This article draws on historical explorers' accounts, ethnography and organisational approaches to examine practices, discourses and perceptions of leadership in 12 prototypical indigenous communities in West and Central Africa. By so doing, it highlights how leadership meanings from this context differ from Anglo-centric thinking and writings. Key to this contribution is an unravelling of ways in which historical cultural hegemonies impose particular discursive formations, constructed practices and mind-programming in a non-Anglo-Saxon socio-cultural context. Dramaturgical power arrangement, lucid role substitution and the notion of leadership as nonhuman emerge as dominant themes in the analysis. Also, featuring significantly are representations of leadership in symbols, mythology and as transcendental and metaphysical. These conceptualisations are different from predominant Anglo-Saxon writings that frequently present leadership as linear hierarchies, dyadic (leader-follower) relationship, acts and behaviours of heroic figures and as an essentially human action. An Afro-centric indigenous concept of leadership reflecting the context is proposed which challenges heroism, linearity, individualism and objectivism.
Drawing on a framework that integrates discursive practices and relationalism, we explore the relevance of relational ties for the cross-state mobility of naturalised third-country nationals (NTCNs) within the European Union, examining how relational ties facilitate their mobility to the UK. Our data derive from in-depth interviews with NTCNs of West African origin living and working in the UK. Emphasising how co-ethnic diaspora-based networks produce (un)planned cross-state mobility outcomes, we identify five stages in the mobility process: sensemaking of an imperfect structural incorporation in the naturalised country; co-ethnic diaspora conversations; squaring circles; reconnaissance visits; and taking the plunge. Our study reveals how shared collective identities are replicated in transnational networks to inform mobility decisions. Although West African NTCNs may lack the social and cultural capital needed to exploit opportunities in industrialised societies, relationally they are well endowed. The geographically extended relational capital they bring with them, and the access to opportunities this affords, we suggest, helps compensate for deficits in situated social capital and constitutes a primary determinant of success in cross-state mobility.
The choice of open versus closed innovation is shaped by the interplay between firms' analytical orientation and the institutional conditions within firms' operating environments. Whereas there is a plethora of research about the antecedents of innovation performance, there is a lack of understanding about the factors affecting and influencing innovation governance. Regulatory, normative, and cognitive institutional voids have differential impacts on the choice of open versus closed innovation. Firms' analytical orientation, political connections, and collaborating partners' home country institutions moderate the effect of institutional voids on innovation governance.
Purpose This paper aims to address the main arguments put forward in Grietjie Verhoef’s article and contribute to a wider debate among management scholars on the role of indigenous theories. It challenges the view of African management as illusory and points to the rising support for indigenous theories as indicative of the weakening of the unquestioned dominance of universal theories. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes a conceptual and critically reflective approach, underpinned by a 360-degree evaluation of pertinent literature and theoretical arguments. Findings This paper reveals an underlying symmetry and interconnectedness, anchored on a shared communal ethos, among Afrocentric management concepts, specifically Ubuntu, Ekpe and Igbo apprenticeship systems. This symmetry points to an underlying indigenous management theory that begs to be further conceptualised, evidenced and advanced. Research limitations/implications This paper affirms Verhoef’s demand for Ubuntu, Ekpe, Igbo apprenticeship system to be more rigorously developed and theoretically coherent and urges scholars to intensify effort towards advancing the conceptual and empirical foundations of African management. Echoing Mahatma Gandhi’s timeless counsel, this paper calls on critics of African management to join the effort to bring about the change they wish to see in African management theorising. Social implications This paper disavows the alleged effort to impose a single “African management” model or perpetuate the “colonial/indigenous” binary divide but equally cautions against an effort to veto scholarly striving for a common identity, to learn from history or not embrace collective amnesia. As examples from the USA and Europe show, diversity, even heterogeneity, needs not to preclude the forging of a commonly shared identity complemented with appropriate sub-identities. Originality/value This paper links the African management-centred themes addressed by Verhoef to the wider debate among management scholars about lessening the dominance of universal theories and allowing space for context-resonant indigenous theories. It calls on African management scholars to invest the premium and intensified effort towards building a more robust and coherent body of indigenous theory that will have the capacity and efficacy to inform, explain and advance organisational practice and outcomes across Africa.
befitting the African socio-cultural and institutional environment.collective endeavor and people-oriented preferences. These are much sought after aspects of leadership that should enable growth and expansion in Africa. Elusive, though, are empirical studies that explore the manifestation of Ubuntu in Africa and models that for the curious scholar is: if Ubuntu aligns to the African socioeconomic and psycho-social work environment, why do African this study explores how Ubuntu leadership is practiced in a public Contradiction, deviation and paradox are highlighted. The "sevendimension" model of Ubuntu leadership embedding deviant and
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