1. Introduction: Eva Jordans, Bettina Ng''weno & Helen Spencer Oatey Africa''s economy and productive age population has been rapidly increasing since 2000, providing new opportunities for diversity of jobs, economic and creative activities, and political systems as well as levels of complexity in organizations and institutions. These developing areas are also demanding new kinds of leadership as well as new leaders. In view of Africa''s youth bulge (65% of people are under 29), a large majority of Africa''s workforce and leaders are, and will be, young people in the years to come. The increasing numbers of young and well-educated professionals who wish to develop as ''new-style'' leaders, have extremely limited information on different leadership styles, minimal role models, and little opportunity to learn HOW leaders in Africa could change from the commonly used leadership styles. This book therefore will: · Illustrate different kinds of leadership styles in specific contexts; · Use case study examples to illustrate how leadership can be developed; · Incorporate practical suggestions and tools for current and forthcoming leaders in Africa, as well as across the world, who wish to become ''global leaders''; in other words, people who can adjust their leadership style to suit different cultural and situational contexts. This book is inspired by our own experiences and those that others shared with us. Many chapters are co-authored with experienced leaders in Africa.
It is based on the most important insights gathered over years of experience, including: Practical experiences: The editors and authors have themselves worked in and lead teams in various countries, and experienced the challenges of leadership across different cultures, expectations, generations and behavior; Academic insights: The editors and authors have studied and researched aspects of culture and leadership in various settings; Training and education experience: Years of experience in training and teaching others in developing their (intercultural) leadership competencies has yielded insights in what can most effectively support the learning process. The fascination for the process of developing leadership has led us to develop this book that combines theory with practice and can act as a practical self-help guide. We want to share case studies, practical insights and tools that could be helpful, including not only research data but also true stories and anecdotes that illustrate key learnings. The thinking and insights emerge from practice, for practice. Most importantly, the leaders in this book can serve as role models for young leaders across Africa and across the world. This is a book with a mission: Inspiring people and increasing understanding in order ultimately to foster effective leadership which will support development in Africa. Part 1: Conceptual Chapters (3) 2. Understanding leadership and culture in Africa: Helen Spencer Oatey, Bettina Ng''weno & Eva Jordans This chapter analyses the documented academic insights on culture and leadership, especially in Africa.
Culture and leadership are explored within the framework of practices, products and perspectives (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 2015). Practices --are patterns of social interactions, behaviors representing the knowledge of "what to do when and where" and how to interact within a particular culture. The chapter also draws on Molinsky''s work which focuses on the content and style of behavior expected in a situation, including distinguishing what he calls the "zone of appropriateness" - the culturally acceptable ''range'' of content and style permissible in a particular cultural script. Landman explains this as follows in relation to Africa: "It is unfortunate that leadership in Africa is far too often presented to the world in the form of dysfunctional and derailed leadership. Africa has an abundance of sound and responsible leaders on all levels and dimensions of society. These leaders need to emerge and become visible. Leadership development is a key leverage point in the development and transformation of our beautiful continent." Frik Landman.
CEO, University of Stellenbosch Executive Development Ltd. [1] . Furthermore, changing leadership practices, both as a result of generation differences and foreign influences are documented. Products --are the tangible or intangible creations of a particular culture. Of particular interest are the numerous stories that are told in Africa reflecting perspectives on leadership, such as documented in Lead Like a Lion: Leadership Lessons from East-African Animal Stories - 2013 by Abdi Osman Jama et al. Perspectives --the philosophical perspectives, meanings, attitudes, values, beliefs, ideas that underlie the cultural practices and products of a society. They represent a culture''s view of the world. A few studies of perspectives have included African countries in global comparative studies such as the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research which covers the following countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Northern Africa, and the LEAD study.
The GLOBE study records the importance of values of modesty and humane oriented as contributing to effective leadership. The Sub Saharan Africa cluster ranks among the highest cultures with respect to this dimension, and is among the lowest with respect to Autonomous leadership(GLOBE, 2004). Publications on Leadership in Southern Africa document philosophies like Ubuntu (humanness), an Nguni/Zulu word often translated as "I am because we are". This is a philosophy of coexistence, whereby a person can only be conceived of in relation to others (Louw, 1998, Van Der Colff, 2002). 3. Understanding leadership development across cultures: Eva Jordans & Estelle-Marie Heussen-Montgomery Management is about people, its essence is dealing with human nature. In this book, the Leadership Circumplex [2] is used as a comprehensive leadership framework for understanding the full range of leadership styles. Developed by researchers at the University of Amsterdam, The Leadership Circumplex is an up to date framework for understanding a leader''s interpersonal behavior.
)="" is="" control="" dominance="" -="" or="" agency="" and="" the="" other="" (horizontal)="" people="" oriented="" (or:="" affiliation="" love="" communion),="" resulting="" 8="" span="" circular. The framework is also useful for understanding the "bright and dark sides" of leadership. What can be considered bright and dark has by Redeker et al. been determined based on research in Netherlands and Belgium. This has thus not yet been tested across different cultures. In this book the suitability of the eight styles for the current challenges facing leaders in Africa is assessed, both in the on-line questionnaires and in the in-depth interviews. The chapter further discusses different approaches to leadership development, across different countries. It provides lessons learnt on what have proven to be effective approaches for developing leaders, and factors that contribute to its success.
4. Understanding historical/political context of leadership in Africa [conceptual chapter]: Bettina Ng''weno This chapter summarizes the historical and political context into which leadership in Africa takes place, including cultural patterns of leadership, historical and post-colonial political developments (e.g. the initial establishment of socialist system in Tanzania after independence) as well as more recent global trends (e.g. globalization of trade and economic development, growing involvement of China). Part 2: Case Studies (5) 5. Methodology: Eva Jordans & Helen Spencer Oatey This chapter introduces the methodology underlying the case studies.
Data was collected via an online questionnaire, and through in-depth qualitative interviews with both leaders and followers. The interview guide is presented in Annex A of this section of the proposal. Each case study is specific for a country, sphere of leadership and focus of the interviews. However, to ensure cohesion, each case is prepared based on the following framework: Sphere of leadership: Context and background of leaders involved in the case study Focus: Specific questions and interest Overview of perceptions: Review of country specific data and perspectives from on-line questionnaire In-depth qualitative stories and views: Presentation of anecdotes, perceptions and experiences with a focus on behavior, emotions and views. Insights and lessons learnt: Overall conclusions, new insights and practical suggestions for today''s leaders who like to improve or change their leadership style. Each case study is co-authored by a practitioner: an African leader who is involved in developing and supporting leaders. 6. Leaders in government transformation (possibly Ghana): Dr.
Estelle-Marie Heussen and Eva Jordans Co-author: Dr. Estelle-Marie Heussen, is Founder, Principal and Chief Executive of GlobalEyez LLC and COO of the Washington based GB Group which currently focuses on innovative and sustainable solut.