Typically Africa is most known in the media as being a final stronghold for true dictators. This is the continent that endured Muammar Gadaffi’s violent management of dissent for four decades (Asser, 2011), Robert Mugabe’s racially inequal management of Zimbabwe and who could forget General Idi Amin, the butcher of Uganda (Answers Africa).

How does a country sink so low and then come back so quickly over the past few years? To that, I actually do not have an answer. The fact that it’s happening is encouraging. Gadaffi is overthrown (Asser, 2011), South Africa has shed Apartheid and democratically elected multiple leaders. Africa’s GDP is anticipated to grow another 5% in 2016, up from 2015 (African Development, 2015).

So now that we’ve moved past the age of dictators (mostly), is Africa ready and able to start growing regularly while only having to manage dilemma’s that any first world nation would have to endure? Unfortunately, this is not the case. African countries still have to manage catastrophic incidents that are only comparable to natural disasters experienced in any other country. Ebola alone slowed economic growth in many countries and created some fiscal instability to multiple countries on the continent with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leon taking the hardest hit (African Development, 2015).

What does all of this mean? It means that while Africa may be becoming progressively more of an appealing prospect to work with, there are very unique issues that cannot be forgotten. The range of poverty and wealth are often staggering. Disease can still run rampant and damage GDP for entire years at a time. There are most certainly still some areas that would make Africa a challenging continent to do business on.

 

 

African Development Bank Group. (2015). African economic outlook 2015. Retrieved from http://africaneconomicoutlook.org

Answers Africa. (nd). Top 10 worst dictators of Africa. Answers Africa. Retrieved from http://answersafrica.com/worst-dictators-africa.html/2

Asser, M. (2011). The Muammar Gadaffi Story. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12688033

We’ve learned a lot this semester about cultural dimensions and in general how to interact and work with people from cultures all over the world.

One topic we haven’t touched on is conflict. Both current conflict and historical conflict can play a role in how a people act towards others. Although a culture may as a whole be summarized with certain characteristics, they may all be thrown out the window when it comes to another group they have a history with.

For example, we can discuss doing business in Africa and point to some strong economic growth and potential:

Looking at this data the prospects for doing business in Africa looks good. One could analyze the cultural dimensions for each country and come up with a game plan for how to manage a team in Africa and hopefully be successful.

However, sticking with Africa as our example, we can see that current conflicts are ongoing and a serious consideration:

 

Layering on some of the recent conflicts:

 

This is a region of the world that’s had a lot of conflict in it’s recent past. Although knowing that Angola has a power distance score of 83 is important (Hofstede), knowing that Angola recently gained independence from Portugal is also important. If you’re Portuguese, will the people of Angola have hostile feelings towards you? How about American, Cuban, or Russian citizens, as those three countries all took sides in the civil war that followed independence in 1975 (Gascoigne, 2001).

Every country in the world has a deep history and the people in that country may have prejudices that you’ll need to be aware of before traveling there. “In the real world, relations between most groups have a history; they are often influenced by complex socio-cultural factors that extend their influence over long periods of time” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 182). So although a country may have a conventional attitude that will help you best guess how to interact with its citizens, knowing a little bit about the history and conflicts of a region will also be a valuable tool.

 

Bibliography

Gascoigne, B. (2001). HISTORY OF ANGOLA. Retrieved December 6th, 2015, from History World: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad33

Hofstede, G. (n.d.). What about Angola? Retrieved Dec 5th, 2015, from The Hofstede Center: http://geert-hofstede.com/angola.html

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. New York: Routledge.

Russia’s history is long and complex, and doing business there can be equally challenging.

An important aspect of doing business in Russia is a good understanding of your role and standing while doing business there. What your role is, and how it relates to the person or group you are talking to will dictate how you should interact with them.

Moscow, retrieved from http://travelrussiatours.com/old/moscow-russian-capital-and-tourist-attraction-center/

Russia has a power distance score of 93 (Hofstede, 2015), which is very high. In fact, at 93 it is more than 33 points higher than the global average of 59.31 and approximately one and half standard deviations higher (Pennsylvania State University, 2015). This high power distance culture has roots in the founding of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922 when Communist Party members took control. “This led to a situation in which a few people at the peak of the pyramid made almost every significant decision.” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014)

This means that Russians accept a powerful elite that have status symbols. If the group you are meeting with work for you, or you are a high-ranking individual in the company, then they will accept a top-down direction without the need of a lot of explanation.

