In African-Centred Management Education, Professor Abdulai looks critically at the failings of management education in Africa and how that has impacted growth and development efforts, especially at this critical stage in the continent’s positive growth and development trajectory. He concludes that Africa’s current positive economic growth cannot be sustained without a significant contribution from its human capital. He adds that, the outstanding economic record of Asian economies in recent decades dramatically illustrates how important human capital is to growth. These countries lacking natural resources and importing practically all their energy requirements have grown rapidly by relying on a well-trained, educated and conscientious workforce. Professor Abdulai believes that Africa, too, can sustain its current growth and development by effectively combining its abundant natural resources with its human capital to attain its economic development, but this will require an African cadre of well-trained managers at the helm of both private and public sector institutions. For this to become a reality, management education in Africa will have to play a significant role, but the author argues that it cannot be effective by continually mimicking the West in the programmes it delivers. It must come up with innovative and relevant pedagogy that will address the special challenges that the continent faces and deliver an African-centred management education. As well as pointing to the failures of management education in Africa, Abdulai offers suggestions as to how to make management education really contribute to the education of Africans, in order to sustain current and future development.

In African-Centred Management Education, Professor Abdulai looks critically at the failings of management education in Africa and how that has impacted growth and development efforts, especially at this critical stage in the continent’s positive growth and development trajectory. He concludes that Africa’s current positive economic growth cannot be sustained without a significant contribution from its human capital. He adds that, the outstanding economic record of Asian economies in recent decades dramatically illustrates how important human capital is to growth. These countries lacking natural resources and importing practically all their energy requirements have grown rapidly by relying on a well-trained, educated and conscientious workforce. Professor Abdulai believes that Africa, too, can sustain its current growth and development by effectively combining its abundant natural resources with its human capital to attain its economic development, but this will require an African cadre of well-trained managers at the helm of both private and public sector institutions. For this to become a reality, management education in Africa will have to play a significant role, but the author argues that it cannot be effective by continually mimicking the West in the programmes it delivers. It must come up with innovative and relevant pedagogy that will address the special challenges that the continent faces and deliver an African-centred management education. As well as pointing to the failures of management education in Africa, Abdulai offers suggestions as to how to make management education really contribute to the education of Africans, in order to sustain current and future development.

Advocates for integrating liberal arts with management in a new undergraduate curriculum blending technical and analytic acumen with creativity, critical thinking, and ethical intelligence.

This is the first of the two volumes, written with strong support from EFMD and GMAC, aimed at understanding and examining the challenges involved in management education across Africa.

Although change management and therefore effective adaptation to environmental complexity is considered a uniquely human cultural activity, the extensive change management literature is largely based on the experiences of organizations in the advanced economies of the West. As the economies of African countries become increasingly open, African organizations will need to be agile in order to adapt and grow in a dynamic, global environment. Currently, there is a dearth of contextualized knowledge on change management within Africa, but this handbook aims to address this by bringing together a wide range of experts to explore organizational change and change management from an African context. The handbook adopts a multidisciplinary (historical, philosophical, processual, and strategic) perspective as well as empirical accounts of change management. It addresses such issues as: What are the external and internal pressures for change? What is the content and process of change management? What are the essentials of effective change management? How can change management be theorized from an African perspective? What sort of leadership can best align with change management demands in an African context? How do organizations build internal change management capability? It is hoped that answers to these questions contained in the handbook will provide a contextualized understanding of change management which African organizations and scholars can leverage to respond to the threats and opportunities inherent in their increasingly dynamic environment. The handbook should constitute an essential reference for academics, researchers, and advanced students of change management, development studies, and African studies, as well as practitioners.

An individual’s success as a manager is largely dependent on the effectiveness of the training and education they received. However, as new technologies and management techniques emerge within the field, it becomes necessary to evaluate ways to optimize management education programs. Management Education for Global Leadership examines the complexities and challenges present in improvising the learning process in education programs. Highlighting real-life experiences, theoretical concepts, and practical applications within the field, as well as the role of information technologies in management education and training programs, this publication is a critical reference for scholars, practitioners, policy makers, students, politicians, and managers.

Providing a timely contribution to the ongoing questions surrounding topics which are by definition subject to varying stakeholder interpretations, this book addresses “the missing link” between theoretical CSR concepts and everyday management practice. It acts as a guide to awaken managers to the advantages of adopting a CSR “mindset” when developing sustainable business strategies. The book consists of three parts: 1) A theoretical realm which establishes the key concepts and rationale for the adoption of a sustainable CSR approach, 2) A practical realm which addresses putting CSR and sustainability into business practice, 3) An educational realm which proposes how to incorporate the concepts into teaching and training.

China leads the world when it comes to investment and influence on the African continent. The extent of Chinese investment in Africa is well known and much has been written about China’s foray into Africa. However, most of the available material has approached this issue by looking at China as the ’New Colonialist’ – more interested in Africa’s vast natural resources than working in partnership for sustained development. Whilst China’s interest in Africa’s resources is evident, it is just half of the story. China’s foray into Africa goes beyond its appetite for natural resources and into the realm of geo-politics and international political economics. For example, China is all too aware of how it can cultivate Africa’s support on global issues at the United Nations and at other international fora. Breaking free from the binary arguments and analysis which characterize this topic, Professor Abdulai presents a refreshing perspective that China’s foray into Africa can produce win–win outcomes for China and Africa – if Africans really know what they want from China. Hitherto, each African country has tended to engage China with an individual bucket list; acting in isolation and not as part of a wider continent (indeed Africa and the African Union does not yet have a coordinated policy towards China). For Africa to be able to do that it needs to know where China is coming from, the factors that contributed to its awakening and success, and the benefits and possible pitfalls of this foray, in order to better position itself for a win–win engagement with China. This book will be a valuable read for policy makers, think-tanks and students of Africa-China studies programmes alike.

Sustainable Management Development in Africa examines how African management and business scholarship can serve African and multinational management and organizations operating in Africa. In a broader sense, this book, within an African context, explores how human capital and intellectual capabilities can be organized at the higher education level; describes the cultural, social, and political influencers impacting management and organization; helps conceptualize African management theories to address organizational effectiveness; addresses the current management and organizational practices in Africa in identifying challenges; and provides guidance for more effective management and organizational operation. Aimed at researchers, academics, and advanced students alike, this book lays the groundwork for the application of uniquely African theoretical and practical perspectives for sustainable management and organizational operation, as explained from a contemporary African point of view. In addition and most important, this book contains a uniquely African content that allows for developing new theories and examining new ways of doing business, thus reaffirming the rise of African scholarship in the fields of management, organization, and business.

Key Determinants of National Development addresses a suite of critical themes regarded by development experts to be germane in considering the pertinence of policies and their effective execution. These seven general thematic areas are explored: • Leadership, governance, policy and strategy • Public sector and public financial management • Culture, institutions and people • Natural resources • Science, technology and infrastructure • Private sector and financial markets • Marketing, branding and service delivery This thematic approach enables the contributors to explore the impact of the constituents of each subject area on national development, within the context of a developing economy. The significance of the findings for the relevant stakeholders is consequently reviewed. The combination of theory and practice makes the book and its contents unique.