IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intman/v30y2024i5s1075425324000516.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards Increased Understanding of Leadership in the African Context: Data From Seven Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Galperin, Bella L.
  • Michaud, James
  • Punnett, Betty Jane
  • Melyoki, Lemayon L.
  • Metwally, Elham
  • Mukanzi, Clive
  • Senaji, Thomas Anyanje
  • Taleb, Ali

Abstract

A call in the international management literature asks scholars to follow inclusivity and national representation for the field to move forward (Arikan and Shenkar, 2021). Despite the increased interest in doing business on the African continent, research on leadership in Africa is still in its infancy. To fill this gap, this study reports the results from a large-scale sample (N = 699) in seven African countries on the perceptions of leadership effectiveness and its relationship to cultural factors. The findings identified both similarities and differences in preferences regarding leadership effectiveness across the African countries. Respondents described effective leaders in similar terms to those found in Western literature (e.g. visionary and charismatic) and they also placed importance on Africa-centric variables (e.g. communal and ubuntu). Different cultural dimensions were also found to relate to certain leadership preferences. For example, individuals from African cultures high on uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, paternalism, and femininity were more likely to view an ubuntu leadership style as effective. The results provide a basis for further research and practical guidance for managers in African countries, where investment in African countries is growing and the importance of effective leadership is seen as critical to sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Galperin, Bella L. & Michaud, James & Punnett, Betty Jane & Melyoki, Lemayon L. & Metwally, Elham & Mukanzi, Clive & Senaji, Thomas Anyanje & Taleb, Ali, 2024. "Towards Increased Understanding of Leadership in the African Context: Data From Seven Countries," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(5).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:intman:v:30:y:2024:i:5:s1075425324000516
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intman.2024.101170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075425324000516
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intman.2024.101170?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wanasika, Isaac & Howell, Jon P. & Littrell, Romie & Dorfman, Peter, 2011. "Managerial Leadership and Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 234-241, April.
    2. Ellis, Paul D. & Zhan, Ge, 2011. "How international are the international business journals?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 100-112, February.
    3. Rosalie L Tung & Günter K Stahl, 2018. "The tortuous evolution of the role of culture in IB research: What we know, what we don’t know, and where we are headed," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(9), pages 1167-1189, December.
    4. Adeyinka Adewale, 2020. "A Model of Virtuous Leadership in Africa: Case Study of a Nigerian Firm," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(4), pages 749-762, February.
    5. Howell, Jon P. & Romero, Eric J. & Dorfman, Peter W. & Paul, Jim & Bautista, J. Arnoldo, 2003. "Effective leadership in the Mexican maquiladora: challenging common expectations," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 51-73.
    6. Neubert, Mitchell J. & de Luque, Mary Sully & Quade, Matthew J. & Hunter, Emily M., 2022. "Servant leadership across the globe: Assessing universal and culturally contingent relevance in organizational contexts," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(2).
    7. Gelbrich, Katja & Stedham, Yvonne & Gäthke, Daniel, 2016. "Cultural Discrepancy and National Corruption: Investigating the Difference between Cultural Values and Practices and Its Relationship to Corrupt Behavior," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 201-225, April.
    8. Teagarden, Mary B. & Von Glinow, Mary Ann & Mellahi, Kamel, 2018. "Contextualizing international business research: Enhancing rigor and relevance," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 303-306.
    9. Karacay, Gaye & Bayraktar, Secil & Kabasakal, Hayat & Dastmalchian, Ali, 2019. "Role of Leaders as Agents of Negotiation for Counterbalancing Cultural Dissonance in the Middle East and North Africa Region," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(4).
    10. Fatma Sonmez Cakir & Zafer Adiguzel, 2020. "Analysis of Leader Effectiveness in Organization and Knowledge Sharing Behavior on Employees and Organization," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440209, March.
    11. Minkov, Michael & Kaasa, Anneli, 2022. "Do dimensions of culture exist objectively? A validation of the revised Minkov-Hofstede model of culture with World Values Survey items and scores for 102 countries," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(4).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Debmalya Mukherjee & Saumyaranjan Sahoo & Satish Kumar, 2023. "Two Decades of International Business and International Management Scholarship on Africa: A Review and Future Directions," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 63(6), pages 863-909, December.
