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Educating for responsible management: a South African perspective
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to add a South African perspective to deliberations on educational approaches in order to promote real responsibility in business.
Design/methodology/approach
This is achieved by drawing on broad concepts of African philosophy as well as research and experience around a management studies curriculum developed in response to the local and global context of a newly liberated, developing country in a global economy. Realities involve the need to empower learners, including disadvantaged black Africans, as effective students. This raises questions about inequities between developed and developing nations; the power of dominant business approaches to undermine traditional value systems; and the apparent unsustainability of the global status quo.
Findings
The curriculum has promoted free thought and academic/business literacy in students from diverse backgrounds and cultures, inducing criticality; making explicit the links between prior/practical and new/theoretical knowledge; giving access into business discourses and requiring students to argue about businesses' responsibilities to incorporate social and environmental with financial accountability. Similarities and differences between African and western values emerge, indicating lessons that might be learned from Africa, particularly South Africa.
Originality/value
Some lessons from African philosophy and from this responsive curriculum might feasibly be relevant to educators for management elsewhere, based on the assumption that the approach would promote more responsible management and that this aim has global significance.
... In other words, these humanistic perspectives have several basic tenets in common, albeit with varying degrees of emphasis on certain ("defining") principles or elements. Further, as Hesketh (2006) has argued, the differences between African and western humanistic views do not necessarily make them incompatible; what is most important, according to her, is that organizations embrace a more humanistic approach to business based on commonly shared societal values. This is particularly critical in multi-racial societies such as South Africa, where people with disparate cultures, thought systems and socio-economic experiences have to find a positive way to advance business and society. ...
... A first step, following Ghoshal (2005: 75) is to reject and stop the teaching some "bad theories" from the west. Hesketh (2006) offers a more radical solution: "Africanizing a new vision for management education", by engaging with indigenous theories and concepts such as Ubuntu. On the other hand, the "Africanization" of management education seems unrealistic. ...
... The possibility of core communalist and humanistic values of such concepts being integrated into the curriculum cannot be overruled. Indeed, there is evidence of successful curriculum integration "experiments" (Hesketh, 2006). ...
What then can we conclude about the future of humanistic management education in Africa? One thing is clear: it is very unlikely that African business schools will continue not to take their academic social responsibility seriously; there are strong indications that they will make deliberate efforts to educate for broader objectives than simply profit maximization, mainstreaming responsible management and sustainable economic development into their curriculum.
In summary, core humanistic values have not yet been embedded in management education across many business schools in Africa, as orthodox economic and management theories and concepts remain prevalent. This is often a reflection of the lack of engagement of business schools in the region with the business community, and perhaps a poor sense of direction in terms of their responsibility to produce ethical and responsible business managers for society. The absence of strong institutional levers to galvanize these business schools, like their western counterparts, towards a more humanistic education has further compounded this situation. However, as business schools continue to come under intense scrutiny around the world, and the demand for humanism in business peaks, African business schools are likely to start to respond seriously to these new realities. The increasing diffusion of indigenous concepts such as Ubuntu is also likely to draw a lot of attention to the importance of humanistic values in management education. Moreover, as a new generation of Africans who are more globally connected and passionate about responsible management emerges, business schools in the region will have to rise to the challenge and take their academic social responsibility (more) seriously, or risk losing their relevance and legitimacy.
... Furthermore, we are not associating the principles of humanity, communalism, interdependence, etc., as exclusively contained in Ubuntu. These principles are however expressed differently in Ubuntu (Hesketh 2006). We contend that the complex and diverse organizations in present day South Africa can benefit from Ubuntu as opposed to only the dominant Western management styles. ...
