African Organisations Research Articles

Cororate Culture as a Function in Formulating Strategic Communication.

Sub Saharan Africa is filled with cultural diversity which creates a multicultural market. These diversities are created by the external and internal stakeholders in an organisation allowing the emerging of a unique organisational culture to describe the identity of a specific organisation. In its broader term culture gives description to units that provides unity amongst people hence its importance in group situation. Organizational culture is viewed as the shared values, beliefs, or perceptions held by employees within an organization. Moreover, an organization's culture tells us a lot about how members of that specific organisation communicate with each other. Even with the above vital role, organisational culture is viewed as an aspect to influence communication rather than a key role player in developing a communication strategy that fits the intended communication objectives of the specific organisation. To many organisations, the direction of their specific communication is more depended on current communication trends rather than the cultural aspect that determines the identity and behaviour of stakeholders of the specific organisation to achieve set objectives specifically in very diverse areas such as Africa. Whilst various authors have written about organisational culture there is still a lack in literature developed to outline in detail the cultural patterns and norms of African cultures, which are important in understanding the communication approaches of Africans even in corporate environments. This lack in literature also deprives African organisations to understand the diversity within its stakeholders. The aim of this paper is to explore how organisational culture and aspects of culture play a vital role in creating a communication strategy that is fit for a specific organisation to outplay the intend communication objective. This paper place focus on organisational culture and the vital function it plays in strategic communication. Keywords: Strategic communication, organizational culture, diversity, culture, communication

Cervical cancer screening and treatment capacity: A survey of members of the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC)

BackgroundCervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women in Africa, and in half of the sub-Saharan African countries, it is the most common cancer. Currently, there are scarce resources and limited infrastructure to support cervical cancer screening and treatment in many African countries. ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to investigate the capacity of cervical cancer screening and treatment among members of the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC). MethodsData were collected from 183 participants through online surveys over a 3-month study period in 2016. ResultsThe respondents reported large variations among different African countries. This study highlights the differences between African countries in the availability of screening programs as a result of the resources allocated to healthcare development. Radiation therapy capacity remained the most limited treatment modality available, followed by the lack of gynecologists or gynecologic oncologists who can perform radical hysterectomy. ConclusionsThis information is critical for physicians, public health educators, and policymakers aiming to improve the outcomes among women with cervical cancer in Africa.

The social media use of African terrorist organizations: a comparative study of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram

The objective of this qualitative study is to raise awareness of the online presence of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al-Shabaab and Boko Haram by analyzing and comparing their social media activities. The decision that the above-mentioned terrorist organizations shall be selected for inclusion was based on the fact that (I.) they are active in Africa, (II.) they are currently or affiliated with three of the deadliest international terrorist groups in the continent and (III.) they use social media in order to achieve their goals. I conclude that social media is used by all three of the studied terrorist organizations with special attention devoted to mainstream social media platforms, namely Twitter, YouTube and - to a lesser extent - Facebook. Additionally, AQIM, al-Shabaab and Boko Haram seem to have primarily used social media for propaganda purposes, although it was also utilized as a recruitment tool, albeit to varying degrees. Finally, I believe social media can also be used for coordination and funding by the studied terrorist groups; although the small amount of publicly accessible evidence entails qualitative problems, indicating the fact there is room for further research.

Effects of Top Performing Employees’ Unexpected Voluntary Turnover on Strategy Performance of Airline Organizations in Africa: Case of Kenya Airways

The rising trend of unexpected top-performing employee turnover has become an issue of concern among the Airline organizations in Africa. The aim of the research was to establish how top performers' unexpected voluntary turnover affects strategy success in African airline organizations, with a focus on Kenya Airways. The study adopted a descriptive research methodology. 294 participants were chosen using systematic sampling from 1111 KQ workers from lower, middle and top levels of management. Data collected using questionnaires was analysed using multivariate regression and Pearson correlation tests. The study revealed that the unexpected top employee voluntary turnover leads to a loss of human resources, resulting in a deficit in employee skills that are important and necessary for successful implementation of organization's strategies. The study concluded that effective organization strategy execution requires experienced personnel who are familiar with the organization's vision, strategies, and working atmosphere, as well as the expertise and experience to perform when called upon. The study recommended that Kenya Airways should commit to employee career development and pursue ways to better compensate top performers in order to prevent unexpected voluntary turnover. Further, professional advancement and proper staff compensation, according to the findings of this study, would bring about a domino influence, increasing employee work satisfaction, that will lead to better strategy performance and job performance. Keywords: Strategy performance, employee turnover, voluntary employee turnover, Kenya Airways.

