Cross-cultural Study on the Stability of the Relationship between Knowledge Sharing and Humanness
This paper examines four research studies on the relationship between Knowledge Sharing and Humanness in the countries Tanzania, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Netherlands. The results of this study show that the relationship between Knowledge Sharing and Humanness is strong in all four countries what proves that the concept of Humanness increases the level of Knowledge Sharing within organisations From these results, it is recommended that managers and other researchers will search for ways to implement the management concept of Humanness and conduct further research to fully understand the relationship between Knowledge Sharing and Humanness across countries.
Does the Dutch Business Environment Value Humanness as a Management Practice and is there a Relation with both Knowledge Sharing & Learning
Within this study, three main concepts are addressed. Namely, Humanness as a management practice, Knowledge Sharing and Leader Behaviour. The main objective is to determine whether or not Humanness as a management practice was present in the Dutch business environment and if there was a relation with both Knowledge Sharing and consideration as a Leader Behaviour style. A major implication of the study comprises the following: “By considering Humanness as a management practice when setting organizational goals and strategies, and especially the Humanness dimensions survival and respect & dignity, one will increase Knowledge Sharing among their employees.”
Foreign Direct Investment and Management: Does Africa Adopt Western Management Styles?
This study focuses on the influence of the FDI involvement in developing countries, and whether these levels of involvement also influence management style in these countries.
Additionally, this research is guided by the question if management styles in sub-Saharan Africa converge with western norms, when facing increased rates of foreign direct investment. This research is done by measuring differences in management style between countries, using empirical evidence of the level of FDI, and establishing its influences on economic circumstances within countries. While more extensive research is required to establish this relationship more precisely, this study concludes that the level of FDI influences the management style within the recipient organisation.
How Attitudes Toward Knowledge Sharing and Learning Increases Individual Innovative Behaviour: Empirical Results from the Indonesian Hospitality Industry
In order to reach long-term success of an organization, the managers and employees need to be aware of the role of innovation. In light of the previous studies, the individual innovative behaviour can be defined as complex behaviour consisting of three divergent behavioural tasks such as idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization. This study tries to extend the research and investigates whether attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning influence individual innovative behaviour. The research further aims to measure if an increase in the willingness to share knowledge and learn from one another enhances the willingness to innovate.
How Can Collectivistic Societies Influence Humanness and Knowledge Sharing in Corporate Setting: Empirical Evidence of UAE
The main objective of this study is to explore the managers’ perception of how can Humanness influence knowledge sharing and how is this relation and perception affected by the cultural background. The paper scrutinises this relationship by proposing that the more a manager exerts humanness the higher is the willingness to knowledge sharing. Also, this relation will be influenced by the background of a manager; whether the manager comes from a collectivistic or individualistic society. For the purpose of this research, the author studied two societal backgrounds; Arab and Indian as representatives for the collectivism, and European background as a proxy for the individualistic society.
How Humanness Increases Organisational Knowledge Sharing: Results from the South African Hotel Industry
The study goes beyond the theoretical implications by performing a case study in the hotel industry of Cape Town. The authors investigate Humanness as part of organisational culture and its effect on individual capital and attitudes towards learning and knowledge sharing. The results of this study imply the evident effect of Humanness towards learning and knowledge sharing in South African organisations. They also suggest that Humanness is closely related to corporate social responsibility. These conclusions signify that Humanness is a valuable concept and should be incorporated in the South African businesses.
Humanity to Management
The African philosophy can be found outside Africa as well and is applicable to profit and non-profit organisations. This research is regarding the presence of Ubuntu in an organisation and which positive aspects Ubuntu brings. The main focus is on the presences of Ubuntu in an organisation in relation with intentions for employees to leave the company.
Humanness in Indonesia
This paper describes the presences of the management concept Humanness (derived from Ubuntu) in Java and its effect on intra-organisational knowledge sharing. The research is conducted in Indonesia and focuses on the values of Indonesian values on the work floor. An positive relation between Ubuntu and knowledge sharing was found. The positive influence of humanness on knowledge sharing comes from high employee motivation and high valuation of teamwork. The paper found that information technology is less used to support knowledge sharing.
Middle Management in Burkina Faso
The main focus of the article is on African management styles, while being straightforwardly occupied by the behaviour of African managers that have passive goals, deeply embedded in the structure of organisation, as they themselves and other organisation members perceive it, while taking in to account African leaders as well. Furthermore, the African culture is examined in two main regards, namely the development of African culture with regards to colonialism that deals with transition of society and governing structure, formal and informal institutions, and corporate and societal culture; and the characteristics of contemporary African Culture and its impact on society, family, religion and conflicts.
