Theses

Thesis Van Bree

How Humanness Increases Organizational Knowledge Sharing

Results from the South African hotel industry

"A lot of research has been done on Humanness as a management concept and its relationship with knowledge sharing. Humanness is a South African philosophy and management style based on five values, Survival, Solidarity, Compassion and Respect & Dignity (Sigger et al., 2010). In this multiple case study performed in the hotel industry of Cape Town, South Africa, Humanness as part of organizational culture and its affect on individual capital and attitudes towards learning and knowledge sharing is investigated. (...) Results show that Humanness is present in South Africa and that it can be conceptualized as being part of organizational culture. Humanness has a positive affect on knowledge sharing through affecting social capital and attitudes towards learning and knowledge sharing. Social capital, furthermore, has a very positive affect on both attitudes towards learning and attitudes towards knowledge sharing."

Thesis Crick

How Attitudes Toward Knowledge Sharing and Learning Increases Individual Innovative Behaviour

Empirical results from the Indonesian hospitality industry

"The aim of this study is to investigate whether attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning influence individual innovative behaviour. It tries to measure if an increase in the willingness to share knowledge and learn from one another enhances the willingness to innovate. individual innovative behaviour is defined as complex behaviour consisting of a set of three divergent behavioural tasks namely idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization (Scott and Bruce, 1994). Furthermore, this study aims to shed light on how Humanness and individual capital relate to attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. (...) Individual capital stems from Bourdieu's theory of practice and is based on four forms of capital: economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1986). To test these relationships a case study was conducted in the hospitality industry of Bali, Indonesia. The findings of this research suggest that attitudes toward learning and knowledge sharing significantly influence individual innovative behaviour. Furthermore, the results reveal that individual capital positively relates to attitudes toward knowledge sharing and learning. Moreover, the results of the study also indicate that Humanness positively influences attitudes toward learning."

Thesis Van den Arend

Does a Humanness Management Style encourage Knowledge Sharing?

Cross-cultural study on the stability of the relationship between Humanness and Knowledge Sharing

"This paper examines four research studies on the relationship between Humanness and Knowledge Sharing in Tanzania, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Netherlands. As these four studies found a positive relationship between Humanness and Knowledge Sharing this study will compare the data of these studies in one comprehensive dataset in order to determine if the relationship can be seen as universal or is influenced by country. The ANOVA analysis showed that country has a significant influence on the score of both the Humanness and the Knowledge Sharing dimensions. When the variable country was added to the regression model it showed that country had a significant impact as well. These results tell that country is intervening the Humanness and Knowledge Sharing relationship and therefore the country’s external context needs to be taken into account when managers want to implement a Humanness Management Style. It is recommended that managers and other researchers will search for ways to operationalize the Humanness values within a company and take into account the country’s specific context."

Honours Project Brouwer

Sharing knowledge in learning communities

"Learning Communities have three things in common (Tinto, 2000). First, shared knowledge is the result of taking courses together and having shared, coherent curricular experiences. That means that the courses are related and strive for enhancement of cognitive complexity that is not attainable by unrelated courses. The aim is that students learn from each other. Lin, Lee, & Wang (2009) defined sharing knowledge for a company, but this definition can be generalized to education. Sharing knowledge refers to a social interaction culture involving the exchange of knowledge, experience and skills through the whole learning community. Second, shared knowing refers to the social integration. By enrolling of students in the same courses, they know each other very soon and share the academic experience. Students construct knowledge together and it promotes cognitive development. LC stimulates social and academic involvement. Third, shared responsibility since in LC students are responsible to each other in the process of gaining knowledge. They collaborate in groups in which students are mutually dependent from each other. This is also mentioned the ‘educational citizenship’ (see Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)."

Research paper Wah

Confucianism and Chinese leadership

"The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevance and implication of the Confucius teachings in present days’ context particularly in the area of leadership and organization. The paper provides an overview of Chinese cultural values, Confucianism, and their implications for Chinese management. Five key dimensions of the Confucian values and ethics have been uncovered and be applied to the contemporary leaders’ behaviors that are moral character, human-heartedness, human
relationship, lifelong learning, and moderation. The five key Confucian value dimensions can be used to shape leader’s behavior. The review hopes to contribute to the study of social psychology and modern leadership. The paper offers a re-organization and re-interpretation of the Confucius classics."

Thesis Hennipman

Foreign direct investment and management:

Does Africa adopt western management styles?

"This paper deals with the two concepts in the question whether foreign direct investment influences the management styles in sub-Saharan African countries. Firstly a measurement instrument is established to be able to measure differences in management styles between countries. On the .other hand an empirical research is done on the country level of foreign direct investment, to establish its influences on economic circumstances within countries. The study concludes that a careful relationship can be inferred from the research, that the level of foreign direct investment influences the management style within the recipient organization. However, more extensive research is needed to establish this relationship significantly."