Professional women and maternity transition: Guidelines for maternity coaching in organisations

Orientation and research purpose: There is a need to explore the role of maternity coaching in supporting and retaining professional women in South African organisations. Therefore, this study investigated the experiences of professional women during their maternity transition into working mothers and explored how maternity coaching can be used as a strategic intervention to support these women.Research design, approach and methodology: A qualitative inductive methodological approach was followed to gain an in-depth understanding of maternity coaching. The research strategy was cross-sectional and multi-perspective, consisting of 13 participants from 4 professional groups.Main findings: The findings emphasise that maternity coaching can play a positive role in assisting both working women and organisations to successfully navigate the maternity transition phase. Through the findings, it was established why maternity coaching is needed as a mechanism of support, how maternity coaching should be implemented and what should be included in the coaching conversations.Practical managerial implications: This article provides a Maternity Transition Coaching Model with guidelines and recommendations for different professional groups in any organisation where maternity transition is experienced. The implications of this study are how maternity coaching can be implemented as a tool in dealing with retention of professional women during maternity transition and to increase gender diversity at the senior organisational level.Contribution: The body of knowledge contributes to understanding the role of maternity coaching as an emerging form of transition coaching in organisations. A Maternity Transition Coaching model was designed that is complemented by guidelines for implementing a maternity coaching programme that can be utilised by human resources personnel, senior management and coaches who are exposed to the adverse consequences of senior women leaving the organisations because of the challenges they face during maternity transition.

Research on the charter system in Georgia, USA

Education is invaluable for equipping young people with important knowledge and life skills. Many countries have publicly-funded education systems but politics related to funding can lead to inequalities in access to education for different communities. Professor Toshihiro Sumioka, Faculty of Education, Oita University, Japan, believes that recent educational reforms that strengthen privatisation, deregulation and accountability have increased segregation and division between ethnic groups and promoted academic disparity among these communities. He specialises in educational administration history in pedagogy and conducts historical analyses on school segregation in the US. A key focus for Sumioka is on the role that public education has played in the US in contributing to racial discrimination, economic disparity and academic disparity and he is particularly interested in the experience of the African American community with public education. In recent work, he is looking at development from the state of Georgia that pertains to charter schools and increasing the power of local districts such as charter system and the lessons learned from such research can be applied to other countries, including Japan where the effect of the privatization of public education on minorities has become an issue. In his work, Sumioka will speak with African American students, newspapers and organizations like the NAACP to understand the impacts of the move to privatisation-based reform and deregulation.

Cancer Clinical Trials in Africa-An Untapped Opportunity: Recommendations From AORTIC 2019 Conference Special Interest Group in Clinical Trials.

Cancer is now a formidable health care burden in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) due to lifestyle westernization and longer life expectancy. The exponential increase in cancer incidence coupled with high mortality rate is not comparable with that seen in westernized countries. To address global cancer disparity, globalization of cancer clinical trials to involve sub-Saharan Africa can serve as a platform where innovative targeted therapies can be made available to patients in the environ. In the 2019 African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) conference held at Maputo, Mozambique, a group of clinical trialists spanning across multiple continents highlighted the opportunities in Africa for the conduct of cancer clinical trials. The secondary purpose of the meeting was to address the belief that Africa was incapable of conducting interventional cancer trials but showed the in-continent strengths, such as available capacities, trained local clinical trialists with clinical trial experiences, clinical trial consortia, local capabilities, mapping out logistics, ethical consideration, political will, real-time benefits of clinical trials to clinical practice, and future directions for trials.

Strengthening the Collection and Use of Disaggregated Data to Understand and Monitor the Risk and Burden of COVID-19 Among Racialized Populations

