“Six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies are African.”

My name is Kettie Chipeta. I am a Tanzanian national currently pursuing a doctorate degree from the Maastricht School of Management (MsM) under the tutelage of Dr. Andre de Waal. My doctoral research investigates the relationship between the applicability of the High Performance Organization (HPO) Framework and national culture. Specifically, it sets out to identify if there are any similarities and/or differences in the application of the HPO Framework across countries of varying national cultures. The study uses data collected from HPOs in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia.

This study comes at a time when Africa has become recognized as the world’s fastest growing continent. In the last decade Africa’s overall growth rates have quietly approached those of Asia. Six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies are African – Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique, and Rwanda. The key reasons behind this growth surge include governments’ action to end armed conflicts, improved macroeconomic conditions, increased access to international capital and stronger regional integration supported by the removal of trade barriers.

Befitting the continent’s strong macro trends, Africa is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy in attracting global executives and investors. Big companies, from retail to technology, are approaching Africa as a promising new growth frontier. In addition, increasing numbers of African companies are expanding beyond their national borders and managers are employed trans-nationally, in cultures other than their own. Participation in cross-cultural teams has also become more commonplace in Africa.

Despite Africa’s new commercial vibrancy, the existence of substantial cultural differences among and within Africa’s countries implies the need for managers who can understand and adapt to cultural differences in work-related values. If perceptions of what constitutes high performance differ as a function of cultural differences, then the influence of expatriate managers on subordinates can be drastically hampered. That is, subordinates work well when a manager’s perception of what constitutes high performance is aligned with what they perceive constitutes high performance. As such, this calls for a much deeper and finer-grained understanding of the interplay between HPOs and cultural differences.

The findings of my study are envisaged to be used in improving cross-cultural management training across Africa especially in HPOs.

By Kettie Chipeta