Examining leadership preferences of working adults in Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia

IF 1.2 Q4 MANAGEMENT

Africa Journal of Management Pub Date : 2021-07-03 DOI:10.1080/23322373.2021.1927447

W. Evans, R. Littrell, Nai H. Lamb, Bradley L Kirkman

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT Do traditional, gender-based expectations and widely disseminated notions of African culture apply to preferred leadership behaviors in African nations? This study examines leadership preferences of working adults in Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia using the Leader behavior Description Questionnaire-XII (LBDQXII), a theoretical model of explicit leader behavior. Contrary to the premises of Social Role Theory, males and females did not differ significantly in their preferences for the 12 leadership behaviors represented in the LBDQXII. The behaviors of Initiating Structure and Integration were most preferred, and the behaviors of Tolerance of Uncertainty and Tolerance of Freedom were the least preferred. Based on socio-cultural experiences at the nation-level, findings revealed that working adults in Ghana and Zambia have comparable leadership behavior preferences, with similarities found for seven of 12 leadership behaviors. Working adults in Kenya, however, with dissimilar socio-cultural experiences compared to Ghana and Zambia, reported different preferences for 10 of the 12 leadership behaviors. Overall, our findings revealed that popular generalizations that view African nations with singular assumptions are not warranted.

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研究加纳、肯尼亚和赞比亚在职成年人的领导偏好

摘要传统的、基于性别的期望和广泛传播的非洲文化观念是否适用于非洲国家的首选领导行为？本研究使用领导者行为描述问卷XII（LBDQXII），一个显性领导者行为的理论模型，调查了加纳、肯尼亚和赞比亚在职成年人的领导偏好。与社会角色理论的前提相反，男性和女性对LBDQXII中代表的12种领导行为的偏好没有显著差异。启动结构和集成行为最受欢迎，不确定性容忍和自由度容忍行为最不受欢迎。根据国家层面的社会文化经验，研究结果显示，加纳和赞比亚的在职成年人具有相似的领导行为偏好，12种领导行为中有7种相似。然而，与加纳和赞比亚相比，肯尼亚的职场成年人有着不同的社会文化经历，他们对12种领导行为中的10种有不同的偏好。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，用单一假设来看待非洲国家的普遍概括是不合理的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Africa Journal of Management Business, Management and Accounting-Business and International Management

CiteScore

2.80

自引率

15.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： The beginning of the Twenty First Century has witnessed Africa’s rise and progress as one of the fastest growing and most promising regions of the world. At the same time, serious challenges remain. To sustain and speed up momentum, avoid reversal, and deal effectively with emerging challenges and opportunities, Africa needs better management scholarship, education and practice. The purpose of the Africa Journal of Management (AJOM) is to advance management theory, research, education, practice and service in Africa by promoting the production and dissemination of high quality and relevant manuscripts. AJOM is committed to publishing original, rigorous, scholarly empirical and theoretical research papers, which demonstrate clear understanding of the management literature and draw on Africa’s local indigenous knowledge, wisdom and current realities. As the first scholarly journal of the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM), AJOM gives voice to all those who are committed to advancing management scholarship, education and practice in or about Africa, for the benefit of all of Africa. AJOM welcomes manuscripts that develop, test, replicate or validate management theories, tools and methods with Africa as the starting point. The journal is open to a wide range of quality, evidence-based methodological approaches and methods that “link” “Western” management theories with Africa’s indigenous knowledge systems, methods and practice. We are particularly interested in manuscripts which address Africa’s most important development needs, challenges and opportunities as well as the big management questions of the day. We are interested in research papers which address issues of ethical conduct in different African settings.