All too often the change literature draws on the premise that psychology is the main avenue to understand people’s attitude towards change. The same discipline is then used to devise how to effectively and efficientlly support the change process.

Interestingly, change management is very much influenced by the societal values of the place where change is brought about.

Psychologists themselves have admitted the limitation of their own field: more than two decades ago, Bruner, the father of cognitive psychology, acknowledged that culture appears as an equally valid explanation for understanding people’s attitudes and reactions. Cultural psychology is a sub-discipline that looks at these cultural differences.

Unfortunately a number of change management experts have not updated their knowledge and continue to propose an approach to change that relies on universal human tendencies.

This makes it especially dangerous as more and more change is brought about globally. Transferring an effective change recipe in a different subsidiary or imposing a foreign partner to swiftly change may lead to unexpected and or undesired outcomes.

Reality shows that when some cultural specifics vary from the context where a successful change story has taken place, the effectiveness of the change tools and techniques might be drastically reduced.

Let us illustrate this:

Comparative anthropological research has proved that across societies people showed different attitudes towards change. In the Dutch business anthropologist G. Hoftstede ‘s work, the parameter that is related to the attitude towards change is named ‘uncertainty avoidance’.

It makes sense to believe that in a country that scores low on uncertainty avoidance, people have a tendency to faster accept change than in countries that scores high on the same parameter. There might be a number of reasons why people are comfortable or uncomfortable with the unknown that change brings about.

For example, people who believe that they have little impact on the outcome of their actions might not bother change as they may take it as destiny. In such case, there is no need to implement a sophisticated change management support as the stakeholders might accept change without any resistance.

However when this cultural specifics  is associated with the reference to the Past as a model of action, change may be very deeply opposed to. In many African societies and organizations, people interpret attitudes, actions and reactions following a non-Western rationale: bad spirits or revenge from angry ancestors may cause people to act or react in a specific way.
Bringing about change not only challenges the model of reference but it also can be interpreted as an intention to hurt others. Asking someone to change an attitude or a practice can cause people to believe that the change agent is ill intentioned because under a bad spirit’s influence.

If we add to these two cultural parameters another one, the situation gets even more complex : in societies where the group is the reference for shaping the identity, there is a pressure towards social conformism: in other words, the whole group surrounding the change agent can pressure him/her not to implement the change. According to the weight of the cultural parameters, the change agent may or may not succeed.

Resisting the social pressure can cause social ostracism, which can be enough a reason to give up with any healthy change from an economical standpoint. Most African societies feature the group as the model for shaping the identity.

These few examples make it clear that change management cannot be delivered in one recipe.

However with change management literature drawing so few case studies from African contexts, it is hard to challenge current change management techniques and tools.

Decades of cross-cultural co-operations in the fight against poverty have enabled researchers and practitioners to accumulate an enormous amount of information on cultural specifics of each African country. Yet little of that has been influencing management education in Africa. Most change literature locally available is Western-centric or imported.

If so many actors have gained some expertise in African cultural specifics, should we bother about the universal recipe proposed by the change management literature? Wouldn’t these people adapt the change recipe to the cultural specifics of their work setting?

That is far from being sure!

As a matter of fact, most African countries are new actors in the global economy. For very long they were conducting business and running organizations with a rationale that had nothing to do with that of the market economy.

With the influx of foreign direct investments, Africans are willing to fill the education gap: developing competences, skills and knowledge has become their priority to compete in the global economy. With no indigenous model of change being openly acknowledged, they entirely rely on foreign literature and on foreign models of references.

They often blindly take any foreign skills training programs proposed by local or foreign organizations. American training products are especially valued. Confronted with the challenge to implement these foreign recipe they find no other reason that their incompetence for explaining their failure. Yet admitting the failure openly would just challenge their status and therefore they rather keep quiet. Ineffective change approaches and techniques will continue to be taught and developed as long as culture will not take a bigger place into business and change management education.

In search for information, some foreigners contact me with detailed questions such as these: ‘ Is there any gender discrimination in this or that job market? Can my spouse expect the range of salary that she/he gets at home? How should foreign females behave with their African colleagues and superiors? Are there taboo topics of conversations? Can my pregnant wife hide her situation when applying for this or that country?’ and the likes…

These questions are logical as the newly recruited person has approached his/her prospective job with the same concerns.

The situation of trailing spouses in African countries is poorly understood by prospective workers and foreign employers alike!

It is a fact that competence and experience are very important criteria when it comes to recruiting people.

Yet in Africa, these are not the only criteria and foreign spouses may be wise to consider the following:

The Work Permit

One of the prevalent topics of conversations among trailing spouses is their struggle to get a work permit. It seems as in some places and for some positions, it is just impossible to get one, whichever the scarcity of skills and competences that these spouses are featuring.

