Management lessons from Ubuntu

"Ubuntu lessons from South Africa"

According to Mangaliso, cross-cultural managers can be aware of this cultural philosophy and use it for benefits of the organization and its employees, if they do not neglected the lessons from Ubuntu, this means that companies should take into account that there are expensive costs for them if they do not aprecciate what really underlying the peoples desicions like the different values, norms and beliefs, like in the case of the employees in South Africa that just want that top managment come and adress employees to speak to them and listen their needs and when they see the turn down of their request, they just went into a strike that involves many people fired and many economical losses for the company.

As a cross-cultural manager an important step to understand the peoples desicions making is: first to see what are the culture values and norms in which they believe, then you should try to understand what are their self-interests to determine the behaviour that support those behaviours in your employees and finally you are going to focus in the right keys to have good relationships with others. Some of this important keys are: First try to share or to express yourself with understandable languague and the proper communication; second, you should be able for strongly commitment with your employees with slow action; third, you should understand punctuality as a virtue, that shows respect with people you are going to talk; fourth, you should generate strong loyalty to gropu goals inside your collegues; and finally you are going to take advantage of the age and the capacity of leadership that each employee have, and take into account that older workers are not so productive but they bring experience, wisdom and new connections for your company.

As successful cross-cultural managers, we need to incorporate the practices of ubuntu inside our companies in order to reach a better relationship between us and our employees, this means that we are going to threat others with the respect they deserve, generating an environment of collegiality based on sharing, caring and helping, we are going to be willing to negotiate with justice, especially in conflict resolutions, we are going to allow people to express themself, understanding all thing should be equal and older people can give us experience, and we are going to try to be flexible and accommodative in the corporate performance.

" Ubuntu is rich with consideration

for compassion and comunality"

-Mzamo P. Mangaliso -

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