The Lions Mark Their Territory: The African Thought System

Abstract

The causes of important aspects of African managers’ thinking are to be found in fundamental national sociocultural and political elements. African organizations function very often in an environment of acute resource scarcity, economic uncertainty and highly centralized political power. These organizations tend to retain the major characteristics of structures developed in the colonial era, namely, rather rigid bureaucratic, rule-bound hierarchies. During such times, managers were few in numbers and were mainly European traders who undertook economic activities with little, or no, knowledge of the art of management. The Africans, however, viewed these foreigners as experts in management, and tried hard to imitate their managerial skills. Colonialists, in order to maintain their dominance and elitist role in society, chose to import managers from Europe, rather than to train Africans.