The Influence of Humanness and Gender on the Entrepreneurial Orientation of Small Business in Tanzania - Empirical Evidence from Dar es Salaam
The study analyses how Ubuntu (described as spirit of caring for extended family and community originating from African culture) influences the Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) - defined and characterised by risk-taking, innovativeness and pro-activeness, of small businesses in Tanzania. Moreover, the research examines the impact of gender on the relation between Humanness (Ubuntu) and EO. The author analysed the influence of local cultural values on entrepreneurial mind-set. The study shows that there is a positive relation between Humanness and EO. No significant effect of the gender on the relationship was discovered. In general, Humanness is an important aspect of business in Tanzania. Concerning the role of gender, the study shows that women in Tanzania have higher level of Humanness. The conclusion of the research states that characteristics related to the concept of Ubuntu do not affect (slow down) development of businesses in Tanzania.
The Influences of Humanness on Organisational Knowledge Sharing and Learning
This study researches subjects of Humanness and attitudes towards knowledge sharing and learning. However, this study shows contradicting results towards previous researches about the influence of Humanness on knowledge sharing and learning. This research states that Humanness does not influence knowledge sharing in learning in either a positive or negative way.
The Innovative Value of Ubuntu
The concept of Ubuntu takes the cultural background of African people in consideration and is part of the African Business Renaissance, which encourages finding ways to use culture as a strategic asset. Especially in business practices that require intense social interactions, such as knowledge sharing, it could be a promising step towards innovativeness. Ubuntu has positive influence on knowledge sharing behaviour implying that African organisations should be able to create a sharing culture with a large flow of information, experiences and data; and it considers the question of building on the intrinsic humanness of their employees when considering systems of hierarchy of rewards.
The Relation between Humanness and Knowledge-sharing within the Field of Accounting: Empirical Evidence from the Comparative Examination of the States of Former East and Former West Germany
The underlying purpose of the paper is the potential discovery of a positive causal relation between the cultural concept of humanness and the business concept of knowledge sharing as well as the two constructs’ dimensions. As knowledge sharing is a crucial element within the field of accounting, this study focuses on this specific context in order to propose a way to decrease any extant knowledge-sharing hostility. The paper draws attention to the beneficial use of humanness in order to establish a knowledge-sharing attitude within an organisation and asks all members of the company within the field of accounting, to actively incorporate humanness values in their everyday work.
The Relationship between Humanness and Knowledge Sharing in Malaysia
Is there a relationship between Humanness and the Willingness to Share Knowledge in Malaysia? A strong relationship between Humanness and Knowledge Sharing is observed. However, there are minor differences between Malay, Chinese and Indians. People oriented managers are more Willing to Share Knowledge, differences among ethnicities have no influence in this matter. For future research it is interesting to look more closely at the influence of the individual dimensions and why some are negatively related to each other. For example, the negative relation between IT and Respect & Dignity could be investigated. Moreover, due to the unfamiliarity with IT and culture, internet is often seen as impersonal. This might be the cause of miscommunications or misinterpretations, which influence the way employees and managers treat each other. This might be a topic to further explorer.
The Role of Individual Capital in Learning and Knowledge Sharing
This paper examines the role of individual capital in Multinational Corporations’ (MNC) ability to engage in knowledge sharing within organisations. Economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital are presented in order to develop an understanding of the factors affecting individual learning and knowledge transfer behaviour. Employees holding a high volume of cultural, social, and symbolic capital are more likely to engage in learning and knowledge sharing. However, no significant effect is observed between economic capital and attitudes towards learning and knowledge sharing. Future research might focus on possible differences in attitudes towards learning and knowledge sharing between countries, generations, or men and women. Moreover, current literature lacks knowledge about the net effect of individual learning and knowledge sharing behaviour on MNCs’ performance. More research is needed with regard to this this matter. Also, research should be continued based on Bourdieu’s work. His concept may be used to identify the role of individual capital in possible differences in attitude towards organisational change. Finally, longitudinal analysis would assess the stability of the conclusions and assist researchers in better understanding the causal relationships between the variables of interest in this study.
Ubuntu and Attitudes toward Change - Empirical Results from Tanzania
In this thesis the relation between the African philosophy Ubuntu and attitudes toward organisational change is analysed. Additionally, generational differences between respondents are expected to be a common, underlying cause of the relation between Ubuntu and attitudes toward change and the variable westernisation of employees and organisations is checked for its moderating effect on this relation. According to this study, Ubuntu could replace other efforts which try to create positive attitudes toward change. In this way, Ubuntu can be a source of competitive advantage for firms operating in Tanzania, but also for companies functioning in the global arena.
Ubuntu or Humanness as a Management Concept - Based on Empirical Results from Tanzania
The paper examines the influence of Ubuntu on African management style. The study shows that the management style of participating Tanzanian managers is significantly related to all four dimensions of Ubuntu (Survival, Spirit of Solidarity, Compassion, and Respect and Dignity). This led to the conclusion that African management style can be described in terms of Humanness.Moreover, the authors state that the establishment of the concept of Ubuntu as a management practise would allow it to be adopted by Western organisations. They highlight that so far, the adoption of Ubuntu values in Western organisations is reflected only by the fact that managers perceive employees as a major asset. From a managerial perspective, the authors point out that the establishment of Ubuntu as a management concept in Western organisations would require deep investigation of Humanness with the use of the measurement tool presented.