Indigenous African Leadership: Key differences from Anglo-centric thinking and writings

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.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

Leadership for high performance in local councils in Cameroon and Nigeria: Examining deviant and concordant practices to the philosophy of Ubuntu

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Emerging from indigenous communities in South Africa, the philosophy of Ubuntu has been heralded as a context-resonant leadership model befitting the African context. Ubuntu privileges moral and humanistic approaches to leadership premised on collective endeavour and people-oriented preferences. However, the concept remains unexplored in West and Central Africa. If Ubuntu is African and thus, culturally and contextually-resonant to the African socio-economic and psycho-social work environment, why do African organizations continue to underperform. To address this dilemma, this study explores how Ubuntu leadership is practiced in a public service organization. Using interviewing and group discussion and exploring discursively from a constructionist perspective, the study analyses data from 12 council authorities in Cameroon and Nigeria. Contradiction, ambiguity and paradox is highlighted, thus, interrogating and challenging the stereotypical, simplistic and unitary theoretical framing of Ubuntu. A seven dimension model of Ubuntu leadership embedding deviant practices and vital omissions for high performance is proposed

Leadership in Cameroon and Nigeria: The Quest for Appreciable, Effective and Sustainable Leadership through Leadership Development

Copy right for this grant is held by the funding body Uongozi Institute Tanzania.The African context is a shifting and complex environment, the result of a cascading history that has led to a co-habitation of indigenous African and Western constructions of phenomena such as leadership. This cohabitation has inevitably resulted to mutations of practices and understandings of leadership that often veil or subsume visions of Afrocentric construct of the phenomenon of leadership if this ever availed itself a unique film. Contemporary efforts deployed to unpack leadership in the African context have provided building blocks that enable research to advance towards the direction of deriving a practice and understanding of leadership in Africa that squares up to the unique context and challenges of African and much more so for SSA, the focus of this study. Local government councils in SSA as in other countries the world over have the responsibility of governing their communities by solving the multiple and intricate necessities that befall their populations. As the closest unit of governance both central governments and for local autonomous tribal and socio-cultural groupings or communities, they represent the best opportunities to uncover how leadership is constructed and practiced. At the same time, the urban areas present different practices that may or may not reflect indigeneity. This inquiry focused in two regions in Cameroon and two regions in Nigeria, to study constructions, perceptions and practices of leadership in 62 councils (urban, rural and indigenous) within all four regions. The study addressed four research questions, providing a deeper understanding of the extent to which indigenous African and Western leadership resonate in context. A key finding is there are aspects of indigenous African leadership that impede the development of effective leadership and that some aspects of Western leadership concepts of leadership do not quite fit the African context. Furthermore, the study uncovered that generally, indigenous African leadership theories scored higher in participant approval with only some dimensions of Western concepts rated. Based on findings, a three-segment model stratifying the research field and African society and highlighting the heterogeneity and complexity of the context. Furthermore, the study uncovered that generally, indigenous African leadership theories scored higher in participant approval with only some dimensions of Western concepts rated. Based on findings, a three-segment model stratifying the research field and African society and highlighting the heterogeneity and complexity of the context. The study contributes a model for leadership development referred to as ‘higher purpose leadership’ that elevates the role and duty of leadership beyond the self, but which favours higher purpose achievement and leadership for the collective good through (PATH)

Leadership Development in Africa: A contextual and Literature Review

Project on Leadership development in Africa aimed at setting the foundation for leadership development initiatives for organizations in Africa. Impact in leadership development and practice in the context of Africa. The problem of ineffective leadership is a constant worry for private and public organisations in Africa . Scholars and politicians have abundantly voiced concerns and elucidated the monumental fallout of poor leadership for nations and organisations in Africa (Agulanna, 2006; Moghalu, 2017; Rotberg, 2004). The outcome of this interrogation has surfaced a developing body of work suggesting and proposing frameworks that could help promote leadership effectiveness for private and political organisations in Africa (Kuada, 2010; Muchiri, 2011; Obiakor, 2004). These concerted effort is founded on the consideration within scholarly work that improve leadership effectiveness in public, private and political organizations in the continent could enable leaders to better harness the continent’s resources, and hence, equitably address the persistent social and economic challenges entrapping the continent (Kuada, 2010; Obiakor, 2004; F.O. Walumbwa, Avolio, & Aryee, 2011). Increasingly, analysts are positing that leadership development could play an important role in Africa’s development. Accordingly, organizations such as HAUS in Finland are deploying resources for research that seeks a better understanding of the African terrain in a bid to improve leadership effectiveness in Africa and to make a difference in the performance of African organizations. This review examines leadership development and associated issues in the African context. The report is structured into four chapters. The first presents the context, rationale and methodology. The second highlights dominant issues, explores key debates and examines approaches to leadership development in general. The third focuses on the history, nature and challenges of leadership and leadership development in Africa. The last chapter discusses dominant issues and provides direction for future leadership development orientation for Africa

Institutional Voids and Innovation Governance: A Conceptual Exposition of the Open versus Closed Architecture Choice

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.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