Contextualising management practice for Zimbabwean cultural environment

Abstract

Research has been extensively undertaken to establish what influences people to buy particular products and services. In this research, the buyers' environment has been closely analysed, including the cultural environmental factors that motivate people to buy have been thoroughly scrutinised. The workforce that produces and sells those products and services have an environmental background which also influences their performance, but this has been marginally scrutinised, particularly in developing economies. A close analysis of the workforce's environment, particularly the cultural environment, shows that they are so much a product of the environment that it is important for management to contextualise their practices to suit the particular environment. Knowledge of the cultural traits that are considered to be very important by the workforce, and why they are that important, may inform management on practices that are culturally acceptable and hence motivational. Currently there is a glaring lack of literature on the specific cultural traits that management ought to be aware of and take into account as they manage the workforce in Zimbabwe in general, and those of the Shona ethnic group in particular. In view of that, this study set out to identify the traits, determine the degree of importance that the workers assigned to them in relation to their work, and then investigate why the workers valued the traits so much and how ignoring them affects their productivity. The research focused on the Shona culture. Through interviews with a sample of seven randomly selected managers from the manufacturing industry in the Greater Harare area (that is within a radius of 40 kilometres around the city of Harare), thirteen cultural traits were identified as impacting upon the practice of management. The objective was to identify the core-beliefs and traditional world views of the workforce which must be taken into cognisance when managing them. From a list of fifty one companies in the same industry registered with the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), ten companies were systematically randomly selected for the sample. By means of a questionnaire, five hundred Zimbabwean African workers and managers from the ten companies, were systematically randomly sampled to report the degree of importance that they assigned to each of the traits. The traits that were ranked as very important were; maintaining links with the rural home, respect for elders, respect for authority, the need for consultation in decision-making, keeping promises, owning a house and property in town and being humble and tactful. Using a subsample of four out of the ten companies, forty respondents were systematically randomly selected for in-depth interviewing on why the traits were that important to them. They also discussed how the traits are manifested and the extent to which their productivity would be affected if management does not take them into cognisance. The results of the interviews were then discussed showing their implications on the management functions of planning, organising, leading and controlling. The study concluded, among other issues, that these core-beliefs and values are still real and were actually characterised by the respondents. The overall recommendation was therefore that having identified and understood these traits, the effective manager was to take them into cognisance and use them as a torch in the management of his specific business. There is need to go beyond the usual reflective/rational approach to management to the spiritual approach.