This chapter discusses the notion of Ubuntu, as a fundamental principle in managing and leading various activities in life. The chapter starts with some conceptualizations on humanism which in this chapter is seen as having key aspects of Ubuntu. Further, the chapter provides key insights into the various ideas that are given on humanism but closely linked to Ubuntu by different authors. The principles of humanism are brought into the discussion and linked to the notion of Ubuntu. This is examined in the context of different situations in the community. The discussion draws from the two notions to reflect on conceptions of managing and leading one’s life in a community through Ubuntu values and principles. The reflection draws from the views of different scholars on the subjects of humanism and Ubuntu. The reflections also aim to deepen the understanding and knowledge of how we could effectively manage and lead our lives in the spirit of Ubuntu. The connection between civic education and the principles of Ubuntu is explored. The aim is to show that there are compelling aspects within civic education that manifest some Ubuntu values. The last part of the chapter discusses the critical role of civic education in managing and leading one’s life in the community through the values that are implicit in Ubuntu.
... Furthermore, we are not associating the principles of humanity, communalism, interdependence, etc., as exclusively contained in Ubuntu. These principles are however expressed differently in Ubuntu (Hesketh 2006). We contend that the complex and diverse organizations in present day South Africa can benefit from Ubuntu as opposed to only the dominant Western management styles. ...
This chapter discusses the potential of using of Ubuntu values to ground delivery of Open Distance e-Learning. It highlights the crucial role that learner-centeredness of adult learning situations play in ensuring that students get to access and succeed in higher education. ODeL learning delivery is unpacked in relation to Ubuntu values. The author goes in detail to illustrate the link between the origin of distance education and the contributions of Ubuntu values. Epistemological acquisitions that foreground the development of higher order thinking skills about particular content in the education phenomenon are discussed in detail. Several aspects of ODeL like design, teaching and assessment; learner support; postgraduate supervision; and the role of library are discussed in relation to Ubuntu based educational provision.
... Furthermore, we are not associating the principles of humanity, communalism, interdependence, etc., as exclusively contained in Ubuntu. These principles are however expressed differently in Ubuntu (Hesketh 2006). We contend that the complex and diverse organizations in present day South Africa can benefit from Ubuntu as opposed to only the dominant Western management styles. ...
Open Distance Learning (ODL) through the Philosophy of Ubuntu interrogates the nexus between the field of ODL and the philosophy of Ubuntu. The 16 chapters that comprise the book attempt to understand ways in which ODL offerings can be made more humane were they to be grounded on the values and principles implicit in the philosophy of Ubuntu.
Eine verantwortungsvolle Managementausbildung kann vor dem Hintergrund des ehrbaren Kaufmanns gleichzeitig als Ideal der Betriebswirtschaftslehre in Deutschland und als neu entdecktes Handlungsfeld verstanden werden. Die Forschung zu verantwortungsvoller Managementausbildung in Deutschland ist jedoch noch recht überschaubar. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht für eine Untersuchungsgruppe von 31 staatlichen deutschen Universitäten die Integration von Nachhaltigkeit in die strategische Ausrichtung und in das betriebswirtschaftliche Curriculum. Es wird deutlich, dass eine solche Integration für die Universitäten von unterschiedlicher Bedeutung ist. Zum einen wird das Thema in sehr ungleichem Ausmaß auf der institutionellen Ebene verankert. Zum anderen wird es in unterschiedlichem Umfang und Tiefe im betriebswirtschaftlichen Curriculum fixiert. Vor diesem Hintergrund lassen sich Universitäten mit unterschiedlichen Handlungstypen in Bezug auf Nachhaltigkeit identifizieren: Während eine kleine Gruppe von Universitäten einen holistischen Ansatz verfolgt und somit Nachhaltigkeit in Strategie und Curriculum integriert, fokussiert eine größere Gruppe entweder auf Strategie oder Curriculum. Einige Universitäten sind in ihren Ansätzen hingegen noch nicht so weit und haben sich dem Thema nur ansatzweise genähert oder verhalten sich inaktiv.
ABSTRACT
The aim of this research was to explore the management of the implementation of Annual National Assessments (ANA) by school management teams. This study involved a literature review and empirical research. A qualitative research method was used to elicit information from participants by means of individual and focus group interviews.
