Organisational Cultures and Management Styles in Four African Countries:a cross-cultural study

Abstract

Formal economic organisations and the work culture are alien phenomena to traditional African society. Managers in Africa have thus adapted to the whole concept of the organisation in the way they see best. Generally most previous research has found management in Africa to be reflective of a conflict between ‘traditionalism’ and modern industrial practice. Previous research has also shown that differences exist in the ways African managers adapt and relate to their organisations when compared with managers from the west. This research set out to identify those organisational cultures and management styles currently prevailing and those preferred by managers of organisations in Cameroon, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa. With the use of factor analysis, one way analysis of variance tests and t tests, this study examines whether differences exist in current and preferred organisational cultures and management styles among the four countries despite a certain degree of cultural homogeneity among them. Due to ethnic diversity in the countries of study, this research also looks at possible differences between African and European ethnic groups as they are seen as having fundamentally different values. Differences across management levels are also briefly investigated. These investigations provide information that helps explain some differences among the countries. Results of this empirical study indicate the existence of organisational cultures and management styles with a combination of both traditional African society, and modern industrialised society characteristics in all the four countries. On comparison of the four countries, differences observed are mainly in the extent to which these organisational cultures and management styles are prevalent in each country. The findings of this research on the whole indicate that, existing differences are more a result of factors other than cultural factors. Such factors include the overall histories of the countries and conditions in the political and economic environments among other factors. The role played by national culture however cannot be ignored. It is evident that future deeper qualitative research is needed to reveal more cultural influences on organisational cultures and management styles in the four countries.