Management in Africa: Macro and Micro Perspectives Edited by Terri R. Lituchy, Betty Jane Punnett, and Bill Buenar Puplampu New York and London: Routledge 328 pp. ISBN: 978-0-415-53646-2

• Published date: 01 December 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1302
• Author: Hamieda Parker
• Date: 01 December 2014

Book Review/Recensions de livre

Reviewed by Hamieda Parker, University of Cape Town

Management in Africa: Macro and Micro Perspectives

Edited by Terri R. Lituchy, Betty Jane Punnett, and Bill Buenar Puplampu

New York and London: Routledge, 328 pp.

ISBN 978-0-415-53646-2

“We are all witnessing a momentous transformation in

Africa…The opportunities are vast and the challenges,

while signif‌icant, can be overcome, through sustained

strong policies, both economic and social. Now is the

time to go further, to work together towards an inclusive,

job-rich and sustainable growth strategy. Now is the time

to extend the gains that many countries have enjoyed to

those that have been left behind, by helping them over-

come fragility and build strong institutions.”

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International

Monetary Fund, Keynote Address at the Africa Rising

Conference, Maputo, May 29, 2014

This strongcall was made a few months ago at the “Africa

Rising”Conference held in Mozambique. The African Acad-

emy of Management (AFAM), an aff‌iliate of the Academy of

Management, has madea similar call to researchers to address

the need for research on building management capacity in

Africa as a continent with much promise.

Management in Africa: Macro and Micro Perspectives

responds to these calls, and is comprehensive in covering a

range of areas relevant to the study of management in Africa.

The book brings together 25 researchers who have engaged

in cutting-edge management research in Africa, and

showcases the frontier in scholarly debates on the major

issues facing management research. A range of theoretical

lenses and methodologies are used to interrogate both micro-

and macrolevel phenomena. The book is directed to faculty

and doctoral students interested in learning more about what

research has been done in Africa and which burning

questions have surfaced through this research. As such, it

is valuable to both novice scholars as well as those who

are extensively engaged in research in Africa.

The f‌irst chapter, “Management research in Africa:

past, present and future,”is written by David Zoogah

and Stella Nkomo, and reviews 50 years of studies rele-

vant to management in Africa. They assess research con-

ducted in the areas of organizational behaviour, human

resource management, leadership, strategy and strategic

management, general management, corporate social re-

sponsibility, and ethics. Through this detailed review, they

develop a framework for theory building on the micro-,

meso-, and macrolevels.

In the second chapter, “Internationalization and

economic growth,”John Kuada examines the internationali-

zation process for sub-Saharan African (SSA) f‌irms. He does

this by f‌irst outlining the key theories and how they relate to

SSA, then by exploring the opportunities and challenges that

SSA f‌irms face, and third by explaining how policy and

strategic choices impact on SSA f‌irms’ability to capitalize

on opportunities and overcome challenges.

Following that, in the chapter on “Corporate governance

practices,”Lemayon Melyoki investigates how Tanzanian cor-

porate governance practices have evolved through an in-depth

study of four corporations. He advises that safeguards should

be developed to protect minority shareholders and maintain

the independent role of directors, and that the “accountability

of business to society”be strengthened by halting the appoint-

ment of government off‌icials to boards of corporations.

In the fourth chapter, “Green management,”David

Zoogah reviews the environmental management literature,

which sheds light on the problems facing Africa. Drawing

from ecological transcendence theory, he develops a

framework for investigating environmental destruction and

achieving sustainability.

Chapter f‌ive, “Corporate social responsibility in Africa:

def‌inition, issues and processes,”provides a review of two

decades of research by scholars and practitioners on

corporate social responsibility (CSR) in South Africa,

Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi. In this chapter, Judy

Muthuri explains the need to employ African philosophies

such as Ubuntu (a sense of belonging to a group) and

communalism to understand CSR in Africa. She underlines

the potential for using CSR as a vehicle to drive improve-

ment in Africa.

In chapter six, “Challenges of ethics,”Ogundele and

Hassan give readers an insight into ethical behaviour in

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

31: 280–281 (2014)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1302

Can J Adm Sci

31(4), 280–281 (2014)Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 280