There is growing evidence that the risk and burden of COVID-19 infections are not equally distributed across population subgroups and that racialized communities are experiencing disproportionately higher morbidity and mortality rates. However, due to the absence of large-scale race-based data, it is impossible to measure the extent to which immigrant and racialized communities are experiencing the pandemic and the impact of measures taken (or not) to mitigate these impacts, especially at a local level. To address this issue, the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership partnered with the Collaborative Critical Research for Equity and Transformation in Health lab at the University of Ottawa and the Canadians of African Descent Health Organization to implement a project to build local organizational capacities to understand, monitor, and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant and racialized populations. This research note describes the working framework used for this project, proposed indicators for measuring the determinants of health among immigrant and racialized populations, and the data gaps we encountered. Recommendations are made to policymakers, and community and health stakeholders at all levels on how to collect and use data to address COVID-19 health inequities, including data collection strategies aimed at community engagement in the collection of disaggregated data, improving methods for collecting and analyzing data on immigrants and racialized groups and policies to enable and enhance data disaggregation.RésuméDes plus en plus d’études montrent que le risque et le fardeau des infections à la COVID-19 ne sont pas également répartis dans la population et que les communautés racialisées connaissent des taux de morbidité et de mortalité disproportionnellement plus élevés. Cependant, en raison de l’absence de données ventilés selon le statut ethnique, il est impossible de mesurer comment les communautés immigrantes et racialisées vivent la pandémie et quel est l’impact des mesures prises (ou non) pour atténuer ces effets, surtout à un niveau local. Pour résoudre ce problème, le Partenariat local pour l’immigration d’Ottawa (PLIO) s’est associé au Laboratoire de recherche critique collaborative pour l’équité et la transformation en santé (CO-CREATH) de l’Université d’Ottawa et l’Organisation de la santé des Canadiens d’ascendance africaine (CADHO) aux fins de mettre en œuvre un projet visant à renforcer les capacités organisationnelles locales pour comprendre, surveiller et atténuer l’impact de la pandémie de la COVID-19 sur les populations immigrantes et racialisées. Cette note de recherche décrit le cadre de travail utilisé pour ce projet, les indicateurs proposés pour mesurer les déterminants de la santé chez les populations immigrantes et racialisées, et les lacunes que nous avons identifiés dans les données existants. Des recommandations sont faites aux décideurs politiques et aux acteurs communautaires et de la santé à tous les niveaux sur comment collecter et utiliser les données pour remédier aux inégalités en matière de santé liées à la COVID-19. Ces recommandations font référence aux stratégies de collecte de données visant à impliquer les communautés, à l’amélioration des méthodes de collecte et d’analyse des données sur les immigrants et les groupes racialisés, et aux politiques nécessaires pour permettre et améliorer la désagrégation des données selon le statut ethnique.

An Empirical Study on the Influencing Factors and Trade Potential of International Trade in African Regional Integration Organizations: A Case of ECOWAS and SADC

An Empirical Study on the Influencing Factors and Trade Potential of International Trade in African Regional Integration Organizations: A Case of ECOWAS and SADC

Africa’s Strategies of Development and International Insertion: The Hybridity of Agenda 2063

Abstract The present work discusses the evolution of the development and international insertion strategies adopted by nations in the African continent since the mid-20th century, period during which they began to achieve formal independence. In this context, supported by a literature review and official documents issued by African international organisations, the aim of this analysis is to understand the meaning and the importance of Agenda 2063 for this issue. Based on this analysis, the article proposes to demonstrate that such an agenda represents the inauguration of a new development and international insertion strategy in the continent, a hybrid one, that reconciles elements of two of the previously adopted approaches: the strategies of contestation and of mutual and shared responsibility.

Outcomes of a Climate Change Workshop at the 2020 African Conference on Emergency Medicine.

A changing climate will have demonstrable effects on health and healthcare systems, with specific and disproportionate effects on communities in Africa. Emergency care systems and providers have an opportunity to be at the forefront of efforts to combat the worst health effects from climate change. The 2020 African Conference on Emergency Medicine, under the auspices of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine, convened its first ever workshop on the topic of climate change and human health. Structured as a full day virtual course, the didactic sections were available for both live and asynchronous learning with more than 100 participants enrolled in the course. The workshop introduced the topic of the health effects of climate as they relate to emergency care in Africa and provided a forum to discuss ideas regarding the way forward. Lectures and focused discussions addressed three broad themes related to: health impacts, health care delivery, and advocacy. To our knowledge, this is the first workshop for health professionals to cover topics specific to emergency care, climate change, and health in Africa. The results of this workshop will help to guide future efforts aimed at advancing emergency care approaches in Africa with regard to medical education, research, and policy.African relevance•Climate-related extreme weather events are adversely affecting health and health care delivery in African countries.•African organisations, cities, and nations have taken positive steps to adapt and build climate resilience.•There are opportunities for emergency care professionals and scholars to continue to expand, and lead, climate and health education, research, and policy initiatives on the continent.

