How to get ready to working in Africa?
Wed, Nov 23, 2011
A number of organizations and businesses have requested me to develop and deliver a cross-cultural training on Africa. Some people have commented on the inadequacy of such focus as it can only generalize and stereotype the diversity of African cultures.
While they are right and I rather propose a training session focused on a specific country, there is a legitimate claim in getting a general overview of what it is to living and to working in Africa.
Why?
Over almost twenty years of exposure to living and working in different African countries but also discussions with foreigners make me envision that foreigners based in Africa are going through a number of common challenges.
As a result, an effective cross-cultural training based on the continent can help in uncovering and addressing the scope and the depth of the cultural differences. Subsequently they can decide the best strategy and implementation.
In this post I would like to raise a common challenge faced by foreigners who are living and working in Africa.
Geremy Sawadogo from the World Bank surveyed expatriates in Africa and found out that the biggest challenge that they meet is related to the use of time.
In numerous sub-Saharan countries, expatriates complain about facing hard time in enhancing productive work practices. It is a fact that people face some challenges related to structural problems (erratic supply of electricity, bureaucracy, corruption, lack of expertise…) but there is more than that.
In many places, the way indigenous approach situations and problems is engrained in a vision of the world that is very different from that of many foreigners. Failure to understand this way of thinking does not trigger any questioning on how foreigners must adjust.
Foreigners and some trainers may think that the cultural adjustment is linked to respecting the local social and business etiquette but I am afraid that is a far too limited view.
As a matter of fact, when indigenous do not believe that’ time is money’, it is likely that they have developed an approach to building trust, to making a deal and to fixing problems as well as to dealing with people that features their own perception of time.
Whenever foreign businesses set in an African country, they transfer in that environment the way of thinking, the way of organizing work, the way of dealing with employees and clients that are ingrained in their own vision of the world as well as in their own perception of time. It is not difficult to envision that there will be a cultural clash!
How to handle this?
This is a type of situations that foreigners may not have come across when working in a different part of the world.
It is very complex since such situation uncovers the real challenge of cross-cultural work interactions in Africa: reconciling opposite ways of thinking and working.
Can foreign businesses and organizations adhere to a different use of time? If yes, can they always do?
I have some information that suggests that foreign business do not always endorse the local cultural values and perception of time.
By doing that, they are aware that they disrespect the local cultures.
In some other aspects, they are willing to respect the local cultures but the daily challenges that they face confuse them: how to know what they should respect and what they shouldn’t?
They might learn it over time as a result of a trial- and- error process. Yet this might be rather costly and ineffective exercise.
Let us reflect on a foreign business willing to delocalize a production unit based in a developed country because the manpower is too expensive. If it is a fact that African manpower will be cheaper, but there will be unexpected productivity issues that will emerge from the clash of perceptions of time. At the end of the day, the delocalization in Africa might not be the best way forwards. It might also be that is possible but only under specific conditions that need to be known well in advance. Not knowing anything about this challenge can lead to catastrophic consequences.
This example demonstrates how useful it is for an organization to anticipate the scope and depth of challenges when working in this specific part of the world.
Organizations and businesses that request some training focused on the continent might have heard from others that there are specific and common problems faced by foreigners who work in different African countries. It is therefore legitimate to be willing to anticipate them.
People and experts who attempt to discourage these people to look at the continent may be unaware of the complexity of work interactions in this part of the world.
Those who wish to impose a traditional model of cultural preparation that describes African values and impose foreigners to endorse them may be unaware of the low added value of their work when their trainees will face situations that threaten the viability of their endeavor.
Tags: Working in Africa
I’m glad you’ve got a new post up; I was hoping you would soon. And thanks for sharing it on Facebook–it’s the easiest way for me to see it right away!
I think you have really hit the nail on the head with this post, Pascale. This has certainly been one of my own on-going frustrations.
The objective of many in my country is to MAKE SURE that they don’t work “too hard.” Many show up late, work very slowly, work without thinking about what they are doing (and don’t WANT a job where they have to pay attention to what they are doing. Extreme work rules protect these sorts of workers. Many people (not all) work hard only during the probationary period.
Perhaps it may be instructive to see how some African employers deal with these problems themselves. I had a former maid who went to work in a factory. During the time this maid was with me, my African husband said her prayer break should only take five minutes (and perhaps five minutes to prepare, and five minutes to get back to work for a total of 15 minutes). She would take 45 minutes to one hour every day at 4:00 when I really needed her. When I asked her about it, she said, “It’s because that is the most important prayer and I need to do a lot of repetitions.”
After she left us and went to work at the factory, she told us that the factory owner blew a whistle, and let everyone out on break at the same time, and that the break was only fifteen minutes. Also, if they were not back when the whistle blew again, time was deducted from their salary. I thought this was an interesting method of controlling time, assigning a particular time. I believe this was a clothing factory and they had certain working hours, but were paid by the piece (or had a quota) as opposed to just by the hour. So this would mean that if a person was too slow, they wouldn’t meet their quota, and not get their full salary. I found that the boss’ way of controlling employees’ abuse of time was interesting.
This is a bit harder to adapt to a business where bells don’t go off, or to a maid in a private home. But I thought it was both interesting and instructive to see how an African boss handled these time problems with other African employees. (My former maid DID complain about this!)
This is a very interesting piece of reading. Thanks Pascale!