The literature review revealed essential information about ANA. This information included reasons for introducing ANA and the administration thereof. Although ANA was intended to be a diagnostic tool, its introduction was also an attempt to break the strong tradition of focusing on the grade 12 examination results and improvements in these results while neglecting lower grades.
Data were collected from the deputy principal, Head of Departments (HODs) and the teachers offering subjects that were evaluated by means of the ANA, namely English and Mathematics. I conducted two group interviews and individual interviews with five teachers. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews. Three sites were purposefully selected and a total number of twelve teachers participated. The research sites comprised of one secondary and two primary schools.
The study revealed the roles performed by School Management Teams (SMTs) during the implementation of the ANA and the challenges encountered by both SMTs and teachers involved with the ANA. Although the SMTs played the roles of planning, organising resources, coordinating activities, monitoring and providing support, they were only focusing on the functionality of ANA and not viewing it as a diagnostic tool that would enable them to have better results and improve their teaching. Challenges included increased workload, assessment of work not done in class and perception of ANA as a time-consuming activity. There were also positive and negative judgements about ANA, which were indicated as adding or not adding value to teaching and learning.
Key concepts: Assessments, Annual National Assessments and the roles of SMTs in the implementation of ANA
The global economic crisis has caused governments and charities to be squeezed in term of
resources to meet social and environmental needs. In parallel, social enterprises, volunteering and the
“big society” have stepped in to help fill the void. However, this is a smoke screen that covers a
bigger problem – the lack of true social responsibility by large corporations. Too often, mention is
made of the economic crisis recovery but the crisis is greater than this, it includes social and
environmental crisis which quite simply is not recovering nor is it receiving the attention it deserves.
This paper explores this contention and through a literature review proposes a holistic approach to
better inform business as to its responsibility and how to meet a more responsible management
agenda. We propose this through a model based on responsible management and mindful leadership
and provide a brief description of a case study as to how mindfulness is starting being used by an
Iberian Multi-national to recast the social responsibility agenda and move towards a more responsible
management approach to business. Different coaching techniques combined with Nominal Group
Technique were used to identify underlying deep values of participants (CEOs). The resultant values
can be used by the multinational to construct a theoretical model of responsible management and
mindful leadership. One outcome of this model applied to this multinational is the current strategy
being developed by the company. This strategy embeds our thinking and considering the high
influence of the case multinational in its sector, we believe the use of the Responsible Management
and Mindful Leadership Model will be a tool which increases the multinational´s capacity to
influence crisis recovery in the true sense, considering social and environmental aspects.
The purpose of our paper is to illustrate the fundamental importance of developing academic community among first-year students. We argue that a sense of academic community is of fundamental importance in combating the effects of the neo-liberal economic discourse on higher education, and that the values of higher education are incongruent with those of economic rationalism. The discursive commodification of the student, and of education itself, works against the formation of community, both within the university environment and in the wider society. We argue that, at present, the dominant discourse shaping the social practice of higher education is that of neo-liberal economics. Community values stand in opposition to the dominant discourse, and are integral to the long-term survival of a socially critical and socially responsive society. We conclude that the importance of establishing a sense of academic community during the first year of university is justified by its ultimate value to society.
The article discusses aspects of managing ethically with global stakeholders. A firm's major stakeholders include consumers, employees, owners, the community government, competitors, and the natural environment. In the context of global ethics the community is the host nation in which the firm is doing business and the government represents all the separate sovereign nations that serve as hosts to investing multinational corporations. In terms of global ethics decision making the focus is on the extent to which the manager uses home-country ethical standards versus host-country ethical standards in shaping practice. The concept of corporate social responsibility appears to provide a framework for global business ethics.