Drawing the Contours of Organizational Culture Through Neoliberal and Colonial Discourses

This study employed a cultural materialist framework to examine organizational culture through the analysis of discourse at the National Communications Authority in Ghana (NCA-Ghana), the state-sanctioned regulator of the communications industry in the country. The study explored the interconnections among neoliberalism, colonialism, and organizational culture through an examination of discourses of professionalism and individualization. Using the discourse historical approach (DHA), the study found that neoliberalism functions in corporatized African organizations by activating colonial logics which in turn influence organizational culture. An important implication of the study is that, even for the individual, organizational culture is not merely symbolic but has material consequences. Because of these consequences, resistance efforts may not always look different from practices that reproduce dominant discourses.

An integrated social media communication view on content marketing by South African non-profit sectors

Background: Organisations widely adopt social media to communicate with stakeholders, yet research into content marketing in the South African non-profit sector is sparse. It is concerned with consistently producing valuable and relevant content for social media. As it is generally associated with the field of marketing, limited research exists from a communication perspective. This perceived gap in taking a communication stance prompted this investigation into the ways in which these organisations attend to social media content aspects.Objectives: The research objective was to acquire a broad understanding of content marketing on social media, unique to South African non-profit organisations. Key areas that were uncovered and statistically verified in an earlier quantitative study and how these are attended to in real life were explored.Method: A qualitative approach was used to obtain in-depth insights into the use of content marketing. Semi-structured interviews were used as data collection method to explore non-profit sector’s approaches to social media communication, and to determine whether their efforts could be regarded as being integrated.Results: The findings yielded valuable insights into the ways that non-profit sectors in South Africa practise social media communication. The benefits of using social media for communication is acknowledged, yet vital aspects such as sourcing content, considering stakeholders’ needs and demographics communication, using available planning tools and recognising employees as internal ambassadors are not considered.Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight several key areas and topics that organisations should consider an integrated social media communication approach as alternative for content marketing in the non-profit sector.

#African Time: Making the Future Legible

ABSTRACT The notion that Africans lack a sense of future was extensively debated following John Mbiti’s African Religions and Philosophy (1969) and has since entered the scholarly and popular discourse as a fixed topos which we label #African time (‘Europeans have watches, Africans have time’). The most recent references to the topos are found in future vision reports of many African states and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that assert and demand a sense of future for Africa and from members of African societies. While the notion of a homogenised past-oriented ‘African time’ has been largely abandoned in academia, #African time appears to be an accepted and enactable popular discourse among policy makers, state planners and NGO workers. This article provides examples of this phenomenon and it extends James Scott’s (1998) idea, that state authorities tend to make its citizens ‘legible’ in order to govern them, to explain the tenaciousness of the #African time topos. While Scott’s examples are almost exclusively about shaping space for legibility, we show that there is a similar process taking place with regards to time, and that citizens, communities and societies are expected to formulate visions for the future if they want their interests to be ‘read’ by the state, by NGOs, donor agencies and other powerful agents they interact with. In this process of making the future visions of citizens legible, the topos of #African time plays a major role.

Managing material value creation matters in integrated reporting

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how advanced integrated report preparers internalise and operationalise material value creation information to manage the generation of such information for the integrated report.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a qualitative approach using in-depth semi-structured interviews to examine how information about material value creation matters in six South African organisations are managed.FindingsThe findings will be useful to integrated reporting adopters as to how they might implement appropriate processes and systems to determine, communicate, collect and process information about matters that substantively affect their value creation.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the body of knowledge by providing insight on how material value creation matters are determined, communicated internally and information about such matters generated.

The current state of measuring return on investment in user experience design

Incorporating user experience (UX) design into system development processes can give an organisation competitive advantage over its rivals. Embedding UX design into system development processes requires investment in skilled professionals, who in turn follow a methodical process to make UX design an integral part of the organisation. Despite the value that can be added by UX design, demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) in UX remains a perennial challenge because of the difficulty associated with explicitly linking UX design with good ROI, to the exclusion of other system development processes. In this paper, we report on the current state of measuring ROI in UX design in a selection of South African organisations. We interviewed 33 UX professionals from four organisations to get insight into how ROI in UX design is measured in their respective organisations. The results showed that some participants were aware of the metrics that could be used to measure ROI in UX design. However, none of the four organisations were specifically calculating ROI in UX. Rather, ROI was being calculated on entire project.