I work as an intercultural resource consultant delivering training on Angola for a client in the oil industry. This notion of time is one of the major points I focus on because it does highlight a major difference between Western and Angolan cultures and one that has a ripple effect on many facets of organisational life. I also find that often Westen managers equate the Angolans’ lack of sense of urgency with lazy attitudes to work or disinterest, which I think is a misjudgement in most cases. I think that in the Angolan context, and I would hesitate to guess that the same would apply in most African contexts, a much more holistic approach is needed to understand what makes people ‘tick’ and therefore create or adapt practices and policies in a way that is conducive to organisational performance and happier, motivated employees. If we (or anyone working with Angolans, or Africans in general) can come to understand what are the core values in the societies that we work in, it is also easier for us to interpret behaviour more accurately within these contetxs. But then the same could be said vice versa. If everyone in multinational or multicultural organisations had better cultural awareness in general, people would be better equipped to ‘think outside their box’ and there would be less room for miscommunication of both words and actions.
In addition to time, there are several other dimensions, which I think are particulalrly important for the Angolan context and I would also say other African contexts. The most significant, which underpins most interaction, is the way that individuals view relationships and other people. African cultures in my experience are usually highly interpersonal, as opposed to transactional. It’s all about relationship dynamics and other dimensions such as formality, hierarchy, collectivism etc. all come into play to guide appropriate behaviour and how individuals intepret that behaviour. But in essence in Angolan culture it is all about establishing relationships, trust and familiarity, which brings with it a sense of mutual responsibility and obligation. From my experience this does not translate easily into Western working MNC environments, where there is more emphasis on the transaction; the idea that being paid for or paying for a service or work automatically brings performance or a sense of obligation to perform.
As I said, my experience and knowledge mainly derives from the Angolan context and I would very much like to hear if this rings bells with anyone when it comes to other countries and cultures in Africa also. As you have rightly pointed out and I certainly agree, each country and culture in Africa is different and we must be acknowledge this. However, there are also some useful similarities across various African countries that can be drawn out and may help those unfamiliar with the continent to start making sense of it all in a way that is useful rather than counterproductively stereotyping.
Lynne, you also highlight an interesting point, one which I have had extensive conversations about with colleagues and friends: differences in African and Western management styles. I don’t have a straight forward answer for this, but certainly there are some significat differences in traditional African management styles and Western management styles. I don’t have time to go into much more at the moment, unfortunately, but perhaps a ‘conversation’ to be had at another time!
Lynne and Raisa : thanks very for your interesting comment
Taking the local perception of time into consideration is indeed a rather challenging endeavor. Lynne, in your illustration, you are the foreigner and you have respected your employee’s need of time for praying while an indigenous factory owner has not! With this in mind, how can a foreigner possibly know what is the best way forwards? It is especially confusing when the foreigner has been given a deadline and a performance benchmark that have both been assessed on the basis of a perception that ‘Time is money’! The challenge gets even more complex when educated Africans return in their country of origin and take a managerial job! Often these Africans feature a Western perception of time and state their frustration about their ‘not-time focused’ country fellows!
While many cultural trainers uncover the local values and expectations, they rarely look into this type of complexity! The best way forwards should be proposed on the basis of an assessment of each job and each situation. While it is effective to respect the local way when it comes to negotiating with a potential client, it is a different situation when dealing with a local supplier or when there is a deadline in operations! To effectively help the foreigner, it is necessary to combine cultural skills and business or managerial ones! Rarely cultural trainers do!
Raisa
Thanks for your insight. I fully agree with you that a holistic approach helps in removing many stereotypes. This being said, the acceptance of the local perception of time cannot go against the firm’s objectives and often these are fixed in terms of output or productivity! Output is usually calculated on the basis of a Western perception of time! This means that in some circumstances, the respect of the local perception can have a negative impact on productivity!
I fully agree with your view that foreigners should develop some out-of-the box thinking skills when working in some African countries. The biggest challenge that they meet is related to their own know-how and expertise that they take for universal! They do so because they are said so during their studies and during some previous work experiences! If you look at the disciplines taught in an MBA (a degree favored by many to run a business), they all envision work as a process! How could they be transferable in places where work is mainly an interpersonal experience?
This is why foreigners working in countries with cultural differences of this depth need a cultural preparation that uncovers working challenges rather than cultural features. Unfortunately this is not often the case and I regularly meet with foreigners whose first words are ‘we have to respect them, but they have to respect us too! I think this is telling about the complexity of cultural work interactions!
Raisa et al,
Thanks alot for sharing this topic with us! This topic is really one that deserves attention to not only westerns as well as Africans who believe in balanced and rational approaches to solutions! Most of the rationale in the main text is of great merit! in my own perception, I think one that many western fails to understand is culture in a dynamic perspective! In my mind as truly African that understand both civilization, is that both horizons have failed through decades trying to understand each other and most importantly respect other cultures values! In fact, my thesis to my country fellow has been and will continue to be to challenge some of the values and assumptions that western societies bring about! How can we reconcile business with people’s values if those people interested in doing business do not and will not respect the values they have encountered? How could productivity being maximized if all we want is maximizing profits without understanding the true dilemma that afflict those you want to be productive? Now, I believe there is a room for better and greater cooperation! There is great opportunities for all, but those will only reach it’s peak once we all understand that we have to be willing to do the extra mile, when people at work are not seen as true objects but worth spending the time to invest, care and share opportunities without taboos and pre conceived ideas… ” to be honest, I think there is a long way for as long some of western attitudes remains what I see” …. Regards gaspar Marques.