In response to the growing interest in applying a more critical perspective within management education, this article proposes an approach thatwould reflect critical principles in both its contents and its methods. The essential characteristics of a critical approach to management education are summarized, followed by a discussion of the significance of educational methods and of the ways in which less hierarchical methods in particular could, with some provisos, provide the basis for a critical management pedagogy. The article ends by drawing attention to some of the potential pitfalls of introducing management students to a critical perspective.
Some proponents of Africanism argue that African traditional education and the principles of ubuntu should provide the framework for citizenship education. While conceding that understandable concerns lie behind defences of ubuntu as underpinning African democracy, we argue that the Africanist perspective faces various problems and makes substantial errors: political, moral, epistemic and educational. While democracy and democratic citizenship necessarily involve sensitivity to local context, their fundamental principles and tenets are universal. Failure to acknowledge this comes at a substantial price. Taking as its initial focus an analysis and critical evaluation of Malegapuru William Makgoba's critique of liberal democracy, the paper questions the purported uniqueness of ubuntu and its value and efficiency as a practical guide to action and policy, as well as its capacity to indicate how conflict between its associate principles and values might be resolved, insofar as these principles and values are indeed morally worthy.
This international and interdisciplinary collection presents and discusses the many issues and educational practices that are touched on by constructivism. Drawing on perspectives from a range of different fields (ethics, mathematics education, philosophy, social psychology, science education, social studies), this book invites us to reposition ourselves in relation to the major currents that have influenced education in this century, namely pragmatism, genetic epistemology, and social interactionism. The essays call for new reflection on the questions that are central to the project of education and that, in particular, involve the validity of knowledge and types of knowledge, the compartmentalization of school subjects, the mediating role of teachers, and, above all, the ends of education. In so doing, this book relaunches the discussion on constructivism's potential for the social empowerment of groups and individuals.
Is there a perspective, a body of thought, or a particular way of doing philosophy of education, that can be called African? Are there uniquely and distinctly African ways of philosophizing about education? Are the component concepts, principles, and values of this philosophy sound? Whether or not satisfactory answers to these questions are forthcoming, the possibility and plausibility of African philosophy of education might nonetheless be established in terms of its priorities. Given the different historical, geographical, cultural, and social contexts of Africans and education in Africa, it is reasonable to assume that philosophical priorities differ in accordance with these.
The article discusses the theory of the natural environment in stakeholder models. The definition of a stakeholder usually focuses on groups or individuals who can affect or are affected by the achievement of an organization's objectives. The three aspects of treating the natural environment as the stakeholder are conceptual, ethical, and market related. There is a push to develop ways of thinking about the environment that overcome the traditional environmental approach that has pervaded industrial societies. The goal is to provide alternatives to the split between humans and nature. A major impediment to treating the natural environment as a stakeholder is the way in which the environment is treated in standard economic theory.
Executive Summary
In the aftermath of recent corporate scandals, managers and researchers have turned their attention to questions of ethics management. We identify five common myths about business ethics and provide responses that are grounded in theory, research, and business examples. Although the scientific study of business ethics is relatively new, theory and research exist that can guide executives who are trying to better manage their employees' and their own ethical behavior. We recommend that ethical conduct be managed proactively via explicit ethical leadership and conscious management of the organization's ethical culture.
The strategic leadership of ethical behavior in business can no longer be ignored. Executives must accept the fact that the moral impact of their leadership presence and behaviors will rarely, if ever, be neutral. In the leadership capacity, executives have great power to shift the ethics mindfulness of organizational members in positive as well as negative directions. Rather than being left to chance, this power to serve as ethics leaders must be used to establish a social context within which positive self-regulation of ethical behavior becomes a clear and compelling organizational norm and in which people act ethically as a matter of routine. This article frames the responsibility for strategic leadership of ethical behavior on three premises: (1) It must be done - a stakeholder analysis of the total costs of ethical failures confirms the urgency for ethics change; (2) It can be done - exemplars show that a compelling majority of an organization's membership can be influenced to make ethical choices; (3) It is sustainable-integrity programs help build and confirm corporate cultures in which principled actions and ethics norms predominate.