Why?

Many African countries have adopted a stringent regulatory system that strictly limits the number of work permits granted to foreigners. Priority should to given to nationals. Often such approach has been initiated by foreign NGOs and international aid agencies. Some NGOs are proud to have their local office entirely staffed by indigenous.  These organizations have devoted much effort in funding local capacity building as well in organizing training workshops. Many foreign organizations have also granted bursaries and fellowships to their promising African employees who take time to go and study abroad. On the other side more and more foreign universities set local antenna in some African countries and fly their teaching staff according to the local needs.

As a result a pool of educated indigenous get the jobs that otherwise would have been given to expatriates. Often these jobs are paid according to a salary scale that takes the local conditions of the job market into consideration.

The increasing number of qualified local workforce is however not always enough to meet the organizations’ needs.

Some welcome applications of qualified foreign job seekers. In such type of scenario, the organization applies for its foreign recruited employee’s work permit.Yet this does not guarantee the success of the endeavor. I have witnessed numerous spouses who had to quit their new job as their employer was informed of the refusal to grant the work permit. This can take place even when there is no evidence that a national has the required skills!

Other factors can interfere and affect the decision made:  often that are tied to the specificity of the local job market or to the cultural expectations of both employers and work permit granters.

For example, in South Africa, there is a regulation that encourages employers to recruit and promote indigenous Africans. Through a system called ‘scorecards’, employers are monitored and can be penalized for hiring too many non- indigenous Africans, being South African nationals or foreigners.

Elsewhere, employers may express preference for recruiting nationals because there is a known pool of local talent. This is increasingly the case in Kenya and in Nigeria where education is highly praised and where competition is fierce to access the best local schools and universities.

Even when there are not enough local talents, more and more local authorities or organizations wish to see educated and experienced nationals living and working abroad to repatriate.

For example the Ethiopian government has regularly called its emigrated citizen to return and bring their know-how to help developing growth in their former country.

The Angolan government is also pushing foreign businesses to develop local capacity in such a way that in a near future, most positions in foreign firms be held by indigenous workers. Foreign firms may look favorably at this prescription as it will reduce their costs: Luanda, the capital of Angola is the most expensive city in the world.

Such picture may sound gloomy for prospective foreign job seekers.

Nevertheless this does not mean that it is impossible to get an interesting job locally or that it is totally inconceivable to get a work permit. This raises the second factor that foreign spouses should be aware of:

The local approach to being recruited…

While many African countries feature recruitment agencies that are structured the same way as elsewhere, the way they operate may still be influenced by the local expectations and mores. This can be confusing for foreigner job seekers especially if the recruitment agency is a subsidiary of a famous foreign firm. They might approach these firms with the same spirit and strategy as that they would use at home. This may be ineffective!

Besides, the use of standardized professional recruitment procedures, but also the use of interviewing techniques does not mean that recruiters will not interpret them according to their societal expectations and values.  In a previous post found under the link http://www.workingwithafricans.com/recruitment-across-countries/   I gave some illustrations of these interpretations.

Foreign spouses might find it effective to learn the local expectations and procedures. This includes awareness and ability to adjust to the local way of building trust, to adjust to the local communication style, as well as the right attitude and demeanor during the whole process.

Specific cross-cultural training can help them in developing their skills!

Finally foreign spouses might be interested in knowing that some jobs do not require a work permit or that some firms can find some arrangement to make working possible.

The little attention drawn to these issues cause many frustrations. For G Sawadogo from the World bank, firms and organizations should pay attention to this issue. So far very few employers do, which can potentially impact on their recruited employee’s own performance.

While they are right and I rather propose a training session focused on a specific country, there is a legitimate claim in getting a general overview of what it is to living and to working in Africa.

Why?

Over almost twenty years of exposure to living and working in different African countries but also discussions with foreigners make me envision that foreigners based in Africa are going through a number of common challenges.

As a result, an effective cross-cultural training based on the continent can help in uncovering and addressing the scope and the depth of the cultural differences. Subsequently they can decide the best strategy and implementation.

In this post I would like to raise a common challenge faced by foreigners who are living and working in Africa.

Geremy Sawadogo from the World Bank surveyed expatriates in Africa and found out that the biggest challenge that they meet is related to the use of time.

In numerous sub-Saharan countries, expatriates complain about facing hard time in enhancing productive work practices. It is a fact that people face some challenges related to structural problems (erratic supply of electricity, bureaucracy, corruption, lack of expertise…) but there is more than that.

In many places, the way indigenous approach situations and problems is engrained in a vision of the world that is very different from that of many foreigners. Failure to understand this way of thinking does not trigger any questioning on how foreigners must adjust.

