Measuring Organizational Leadership in Africa

Abstract

Organizational leadership in Africa is under-studied. Pan-African leadership theories have been proposed but it seems unlikely that the same leadership styles would be equally effective in every African country. For example, South Africa has much lower power distance and much higher individualism than Egypt or Nigeria according to the Hofstede system for classifying national cultures. The differences between South Africa and the other two nations appear vast enough to require different leadership styles. How can we cluster African countries into groups within which the same leadership styles will be effective? Our proposal is to conduct leadership surveys in multiple African countries and to examine the modal response in each country to each question. If the modal response is 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale, the question should be retained. If the modal response is 3, the question should be dropped. If the modal response is 1 or 2, the question should be retained but reverse scored. Countries with similar modal responses may have similar optimal leadership styles. We illustrate how this could be implemented using data from a leadership survey conducted in The Gambia, a small nation in West Africa. We conclude with implications for research and practice.