There lies great danger in the facile use of such generalising terms as "the African worker", "the African village", "the Afrikaner". This applies to everyday life and many other situations; no less so for political practice and social understanding. The employment of such homogenising and essentialising notions often stand in the way of analysis of otherwise complex issues and of appropriate intervention. The use of such terms reminds me of the 1925 book that I found in the local library recently, The Essential Kafir (Kidd 1925), immediately "balanced" by the equally essentialising The British: Their psychology and destiny (Stein 1990 -first published in 1958, and not clear where the demand for a reprint should have come from). Stein is actually writing about "the English" (excluding in his descriptions the internal colonial fringe of Wales, Scotland and Ireland), to whose male members are attributed such gems as: "His physical attributes make the Englishman a conqueror; but his conquests proceed in phlegmatic actions"; and "It is impossible to understand the English attitude without realising that the English mind is all the time either emerging from the spiritual world in an approach to the material world or withdrawing from the material world to a point of observation outside of space and time". Now where have I heard such attributions recently? Kidd operated, at times, in the same fashion: "A Native never commits himself if he can possibly help it". However, he also acknowledged, much more so than is to be found in several more recent accounts of cultural difference, that his picture is a composite one (an ideal type, so to speak), and does not apply to any one "tribe". Nor did he claim a static picture in his portrayal of custom, to be distinguished from supposed innate, and hence static, attributes: "Some of the customs long ago became obsolete, and others have undergone great modification through the influence of Europeans". And this written in the early 20th century.
The South Africa of the 1980s might well be described as Hobbesian. In spite of the enormous power at its command, the South African government was unable to implement effectively a system of authoritarian racial overrule which had its roots in colonial dispossession, had been extended by imperial conquest, and which reached its height in the last half of the last century in an attempt to implement racial segregation through ethnic differentiation by means of a state-system known as apartheid. By this system a racial minority of about an eighth of the population sought to keep control of political power, land and resources, using increasingly authoritarian measures. By the 1980s however apartheid was being severely challenged. The subordinated racial majority was in the streets in open defiance of the state. The organised black working class in conjunction with a vast number of those (the young in particular) for whom the existing system offered nothing but further impoverishment and humiliation was increasingly vocal and militant. Confronted internally by this Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) the South African authorities were also under external pressure not only from the exiled liberation movement led by the ANC which kept up the pressure for revolutionary change, but by international opinion which sought to use financial sanctions to rein in the racial excesses of the apartheid state. Already burdened by intense structural weaknesses the economy slowed then went into severe recession.
The governing party mixed tentative reforms with vicious attempts to fragment and crush the opposition internally, and weaken it externally through military violence. But locked within an inflexible set of ideological [End Page 68] and economic constraints it could do nothing to slow the spiral of increasing violence which only made more obvious its incapacity to find a solution within existing structures. It was a time of heightened emotions: of exhilaration as the oppressor was at last confronted directly by the masses, driven on by the hope of liberation; it was also a time of horror as the apartheid state lashed out at those who threatened it and the nightmare of all-out racial civil war appeared increasingly likely.
Then, at the last moment, as the 1980s drew to a close, the combatants looked into the abyss - and drew back. Liberal elements within South Africa, joined by elements from governing circles, with big capital heavily involved, made contact with the exiled liberation movement. Gaoled political leaders were approached, and drawn into the process. In February 1990, after 30 years of banning, the major political organisations were legalised, and their leaders released. Negotiations began between these divided South Africans. They now included representatives of the apartheid government under FW de Klerk, South African business interests, white opposition parties, and the liberation movements of which the African National Congress (ANC) was by far the most dominant, and was soon joined in alliance with the South African Communist Party (SACP), and organised labour - the Congress of SA Trade Unions (COSATU). Also represented were African organisations, which had grown up under the apartheid system, the most significant being the Zulu nationalist movement, Inkatha.