Foreigners and some trainers may think that the cultural adjustment is linked to respecting the local social and business etiquette but I am afraid  that is a far too limited view.

As a matter of fact, when indigenous do not believe that’ time is money’, it is likely that they have developed an approach to building trust, to making a deal and to fixing problems as well as to dealing with people that features their own perception of time.

Whenever foreign businesses set in an African country, they transfer in that environment the way of thinking, the way of organizing work, the way of dealing with employees and clients that are ingrained in their own vision of the world as well as in their own perception of time.  It is not difficult to envision that there will be a cultural clash!

How to handle this?

This is a type of situations that foreigners may not have come across when working in a different part of the world.

It is very complex since such situation uncovers the real challenge of cross-cultural work interactions in Africa: reconciling opposite ways of thinking and working.

Can foreign businesses and organizations adhere to a different use of time? If yes, can they always do?

I have some information that suggests that foreign business do not always endorse the local cultural values and perception of time.

By doing that, they are aware that they disrespect the local cultures.

In some other aspects, they are willing to respect the local cultures but the daily challenges that they face confuse them: how to know what they should respect and what they shouldn’t?

They might learn it over time as a result of a trial- and- error process. Yet this might be rather costly and ineffective exercise.

Let us reflect on a foreign business willing to delocalize a production unit based in a developed country because the manpower is too expensive. If it is a fact that African manpower will be cheaper, but there will be unexpected productivity issues that will emerge from the clash of perceptions of time. At the end of the day, the delocalization in Africa might not be the best way forwards. It might also be that is possible but only under specific conditions that need to be known well in advance. Not knowing anything about this challenge can lead to catastrophic consequences.

This example demonstrates how useful it is for an organization to anticipate the scope and depth of challenges when working in this specific part of the world.

Organizations and businesses that request some training focused on the continent might have heard from others that there are specific and common problems faced by foreigners who work in different African countries. It is therefore legitimate to be willing to anticipate them.

People and experts who attempt to discourage these people to look at the continent may be unaware of the complexity of work interactions in this part of the world.

Those who wish to impose a traditional model of cultural preparation that describes African values and impose foreigners to endorse them may be unaware of the low added value of their work when their trainees will face situations that threaten the viability of their endeavor.

For decades, structural adjustment programs have forced African governments to reduce public expenditures. Education has suffered from this constraint on African government budgets and today, locally trained and educated Africans rarely meet the standards that foreign firms and organizations expect for their staffs.

The current mismatch between the supply and the demand of qualified indigenous human resources has pushed foreign firms that are present in an African country to seek candidates abroad.

Privileged Africans who either have studied in private and/or foreign educational institutions are highly sought and often they get numerous offers to work at home or in other African countries. Candidates foreign to Africa, complement the pool of qualified human resources who are offered good jobs to work in Africa. This is often perceived as frustrating by the locally trained and educated human resources who cannot compete with them. Educated Africans from other countries and foreigners are getting the job that they should get!

The migration of well educated and trained Africans and foreigners is not a long term solution to the shortage of qualified indigenous human resources.

Therefore the need to rapidly develop and train local resources has triggered reflections, suggestions and actions.

With the ubiquitous presence of the Internet, e-learning has emerged in many African countries as the fast track to fill the knowledge and skills gap.

International agencies have seized this opportunity and they have poured much money into making e-learning as widely available as possible in many African countries.

While an outsider might rejoice at this initiative, a view from the field uncovers the real challenges ahead.

Let us examine the situation:

1. Challenge linked to the context where e-learning is transferred:

In spite of the marketing message of the numerous Internet services providers operating in African markets, the end product is still disappointing for many users. Ubiquity and broadband Internet do not mean anything if the provision of the services is slow, interrupted by breakdown and power outages. It is unfortunately the case in most countries and this on a very regular basis…

How could workers perform their learning experience when Internet is down at the moment they need it or when it takes forever to download a document that contains a picture or a diagram?

1. Challenge linked to the learners

With most of the literature in Education being Western centric, most e-learning courses have been designed on the basis of a perception of learning that is rarely seen by the designers as culturally- limited.

Recently a global leadership strategist for e-learning acknowledged her effort to cure American companies of the bad habit of exporting training courses (particularly e-learning) to other countries without regards for cultural differences.

Nevertheless for a while now, a literature awakens to the cultural differences in cognitive skills and in learning styles. Professors, teachers and trainers in educational institutions that feature a cultural diversity of learners, begin to adjust their approach to training to the cultural expectations of their students and trainees. The literature mainly focus on Asian learners but as J Sawadogo pointed it in his paper on ‘Training for the African minds’, there is a reason to believe that the American view of training and learning might need to be adjusted to make learning effective when addressing African audiences.

For example, an effective learning experience in an individualistic society is different from an effective one in a group-oriented society. African students/learners may feel very lonely in front of their e-learning course:  they may only provide an effective work when they are mentored by a real teacher/trainer and when they can learn with their peers.

Group-oriented learners rarely challenge the learning or the knowledge. Confronted to e-learning tools, they may reproduce this attitude and subsequently blindly apply concepts and know-how without verifying their effectiveness in their own working context.

As I have witnessed in numerous situations, e-learning tools do not give any explanation as to why a proposed way of doing does not work. Subsequently, learners confronted to the first challenge of implementation may just give up with their learning experience!

Subsequently, e-learning course designers do not get any feedback and do not improve their product to suit their audience’s specific cultural needs.

1. Challenge linked to the products

Today, learning is not only taking place in academic and vocational institutions but also in training centers and firms run by business people. Both academics and business professionals develop skills and competences.

While academics are encouraged to keep abreast of new findings and to adjust their learning accordingly, people running training centers and trainers working for them may prioritize business profit on costly adjustment of their learning products.

Subsequently, it may not come as a surprise that training firms that witness low profit with their e-learning products in some markets may wish to penetrate new ones.

The debates on the effectiveness of e-learning courses have raged for some time. A discussion on the professional virtual platform LinkedIn recently brought several hundred of comments from trainers on a discussion whose objective was to understand why e-learning had failed.

This may be interpreted as e-learning being at the end of the product life cycle in some Western countries and that subsequently, rather than reinventing more effective learning tools, it may be more profitable to export them to African markets.

In this context, it is important that all stakeholders be fully aware of the challenges ahead and that appropriate solutions be found to help Africans in developing appropriate skills and competences.

Who is right and who is wrong?

Can people from different cultures hold different definitions of what it means to be respectful?

Many foreigners come to African countries with a genuine desire to respect the indigenous populations. They learn the local language, inquire about the etiquette, adjust to the local greetings and they are aware of the societal Do and Don’t. Some go as far as getting dressed the local way and they participate in the local social life. Such profile is prevalent among foreigners working in the development field.

Global leaders and other business executives, who have just begun to flock to some African countries, do not ignore the indigenous’ cultures either. They are aware of the importance of trust building in order to motivate the indigenous labor force and in order to enhance human productivity. This is why some foreigners adjust their management and communication styles to the local expectations.

However laudable such approach might be, the subsequent adjustment is often limited to very superficial and visible cultural differences.

A deeper analysis uncovers that cultural differences encompass people’ world vision as well as the way they tackle problems, situations and people.

Let us examine one invisible cultural difference: in many African cultures, people do not separate work and life. This means that during the course of a working day, it is acceptable to perform some activities that are not work-related: going to a doctor’s appointment, attending some funerals up- country, using the company van for personal reasons, leaving work to attend a meeting with a child’s teacher….

These social duties and tasks are as important as work duties. Locally, people do not have to take a day off to perform them. They must not catch up with longer hours in the following days either… Such approach to people and situations is taken for-granted by indigenous who cannot think that their foreign managers, suppliers, customers would have a different view of the matter.

By reference to many Western societies, such mixing of work and not-work-related activities is totally unacceptable.

Since no one would warn foreigners about this local way to look at work and life, the first scenario of workers disappearing from the work place will be a rather unpleasant experience for many foreigners. Often the next step is to clarify what is permitted or not.

Most of the time foreigners will impose their own view of the matter. Why? Because foreign managers are accountable and responsible for meeting their objectives…They report to their foreign-based hierarchy that translates their local results in terms of figures (output, turnover, market share…) With no working experience abroad and with their own vision of the place of work and life in mind, indigenous staff legitimately perceive foreigners who forbid not-work-related activities during the working hours as disrespectful.

Nevertheless they will not openly speak up their mind. Some cultural specifics prevent them from doing so.

Yet the impact of the frustration is real. Might the indigenous staff be in a weak position, they might stick to express their frustration through less involvement in their work. However, might the indigenous be in a strong position, they might just organize strike and sabotage.

The example that I have selected uncovers the complexity of intercultural work synergies but also the challenges to address conflict of values in the work place. What is right for one side is wrong for the other! My example is not isolated and it explains why many foreigners who had an experience in an African country, become very emotional when they come across a cultural trainer who insists on respecting the local values.

They wish the trainer to acknowledge the limit of the adjustment and they wish the indigenous staff to develop their cross-cultural competences as well! The fact is that when stakeholders deal with contradictory and conflicting values and visions of the world, there is a need to go beyond the unilateral adjustment and to develop mutual acceptance and empathy.

Within the frame of a cross-cultural dialogue, parties coached by a facilitator, develop new approaches to people and situations that imply some mutual compromises.

The respect that is restored from this exercise will ensure effective cooperation!

The idea of establishing and communicating corporate values was popularized by management gurus Tom Peters and Bob Waterman, and thousands of management consultants have created a healthy business working with leaders developing corporate values.

Corporate values are often used interchangeably with the concept of corporate culture. They guide an organization’s internal conduct as well as its relationship with its customers, partners, and shareholders.

Morality and ethics are central to the issue of meaning in corporate values. They are supposed to ensure a consistency in the quality of the organization’s products and services. They help in getting market shares and in retaining customers.

Firms operating in foreign markets usually transfer their corporate culture into their foreign operations. Corporate values also guide recruitment firms or HR departments: finding the right competences is not enough. Applicants who share corporate values are to be preferred, might technical competences and experience criteria been met.

The challenge to transfer corporate values into foreign environments is often overlooked by organization’s HQ.

In order to illustrate my statement, I will take one commonly used corporate value: the respect for the individual.

Let us quote how it is often stated:

We treat one another with respect and dignity, appreciating individual, cultural, and national differences.  We seek to learn and therefore we listen to one another attentively and compassionately and communicate often and openly.  Recognizing that valuable ideas can come from anyone regardless of level or position, we encourage individuals to express their views and use their talent to the fullest.  Company policy prohibits discrimination against employees, stockholders, directors, officers, customers or suppliers on account of race, color, age, sex, religion or national origin.  All persons shall be treated with dignity and respect.

Let us see what is hidden behind this corporate value:

Each individual enjoys equality of treatment within the organization: distinguishing employees on the basis of their race, their nationality, their language, their age, their gender, their level of education, or even on their position in the organization’s hierarchy is not beneficial to the organization. It adversely impacts on motivation, integrity, team spirit, productivity and creativity.

Such view of people is inspired by some ethical principles, some of which are stated in the Bill of Rights and outside the USA in the ratified Universal Declaration of Human rights.

Yet the reality shows that such value often disrespects cultural differences!

There is an abundant literature illustrating societal and organizational hierarchies in African countries. Respect towards these hierarchies command societal and organizational behavior, attitudes, communication styles and contend that would be considered disrespectful in many individualistic and egalitarian societies: for example, respecting a manager, or a more senior person, supposes not to pinpoint an error he/she made, or not criticizing his/her ideas. Asking some questions may suggest that the speaker was not clear in his/her explanation, which can also be perceived as disrespectful. Taking some initiative challenges the hierarchy and can be sanctioned. In some African societies, employees would refuse delegation even when the suggestion is made by their hierarchy. ‘You know better than me boss’ is a socially acceptable and respecful response to a suggestion to do a task usually performed by a manager.’ Empowering employees through skills development would mean encouraging trainee to modify their definition of what is respectful or not. That is far from being obvious.

Open communication is rarely seen in group-oriented African societies that value face saving. Such trait continues to fuel polite but inaccurate statements even when dealing with educated locals.

In such cultural contexts, it may be counterproductive to hire a local employee who shares a value that is contrary to societal expectations but in accordance with the foreign firm corporate values. In some African societies, I have witnessed the ostracism of these who trespass socially respectful values, the sabotage organized by the subordinates or even the delegation of delicate matters to foreigners who would not stand the same consequence of implementing disrespectful principles and values.

This being said, I have witnessed Africans driven by values that were different from these popular in their society. Yet these people face unknown challenges when implementing them, causing some to succeed when the conditions are favorable, but others to fail when the context they are operating in is pressurizing to respect societal values.

My illustration demonstrates the invisible dynamics at work when a corporate value is transferred in a foreign society. It appears that there is a collision between the societal value and the organizational ones. While many decision makers believe that corporate values smooth cultural differences, literature has proved otherwise.

Subsequently rather than solving problems, corporate values can be a source of disrespect, problems and loss of effectiveness when they are transferred in societies whose societal values greatly vary from these of the organization foreign HQ.

Global business literature has emphasized the importance of handling cultural differences. Many tools assess the cross-cultural ability and competence of employees and managers assigned overseas.

Recently a McKinsey newsletter suggested the hiring of locals rather than foreigners in emerging markets.  That is of course a very good idea as locals are deemed to know their cultures better than foreigners. Yet, in many African societies, locals would have to face the challenge of working with corporate values that disrespect their cultural identity. Are they ready for that? Is their foreign hierarchy aware of that? Are they ready to offer any support? Unless both sides develop their cross-cultural competences, they will not uncover the challenge ahead.

In his US homeland, it is so easy to meet with the senior executives who are open to new solutions and products. Based on his experience, the vendor has assumed that approaching a potential client and making a deal is quick process. It features a similar pace and comparable interactions whatever the place where the transaction is taking place.

His success at home has boosted his confidence and his desire to grow. Looking at foreign markets, he found European markets to be appealing and subsequently he decided to set up an office in the United Kingdom.

Few months of struggles to get an appointment with his British prospective clients made him ponder on why they do not behave or react the same way as in the USA?

What did he do wrong?

Such incident is typical of people who have not been exposed to working abroad. During their studies or their training, they have developed some technical skills that have resulted in successful outcomes in their home market. Unfortunately, rarely do these training address the issue of the transferability of these skills in other cultural working contexts.

People with little exposure to living and working abroad have a rather limited awareness of the impact of culture on working and social interactions.

Some people are totally unaware of how cultural expectations impact on what they say, show or do when dealing with foreigners. It seems to be the case of our American vendor!

Others have some level of awareness but they often think that these differences are only tied to the societal etiquette. They will devote little time to getting a glimpse of the DO and DON’T in the targeted foreign market society.

Some believe that recruiting an indigenous assistant will clarify situations and wil help in advising on human interactions.

In order to illustrate how little effective is the quick learning of DO and DON’T, let us examine the various steps that our American vendor is going through with a prospective client in the UK.

Penetrating a foreign market requires not only technical and legal advices but also some cultural ones.

Getting a British prospect to accept to meet with the American vendor brings about several situations: attitude towards unknown people, process of building trust, openness to change, communication style and content, body language, persuasion techniques, negotiation tactics , perception of time…just to cite a few!

Whereas many people believe that people react to situations according to their personal experience and personality traits, research has uncovered some general tendencies that apply across societies.

For example, these studies show that some societies score very low on risk taking (for example Germany or Belgium) and others very high (USA…). Logically in front of unknown people or new products and services, people from risk adverse societies will react differently from these from societies where people are ready to take risk. Trust building will also be affected by these different preferences.

Subsequently, approaching prospective clients from different societies requires learning about their cultural preferences and specifics. In a second step, people have to ponder how to adjust their selling approach to maximize their chance of success in a culturally understood foreign market.

Risk taking is just one among many other cultural variables that people operating beyond their borders must take into consideration.

The American vendor raised his challenge to meet with the right people. There are many more steps that will feature cultural differences. For example, negotiation styles and tactics are also culturally sensitive.

Applying a style or a tactic that is effective at home may kill the sale elsewhere!

When foreigners venture in African countries, how much do they know about the cultural specifics of their future business partners?

Conversely, when Africans venture beyond their borders, how much do they know about their foreign partners’ cultural preferences?

The example of the American vendor struggling in the UK shows that sharing the same language does not guarantee that people share many cultural preferences.

You are working in Africa or with Africans?

How much more effective will you become after a cross-cultural preparation?

Send me a short summary of your interactions and I’ll tell you where you risk to face cultural differences.

Such diversity brings about numerous challenges not only at the level of the society but also at the level of the organizations and of the businesses.

The situation varies from place to place:  in some countries and cities, indigenous ethnic groups have been dealing with one another for centuries. Elsewhere, for various motives, people have developed some negative pre-conceived ideas of other tribes. Inter-ethnic violence, wars, genocides have plagued many parts of the African continent.

Besides the visible signs of discrimination, more subtle ones are taking place on an everyday basis even in the African countries that have ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For example, decision makers in both public services, African international organizations and African firms are often granting jobs, promotions, loans, rights and obligations on the basis of criteria that are not linked to meritocracy or sound financial situations. On the contrary, criteria such as ethnic or faith affiliation, tongue, social network, region of origin, social status… seem prevalent. It is frequent to find decision makers surrounded by colleagues and subordinates from their own tribe, from their region or even from their faith.

Looking at this situation with a Western mindset, there is something terribly wrong in favoring relatives rather than unrelated technically competent people. It may be very unproductive. It is ethically unacceptable when the country has ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

With such view of the matter, good governance should be on the agenda both at the governmental and at the firm level.

Foreign investors, multinationals, traders, executives and experts originated from Western countries bring to Africa their corporate cultures that are very strict about good governance.

 I have witnessed some of these foreign firms prescribing their African subordinates to endorse the firm values: ‘here you are not loyal to your family but to the company…’

Some human resources departments of foreign organizations attempt to gauge how indigenous job applicants would privilege the corporate values rather than their own.

With the rising presence of Indian recruitment firms on the African markets, there is a temptation to offer a non-Western view of how African organizations should be managed. This new approach makes sense since Indian organizations have displayed a similar tendency to grant jobs and promotion on the basis of non Western criteria. Their success in switching to meritocracy can be appealing to Africans who wish to steer away from the Western ways that have been imposed during colonialism and beyond.

All these attempts to change Africans in their approach to dealing with diversity are little effective!

Why?

In societies where the identity is based on the group rather than on the individual, it is legitimate to discriminate people belonging to the out-group! There are some philosophical and anthropological foundations to these discriminatory attitudes.

When foreigners impose Africans to consider wrong an act or an attitude that has always been considered right, they have no idea of the impact of their request!

On the other side, Africans who are suddenly imposed these new rules may not understand their foundation. They may feel disrespected and this adversely impacts on trust building but also in the motivation to be loyal to the organization.

Mutual understanding is critical when new values and rules apply.

Cross-cultural training helps decision-makers of human resources departments in assessing the impact of values change in their African subsidiaries and offices. It also helps them in formulating the appropriate strategies that they could implement in order to support their African staff who go through the value change process.

Cross-cultural training also helps indigenous Africans in reflecting on their current values and in envisioning the foundation of new ones. These newly developed skills foster trust, loyalty towards the organization.

In the Business section, piles of imported books feature the golden rules paving the way to successfully doing business… Titles such as How to get what you want in the workplace? …Marketing Effectively…Effective People Management…Negotiations… Not Bosses but leaders… Practical Guide for Improving Communication… caught my attention.

You may wonder why I pinpoint these books as you might have seen them on shelves located in other countries.

These books are in total contradiction with the messages conveyed by foreign business scholars and by many overseas business schools: they do not distill the recipe of these books any longer because business education is constantly influenced by the experience and knowledge gained by business players. 

Experienced gained on global markets taught business players that culture matters and that a range of business practices, fields and techniques should stop being considered as universally effective, whichever the context!

Nowadays business schools and universities in countries such as Australia, Canada, USA, UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark and France (just to cite a few) raise their students’ awareness on the numerous cultural differences that impact on managing people, on effectively negotiating, on communicating or even on developing and implementing effective marketing strategies and policies.

Courses or even degrees in cross-cultural communication or in cross-cultural management or other marketing across cultures are widely offered.

This new approach to crafting disciplines and techniques in accordance with local cultural values stems as much from global players’ experience as from comparative research.

Unfortunately Kenyan managers and other business players do not read these scientific reviews. They are therefore trapped by assertive foreign gurus who have little experience of their art beyond their own borders and whose main intention is to sell as many books as possible.

Many public speakers venture into Kenya but also into other African countries in the hope of sharing their experiences summarized in the books that they sell. Africans thirsted of developing their capacity may naively swallow their supposedly universal message and recipe.

Welcoming uncritically these imported recipes holds as long as people have little experience of how business is conducted across their borders. And this is maybe what characterizes Kenyan managers and other business players. Too little exposure to a wide variety of work and business cultures may mislead them.

So in order to open their eyes to how important global players take cultural differences in the work place, let us examine how they select their global leaders and experts.

Before offering an oversea assignment to an employee, multinationals identify the best ones, based on their technical expertise and experience but also on their ability to adjust to cultural differences.

A wide range of assessment tools are available on the market such as Overseas Assignment Inventory, Global Assessment Inventory, Cross-cultural Adaptability Inventory, Global Competencies Inventory, Intercultural Development Inventory, International Mobility Assessment, Intercultural readiness Check… This list is not exhaustive but it gives enough weight to the importance granted by global firms to the need to adjust to the local way of conducting business and managing them.

In a further stage the selected candidates will go through a cross-cultural training enabling them to build trust, manage people, lead change, transfer know-how, develop and implement sound marketing and operation policies while taking into consideration the cultural values of their foreign employees, suppliers, clients and other third parties.

Such evolution of business practices and expectations makes it difficult to believe that Kenyans are well prepared to venture into foreign markets if they believe that there is one best way!

This holds for their ventures into neighboring markets in the frame of the East African Common Market but it also holds for their ventures into far away markets.

Such peculiarity of Kenyans valuing an imported way of doing and managing business rather than crafting their own is unusual in Africa.

From decades onwards South Africans have devised an African management style that they have come to realize does not apply across the whole continent. Others are willing to distance themselves from Western models.

Out of the 22 countries where I have conducted some research, Kenya is the only one that does not value a typical Kenyan way of conducting and managing business. Usually Kenyans’ perception of cultural specifics revolves around using indigenous languages. That is the only area where they would claim the respect of their cultural identity.

However cultural specifics span across a much wider scope than that of the use of a language; overlooking these specifics is a predictor of future misunderstanding and ineffectiveness in cross the borders interactions.

In order to prepare for international business transactions, Kenyans should craft their own business style and learn about cultural differences.

Finally I would like to encourage Kenyans but also all Africans to reflect on the message of the outgoing Chairman of the Commission for Higher Education in Kenya. Professor Thairu Kihumbu challenged Africans to rediscover who they are, independent of their assimilated Western values and ways of thinking and behaving.

In short, they must decolonize their mind.

While these informants usually admitted the existence of local mores and values in the field of communication, of interactions and of human resources management, they were often blind at many other aspects that I have covered in my past articles.

For example, instead of admitting that their African colleagues operated outside any Western definition of what productivity means, they only asserted that they were not productive. In other words, they could not envision productivity beyond their own definition of the term.

The same reasoning applies to Ethics.

People driven by different ethics are classified by others as not ethical. 

While debates rage among ethicists on the theme of ethical relativism, anthropologists have provided useful explanations on the roots of diverse moral and ethical fundamentals.

Geert Hofstede, the Dutch business anthropologist, defines values by reference to what is good, right, acceptable, respectful, logic, beautiful, clean, or not in a society. If comparative research has proved that across societies, people give different definitions to these adjectives, it comes as no surprise that their ethics feature major differences.  

While my intention is not to enter into the debate on ethical relativism, I wish to illustrate different beliefs linked to different definitions of what is right, ethical, acceptable or not.

In a number of Western societies, ideal workers are defined by reference to meritocracy or in terms of added value expressed in enhanced productivity. Technical expertise, appropriate interpersonal skills, experience are key criteria for sound and ethical recruitment decisions. Human resources techniques, tools and practices embody this belief in meritocracy.

However, are all societies operating on the basis of the same premise?

According to comparative anthropological research, the response is NO!

In some societies trust and loyalty are preferred to meritocracy. Lynne Dilligent explores these two contrasting approaches to recruiting people in

http://interculturalmeanderings.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/meritocracy-vs-in-group-loyalty-two-methods-of-team-building/

In some African societies, the priority granted to trust and loyalty paints nepotism as a positive work attitude.  

As Sigué put it “hiring relatives and people of your own ethnic group is regarded as a positive virtue. You are looking after your own; you are being your brothers’ keeper! You are helping him/her by providing him or her with a job, an opportunity. It is something to be applauded, not criticized. 

Educated Africans may be shy in stating this feature as their education embedded in the language and the values of their ex-colonial power has taught them that nepotism is unethical.

Furthermore, business education that imposes Western paradigms on work practices and interactions contribute to print in Africans’ mind a supposedly universal perception of nepotism.

As a result, many Africans maneuver between societal ethical standards that value nepotism and Western ones that do not.

It is very difficult to see a positive value to nepotism when one is embedded in the belief that nepotism is unethical. The first reaction is to emotionally reject nepotism without being able to withhold judgment and without being able to listen to the explanation on why nepotism may be ethical elsewhere.

Yet, once people develop their cross-cultural competences, they stop judging and can envision why nepotism makes sense and why it is an effective practice in some societies. This does not mean that people approve nepotism as a result of their training. It only means that they have overcome their emotional frustration and that they can start envisioning how to operate in a context that values nepotism.

Intercultural work interactions involving people who do not view nepotism in the same way feature huge challenges.

 It always leads to the strongest side to impose its own view of the concept on the weakest one.

However such approach does not necessarily triggers the expected outcomes.

A Western CEO hired a competent HR manager who happened to belong to a tribe distrusted by most of his line managers. He admitted that the competent HR was sabotaged and that reluctantly, he had to get rid of the inefficient Human Resource manager. In this case, rejecting nepotism was not an effective way to solve problems when the concept is socially valued.

Some Western organizations train their staff to value meritocracy and they develop communication channels enabling people to voice their concern when they witness nepotism. Yet comments I heard did not suggest that nepotism had disappeared.

Often Westerners themselves have to bow to nepotism as it is the only condition to get a contract, an authorization or even the renewal of their work permit!

When foreigners operate in societies where nepotism has a positive societal connotation, they need to get some cross-cultural preparation to effectively handle situations.

Ability to see how an unethical practice can lead to effective problem solving allows trainees to distinguishing whether, when and how it is effective to take nepotism into consideration.

It is usually easier to accept such huge cultural adjustment when the stakeholders are practically involved in problem solving as they can immediately witness the positive outcome of their cultural adjustment.

However, many foreign actors and organizations operating in Africa and elsewhere prefer to stand behind their own definition of nepotism and condemn these who do not share their view. They can do so because the ineffectiveness of their stance and actions are not impacting on their survival.