The African way of Western leadership practices can lead to business success, study finds
A hybrid approach to leadership, merging Western and African styles, may be key to business success in African markets, a new Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Business School study has found.
Despite the significant differences, a combination of Western pragmatism and African humanism can form an “entirely new construct” that recognises the importance of fact, logic and the nature of reality, while promoting the recognition of human-focused and collectivist forms of leadership.
The study examined the leadership approaches of senior leaders and executives operating in multinational corporations in four sub-Saharan African countries.
“While African leadership approaches have often been criticised for being poorly adaptive to increasingly complex globalised economies, empirical data in this study presents an entirely different picture – one of confident, self-assured African leaders effectively heading businesses that are part of Western multinational corporations operating in emerging markets,” said NMMU Business School professor and researcher Paul Poisat.
“African way of Western leadership” practices show senior executives and leaders have moved towards a more humanistic culture without compromising their drive for results.
“It requires the adoption of certain African leadership characteristics which are used together with Western leadership approaches. The Western approach informs what needs to be done, while the African approach informs how to do it,” Poisat said of the so-called "crossvergence".
The study had led to the creation of a business leadership framework highlighting several elements that businesses need to consider, including risks, challenges, and skills and core competencies, when recruiting candidates for leadership positions in emerging markets.
“[It also reviewed] how candidates’ attachments to Western market culture, African clan culture, and Western and African traits and characteristics can be combined to create the crossvergence approach to leadership that African markets increasingly require,” he said.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation