In his 2012 book Attuned Leadership: African Humanism as Compass, business person Dr Reuel Khoza stressed that good leaders are not born. Instead, they are made by finding the delicate balance between nature and nurture, humility and humanity. More than a decade ago, Khoza likened this leadership approach to ubuntu.
Ubuntu is not a culture in itself. Rather, it is a concept that influences cultures and shapes individual philosophies across races and creeds. Stemming from the Zulu phrase ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ (I am because you are; you are because we are), ubuntu encapsulates a widely held African philosophy of communalism rather than Western individualism.
In this respect, it has much in common with the notion of human-centred leading. This human alignment lies at the heart of an approach like transformational leadership, which seeks to inspire people and teams to move beyond their comfort zones. It is akin to humane leadership, which is defined by showing empathy and compassion, or servant leadership, where the needs of the team come first.
In short, ubuntu is a golden thread linking a new breed of human-centric leadership styles. As a result, clinical psychologist, author and career coach Dr. Matete Lerutla believes that ‘humanist ubuntu’ could emerge as a significant leadership construct capable of transcending cultures.
Thirty years after democracy, Lerutla’s research shows – pleasingly and surprisingly – that “South Africans, irrespective of cultural background, display similar leadership behaviour”. This concurs with insights from a 2014 case study on ArcelorMittal by the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) Dr. Allan Feldman and Arcelor’s S. Msibi that showed the steel producer was showing a “general shift from a Eurocentric approach to leadership, which is congruent with high individualism and low human orientation. The influence of cross-cultural leadership is thus indicated by the preference for a higher degree of human orientation and collectivism among managers, which is associated with the Afrocentric leadership style and the black ethnic group.”
It appears that South Africa’s journey since 1994 has resulted in a fusing of the previously predominant Western style of leadership with an innate African leadership style. Notably, this shift appears to have been embraced across racial groups. Corporate South Africa stands, therefore, as a possible blueprint for the world on how to transition successfully towards a more humane style of leadership in business. This should spur interest in African business leadership, requiring a clear definition and actionable case studies from which to learn.
Ramping up Afro-leadership research
This is precisely what Dr. Lerutla and her collaborator, Professor Renier Steyn from Unisa, are doing as part of a series of articles on modern African business leadership that will ultimately result in her second doctorate, this time in business leadership.
The pair started by looking at research in this area and unearthed only 13 pieces of empirical literature on African leadership as a whole, not even specifically around African business leadership. Of those 13, only six articles were written by academics in Africa, mainly South Africa. This reinforced Khoza’s view in 2012 that “for far too long Africans have been spoken about, have been written about; they have not been making a contribution that says we also have a perspective on humanity and how humanity should actually develop”.
Recognising that views of African leadership have been approached from “Western cultures or Western paradigms”, Lerutla explains that defining African business leadership from within Africa is critical. As part of this process, Lerutla and Steyn’s second article probed how African business leadership was viewed from the perspective of 121 young people and aspiring leaders from 14 African countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola, Malawi, and Zambia. Their third article focused on understanding the African business leadership style and how that differed between black and white leaders. It was this paper that considered the impact of culture.
What is African business leadership?
While Lerutla and Steyn’s research integration is ongoing, they have already concluded that “leadership in Africa is distinguished by the quality of humanity, which is the quality of ubuntu. People have said we need to start embracing this uniqueness, but we haven’t yet cracked the nut in terms of how to include this unique value attribute when we are conceptualising African business leadership,” says Lerutla.
What is clear, she adds, is that “good leaders have an element of ubuntu, whether you are black or white. That has been my experience. And those who are bad are lacking in ‘humanist ubuntu’.”
This view also adds a twist to the consideration of culture and upbringing, highlighting that “leaders who are effective in their style are effective independent of culture and race. What makes African leaders effective, above their distinctive humane leadership attributes, is that they have also embraced the globally recognised transformational leadership attributes like charisma and idealised vision.”
Lerutla believes this is why we need to look beyond markers like race – or culture – to define leadership styles. While acknowledging that upbringing does contribute to how we experience and view the world, Lerutla says it is limiting to assume that leadership styles are so far removed from one another, especially given the global nature of business.
A global leadership paradigm
Lerutla believes leadership development around the world is becoming increasingly homogenised as leadership and business education programmes strive to deliver the type of leader prized by international organisations for getting results in a diverse and globalised world. Whether you attend a leading African business school or a top institution in Europe or Asia, global constructs will be taught to enable students to operate in an international context.
This shifts the discussion from culture as the primary determinant or influencer of how one leads to a leader’s personal and career development journey. “To be a leader in a global context, you need to look at how you show up and how you show up in relation to how the world wants you to show up,” says Lerutla.
“It has nothing to do with race and nothing to do with your cultural upbringing. It’s got more to do with what is expected of good quality leadership in the global context and, more specifically, in our African context. Therefore, we should stop looking at leaders from a perspective of colour and rather focus on their ability to lead in a way that will resonate with the majority of the people in the organisation.”
Beware the box
Instead of boxing in humanist ubuntu as a quaint cultural way of doing things that is confined to the continent of Africa, Lerutla believes intentional research from Africans is needed to understand an approach that puts empathy and compassion at its core.
“Beyond our desire to be inclusive, global and adaptive, we have an opportunity to say that Africa is centred on treating each other as human beings,” she explains. “It is even more critical for Africa to start influencing the narrative around what African leadership should look like … and to measure the attributes we have instilled in our own organisations.”
Rather than allowing global agendas to dilute or simply absorb these innately African leadership traits, she feels there has never been a better time to explore the merits of an Afrocentric way of leading. “By virtue of being African, we don’t tell you; we consult and engage. Yes, from a leadership perspective, I can be the one making the decisions, but the decisions will be informed by the collective voices,” she explains.
This does not limit effectiveness or productivity; it doesn’t diminish vision or innovation; it just advances those business imperatives without pushing the human considerations aside.
A humanist ubuntu approach should not be seen as lacking vision or effectiveness, stresses Lerutla. “Ubuntu doesn’t say that you are not being effective but it says you can be more effective because you have people who will follow you when you include them – because our culture and our nature is that of including other people and respecting them. After all, when you include people, they embrace the vision, which becomes a collective vision.”
This is the essence of Africa’s culture of humane leadership. Just don’t expect Harvard Business Review to fly the flag about African business leadership, is Lerutla’s final word – this journey starts at home.
The cultural dimensions of leadership
The Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness (Globe) project builds on social psychologist Dr Geert Hofstede’s original cultural dimensions to better understand how cultural differences across countries impact business leadership effectiveness. Globe measures dimensions such as long- and short-term orientation, power distribution, as well as collectivism versus individualism.
From a pool of 150 countries, with a swath of African (predominantly West and Central African) countries missing from the data-collection efforts, Globe’s 2020 study featured data from 143 countries and survey responses from more than 60 000 individuals. While the 2020 study is still a work in progress, visualisations and data from the 2014 study are available on the Globe website.
The accompanying graphics highlight Globe’s assessment of leadership among black and white leaders in South Africa. The assessment is broken down into cultural practices (purple) and societal values (blue). In other words, the reality playing out in society (practices) and the beliefs about how society should be (values).
Figure 3 depicts the characteristics of leaders in the sub-Saharan Africa subset, comprising South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. This tallies with the South Africa data (Figure 1 and 2) and shows “a relatively high score for humane-orientated leadership compared to other cultures. The humane-orientated leadership score is the second-highest for all Globe clusters.” Charisma, team orientation, and participative leadership were highly prized by these African leaders, ahead of more autonomous leadership traits.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Sub-Saharan Africa has the second-highest score for humane-orientated leadership among the regions covered by the Globe study into effective leadership behaviours. Charismatic leadership, teamwork, and engagement also featured strongly.
- These characteristics lean strongly towards approaches such as transformational, servant, and humane leadership, all of which have humanity at their core.
- Africa’s innate style of leadership is also encapsulated in the philosophy of ubuntu.
- New research into African business leadership points to a merging of the prevailing European-inspired individualistic approach with a distinctly ‘humanist ubuntu’ orientation.
- As leadership development becomes increasingly homogenised around the world, South Africa’s transition towards a more humane leadership approach in business is an interesting case study in affecting culture change across races.
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