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Work motivation in Malawi: neither flat earth nor Babel

Author

Listed:
  • Stuart C. Carr

    (School of Social Sciences, Northern Territory University, Australia)

  • Malcolm MacLachlan

    (Department of Psychology, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland)

Abstract

'A mush of meaningless gobbledegook' (Blunt and Jones, 1997, p. 913). It has been hard to know how to formulate a response to Blunt and Jones' scholarly rebuke of our paper on 'The meaning of work in Malawi' (Carr et al., 1997), in which we present data that are neither 'obvious' nor 'conventional', nor 'muddled'. The whole tone of Blunt and Jones' reply to our paper is not acceptable, or productive. In this brief reply, we will demonstrate how it obfuscates, and augments, the lack of substance in their own research. We also delineate their self-contradiction, express concern over their claiming ownership and closure of what could be a vibrant field of study, and explain how they have completely missed the point of questioning the very concept of a Maslowian-style hierarchy. Blunt and Jones' (1997) conclusion, part of which we have quoted above, appears to be an attempt to respond to our explanation for the lack of such a hierarchy, an explanation which we couched in terms of the importance of retaining cultural identity. Their lack of appreciation of how Western psychological models may be nullified by cultural and contextual diversity is both alarming and out-of-kilter with much contemporary thinking in development studies. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Stuart C. Carr & Malcolm MacLachlan, 1999. "Work motivation in Malawi: neither flat earth nor Babel," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(1), pages 141-146.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:11:y:1999:i:1:p:141-146
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1328(199901/02)11:1<141::AID-JID570>3.0.CO;2-Y
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Merrick Jones, 1988. "Managerial Thinking: An African Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 481-505, September.
    2. Peter Blunt & Merrick L. Jones, 1997. "Motivational muddles, recycled conventional wisdom and straw men in Malaŵi: Comments on Carr, MacLachlan, Kachedwa and Kanyangale (1997)," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(7), pages 913-917.
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