Our continent will become a major player in the world – from food, mineral resources and people to name a few, requiring the correct leadership to take it there. These facts are important for leaders, managers and the people of Africa as it enables African leaders and managers to design their future strategies and not only business strategies, but the integrated type of societies that will enable us to become a true world player.
3. The challenges facing the African Manager Modern and Westernised African organisations are conceptualised and structured in a Western mould (Van der Wal & Ramotsehoa, 2001). The cultures of organisations are dominated by these values with a predominantly male top management structure – not necessarily white, but Westernised – ignoring the fact that the largest proportion of the population/workforce is neither European nor American, but African (Van der Wal & Ramotsehoa, 2001).
Many employees are unable to identify with these cultures and little congruence exists between organisational goals and those of the general workforce. The reality is that the success of African business is not vested only in pure sound business and management principles, but in understanding, relating and integrating aspects of the multiple African social cultures into the business culture. Shonhiwa (2006), Van Rensburg (2007) and Nussbaum et al. (2010) indicated some of these challenges confronting African managers (African implies any person appointed to a managerial position irrespective of race or origin) as follows:
• Poor-rich individual: The manager in the
Afro-centric cross-cultural context is perceived by the rank and file to be materially and intellectually rich. This perception develops because poverty is rife on the African continent. Employees usually seem materially worse off than their managers, but very often managers in the African context are not as well off as their employees may think. The erroneous perception that all managers are rich can lead to complex personal problems
90 Management Today | January 2012
for a manager in the African context.
• Shifting ethical platforms: The Cultural Revolution taking place in Africa leads to ethical boundaries being in a continual state of flux. What used to be taboo is now commonplace, as cultural goalposts are being shifted to suit new preferences. The conflict between old- and new-school managers further complicates the situation.
• Overriding political environments: As political change occurs at a much slower pace than social and economic changes, managers continue to feel the weight of political restrictions. They are torn between patriotism and the demands of the new international business scenario.
• Cultural confines and conflicts: In some scenarios, managers are unable to support a specific change or product because it will clash with tradition, and they feel they cannot risk being seen to be stepping out of line.
• Skills and productivity gaps: Although advances in technology surge onwards, the process of upgrading skills is lagging behind, creating a widening productivity gap. The concept of employment equity is pressed both from a legislation and organisational point of view, and organisations/managers fail to meet targets due to a lack of skills in the available workforce.
• Society’s crisis of expectations: In an African context, one is not sure whether to openly celebrate one’s success or if this behaviour will be construed as arrogant and boastful. The majority of African society is still operating in a communalism mode, expecting all citizens to be either equally poor or equally wealthy. Those who are first to achieve higher status, such as a management position, are targets of the African PHD (‘pull-him-or-her- down’) syndrome. This places the cross-cultural manager in a frustrating push-pull position. • Female leaders: In the African culture,
the roles of women are ordained by men. Males find it difficult to be lead by women in a business world where women are now occupying their rightful place as managers
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