However, if you aren’t running the show your demeanor and conversations should be different. With a score of 36 on Hofstede’s masculinity scale, Russian culture is on the feminine side. As such, greeting and talking with peers or strangers should be done in a modest and unpretentious way. Remembering that non-elite live in a humble fashion it would be a poor decision to boast or show off. “Dominant behaviour might be accepted when it comes from the boss, but is not appreciated among peers.” (Hofstede, 2015)

Regardless of your status, there are meeting etiquettes that you can adhere to in order to ensure success. Russians expect some formality with greetings, and are not impressed with flashy presentations. Nothing replaces a strong knowledge of your area, and this will build up credibility more than visuals. If you are unsure of your relationship to the people you are meeting with, there are clues you can look for when meeting with them. “A good indication of how serious a meeting is taken is how punctual they are.” (Kwintessential, 2014)

Although the Russian culture can be challenging to break into from an outsider’s perspective, it’s not impossible to navigate. Knowing the customs and your relationship to those you are meeting with is a good first start to a winning partnership.

Bibliography

Hofstede, G. (2015). What about Russia? Retrieved December 5th, 2015, from The Hofstede Centre: http://geert-hofstede.com/russia.html

Kwintessential. (2014). Doing Business in Russia. Retrieved December 5th, 2015, from Kwintessential: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/etiquette/doing-business-russia.html

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. New York: Routledge.

Pennsylvania State University. (2015). Lesson 09: Central America and Mexic. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from OLEAD410: Leadership in a Global Context: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/olead410/001/content/09_lesson/03_page.html

Most of us know Africa. It’s a land of haves and have nots, fertile plains and arid deserts, a place where human life began and raging wars continue. But did you also know that Africa has 6 out of the 10 fastest growing countries in the world? That the U.S. import and export business has tripled over the last decade? That the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections show sub-Saharan Africa (the region south of the Sahara) could grow up to 6% each of the next two years? This sounds like the perfect place to put into action our learned leadership skills while understanding the culture and people who live there.

According to Hofstede’s Dimensions of culture, in both East & West Africa Individualism is much lower than that of the United States while Power Distance is much higher. This could pose a hurdle to managing a group or you could use it to your advantage. If you are the person in charge then the African people will respect your agenda. This actually works well with the low sense of individuality. You should be able to form a great team of workers who can harmoniously work together. While this is a lot of pressure on the person in charge, believe in your business model and forge ahead. While this style of management is not for everyone (I know it’s not my milieu), it maybe the best way to succeed.

While the whole of Africa has been seen as much more corrupt than the United States, the perception of North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa tends to be a tale of two very different economical views. In North Africa corruption seems to be rampant while in Sub-Saharan Africa, business was viewed as less corrupt. For example, the United States ranked 17^th out of 175 countries in a poll of global perceived corruption by Transparency International (2014). Countries in Northern Africa such as Morocco, Egypt and Libya scored 80, 94, and 166 respectively. According to the same study, Sub-Saharan countries came in much lower. Some included in this study were Botswana (31), South Africa (67), and Senegal (69). I must admit that I found the South African number a little shocking considering I think of it as a more European philosophized country. The good part about this perceived corruption is that the Sub-Saharan countries are making a big push to lower these numbers. The countries are involved in reforming there regulation and currently are responsible for 75 of 230 regulatory reforms going on in the world (World Bank, 2015).