    2. Elina Weiste & Sari Käpykangas & Lise-Lotte Uusitalo & Melisa Stevanovic, 2020. "Being Heard, Exerting Influence, or Knowing How to Play the Game? Expectations of Client Involvement among Social and Health Care Professionals and Clients," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Karacay, Gaye & Bayraktar, Secil & Kabasakal, Hayat & Dastmalchian, Ali, 2019. "Role of Leaders as Agents of Negotiation for Counterbalancing Cultural Dissonance in the Middle East and North Africa Region," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(4).
    4. Bradley J. Koch & Pamela Tremain Koch & Yiheng Deng, 2023. "China and U.S. organizational culture via value statements: an emic-etic yin-yang approach," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(3), pages 1094-1130, July.
    5. Liu, Steven Y.H. & Deligonul, Seyda & Cavusgil, S. Tamer & Chiou, Jyh-Shen, 2021. "Addressing psychic distance and learning in international buyer-seller relationships: The role of firm exploration and asset specificity," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(4).
    6. Wasswa Asaph Senoga, 2023. "The Effect of Accountability, Transparency, And Integrity of Church Leaders on Fraud Prevention in The Management of Church Funds," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(1), pages 1388-1409, January.
    7. Minbaeva, Dana & Rabbiosi, Larissa & Stahl, Günter K., 2018. "Not walking the talk? How host country cultural orientations may buffer the damage of corporate values’ misalignment in multinational corporations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 880-895.
    8. Adomako, Samuel & Shenkar, Oded & Liu, Xiaohui & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Ahsan, Mujtaba, 2024. "Editorial on Doing business in Africa: Navigating opportunities and challenges in Africa's emerging markets," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(5).
    9. Anthony Goerzen & Michael Sartor & Kristin Brandl & Stacey Fitzsimmons, 2023. "Widening the lens: Multilevel drivers of firm corporate social performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(1), pages 42-60, February.
    10. Changwatchai, Piyaphan & Dheera-aumpon, Siwapong, 2023. "Culture and bribe giving: Evidence from firm-level data," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Nianhang Xu & Winnie P. H. Poon & Kam C. Chan, 2014. "Contributing Institutions and Authors in International Business Research: A Quality-Based Assessment," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(5), pages 735-755, October.
    12. Al-Atwi, Amer Ali & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Khan, Zaheer, 2021. "Micro-foundations of organizational design and sustainability: The mediating role of learning ambidexterity," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(1).
    13. Bi-Juan Zhong & Yaping Gong & Oded Shenkar & Yadong Luo & Zhixing Xiao & Shuming Zhao, 2023. "Managing the hearts of boundary spanners: CEO organizational identification and international joint venture performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 87-119, March.
    14. Catherine Welch & Eriikka Paavilainen-Mäntymäki & Rebecca Piekkari & Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki, 2022. "Reconciling theory and context: How the case study can set a new agenda for international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(1), pages 4-26, February.
    15. Schmidt, Heiko M. & Santamaria-Alvarez, Sandra Milena, 2022. "Routines in International Business: A semi-systematic review of the concept," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(2).
    16. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    17. Chaocheng He & Jiang Wu & Qingpeng Zhang, 2021. "Characterizing research leadership on geographically weighted collaboration network," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(5), pages 4005-4037, May.
    18. Hearn, Bruce & Oxelheim, Lars & Randøy, Trond, 2020. "The Impact of Indigenous Culture and Business Group Affiliation on Corporate Governance of African Firms," Working Paper Series 1360, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    19. Vendrell-Herrero, Ferran & Darko, Christian & Vaillant, Yancy, 2022. "Firm productivity and government contracts: The moderating role of corruption," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    20. K. Praveen Parboteeah & Matthias Weiss & Martin Hoegl, 2024. "Ethical Climates Across National Contexts: A Meta-Analytical Investigation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 573-590, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intman:v:30:y:2024:i:5:s1075425324000516. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/601266/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.