Motivation
Motivation
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Resources for Management and Change in Africa
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Themes in Management and Change in AfricaMotivation and CommitmentObtaining commitment and motivation by developing understanding of the
relationship between community/family life and work life, and the way this
relationship is differently perceived by different cultural perspectives Blunt and Jones (1992) indicate that African employees (in sub-Saharan African countries) work in In
Jackson’s (1999) study in South Africa, managers (from a predominantly black sample) were asked
to rank those aspects that are important in their total life. In order of
importance the following ranking was given: (1) giving plenty of time to my family;
(2) making work central in my life; (3) being actively involved in the community;
(4) pursuing my religion; and (5) pursuing my leisure activities. This indicates, not an
alienation from the workplace, but a primacy of family life. Jackson’s (1999)
study also included an organizational climate survey of 200 employees in three
organizations in South Africa. This indicated that there was generally higher satisfaction with
working conditions, content of job and job security, yet lower satisfaction with
appraisal systems, recognition of employee worth, union-management relations
among other factors and the extent to which employees felt involved in matters
that affected them. The
same study indicated differences among cultural groups, as managers from other
cultural groups were more negative than white managers regarding equal
opportunities and the implementation of affirmative action. Respondents at
higher management levels were generally more positive than those at lower levels
regarding their perceptions of organizational culture. The
way an organisation pays attention to employee commitment and motivation through
integrating the links between organization and community, the bringing in of
different stakeholder interests and the regard for its people, is driven by its
management systems. In Africa these
systems are culturally influenced through an admixture of post-colonial,
Western
(and perhaps Eastern) and African inputs. The management of these inputs in
hybrid systems of management that are likely to be adaptive, rather than
mal-adaptive, to their African context may depend to a large extent on
managers’ abilities to recognize and articulate these cultural influences.
Hence, it is likely also that organizations will have to: Next
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