The African view of participatory business management

Abstract

In this paper I delineate the group of activities concerned with business and then proceed to give an exposition of the concepts used by Ubuntu as an example of the African view of business management indicating those activities of human performances regarded by them as basic to their world view. I proceed to deal with the way these Ubuntu concepts are applied to business management using the ideas of Lovemore Mbigi as an important advocate of the Ubuntu style of participatory management. In doing so. I try to establish what some important African thinkers themselves regard as the special position of Ubuntu in contrast to individualism, collectivism and Western Humanism. I then focus on the most important topic of this paper, to wit, the application of the Ubuntu concepts to a real case and analyse it as a case study. I conclude by critically assessing the suggested Ubuntu style of management in terms of universal and specific applications.