Management and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theoretical and applied perspectives

One of the major challenges facing sub-Saharan African organizations today is how to effectively manage their resources. Though the importance of the effective management of organizational resources is generally acknowledged, published research on the theme is disappointingly scarce. This book hopes to contribute towards filling this lacuna. The contributors to this volume discuss various management issues in sub-Saharan Africa such as employee motivation, job satisfaction, compensation, organizational commitment, ethics, social responsibility, export management, and the interplay between these and the effective management of an organization's resources. They argue that the effective management of organizational resources - whether in the public or private sector - promotes efficiency, which in turn enhances an organization's ability to compete. The contributors also offer valuable in,sights into why many organizations in sub-Saharan Africa are inefficiently managed, and offer desiderata for overcoming such challenges. This book is a pioneering and comprehensive collection of chapters on management and economic research in sub-Saharan Africa. It is imperative that in order to effectively manage organizations in this sub-continent, one must first understand the myriad of issues, problems and opportunities related to management and economic development in this region. The book is organized into eleven chapters, each unique, dealing with a specific issue or challenge that is particular to Africa or sub-Saharan Africa. Each chapter is organized in the same way, and is self-contained. This unique structure allows the reader to select a chapter that is most relevant to his or her interest. Chapter 1, written by John Okpara, sets the stage or the rest of the book. It discusses the growing gap between academic researchers and management practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa. The author states that education plays a significant role in economic development because it provides the necessary human capital to improve productivity in the economy and facilitate development. Okpara argues that on of the important means to promote education is thorough research and dissemination of the knowledge gained through that research. Organizational and structural issues, such as the relevance of research topics, the quality of research, awareness about and accessibility to research findings, and communication, contribute to the widening gap between research and practice. Suggestions on how to narrow this gap are presented.