Towards advancing African management scholarship

Purpose This paper aims to address the main arguments put forward in Grietjie Verhoef’s article and contribute to a wider debate among management scholars on the role of indigenous theories. It challenges the view of African management as illusory and points to the rising support for indigenous theories as indicative of the weakening of the unquestioned dominance of universal theories. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes a conceptual and critically reflective approach, underpinned by a 360-degree evaluation of pertinent literature and theoretical arguments. Findings This paper reveals an underlying symmetry and interconnectedness, anchored on a shared communal ethos, among Afrocentric management concepts, specifically Ubuntu, Ekpe and Igbo apprenticeship systems. This symmetry points to an underlying indigenous management theory that begs to be further conceptualised, evidenced and advanced. Research limitations/implications This paper affirms Verhoef’s demand for Ubuntu, Ekpe, Igbo apprenticeship system to be more rigorously developed and theoretically coherent and urges scholars to intensify effort towards advancing the conceptual and empirical foundations of African management. Echoing Mahatma Gandhi’s timeless counsel, this paper calls on critics of African management to join the effort to bring about the change they wish to see in African management theorising. Social implications This paper disavows the alleged effort to impose a single “African management” model or perpetuate the “colonial/indigenous” binary divide but equally cautions against an effort to veto scholarly striving for a common identity, to learn from history or not embrace collective amnesia. As examples from the USA and Europe show, diversity, even heterogeneity, needs not to preclude the forging of a commonly shared identity complemented with appropriate sub-identities. Originality/value This paper links the African management-centred themes addressed by Verhoef to the wider debate among management scholars about lessening the dominance of universal theories and allowing space for context-resonant indigenous theories. It calls on African management scholars to invest the premium and intensified effort towards building a more robust and coherent body of indigenous theory that will have the capacity and efficacy to inform, explain and advance organisational practice and outcomes across Africa.

Prospective Theorizing: Researching for Social Impact

Prospection—defined here as the mental representation and evaluation of possible futures—offers scholars a powerful new approach to researching with social impact. In this paper, we begin by reviewing the strengths and limitations of the kind of theory building long favored by the Academy. We do so to understand why management scholarship is perceived as falling short in terms of its relevance and social impact. We invite management scholars to re-examine what determines a theory’s assessed value in the face of social and global challenges distinguished by emergent complexity (Funtowicz & Ravetz 1994; Scharmer & Käufer, 2010). The advantages of prospective theorizing are presented in two variants: projective and envisioned. The first embraces prospection within the current bounds and editorial practices of the Academy. When viewed through a quantum lens, the second proposes a radically new approach to theory building. It contends that quantum science is giving powerful impetus and renewed legitimacy to the idea that prospective theorizing calls forth a reality rather than objectively studying a world “out there”. Such theorizing is not only about advancing knowledge about what exists. In a very real sense, it has agency to create the future it studies. We conclude with an inquiry into what it means for management research aimed at tackling wicked problems such as climate change and social justice.

Advancing food and agribusiness management research: IFAMA 2020 best papers

This Special Issue presents the seven best papers from the 30th IFAMA 2020 World Congress, reflecting the richness and quality of the agri-food business and management scholarship that IFAMA facilitates and promotes. They reveal the diversity of research topics and current practices related to the most pressing agri-food business and management issues. Whether the papers discuss vegetable producers cooperatives in Cambodia, innovation intermarries and enhancing collaboration in Sweden, or information nudges in ornamental plant labeling in the United States, the papers in this Special Issue illustrate the need for variegated professional and academic skills and expertise represented in IFAMA.

Practical and Theoretical Wisdom in Management Scholarship: Re-assesing the Use and Appropriations of Aristotle’s Philosophy

Within contemporary discussions on organizational wisdom, management scholars frequently turn to Aristotle’s work to conceptualize wisdom as phronesis, or practical wisdom. Contrary to the prevailing view, this paper argues that Aristotle did not propose an exclusively practical or particularistic conception of wisdom but, instead acknowledged that wisdom broadly conceived consists of two types of intellectual virtue: theoretical wisdom (sophia) and practical wisdom. Aristotle’s ultimate position regarding the relations between sophia and phronesis has remained, however, ambiguous, giving rise to different interpretations, and, more substantively, to the major appropriations of Aquinas, Heidegger and Gadamer. An analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of exemplary contributions to management wisdom suggests that research has predominantly applied Heideggerian and Gadamerian understandings of Aristotelian wisdom, while an Aquinian interpretation is largely absent in contemporary elaborations. Interpreting the Aristotelian notion of wisdom as dedicated purely to practical phronesis narrows the discussion on the nature of (organizational) wisdom within an Aristotelian framework in ways that do not give full credit to the breadth and complexity of Aristotle’s thought.

Healthcare Management and the Humanities: An Invitation to Dialogue

Throughout the fields of medicine and organization studies, there are growing indications of the value of the humanities for enriching scholarship, education, and practice. However, the field of healthcare management has yet to consider the promise of the humanities for illuminating its particular domain. This perspective paper explores how the humanities might begin to play a role in healthcare management by focusing on three broad areas: (1) understanding the lived experiences of management, (2) offsetting the “tyranny of metrics”, and (3) confronting rather than avoiding anxiety. While preliminary in presentation, these areas are intended to facilitate wider consideration of the humanities in healthcare management and to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue. The paper also identifies actionable approaches that might be derived from such a dialogue, including substantiating critical healthcare management scholarship, collaborating with humanities educators to design novel curricula, proposing alternatives to unduly circumscribed performance targets and competency assessments, creating case studies of formative experiences of practicing healthcare managers, and advancing guidelines for better managing anxiety and its concomitant stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue in healthcare organizations. The paper concludes by discussing the potential risks of incorporating the humanities into healthcare management, while also offering a prospective synthesis from an interdisciplinary approach.