The Effective Cross-Cultural Manager

Description:

The Effective Cross-Cultural Manager explores management in Africa, and particularly the area of cross-cultural management. It deals with the challenges of transformation and change within Africa’s current business environment, and shows managers how to build bridges across cultural gaps to ensure that their companies and staff operate at their full potential.

The Effective Cross-Cultural Manager provides useful definitions, guidelines and strategies for those newly appointed to management positions, as well as for those who have been involved in management for longer. Much of the information is based on research on leadership conducted by the author in eleven countries across sub-Saharan Africa between 2002 and 2003.

The fundamental aim is to alert managers and leaders to the dangers of ethnocentrism and to the fact that other cultures are as important as their own. Objectivity in cross-cultural matters is crucial for managers at all levels, as it will assist them in dealing with complex issues successfully and with understanding.

Content: The Effective Cross-Cultural Manager:

PREFACE
THE CHANGING AFRICAN CONTEXT
Introduction
The contemporary African political context
The case for cross-cultural management skills
The African cultural value system

WHAT EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT MEANS
What is management?
The management process
Management and hierarchical structure
Eurocentric versus Afrocentric management approaches
Beyond conventional management
Leadership
Management challenges in the African context
Conclusion

AFRICAN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT QUALITIES
Discussion of the research questions
Conclusion

DYNAMICS OF TRANSFORMATION IN AFRICA
What is transformation?
The dynamics of transformation in an African scenario
The changing face of business management in Africa - two examples
Basics of transformation
Conclusion

CROSS-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES
The colonial experience
Nationalism and the paradox of business demands
What is the essence of cross-cultural management?
Cross-cultural achievement milestones
Management development in a cross-cultural environment
Does a lack of cross-cultural management skills mean the failure of an organisation?
Bridging the management knowledge gap
Conclusion

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN A CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXT
Corporate governance defined
Governance and investment
Characteristics common to good corporate and political governance
Corporate governance and ethics
Business ethics in the African context
Cross-cultural challenges of corporate governance
What transformation and for whom?
Strategic solutions to cross-cultural challenges
A fit-for-purpose Afrocentric strategy

THE OPTIMAL MIX - THE MANAGER, MANY WORLDS AND AFRICA
Economic growth as prerequisite for development
African world view and productivity
Management lessons for the future
Where to, cross-cultural manager?

BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER 1
THE CHANGING AFRICAN CONTEXT