Leadership effectiveness and motivation in Africa and the African Diaspora (LEAD): An introduction

• Author: Betty Jane Punnett,Terri R. Lituchy
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1295
• Published date: 01 December 2014
• Date: 01 December 2014

Leadership effectiveness and motivation in Africa

and the African Diaspora (LEAD): An introduction

Terri R. Lituchy*

McMaster University

Betty Jane Punnett

University of the West Indies

Abstract

The LEAD research project was developed in order to

broaden management research in areas such as Africa. This

special issue bringstogether the early f‌indings ofthe research

team. The present article reviews the literature and discusses

the importance of understanding organizational leadership

and motivation in under researched areas of the world. We

explain the use of both emic (Delphi Technique and focus

groups) and etic (large scale survey) research and describe

the LEADproject and methodology in detail.Here we advocate

theuse of emic and eticresearch, and alsoconsider the practical

realities of using such approaches. Copyright © 2014 ASAC.

Publishedby John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: leadership, motivation, Delphi Technique,

African management, African Diaspora, LEAD

Résumé

Le projet de recherche LEAD a été mis sur pied pour

approfondir la recherche en gestion dans des zones telles

que l’Afrique. Ce premier numéro spécial rassemble les pre-

miers résultats de l’équipe de recherche. Le présent article

passe en revue les publications antérieures et analyse la

nécessité de bien cerner le leadership organisationnel et la

motivation dans les parties du monde négligées par les

chercheurs. Il explique l’utilisation de la recherche á la fois

émique (méthode Delphi et groupes de consultation) et

étique (enquête á large échelle) et décrit en détail le projet

LEAD et sa méthodologie. L’article prône l’utilisation de

la méthode émique et étique et examine les réalités pratiques

qui l’accompagnent. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by

John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés : leadership, motivation, méthode Delphi, gestion

en Afrique, diaspora africaine, LEAD

The objective of this special issue is to convene the

early f‌indings of the LEAD (Leadership Effectiveness in

Africa and the Diaspora) project team (Ford, Lituchy,

Punnett, Puplampu, & Sejjaaka, 2013; Lituchy, Punnett, &

Puplampu, 2013; Lituchy et al., 2011) in an accessible

format for academics and managers. This special issue

discusses the importance of understanding management in

under researched areas of the world, and the importance of

both emic and etic research to examine management

questions, while also describing the LEAD project.

Specif‌ically, we address: (a) culture; (b) words/terms

usec to describe an effective leader; (c) what an effective

leader does; (d) what motivates leaders to succeed; and (e)

what motivates people (other than leaders) to work hard.

The business world seems to understand the importance of

Africa in this global business era. For example, inward and

outward foreign direct investment for Africa was USD $2,846

in 1990 and rose to USD $50,041 in 2012 (UNCTADstat,

2013), an increase of close to 200%. Furthermore, GDP in-

creased 96% during this same time period (UNCTAD, 2013).

However, the dearth of research suggests academia is slow to

realize the importance of this region. This special issue aims

to illuminate the business and management issues in some

underresearched areas and groups of the world for both interna-

tional business scholars and management practitioners. In this

introduction we discuss the gap in the literature and propose

an emic-etic-emic approach for such research. We also consider

the practical realities of using such an approach. Furthermore,

we describe the LEAD emic project and the development of

the etic large-scale survey instrument.

The LEAD project (see Ford et al., 2013; Lituchy et al.,

2011; Lituchy, Ford, & Punnett, 2013; Lituchy, Punnett, &

Puplampu, 2013) began with emic, or culture-specif‌ic, re-

search and used results from this approach to develop an etic

large-scale survey. Emic and etic research measures

effective organizational leadership as well as motivation in

a variety of African countries and among a select group of

the African Diaspora. In addition to a concluding paper,

the three papers comprising the body of this special issue

This research was partially funded by SHRM Foundation, SSHRC,

Concordia University and University of the West Indies to Terri Lituchy.

*Please address correspondence to: Terri Lituchy, DeGroote School of

Business, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. West, Hamilton, ON, L8S

4M4 Canada. Email: terrilituchy@yahoo.com

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

31: 221–227 (2014)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1295

Can J Adm Sci

31(4), 221–227 (2014)Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 221