Thesis Bakuri

Ubuntu and the LEAD network

"The main objective of this paper is to set out what the LEAD network will do and how it will promote communal living as well as make a difference in society using Ubuntu as a management concept. I am using the concept of Ubuntu because its hallmark is about listening to and affirming others so as to create fairness, shared understanding, dignity and harmony in communal living. Ubuntu consciousness in the LEAD is about the desire to build a caring community, because of its emphasis on our common humanity and the ethical call to embody our communal responsiveness to situations in the world or society in which we live in."

Thesis Van der Huizen

The influence of humanness and gender on the entrepreneurial orientation of small business in Tanzania

"The construct of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) studied from within a development economy is argued to be an understudied aspect in the academic literature. The strategic construct EO focuses on the preferences, behaviors and beliefs of the management at the firm level. This study adapted the original conceptualization of the EO construct fit for local entrepreneurs/owner- managers of micro/ small businesses in Tanzania. Especially the aforementioned group has been selected giving their substantial contribution to local economic development(LED). Where most existing studies focus on the consequences of EO in terms of performance, this study looks into one specific antecedent of EO, culture, and defines this trough the African socio- cultural philosophy (and management style) Humanness. Best explained as a widespread spirit of caring for your extended family and community where harmony, respect and approachability are important values. The study examines how Humanness influences the EO of small business entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Based on the literature, a negative relation is expected between Humanness and EO. Empirical evidence however shows a different result. Hence, multiple statistically significant positive relations are found. Furthermore, given the patriarchal culture of Tanzania, this study scrutinizes the influence of gender on both Humanness and EO, and finds that in Tanzania there is more equality in gender in relation to EO than anticipated. Given the exploratory design of the research, this study comes with new insights contributing to a better understanding of the Tanzanian entrepreneurial orientation (mindset) and subsequent implications related to EO and local economic development."

Thesis Boom

The relationship between Humanness and Knowledge Sharing in Malaysia
Empirical evidence from Malaysian managers

"This paper explores whether there is a relationship between Humanness and the willingness to Share Knowledge in Malaysia. Furthermore, the differences between the Malay, Chinese and Indians in presence of Humanness and willingness to Share Knowledge is researched.
214 respondents from private owned companies participated in this research showing that there is a strong relationship between Humanness and Knowledge Sharing. However, the differences between the three ethnicities are small which is a surprising finding. It can be concluded that people oriented managers are more willing to Share Knowledge and differences between ethnicities have no influence in this matter. From these results it can be recommended to managers and organizations in
Malaysia to include cultural norms and values to improve the Knowledge transfer within companies."

Thesis Pröschel

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 purpose of this study is to discover whether there is 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. Centre of attraction are former East and former West Germany as two exemplary societies of distinct social value orientation, since it is expected that the latter would impact the aforementioned relation
between humanness and knowledge‐sharing. Data was empirically
obtained via web-based questionnaires and subsequently analysed by various ANOVAs, Pearson product-moment correlations and linear regression analyses. The findings confirm the assumption that humanness can in fact provide a means of enhancing knowledge-sharing within the field of accounting. However, social value orientation is found to have no influence on the relation between humanness and knowledge-sharing. The paper thus attempts to draw attention to the beneficial use of humanness in order to establish a knowledge-sharing attitude within an organization and asks practitioners, i.e. managers and employees within the field of accounting, to actively incorporate humanness values in their everyday work."

Thesis Scholte

Humanness in Indonesia:
Increasing intra-organisational knowledge sharing

"This dissertation describes the study on the presence of the management concept Humanness in Java and its effect on intra organisational knowledge sharing. The management concept Humanness derived from the African philosophy Ubuntu. Both are built on the values compassion and communality. This study is one of the first to investigate Humanness outside the African context. Although previous authors assumed that Humanness could only be found in Africa, this study finds support that it can be found in Indonesia. The study also shows a positive relation between Humanness and intra-organisational knowledge sharing. The study has applied the same format as Scholtens’ (2011) study on the same issue that was implemented in Tanzania. Comparison of the findings in both context shows that both the concept Humanness and its relation with knowledge sharing are very similar."

Thesis Scholtens

The innovative value of Ubuntu:

Knowledge sharing in African organizations

"Academic literature on business practices and management is based on Western cultural beliefs and values. This results in problems for African managers and foreign managers working in African organizations, because the continent’s indigenous culture has been ignored since colonial times. The concept of ubuntu takes the cultural background of African people in consideration and is part of the African Business Renaissance, which encourages to find 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. In this study, that was done in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the assumed positive relationship between the presence of ubuntu and knowledge sharing has been confirmed. Also several underlying dimensions of both subjects have been analyzed, which led to more than a few interesting relations. Further research is needed, but this study has found that the humanness of Africans stimulates knowledge sharing, a practice which Western organizations are so willing to integrate in their corporate practices."

