Management and Change

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· Cross-cultural Management

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A Cross-Cultural Project: Overview

Management and Change in Africa

Rationale

The project in arose in 1998 because of a growing interest in a neglected area, on the one hand, and a lack of systematic empirical study and information on the other. It recognized that there are multiple stakeholders (including the main target audiences: world development community; global management community; management community in Africa) with different interests, and standing in different power relations with each other. Also, structural/economic ‘solutions’ applied to the ‘African situation’ have failed, and attempts to transpose western approaches to management also appear to have been inappropriate.

Re-conceptualising Africa: Levels of Cultural Interaction

The project recognizes a conceptual failure in terms of the developing-developed world paradigm, implicit in much work on management in Sub-Saharan Africa, but pejorative and obstructive to research. Rather, the project applies a cross-cultural methodology in recognition of the realities of African countries that are multicultural at different levels: intercontinental, cross-border or intra-regional, and inter-ethnic.

Intercontinental Interactions and Systems of Management

At the intercontinental level there are both historical and current interactions between western and African approaches. These give rise to different combinations of management systems (post-colonial – often identified with ‘African’ management in the literature and treated derogatively; post-instrumental – from modern western approaches; and African Renaissance – an emerging, ideal type, which provides a view of what Africa can offer global management generally).

Cultural Crossvergence and Hybridization

Modern cross-cultural theory is built on a concept of crossvergence of cultures. In Africa (as probably across the globe) this leads to different hybrid management systems: some are highly adaptive to the context; some are mal-adaptive. Often the nature of cross-cultural hybridization is dependent on power relations within the interaction. Cross-cultural analysis at inter-continental level focuses on the appropriateness of management systems.

Cross-border Interactions: Developing Regional Cooperation

Regional cooperation is developing in importance in Africa, and the ability to manage across borders is important. Cross-cultural analysis at this level is therefore seen as feeding into management development efforts.

Cross-cultural Methodology

The project’s cross-cultural methodology was based on multi-method, multi-level empirical research; working with partners throughout sub-Saharan Africa. A broad survey of managers across countries was first necessary (an initial target of 21 Anglophone, Francophone and Lusaphone countries). To date we have 15 countries in the study, and with a new round, are planning to extend this. This is providing comparison of ‘cultural manifestations’ in management and organizational characteristics among the countries, and within countries among ethnic groups. Organizational surveys have carried out, currently in South Africa (10 organizations), Kenya (10 organizations), Cameroon (10) and Nigeria (15 organization, although somewhat less in depth). This involved using an extended management questionnaire, an employee questionnaire, and interviewing key managers in each organization. This was designed to provide information on hybridization, and its successes and failures from the perceptions of different ethnic, work and gender groups. Organizations were selected to provide a spread across sectors. We are planning to update, and to extend and deepen these organizational studies. Already, a number of case studies have been produced [see case studies]

Outcomes

1. The project has already provided comparative data among 15 sub-Saharan African countries. We believe this has gone some way in informing the management and organizational development initiatives of organizations, particularly organizations developing regional and pan-African cooperation.

2. It has provided identification and analysis of the management systems in a process of hybridization, and success and failures of such systems. This is going some way in informing the organizational development process through assessing the appropriateness of management systems in African contexts. The success of such efforts are likely to be dependent on the identification of different stakeholder perceptions and their incorporation into a process that is inclusive of such stakeholders. The analysis of power relations within cross-cultural interaction has been a prerequisite to this.

3. It has provided analysis of inter-ethnic perceptions of management practices and cultural expectation, to help facilitate the management and development of inter-ethnic synergies in effective cross-cultural management.

Future Work

The original project was generously funded by the Danish International Development Assistance (Danida), and Institut Vital Roux (Paris Chamber of Commerce).

We are now looking for funding to develop this project into an ongoing Management and Change in Africa ‘Obervatory’. This will enable us to monitor changes, and to provide more detailed databases and information on management, organizations and change in sub-Saharan Africa.

Themes in Management and Change in Africa

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