IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v15y2025i3p83-d1601155.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

African Business Leadership and Effectiveness: Perspectives from South African Leaders

Author

Listed:
  • Matete Lerutla

    (School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa, Midrand 1686, South Africa)

  • Renier Steyn

    (School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa, Midrand 1686, South Africa)

Abstract

Leadership is often framed within Western paradigms, with limited focus on African business leadership. This study, part of a broader research project, aims to conceptualise African business leadership and its effectiveness, providing an integrated understanding from various perspectives. This article examines South African leaders’ views on African business leadership and its impact. Using an interpretivist approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior leaders from different racial groups in South Africa. The data were analysed through grounded theory, with a three-step coding process to identify themes relevant to African business leadership, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This study found that African leadership is characterised by entrepreneurial spirit, agility, and the value of ‘Ubuntu’, in contrast to the structured and regulated nature of Western leadership. Culture’s role in leadership effectiveness was debated, with some attributing success to personal traits. Corruption and poverty were identified as significant barriers. The research underscores the influence of culture on leadership styles, revealing diverse opinions on the effectiveness of African leadership in business. These findings highlight the importance of considering cultural factors, corruption, and poverty when evaluating leadership effectiveness in African contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Matete Lerutla & Renier Steyn, 2025. "African Business Leadership and Effectiveness: Perspectives from South African Leaders," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:3:p:83-:d:1601155
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/3/83/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/3/83/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:3:p:83-:d:1601155. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.