Financial challenges experienced by South African non-profit organisations regarding CSR implementation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the financial challenges experienced by non-profit organisations (NPOs) when implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in South Africa. These challenges have a negative impact on NPOs because they impede the successful implementation of CSR projects.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research method and a purposive sampling strategy were used in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 employees from three NPOs in South Africa from the education, enterprise development and health and social development sectors. Content analysis was used to examine the data.FindingsThe findings revealed that NPOs in South Africa experience serious financial resource challenges, notably, overreliance on donor funding; difficulty in obtaining donor funding; limited donor funding available; intense competition from other non NPOs to secure donor funding; donors unwilling to fund operational costs and prescribing exactly how funds should be used; and donors signing non-binding contracts on the provision of funding.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size of the study was small, namely, three NPOs from Gauteng Province (Johannesburg) in South Africa. Therefore, this study covered only one geographic area of South Africa and the findings cannot be generalised across other provinces of the country.Practical implicationsThe results of this study could have implications for donors and NPO employees involved in CSR activities in South Africa.Originality/valueThis study bridges a gap in literature by revealing the key financial challenges experienced by South African NPOs in implementing CSR initiatives and the impact of those challenges on their CSR efforts.

South African Executives Propensity to Use, Diffuse, and Adopt the Humanitarian Logistics Digital Business Ecosystem (HLDBE)

The employment of advanced technology in sustaining South African humanitarian organizations and business logistics firms has been a crucial concern for many years. The aim of this study is to examine the propensity of senior executives to use, diffuse, and adopt Humanitarian Logistics Digital Business Ecosystem (HLDBE) as another future sustainable tool. A PLS-SEM multivariate analysis was conducted using technology innovation theories to understand their perceived interest. The findings indicated that donor/top-level management support (D_TLMS), normative pressure (NP), perceived compatibility (PC), and perceived safety and security concerns (PSSC) served as essential factors that influenced decision-makers decision to use, diffuse, and adopt HLDBE with their noted concerns indicated. An IPMA analysis was also used in assisting executives on important factors to improve. Implications, limitations, and further research directions are therein proposed.

Moving Beyond Criminal Law Responses to Cybersecurity Governance in Africa

Measures to address the security challenges of the information society have given rise to the concept of cybersecurity governance. One major aspect of cybersecurity governance is the establishment of legal measures to criminalize and deter malicious acts that affect the integrity, confidentiality, availability and security of digital data and computer systems. Accordingly, several States and intergovernmental organizations across the world have established legal frameworks to promote cybersecurity governance. This is also the case in Africa. The African Union has adopted a Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, while other African regional intergovernmental organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the Southern African Development Community have established legal and policy frameworks for cybersecurity governance. In addition, many African States have developed legal and policy frameworks to promote cybersecurity, while some others in the process of developing such frameworks. However, most of Africa’s responses to cybersecurity governance have been focused on the establishment of criminal law measures. Yet while the establishment of criminal law measures is regarded as a critical component of cybersecurity governance, the isolated existence of such measures may not produce desirable outcomes in terms of minimizing cybersecurity vulnerabilities in Africa’s information society. This paper seeks to make a case for the development of other critical components of cybersecurity governance, including technical and organizational measures and user education. It suggests that ‘stand-alone’ criminal law measures will not be able to reduce the rising trends of cyber-criminality in Africa, and that the timely development of other critical components of cybersecurity governance is imperative especially due to the peculiar challenge of weak law enforcement capacities and justice delivery systems in many African States.

Moving Beyond Criminal Law Responses to Cybersecurity Governance in Africa

Measures to address the security challenges of the information society have given rise to the concept of cybersecurity governance. One major aspect of cybersecurity governance is the establishment of legal measures to criminalize and deter malicious acts that affect the integrity, confidentiality, availability and security of digital data and computer systems. Accordingly, several States and intergovernmental organizations across the world have established legal frameworks to promote cybersecurity governance. This is also the case in Africa. The African Union has adopted a Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, while other African regional intergovernmental organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the Southern African Development Community have established legal and policy frameworks for cybersecurity governance. In addition, many African States have developed legal and policy frameworks to promote cybersecurity, while some others in the process of developing such frameworks. However, most of Africa’s responses to cybersecurity governance have been focused on the establishment of criminal law measures. Yet while the establishment of criminal law measures is regarded as a critical component of cybersecurity governance, the isolated existence of such measures may not produce desirable outcomes in terms of minimizing cybersecurity vulnerabilities in Africa’s information society. This paper seeks to make a case for the development of other critical components of cybersecurity governance, including technical and organizational measures and user education. It suggests that ‘stand-alone’ criminal law measures will not be able to reduce the rising trends of cyber-criminality in Africa, and that the timely development of other critical components of cybersecurity governance is imperative especially due to the peculiar challenge of weak law enforcement capacities and justice delivery systems in many African States.