African Management

The complex and dynamic interlinks between natural resource management (NRM) and development have long been recognized by national and international research and development organizations and have generated voluminous literature. However, much of what is available in the form of university course books, practical learning manuals and reference materials in NRM is based on experiences from outside Africa. Managing Natural Resources for Development in Africa: A Resource Book provides an understanding of the various levels at which NRM issues occur and are being addressed scientifically, economically, socially and politically. The book's nine chapters present state-of-the-art perspectives within a holistic African context. The book systematically navigates the tricky landscape of integrated NRM, with special reference to Eastern and Southern Africa, against the backdrop of prevailing local, national, regional and global social, economic and environmental challenges. The authors' wide experience, the rich references made to emerging challenges and opportunities, and the presentation of different tools, principles, approaches, case studies and processes make the book a rich and valuable one-stop resource for postgraduate students, researchers, policymakers and NRM practitioners. The book is designed to help the reader grasp in-depth NRM perspectives and presents innovative guidance for research design and problem solving, including review questions, learning activities and recommended further reading. The book was developed through a writeshop process by a multi-disciplinary team of lecturers from the University of Nairobi, Egerton University, Kenyatta University, the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Malawi, Makerere University and the University of Dar es Salam. In addition, selected NRM experts from regional and international research organizations including the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), the Africa Forest Forum, RUFORUM, IIRR and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) participated in the writeshop and contributed material to the book.

This book offers a panoramic view of the state of management research and practice in Africa. One of its objectives is to recognize current advances in management, applied economics and organizational research in some of the 54 nations that form the continent. The focus will be on new developments across the region with a particular emphasis on the defining cultural and traditional elements and innovations that make African management different.

The most successful business leaders always have their own compelling philosophies, but all too often the thoughts and ideologies of high-profile African American leaders are forgotten or passed over. This exciting new study reflects on some of the leading black business pioneers of the late 19th and early 20th century.

This book is designed to serve management scholars and educators in Africa, African Diaspora, and those interested in advancing African knowledge management and research or re-examining the management domain from African perspectives. Target markets for this book are: • Postgraduates • Specialist academic researchers • Specialist industry researchers • African management researchers • African management diaspora teaching, researching, and re-examining African management using African approaches

In African-Centred Management Education, Professor Abdulai looks critically at the failings of management education in Africa and how that has impacted growth and development efforts, especially at this critical stage in the continent’s positive growth and development trajectory. He concludes that Africa’s current positive economic growth cannot be sustained without a significant contribution from its human capital. He adds that, the outstanding economic record of Asian economies in recent decades dramatically illustrates how important human capital is to growth. These countries lacking natural resources and importing practically all their energy requirements have grown rapidly by relying on a well-trained, educated and conscientious workforce. Professor Abdulai believes that Africa, too, can sustain its current growth and development by effectively combining its abundant natural resources with its human capital to attain its economic development, but this will require an African cadre of well-trained managers at the helm of both private and public sector institutions. For this to become a reality, management education in Africa will have to play a significant role, but the author argues that it cannot be effective by continually mimicking the West in the programmes it delivers. It must come up with innovative and relevant pedagogy that will address the special challenges that the continent faces and deliver an African-centred management education. As well as pointing to the failures of management education in Africa, Abdulai offers suggestions as to how to make management education really contribute to the education of Africans, in order to sustain current and future development.

Sustainable Management Development in Africa examines how African management and business scholarship can serve African and multinational management and organizations operating in Africa. In a broader sense, this book, within an African context, explores how human capital and intellectual capabilities can be organized at the higher education level; describes the cultural, social, and political influencers impacting management and organization; helps conceptualize African management theories to address organizational effectiveness; addresses the current management and organizational practices in Africa in identifying challenges; and provides guidance for more effective management and organizational operation. Aimed at researchers, academics, and advanced students alike, this book lays the groundwork for the application of uniquely African theoretical and practical perspectives for sustainable management and organizational operation, as explained from a contemporary African point of view. In addition and most important, this book contains a uniquely African content that allows for developing new theories and examining new ways of doing business, thus reaffirming the rise of African scholarship in the fields of management, organization, and business.

Offering a re-conceptualization of our understanding of management in Africa, this work includes results of organizational surveys taken across a range of sectors in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria and Cameroon.

The purpose of this book is to establish the first formalised scholarly work on critical management studies (CMS) in the South African context. The book is a collection of seven chapters, six of which employ a conceptual methodology and one of which follows an interpretive paradigm employing qualitative methods of inquiry. CMS is a relatively young school of thought, arising in the early 1990s and still very much a peripheral movement within the academic discipline of management. South Africa has very little scholarship on CMS as precious few scholars work in this space. Furthermore, publication opportunities are virtually non-existent as CMS is virtually unknown in the South African community of management scholars. Thus, this book represents the first academic work on CMS published in South Africa, written and reviewed by scholars who are familiar with the field. The primary target readership would be management academics, but it could also be a useful reference for postgraduate students in management.