From 1990 to 1994 these disparate groups, representing the widest range of interests, negotiated a new constitution for South Africa and the steps to be taken for its implementation. Both sides had to make major concessions. De Klerk began the process with the intention of retaining substantial white power - a position he was forced to abandon. The liberation movement had to give substance to rhetoric and moved away from many of its historical positions, including the vague but influential references to acquisition of land and resources by the expropriated struggling masses. The negotiations were carried out against a background of violence which at times seemed to threaten the whole process: on one occasion the negotiating chambers themselves were forcibly entered by a disaffected right-wing group; it is estimated that while the negotiations were in progress some 14 000 South Africans were killed. But, in the end, the process was sustained, with both sides agreeing to work for a multi...
Experience and Educationis the best concise statement on education ever published by John Dewey, the man acknowledged to be the pre-eminent educational theorist of the twentieth century. Written more than two decades after Democracy and Education(Dewey's most comprehensive statement of his position in educational philosophy), this book demonstrates how Dewey reformulated his ideas as a result of his intervening experience with the progressive schools and in the light of the criticisms his theories had received. Analysing both "traditional" and "progressive" education, Dr. Dewey here insists that neither the old nor the new education is adequate and that each is miseducative because neither of them applies the principles of a carefully developed philosophy of experience. Many pages of this volume illustrate Dr. Dewey's ideas for a philosophy of experience and its relation to education. He particularly urges that all teachers and educators looking for a new movement in education should think in terms of the deeped and larger issues of education rather than in terms of some divisive "ism" about education, even such an "ism" as "progressivism." His philosophy, here expressed in its most essential, most readable form, predicates an American educational system that respects all sources of experience, on that offers a true learning situation that is both historical and social, both orderly and dynamic.
In the aftermath of recent corporate scandals, managers and researchers have turned their attention to questions of ethics management. We identify five common myths about business ethics and provide responses that are grounded in theory, research, and business examples. Although the scientific study of business ethics is relatively new, theory and research exist that can guide executives who are trying to better manage their employees' and their own ethical behavior. We recommend that ethical conduct be managed proactively via explicit ethical leadership and conscious management of the organization's ethical culture.
SQ: Spiritual Intelligence the Ultimate Intelligence
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- I. Marshall
Call to action: mobilising citizens to build a South African Education & Training system for the 21st century”, statement by the Minister of Education
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Faculty of Management Studies Report on Academic Literacy Courses: IBS and IBSM
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Intercultural communication: ‘Risking’ a change of heart
- H J Groenewald
A management studies curriculum for free thought in a changing South African context: learning from a unique experience”, doctoral thesis
- J Hesketh
Competencies for managing diversity: what South African managers need
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The Mind of a Fox: Scenario Planning in Action, Human and Rousseau and Tafelberg
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Why Tukkies cannot develop intellectuals (and what to do about it)”, Innovation Lecture Series
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Changing organizational structures: an interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter by Sheila M
- R M Kanter
Global Economics: A New Way Forward
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Workplace culture, participation and work performance in South Africa: implications for the role of ubuntu/botho culture – a case study of Zincor
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Curriculum responsiveness: the anatomy of a concept
- I. Moll
African values: discovering the indigenous roots of management
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African Renaissance, IKS and Globalisation: The Challenge for a Truly African University
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Number Two to Tutu: A Memoir
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Traditional African capital accumulation
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Expanding our ethical horizons and enhancing our ethical influence in higher education
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Strategic management and critical management studies: toward thinking strategically and critically
- M Schneider
For a non-essentialist position: multiple and shifting identities”, paper presented at debate on African identity of Higher Education
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The strengths and limitations of language in the teaching of accounting”, paper presented at South African Accounting Association (SAAA) Regional conference
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The impact of globalization on education and gender: an emergent cross-national balance”, paper presented at Kenton Education Association conference, Didima
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Beyond Reasonable Greed: Why Sustainable Development Is A Much Better Idea, Human and Rousseau and Tafelberg
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