The word ubuntu is a buzzword in African management talk, but it’s decidedly absent when businesses describe what they do in formal African economies, according to Terence Jackson, a professor of cross-cultural management at London’s Middlesex University.
Jackson spent decades looking for “the elusive concept of ubuntu in African management practice,” and he finally found it in the informal sector, he said in a guest column in TheConversation.
Ubuntu is about being human and how people should relate to others. Jackson cites a Xhosa proverb that defines ubuntu as “people are people through other people.”
Varieties of the word ubuntu are used all over sub-Saharan Africa, according to a research paper by Douglas Taylor, entitled “Defining Ubuntu For Business Ethics” in Academia.edu.
The Sukuma tribe in Tanzania uses the word “bantu.” The Sesotho people in Southern Africa use “batho.” The Herero people in Namibia use “avandu.” In central Africa, it is “ngumtu, kubuntu and edubuntu.” The Swahili people in East Africa use “watu.”
“Ubuntu reflects a valuing of the intrinsic humanity of people and how they relate to others,” Jackson said in TheConversation. “This is a far cry from the instrumental value placed on human beings as ‘resources’ in Western-style organisations: a major reason for workplace alienation of African workers.”
The hype around the term ubuntu has been used to make it a commodity packaged and sold by consultants, a public relations professional’s dream; an “indigenous” concept harking back to pre-colonial times, and an idea denigrated as inappropriate for modern corporations, Jackson said.
“It seems, the pull of Western-style management appears too great to successfully implement Ubuntu management.”
Jackson analyzed the results of a research project funded by Danish International Development Assistance that conducted management surveys in 15 sub-Saharan countries including South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Cameroon. The project explored influences on management in Africa and attempted to push the boundaries of cross-cultural theory. Jackson published the results in a book, “Management and Change in Africa,” according to global publisher Routledge.
“Neoliberal economics appear entrenched and Western management solutions ingrained in company performance in sub-Saharan Africa,” Jackson said. “Yet these have been widely questioned as being inappropriate to Africa’s development.”
Just one formal company in 14 African countries said it adhered to “African” values. A manager at Afriland First Bank in Cameroon, told it like this, according to TheConversation.
In traditional culture it isn’t the chief who makes the decisions. Every stone is turned by bringing people together. With individual decision-making there is a chance that you will make a mistake. So decisions are taken at the group level. We are like an African family that is trying to ensure our stability for the longer period.
In the north of the country you have isolated big trees in savannah areas. So people gather around the tree. They solve community matters, preventing small problems becoming destructive. This is the model here.
At least in this case, far from being purely an African dream, it appears to work. Latest figures show a balance sheet value of US$2.5 billion and a net banking income of $181 million.
From small beginnings in 1987, Afriland First Bank must be doing something right. With operations across Central and West Africa, and offices in France and China, from the beginning it has focused on the informal economy, unlike other banks, in its quest to “develop a class of entrepreneurs in Africa,” seeing firms in the informal economy as Africa’s future.
Rather than harking back to pre-colonial times, to “authentic” African values and practices, the answer may lie in today’s dynamic and thriving informal economy.
Recent research found that informal firms appear more in tune with African communities and more embedded in them than formal counterparts, Jackson said. They are not dependent on Western shareholders or Western donations, and not subject to Western management education. They often use methods and practices that are well tested and honed to local conditions.
Informal firms may resist “modern” management methods that are inappropriate.
The informal part of African economies is largely ignored and poorly researched, Jackson said. “Once African governments and international development organisations wake up to the importance of the informal economy to Africa’s future, we may yet discover what ubuntu really means.”
Community-based nonprofits — non-governmental organisations — have shown signs of ubuntu but as soon as they receive western donations needed to grow and survive, ubuntu seems to get lost.
“Often there is overwhelming pressure from the donor to adopt Western-style management practices, even when the NGO knows this may not be appropriate to African staff and the communities they serve,” Jackson said. One NGO manager put it like this:
There is a lot of ubuntu, it is there … this is in the culture. You see it in the consensus model: people discuss in the villages. We are part of this. We discuss. If we can’t get over this, we put it to one side and come back to it.
There is the donor influence: they want things to happen at a certain time. How do you balance this with what you live with on a daily basis? When you come to the office you work in a different manner. To a certain extent this is stepping outside our culture, but not at the level as in the corporate sector.
