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1 Framing Sustainable Management Development in Africa
Hamid H. Kazeroony
Background
Despite all the social and political will, there has been an absence of clear relationship between the transition from decolonization and apartheid and economic opportunity for indigenous populations of African countries. As Derrida (1994) would have viewed the situation, “The Time is out of joint. The world is going badly. It is worn but its wear no longer counts” (p. 77). Indeed, transition has created a vacuum in implementation of social justice to connect liberation from economic masters to development of human capital for the indigenous population in feeding the organizational human resource needs. “Following decades of totalitarianism, society is too atomized and demoralized to be able to mobilize for or against economic reforms or yet another change or regime. Instead, atomized individuals try to survive and stay warm” (Tucker, 2005, p. 23). “Between business and society, there exist an implicit social contract whereby basic human rights are mandatory…. Furthermore, together with basic non-market freedom, basic human welfare is advanced as a trump to capitalism and any other ideology” (Matwijkiw and Matwijkiw, 2010, p. 146). As argued by Cuéllar (2004), an international legal system to dispense justice, must (a) help local population to build capacity, (b) promote internal reconciliation, and (c) create and institutionalize domestic capacity by nations in transition to enforce the rule of law.
Since the 1940s, the African political, social, and cultural landscape has changed, some of which was prompted by exogenous factors and some by indigenous dynamics, and all accelerated by technological innovation and use throughout the continent. African changes are unique to its continental landscape, reflecting many distinct demographic and topographical shades of ethnicities, motivations for action, and the desire to blend and excel in the global marketplace. Most importantly, changes have given rise to new organizational needs in conducting business within Africa and the way multinationals interact with African consumers, stakeholders, employees, and managers. New approaches require us to examine the current thinking in providing an appropriate context within which we can address sustainable management development in Africa. To fully appreciate the African dynamics, we will explore the academic thinking about the recent developments, the institutional analysis about the needs for the future progress of Africa, and reflect on the continent’s needs for the academic theoretical construct and practices that can make managers and organizations effective in meeting their goals and addressing their internal and external constituents’ expectations. Therefore, a quick review of policy formulation, organizational behavior and dynamics, as well as approaches to expanding higher education capacities are essential.
First, Ligthelm (2008) argued that policy makers, today, should concern themselves with creating an environment where small entrepreneurs with little business acumen can flourish in places like South Africa. Walwyn (2008) suggested that countries like South Africa should begin investing in research and development to accelerate a knowledge-based economy. Some, like Akinboade and Lalthapersad-Pillay (2009) proposed that developing the African economy through partnerships can originate from South African regions such as Gauteng that must rely on knowledge-based economies requiring investment in innovation (Blankley and Moses, 2009).
Second, as Akande and Banai’s (2009) examination of US-South African joint ventures revealed, “South African managers expect US managers to employ decision-making style that avoids uncertainty, expect workers to follow instructions, and provide job security to employees. They expect US managers to consult subordinates, to delegate tasks to subordinates, and to prefer team’s work because they believe that better decisions are made by groups rather than by individual … In a sharp contrast to their own autocratic, forceful management philosophy, South African managers believe that an ideal US manager in IJVs should be people-oriented.” (p. 9). Ouma (2012), reviewing internal and external organizational behavior of multinational agro-businesses in Ghana and Kamoche et al (2012), raised the question as to how African managerial behavior should be molded to help grow African-based companies (domestic or multinational) and establish appropriate employee behavior to serve organizational growth drawing on African human capital.
Third, De Beer and Mason (2009) showed that graduate and doctoral work can benefit from blended pedagogies in Africa to accelerate the number of required graduates, manage faculty workload better, and produce numbers of qualified candidates to address higher education needs in the management/business fields. Awayiga, Onumah, and Tsameny (2010), examining the Ghana universities’ accounting graduates, supported the proposition that there is a need to address pedagogical methods to enhance their acquired competencies to better address the new workplace needs in Africa. In addition to a re-evaluation of approaches in the field of management, De Maria (2010) argued that understanding corruption and ethics should be within an African context when addressing business/management in Africa rather than arbitrarily imposing Western values on African ways of doing things.
