Understanding organizational behavior in Africa : 3 d imensional model

1. Understanding organizational behavior in Africa : 3 dimensional model Professor at Protestant University of Congo Visiting Lecturer at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management/ Germany Programme Director of Joint Master ProgrammeCongolese German Centre for Microfinance/ DAAD Patrick Bakengela Shamba

2. Outline • Introduction : Overview of the literature about management in Africa • Research problem • Methods used • Findings • Conclusion

3. Introduction • Managing business for the first time in Africa, for many western managers, may be like the experience of Alice in the wonderland (Harvey, 2002) • One of the central question in literature when analyzing management’s practices in Africa is the extent to which most common universal models (tools) fail to really take in account the reason why African personnel seem to act beyond the universal economic rationality.

4. Introduction (Continued) • Kamoche (1997) notes that the literature is dominated by the external environment paradigm. • The lack of efficiency, in some african organizations, is explained as influenced by cultural (Kamdem,1996 ; D’Iribarne, 1997, 2003; Bourgoin, 1984 ) or institutional constraints ( Harvey, 2002; Khan and Ackers, 2004 ). • The internal dimension has received less attention relative to the external dimension in organizational analysis in Africa (Kamoche, 1997 :543).

5. Introduction (Continued) • The use of the general (external) environment paradigm as a way to explain employee behavior in Africa has three consequences: • a) First, we have relatively little empirical confirmation of observations made out about organizational environment in Africa. • b) Second, because the general environment has only diffuse and indirect influence on organizations, we are unable to tell how precisely african organizational environment affect organizations on the continent. • c) Third, researchers have neglected to study the task environment (internal context) which would provide at least a description of the exchange relationship between organizations and environments in Africa.

6. 2. Research problem • This paper aims to understand the diversity and complexity of rationalities evolving within african organization as explained by actors themselves. • Key question : • “Why do African manager and employees behave in a way that seems to beyond the western rationality ?” • Is the “external environment paradigm” relevant to explain and help understanding African behavior within the organization ?

7. 2. Researchproblem External environment Acheiving Organizational goals Employees Managers Internalenvironment Hypothesis 1: The internal context is merely determined by the nature of management leadership in the enterprise. This leadership is linked to the nature of “power relationship” between actors in the organization Hypothesis 2 : The relevance of the external context within the organization (the organization’s porosity) depends on the nature of management’s responses to employees uncertainties vis a vis of the external environment

8. 3. Methodology • Comparison between two public enterprise in Congo (managed by Congolese and depending to the Government for nomination of managers) • 1° Public enterprise being able to apply western methods • 2° Public enterprise with instability of management, strike, etc. Aim: to understand the elements of the differences between actors’ practices and management rules in the enterprise. • Qualitative investigation was based on in-depth semi-directive interviews with several categories of workers and members of management, at various levels of the hierarchy. • The interviews with workers and management were carried out on the workplace during a period of 60 days • The data gathering was based on the multiplicity of testimonies and cases inside the same space of action in order to compare different points of views.

9. 3. Whattheoretical framework to use ? • Three criteria have been adopted as guidance for choosing a relevant theoretical framework in this study. • First, the theoretical framework must be suitable to take in account concrete problem observed in the organizations studies. • Secondly, the framework must be able to deal with the diversity and complexity of observations on the ground and • finally, it must be able to take in account both external and internal environments in order to understand the rationality of different employees and managers behaviors within the organization.

10. Results and discussion Stories from employees: • The use of the company’s small refrigerator in the office to sell soft drink and sandwiches (personal business), during working hours • Difficulty to get reimbursement of their medical invoice by the company when they deal with the emergency • Using mobile telephones as a public cabin by putting an advertisement (poster) in the corridor of the building (in the enterprise) indicating that in such room or office, an agent places at the disposal of the public his mobile telephone by invoicing the cost of call per minute.

11. Findings 1° When the enterprise is not able to garuantee access to internal resource (salary, satibility) Rules are not respected 2°When employees are not able to satisfy minimum needs from the external environment (paying house rent, school fees for kids) they bring external activities in the enterprise 3° When the relationship in the organization is based on the informal rules (The organization is « porous ») 1b. If the enterprise can satisfy its obligations toward employees (internal environment ) and help employees to satisfy minimum needs (from the external environment): Western methods can be applied 2b. 3 dimensions must be taken in account to manage with success organization in the African context

12. ActorA Nature of « power » relationship. Access to internalresource Access to externalresource ActorB Access to internalresource Rulesapplied in the Organization Access to externalresource 3 DIMENSIONAL MODEL 1 context 2 3

13. Results • Our results indicate that understanding management’s practices in Africa by opposing universal and culturalmodels is a partial approach because both universal and cultural models can be successfully applied in Africa. • Our research develop a three dimensional model that helps to understand the complexity of organizational behavior in Africa: • The resource dependency between employees and the internal environment (organization); How do employees have access to the internal resource (salary, stability) ? • The resource dependency between employees and the external environment : How do employees are be able to satisfy basic needs of the external environment (paying school fees, house rent, etc. ) ? • The power’s relationships between employees within the organization: Are formal and common rules applied to every body in the organization ?

14. Conclusion Having a better understanding of management in Africa requires the analysis in three dimensions : • The actor relationship with the internal and external environment in terms of control of resource (constraints); • The interaction between actors (individual) within the organization and and • The synergy the two previous factors. Our model has to be tested in other countries. We think that the 3 dimensions are universal and can be applied all over the interconnected world.