners across a range of sectors in four key countries: South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon and Nigeria. This research has demonstrated that:

·      The perceptions of the efficacy of management methods and styles, the way these are changing, and the desirability of these changes may vary among different cultural groups within countries, among African countries, and according to the relative influences of Western, African and post-colonial principles and practices. There is therefore a need to be aware of and to manage these differences within a complex and rapidly changing multicultural context, if management in sub-Saharan Africa is going to be effective.

·      Historical, cultural and power influences are leading to the development of different hybrid forms of management and organizations. Some are highly adaptive to the context in which they operate, some are mal-adaptive. Therefore, to develop effective management there is a need to understand the dynamics of hybridisation and to learn from the successes of those adaptive organizations, and from the shortcomings of those that are mal-adaptive.

·      For employees and managers there is often a split between the world of work and community/home life. Staff going into work in the morning step out of their own culture and enter a different one. This is not being managed well in many organizations, often leading to low levels of employee morale and alienation from the work place. To develop effective and appropriate organizations within which to work, people management principles and practices should understand and reconcile this split between work and community/home life.

·      Organizations in sub-Saharan Africa have to operate within a complexity of different stakeholder interests. Often the interests of different stakeholder groups are not adequately recognised and incorporated within the wider decision processes of the organization. Often attempts at developing a more democratic organization (for example, from Western principles) do not include a wider stakeholder base. Similarly, attempts at corporate responsibility programmes are not inclusive of community stakeholder interests, and sometime simply appear as cynical marketing ploys by foreign companies. In order to develop effective organizations in Africa, there is a need to understand this aspect of decision-making and incorporate a wider stakeholder base into a truly participative decision process.

·      Within organizations, cultural differences are not adequately managed within the different power relationships that operate. Different cultural groups, and gender groups, may not have the same access to resources and decision processes. There is therefore a need to positively manage cross-cultural relationships within organizations in Africa, and to take account of power relations and unequal access to organizational resources.

The book therefore aims to provide:

1. A re-conceptualisation of our understanding of management in Africa: the unhelpful dichotomy of ‘developing-developed world’ has hampered knowledge and understanding of the different cultural, historical and economic influence on management. This text explores these issues.

2. A cross-cultural methodology for research on management in Africa that is helpful for future research and management practice: also discussing some of the pit-falls of doing research in Africa.

3. An awareness of the main management systems and their influence on management in Africa: hybridization is seen as an important cross-cultural issue that has to be effectively managed. This has lessons for other emerging regions.

4. Knowledge of cross-cultural differences and similarities within and among African countries: all sub-Saharan African countries are multi-ethnic; there is greater intra-regional cooperation and cross-border activity; and there has always been interaction between Western (or Northern) cultures and African cultures. It is essential to understand these influences, differences and similarities and to manage them effectively to develop synergies through, for example, working in multi-cultural teams.

5. An awareness, through example and discussion, of how management strengths may be enhanced, by developing effective hybrid management systems and synergistic multicultural teams.

6. An understanding of the wider implications of effective management in sub-Saharan Africa to future prosperity and cohesive civil society.

Outline Contents

Introduction: Africa – Why Bother?

Part One: Rethinking Management in Africa

1.      Management Systems in Africa: the Cross-cultural Imperative

2.      Developing Cross-cultural Theory and Methods in Africa 

Part Two: Managing Competences and Capacities

3.      Managing Complexity and Uncertainty in the African Environment

4.      Managing Decision-making in Organizations in Africa

5.      Using Appropriate Leadership and Management Styles

6.      Motivating and Rewarding Managers

7.      Gaining Employee Commitment: Work Attitudes and Organizational Climate

8.      Managing Multiculturalism: Developing Managers 

Part Three: Learning from Countries and Cases

9. Nigeria: Managing Cross-cultural Differences and Similarities

10. Cameroon: Managing Cultural Complexity and Power
    With Olivier Nana Nzepa

11. Kenya: A Bridge Between Asia and Africa?

12. South Africa: the Future of Management in Africa?
    With Lynette Louw

References

Go to resources for this book

AfricaManagement.org © Terence Jackson 2002