Reconstructing the indigenous in African management research: implications for international management studies in a globalized world.
| Verfasser | Jackson, Terence |
| Posten | RESEARCH ARTICLE |
Abstract:
* The primary aim of this article is to help lay the foundations for mainstreaming indigenous research within international and cross-cultural management studies, taking sub-Saharan Africa as the primary and initial focus, and using the informal economy as an example.
* It sets out to critically examine the concept of indigenous, looking at how concepts and scholarship have been shaped by global dynamics, and the implications for developing empirical management research. It then discusses a research agenda and methods for undertaking indigenous management research, going on to discuss the importance of this to the further development of international and cross-cultural management within a global and changing context.
* Its contribution to scholarship is a more systematic re-examining of the concepts of indigenousness and indigenous knowledge drawing on a range of disciplines and what these concepts mean to undertaking management research that more thoroughly reflect global realities, while evaluating indigenous research methods that could be used effectively and appropriately in this endeavour.
Keywords: Indigenous management * Endogenous management * Sub-Saharan Africa * Informal economy * International and cross-cultural management
Introduction
A search on the term 'indigenous' of Management International Review produced 74 articles dating from 1985 to 2009. Of these 74 articles, the current author could find no explanation or definition of this term. Dunning (1993, p. 12) speaks of "analyzing the net benefits of MNE activity, as compared with that of indigenous or non-MNE firms", Gooderham et al. (1998, p.47) compares US HRM practices "... with those of indigenous firms ...", Cantwell et al. (2004, p. 59), in connection with the internationalization of R&D, speaks of "... indigenous technological capabilities ..." and Husted and Allen (2009, p. 786) mention that "Indigenous expressions of CSR have a long history in Mexico ..." (emphasis added). While Dunning describes indigenous by what it is not (i.e., non-MNE firms), mostly this word is used without explanation or definition, and certainly without any analysis. This term has been used extensively in international management and business studies, yet even where Stening and Skubik (2007, p. 115) states, in relation to ethics in international management research, that there are "moves to create indigenous theories and research instruments in management" there is no attempt to discuss what this concept actually means. There is a need to critically examine what indigenous actually means if indigenous management research is to move forward, and if indigenous approaches are indeed to be integrated into international management research.
The need to study indigenousness and indigenous knowledge is growing in importance within international and cross-cultural management (Jack and Westwood 2009), as emerging economies such as China and India come to the fore; as countries, societies and organizations within the South increasingly find a voice on the world stage; and, as regions such as sub-Saharan Africa become more integrated into a changing global economy (Carmody 2011) The global ascendancy and dominance following the second world war of Western and specifically US management (Boyacigiller and Adler 1991) can no longer be taken for granted. It is perhaps because of the view that indigenous knowledge is backward and not relevant to modern management (Marsden 1991) that its serious study has been previously neglected in the management literature. Yet as it emerges as a legitimate area of study, there are two main problems that appear to be surfacing in the embryonic literature.
The first of these problems that the current work seeks to address is the paucity of conceptualization of the 'indigenous'. There is a need to look beyond the oversimplifications that appear to pertain in the management literature in order to develop working definitions of both indigenousness (what it means to be 'indigenous', and the focus of our enquiries) and indigenous knowledge (as distinct from any other type of knowledge). For example, by exploring the wider social science literature, it may be possible to conclude that much of the current interest in 'indigenous' management may not be focused on the indigenous at all, but on what may be regarded as 'endogenous'. This term, to put it one way, does not appear to carry the baggage that the term indigenous does. This baggage, implying a rootedness in colonial relations, which is discussed in more detail below, is mostly ignored by management scholars. Previous use of 'endogenous' in management research conveys a meaning of arising from within the society (Maruyama 1981) or organization (Schuler et al. 1993). This is proposed here as a cleaner concept that could be applied, yet the current locus still remains on indigenous research as a challenging and important addition to management scholarship.
The second problem emerging over the last few years, originally with an upsurge in interest in China in the 1990s and particularly with the appropriated concept of guanxi (for example Tsang 1998, asking in the title of his article: 'Can guanxi be a source of sustained competitive advantage for doing business in China'.) is the commoditization of 'indigenous' management concepts. Ubuntu has more recently been thus packaged to show its commercial usefulness to a Western management consumer context, giving rise to titles such as 'Building competitive advantage from ubuntu: management lessons from South Africa' (Mangaliso 2001) in Western management journals. This may not necessarily be regarded as negative, yet it may submerge some very real issues in developing a more informed and critical study of the nature and role of indigenous management thought. It may serve to disguise the dynamic nature of the indigenous within a global and changing world arena.
The assumption that premises the current work is that 'indigenous' knowledge is not an artefact to be preserved (Briggs and Sharp 2004), nor one that can easily be packaged for Western consumption (Briggs 2005). Rather it is part of a dynamic within a cultural interface that constantly produces new knowledge and social forms (Jackson 2011b) albeit through geopolitical power dynamics that have a profound effect on this production. The primary aim of this article is to help lay the foundations for mainstreaming indigenous research within a more critical international and cross-cultural management studies, taking sub-Saharan Africa as the primary and initial focus, and using the informal economy as an example: a part of the economy that accounts for a large percentage of GPD and employment throughout the world yet has been neglected by mainstream international management scholars; a part of the economy where rich data could be obtained to help understand indigenous management and how it could contribute to areas such as CSR, business ethics, human resource management and particularly those other areas related to inward investment to regions regarded, like sub-Saharan Africa, as 'developing', and also in understanding aspects related to trade between emerging economies such as China in its relations with African countries, and in enhancing the way cross-cultural management studies (post-Hofstede) could make a greater contribution to international business and management.
The objectives of the current work are therefore to:
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Critically examine the concepts of indigenous management and organization, with particular reference to sub-Saharan Africa, but within a global context, examining how concepts and scholarship in this area have been shaped by global dynamics, and the implications for developing empirical research.
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Develop a research agenda, critical methodology and research tools for undertaking indigenous research within international and cross-cultural management studies.
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Discuss the importance of this work to the further development of international and cross-cultural management within a global and changing context.
The contribution to scholarship that the current work hopes to make is a more systematic re-examining of the concepts of indigenousness and indigenous knowledge, drawing from the wider social sciences and applying them to an international and cross-cultural management studies that is more globally aware and produces more socially meaningful results; to begin to reshape and more thoroughly develop indigenous management research to reflect these global realities; and, to evaluate indigenous research methods that could be used effectively and appropriately in this endeavor.
This article is structured as follows. In order to begin to critically reconceptualize the indigenous in management research a literature review examines and systematizes definitions and concept of indigenousness and indigenous knowledge, working towards developing a dynamic conceptual framework that incorporates many of these concepts. This is an urgent and necessary exercise given the paucity of conceptualization in international management studies pointed to above. Concepts and methodologies in indigenous research are then examined in order to develop a research agenda for international management studies, and to develop appropriate research tools. The way forward for international and cross-cultural management, in the context of this emerging scholarship is then interrogated, pointing to the future of indigenous management research, and the areas it could help to elucidate.
(Re)conceptualizing the Indigenous in Management Research
Where definitions are offered in management studies, such as Panda and Gupta's (2007) "'indigenous' means cultural appropriate", they appear not to be helpful. There is a lack of reference to the wider social science and humanities literature within which such conceptualization and definitions have taken place over several decades. As an applied social...
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