In conclusion, I would fully expect a westernized business to thrive in Africa. The vast expanse of the continent provides many different opportunities for growth and profit. Growing economies in both natural resources and industry should lead toward stability in the region. The African people’s desire for trust, friendship and family can make them wonderful business partners. I’ve had the occasion to work with several folks who hailed from various African countries and I have always enjoyed it. They are hardworking, knowledgeable, warm and engaging. It not only makes them wonderful teammates but also loyal and giving workers. This makes them a dream to manage

I’ve purposely been waiting to do a post on Africa for some time now. Throughout my four-year Penn State experience, I’ve had the opportunity to meet some amazing people that lived in the actual continent itself. I’ve also gone to several events hosted by the Penn State chapter of ASA, which is the African Student Association.  Both of these interactions have allowed me gain insights on and observe the culture from true natives. For the first-time readers, please note that I enjoy comparing my culture to others and that it has been a reoccurring theme throughout the semester (refer to prior posting here/ ). Therefore, the structure of this blog is going to connect any event/personal interaction I’ve had to a related cultural characteristic as described by Moran, Moran, Abramson (2014).  Also, one large connection will be made with respect to a reading I found explain the pride Africans have with respect to celebrating their culture.

After having many many conversations about our upbringing with my friends from Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon it is clear that having respect for your elders is vital. It is held to a high degree in many African American households as well but with respect to the African culture, saying something disrespect or something that may come to offend an older person (could be a parent or friend of the family) would not end well. I agree with the part in Moran, Moran, Abramson (2014, pg 514) that states young Africans may not agree with the opinions of elders but are ingrained to respect it and more than likely abide by it regardless. There are many jokes on the Internet (more offensive than not) that try to perpetuate this idea of ‘African respect”, which to me seconds that it does happen.

Among the connections I was able to make with the information in the text, I was taken aback as to how there was no mention of Africans showing their pride and love for their homeland and countries within. Moran, Moran and Abramson (2015) shockingly doesn’t hit on that in the tribal section of the chapter, I would have expected to see that African’s represent their tribes in various ways. On Penn State’s campus, there is one main event, the largest in all of Central Pennsylvania that showcase African culture to all students. This event is called Touch of Africa (TOA), as cited by PSU ASA (2015), this events’ purpose is to  “display and educate students, faculty, and the community about the diverse cultures within Africa”.  Black Oakland (2015) states “people across the African diaspora choose to embrace the fashion and culture of the long misrepresented continent.” This stands true by ASA’s willingness to provide African cuisine, art, fashion, music (guest African musician) and dance all within TOA. The planning that goes into this event is extremely extensive; they want to get everything right so they plan for about 6 months on end. To see a snippet of what the TOA experience is like check out this flashmob/promo video and the website link to learn more:

The prideful representing can compare to my African American culture through our love, appreciation and celebration of Hip Hop. We celebrate our fashion sense and music personification through of Hip Hop. Granted, to outsiders these two styles get merged into the same but they are very different. Gale Group (1993), states that there it is evident that with respect to music, dance and some fashion trends African Americans have integrated/combined the “African trends and made them their own. Examples can include using “African-style” instruments like banjos, tambourines, drums etc. Gale Group (1993).

The final similarity area I will briefly discuss is what Moran, Moran and Abramson (2014) titled family and kinship. Within a African and African-American house hold nothing comes before family, as the text states it is the “basic unit of African society” Moran, Moran and Abramson (pg. 511, 2014). In both groups families provide direct guidance and strict instruction on what is right and wrong for family members to do. Children in both cultures know that parents do no go for much nonsense or misbehavior because of the expectation that has been set.

 

With all that being said, having the ability to see similarities within the happenings, behaviors and beliefs of my culture to one that as distinctive as Africa’s is a unique experience that I very much enjoyed.

 

References:

African-American Culture Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies, 1993 From U.S. History in Context. (1993). Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/DocumentToolsPortletWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&u=rock77357&u=rock77357&jsid=e4d5e94a5327ade410aaf530b732be83&p=UHIC:WHIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE|BT2350022001&zid=9430749ca5a437b83a58b

Africa Rising: Fashion and Pride Across the Diaspora. (2015, September 19). Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://whatshappeningblackoakland.com/2015/09/19/africa-rising-fashion-and-pride-across-the-diaspora/

 

Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V. (2014) Managing Cultural Differences. Routledge, New York.

Penn State University. (2015). Lesson 14 : Africa. Retrieved Dec 03, 2015, from Leadership in a Global Context: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/olead410/001/content/14_lesson/03_page.htm