A report by African Development Bank (2009) stressed the need to address higher education to build a strong foundation on which economic development can be possible. The report laid out a strategic process based on integration of industrial needs with higher education institutions in achieving economic growth.
Building Capabilities to Serve African Organizations will examine how African management/business scholarship can serve African and multinational management and organizations operating in Africa. In a broader sense, this book, within the African context, will (a) explore how human capital and intellectual capabilities can be organized at the higher-education level, (b) describes the cultural, social, and political influencers impacting management and organization, (c) conceptualizes African management theories to address organizational effectiveness, and (d) addresses the current management and organizational practices in Africa in identifying challenges and providing guidance for more effective management and organizational operation. The book is an intimate exploration of how the juxtaposition of African practices and realties, and Western theories of management can provide the necessary means for effective organizational strategies in Africa.
This book, drawing on the African diaspora’s contributions, will provide the contemporary African approach to business in illuminating effective practices in HR, strategy, marketing, and operation as an integrated system thinking, enabling readers to understand the underlying theories and methods; this can make both African and multinational organizational business pursuits in Africa more successful while offering African and other students at the graduate level a familiarity with the fundamentals of conducting business in Africa. Additionally, this book draws on African colleagues who currently live in or outside Africa to explain how we shape the future of African management higher education to better address the future needs of African business. This book is an edited research monograph aimed at postgraduates, researchers and academics,rather than undergraduate students.
Chapters Overview
The book is divided into four parts. The first part addresses capacity building, focusing on higher education. The second part discusses the role of social, cultural, and political differences in building an African management framework. The third part is an examination of the theoretical construct in creating African management approaches. The fourth and final part reviews the management challenges and differences in their approach (from the Western practices).
Africa, post 2008 global financial crisis, subjected to political and social upheaval in the north, and suffering from declines in commodity prices in the Sub-Saharan countries, is projected to move at a slower economic pace (about 1.5%) for the next few years, while suffering from possible epidemics, negative trade imbalance, and more conflicts (Chuhan-Pole et al, 2015).
Africa envisions itself as “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in global arena” (African Development Bank, 2009). Yet, the reality remains mixed: While economic growth indicates a respectable expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2% and 7% (“Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa,” n.d.), Northern Africa, due to the ongoing internal strife since 2012, has no economic outlook data available. Lack of any economic data explaining the infrastructural position of the continent by the African Union (AU) organization also adds to the foundational challenges in determining where to go from here to realize the African vision as articulated by the AU. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper suggests structural transition from agriculture to other sectors in some countries, while the entire continent suffers from inadequate preparation to meet the transition (Thomas, 2015).
Therefore, as economic analysis suggests, numerous structural challenges exist. However, rather than trying to address a wide array of continental challenges that Africa faces, Part I will focus on the topic of higher education and its role in building capacity for growth. Part I will examine the effects of governmental policies, the role of individuals as educators within higher education, the impact of accreditation and quality control in higher education. Part I will include four chapters—three of which are case studies.
Part II will examine African social, cultural, and political influences on organizations. Within this framework, the first chapter will examine the cross-cultural studies as a resource for multinational companies’ (MNCs’) effective operation. The second chapter will explain how organizational focus on cross-cultural communication will yield effective behavior by expats and indigenous personnel, leading to better organizational performance. In addition, the second chapter will explore partnerships between private and public institutions to learn how such partnerships can be used to enhance organizational capabilities and serving the public in African countries using a Nigerian case. The third chapter will explore the corporate social responsibilities in the context of public governance, reviews the legal framework for public and private partnerships, and provides suggestions about how to avoid constraints to improve organizational capabilities in Africa.
Part III conducts an examination of African management and organizational theory as a conceptual foundation for developing theoretical work that can lead to increasing practical organizational capabilities. The first chapter surveys the broad approaches to theory construction, some of the work already produced by colleagues setting the stage for additional theory construction to conduct African studies, and suggests how various broad theoretical nuances may be exploited for helping African scholars expand on their work from a uniquely African perspective. The second chapter suggests how hermeneutics, interventionist research, and graphic scales can be applied to African studies to conduct management and organizational research. The third chapter presents African management theories such as burungi bwansi, kirinju, and ubuntu, which demonstrate Africa’s strengths based on indigenous theories.
