Arising from a research project funded by Danish International Development Assistance, Management and Change in Africa includes results of management surveys across 15 sub-Saharan countries and of organizational surveys taken across a range of sectors in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Cameroon. It combines methodology, theory and case examples to explore thoroughly the influences on management in Africa and attempts to push the boundaries of cross-cultural theory. In doing so, it explores how much can be learned from studying both the successes and failures of African management towards realizing the potential of an African Renaissance and what the global community may learn from Africa.
This is the first of the two volumes, written with strong support from EFMD and GMAC, aimed at understanding and examining the challenges involved in management education across Africa.
This concise overview of the practice and processes of management in the African context is the first of its kind, and the introductory volume in the new Essentials of Business and Management in Africa short-form textbook series. This book covers the activities that all managers undertake regardless of their functional specialization and is organised around a model of management that consists of planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling. After introducing each topic, the authors discuss particular characteristics of Africa and African countries and how these influence the topic being covered; for example, relative levels of poverty, prevalence of small and informal businesses and the inadequacy of infrastructure will influence aspects of planning and decision-making, and motivation. Each chapter includes illustrative real-life examples and experiential exercises/short cases. The book begins with a general overview of the African continent and ends with discussions of ethical issues and corporate social responsibility including the management philosophy of Ubuntu. Undergraduate and postgraduate students in Africa and other parts of the world with an interest in the area will appreciate the focus on a region so little discussed in the business and management literature. Due to this dearth of material, this book will also appeal to current and future practicing managers in African countries.
This book analyses and evaluates the accomplishments, challenges, and approaches associated with the New Public Management (NPM) in Africa towards establishing context-specific interventions for public sector institutions' performance. Taking the reader through various business and management approaches, including leadership in the public sector, digitalisation, market orientation and trust building, this book provides an understanding of the key issues facing public sector organisations in Africa and offers novel ways of approaching public management in a changing socio-economic landscape to drive improved performance of public institutions. The book offers students, practitioners and researchers important insights on NPM and public sector institutions in Africa. The recommendations of the book will help government and policymakers implement appropriate public sector management policies for strengthening public sector service delivery in Africa.
This book focuses on strategies for developing consumer markets in Africa using concepts and techniques from marketing, entrepreneurship, and project management. The authors argue that entrepreneurial activity in Africa is rapid, but limited, and requires a structured approach to drive success. Beginning with an introductory chapter that frames the socio-economic and technological developments in Africa, readers are introduced to the conceptual model that provides this structured approach in four logical parts: The creative stage Entrepreneurial and enterprise activities Understanding consumer behavior and market segments A project management-based framework. This multidisciplinary approach is supplemented with many examples and cases from a variety of sectors including health care, wind and solar power, and mobile technology. Through these, readers are able to understand how the model is implemented in reality to drive innovative economic and social development. Marketing Management in Africa will prove a valuable companion to any student of marketing or entrepreneurship with a particular interest in Africa.
The authors assert that sovereignty can no longer be seen as a protection against interference, but as a charge of responsibility where the state is accountable to both domestic and external constituencies. In internal conflicts in Africa, sovereign states have often failed to take responsibility for their own citizens' welfare and for the humanitarian consequences of conflict, leaving the victims with no assistance. This book shows how that responsibility can be exercised by states over their own population, and by other states in assistance to their fellow sovereigns. Sovereignty as Responsibility presents a framework that should guide both national governments and the international community in discharging their respective responsibilities. Broad principles are developed by examining identity as a potential source of conflict, governance as a matter of managing conflict, and economics as a policy field for deterring conflict. Considering conflict management, political stability, economic development, and social welfare as functions of governance, the authors develop strategies, guidelines, and roles for its responsible exercise. Some African governments, such as South Africa in the 1990s and Ghana since 1980, have demonstrated impressive gains against these standards, while others, such as Rwanda, Somalia, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sudan, have failed. Opportunities for making sovereignty more responsible and improving the management of conflicts are examined at the regional and international levels. The lessons from the mixed successes of regional conflict management actions, such as the West African intervention in Liberia, the East African mediation in Sudan, and international efforts to urge talks to end the conflict in Angola, indicate friends and neighbors outside the state in conflict have important roles to play in increasing sovereign responsibility. Approaching conflict management from the perspective of the responsibilities of sovereignt
Elections have emerged as one of the most important, and most contentious, features of political life on the African continent. In the first half of this decade, there were more than 20 national elections, serving largely as capstones of peace processes or transitions to democracies. The outcomes of these and more recent elections have been remarkably varied, and the relationship between elections and conflict management is widely debated throughout Africa and among international observers. Elections can either help reduce tensions by reconstituting legitimate government, or they can exacerbate them by further polarizing highly conflictual societies. This timely volume examines the relationship between elections, especially electoral systems, and conflict management in Africa, while also serving as an important reference for other regions. The book brings together for the first time the latest thinking on the many different roles elections can play in democratization and conflict management.
Edoho and his contributors examine the management challenges facing African governments and businesses on the eve of a new millennium. As the authors make clear, Africa's future is defined by how Africa does in the 21st century. For Africa, a major challenge is how to effectively and efficiently manage its vast wealth. Africa is not poor because it is poor—it is poor because it cannot manage its development process. The shortages of managerial knowledge, skills, and talents are pervasive. Consequently, the region lacks the ability to organize production and run operations effectively and efficiently. The task of developing managerial manpower in Africa is not only imperative, it is urgent. After outlining theoretical and applied perspectives on management, the volume examines the public and private sector planning and management. It then explores the globalization of management technology, provides case studies of African management dilemmas, looks at management ethics and morality, and concludes with an analysis of the role of management in African national development. As the authors make clear, abundant resources will not of themselves usher in an African economic renaissance. Africa needs skills to identify and analyze its resources, to undertake investment, and to establish and run all kinds of organizations. Until Africa develops its indigenous managerial talents, development will continue to be elusive, and the process traumatizing. An important resource for scholars, students, and policy makers involved with African economic development.
This blind peer reviewed book systematically records, analyses and assesses for the first time in a single volume the implications of the global development and management of professional evaluation for the African continent.The book deals with the most strategic contemporary evaluation themes. Each of these themes contains discussions of theoretical issues illustrated with one or more short case studies, while selected longer case studies and other relevant documentation are also taken up in annexures at the end of the book. The book therefore comprises a guide to best M&E practices for purposes of systematic policy, programme and project evaluations. It is suitable for both professional M&E institutionalisation and capacity-building projects as well as for evaluation information dissemination and education at different levels in the public, private and voluntary sectors in society, especially in a developmental context.