Part IV provides an insight into some of the organizational practices and current management challenges in Africa. The first chapter explains, in light of societal changes, the need for new approaches to human capital management in building organizational capabilities and how changes have created new opportunities for re-examination of the topic. The second chapter proposes connecting apprenticeship and guided entrepreneurship as a way of educating the new management cadre to help organizations build new capabilities. The third and final chapter presents a framework for building African organizational capabilities.
References
African Development Bank. (2009). African development strategy for higher education, science, and technology. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from African Development Bank Group website: http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Policy-Documents/yol%20%C3%A9duc%20eng.pdf
African Union [Fact sheet]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2015, from http://www.au.int/en/about/vision
Akande, W. A., and Banai, M. M. (2009). Your next boss is American: Attitudes of South African managers towards prospective US-South African joint ventures. South African Journal of Business Management, 40(2), 1–13.
Akinboade, O. A., and Lalthapersad-Pillay, P. (2009). The NEPAD initiative and the prospects of business opportunities in the rest of Africa for South African firms based in Gauteng. Development Southern Africa, 26(1), 131–155.
Awayiga, J. Y., Onumah, J. M., and Tsamenyi, M. (2010). Knowledge and skills development of accounting graduates: The perceptions of graduates and employers in Ghana. Accounting Education, 19(1/2), 139–158. doi:10.1080/ 09639280902903523
Blankley, W., and Moses, C. (2009). How innovative is South Africa? South African Journal of Science, 105(1/2), 15–18.
Chuhan-Pole, P., Ferreira, F. H. G., Calderon, C., Christiaensen, L., Evans, D., Kambou, G., … Buitano, M. (2015, April). Africa’s pulse: An analysis of issues shaping Africa’s economic future. Retrieved September 19, 2015, from http://www.worldbank.org/africapulse
Cuéllar, M. (2004). The mismatch between state power and state capacity in transnational law enforcement. Berkeley Journal of International Law, 22(1), 15–58.
de Beer, M., and Mason, R. B. (2009). Using a blended approach to facilitate postgraduate supervision. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 46(2), 213–226. doi:10.1080/14703290902843984
De Maria, W. (2010). Why is the president of Malawi angry? Towards an ethnography of corruption. Culture and Organization, 16(2), 145–162. doi:10.1080/ 14759551003769292
Derrida, J. (1994). Specters of Marx (B. M. Cullenburg, Ed., and P. Kamuf, Trans.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Kamoche, K., Chizema, A., Mellahi, K., and Newenham-Kahindi, A. (2012). New directions in the management of human resources in Africa. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(14), 2825–2834. doi:10.1080/09585192.2012.671504
Ligthelm, A. A. (2008). A targeted approach to informal business development: The entrepreneurial route. Development Southern Africa, 25(4), 367–382. doi:10. 1080/03768350802316138
Matwijkiw, A., and Matwijkiw, B. (2010). Stakeholder theory and justice issues: The leap from business management to contemporary international law. International Criminal Law Review, 10(2), 143–180. doi:10.1163/157181210X492225
Ouma, S. (2012). Creating and maintaining global connections: Agro-business and the precarious making of fresh-cut markets. Journal of Development Studies, 48(3), 322–334. doi:10.1080/00220388.2011.635201
Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2015, from IMF eLibrary Data website: http://data.imf.org/?sk=5778f645–51fb-4f37-a775-b8fecd6bc69b
Thomas, A. (2015, August 15). IMF working paper: Sub-Saharan employment developments: The important role of household enterprises with an application to Rwanda [White paper]. Retrieved September 19, 2015, from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2015/wp15185.pdf
Tucker, A. (2005). Restoration and revolution: Understanding post-totalitarianism. Policy, 21(4), 22–28.
Walwyn, D. (2008). A target for South Africa’s business expenditure on research and development based on industry structure. South African Journal of Science, 104(9/10), 340–344.
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Part I
Capacity Building in Africa
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