Thesis Fredriks

Does the Dutch business environment value Humanness as a management practice and is there a relation with both Knowledge Sharing & Leader Behavior?

"The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not Humanness as a management practice is present within the Dutch business environment and if there is a positive causal relation with both Knowledge Sharing as well as Leader Behavior. Furthermore, the relation between Leader Behavior and Knowledge Sharing is determined. The theoretical considerations and empirical findings show that Humanness as a management practice is indeed present within the Netherlands and that there is a positive causal relation with Knowledge Sharing. Moreover, the mediation analyses indicate that only the Humanness
dimensions survival as well as respect & dignity account for the explained variability in Knowledge Sharing. Additionally, both Leader Behavior styles consideration and initiation of structure are present within the Dutch business environment. However, only a weak positive causal relation was found between Humanness as a management practice
and both Leader Behavior styles. Furthermore, a positive causal relation was found between the Leader Behavior style consideration and Knowledge Sharing. The results of this study are necessary to understand which management practices are valued within the Netherlands. Additionally, contrary to what many authors have thus far argued,
Humanness as a management practice cannot be considered as truly African. Furthermore, the relationship between Humanness as a management practice and Knowledge Sharing is strengthened and further analyzed based on the mediation analyses. Those results
provide managers sufficient information with respect to the approach of Knowledge Sharing processes within organizations."

Thesis Heijink

Ubuntu and Attitudes toward Change
Empirical results from Tanzania

"In this thesis the relation between the African philosophy Ubuntu and attitudes toward organizational change is analysed. Ubuntu stands for humanness or brotherhood and places high value on the community. It is measured by four components: survival, solidarity spirit, compassion and respect and dignity. Attitudes toward change is divided into three different attitudes. 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 westernization of employees and organizations is checked for its moderating effect on this relation. Data is collected in Tanzania and 215 questionnaires were completed by employees in 70 companies. Regression analyses shows that eighteen percent of the variation in attitudes toward change is explained by the level of Ubuntu of respondents and analyses of correlation coefficients made clear that the age of respondents is not an intersecting variable and that westernization of respondents and organizations does not
moderate the relationship between Ubuntu and attitudes toward change."

Thesis Van der Huizen

The influence of humanness and gender on the entrepreneurial orientation of small business in Tanzania

"The construct of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) studied from within a development economy is argued to be an understudied aspect in the academic literature. The strategic construct EO focuses on the preferences, behaviors and beliefs of the management at the firm level. This study adapted the original conceptualization of the EO construct fit for local entrepreneurs/owner- managers of micro/ small businesses in Tanzania. Especially the aforementioned group has been selected giving their substantial contribution to local economic development(LED). Where most existing studies focus on the consequences of EO in terms of performance, this study looks into one specific antecedent of EO, culture, and defines this trough the African socio-cultural philosophy (and management style) Humanness. Best explained as a widespread spirit of caring for your extended family and community where harmony, respect and approachability are important values. The study examines how Humanness influences the EO of small business entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Based on the literature, a negative relation is expected between Humanness and EO. Empirical evidence however shows not all relations to be (significantly) negative. Furthermore, given the patriarchal culture of Tanzania, this study scrutinizes the influence of gender on both Humanness and EO, and finds that in Tanzania there is more equality in gender in relation to EO than anticipated. Given the exploratory design of the research, this study comes with new insights contributing to a better understanding of the Tanzanian entrepreneurial orientation (mindset) and subsequent implications related to EO and local economic development."

Thesis Maas

Ubuntu values and the culture of the Brazilians

Humanness, Jeitinho and the influence of gender on the Ubuntu values

"It is questioned whether the values on which the Ubuntu philosophy is based are uniquely African values or values that are part of every human being. This paper investigates how Brazilian employees score upon the Ubuntu dimensions compared to Tanzanian workers and if there is a difference in how the Ubuntu values are experienced by men and women. We present evidence that Tanzanian workers score higher upon all the Ubuntu dimensions than the Brazilians do, although not statistically proven that this difference is significant. Another important finding is that there is no significant difference between the scores of men and women on each of the Ubuntu values."

Thesis Yu

The philosophy of humanness in Chinese context:

A research study approach

"In the research by Sigger et al.(2010), a measurement tool was developed that determined how high the values of managers score on the scale of humanness in Tanzania. This measurement tool was adopted to see to what degree the values of Chinese managers are in line with this philosophy. The values of the ancient Chinese philosophy are very similar to the values in the philosophy of humanness. However, socialistic and western influences also have a great impact on the Chinese business culture. The empirical findings of the survey showed that the Chinese participants (like their Tanzanian colleagues) score high on the scale of humanness. Yet the four dimensions as depicted in the measurement tool were not found. This could be explained by some overlap in concepts between the dimensions or the Chinese specific context; the Confucian values themselves do not have a coherent conception. Further research is required to ascertain the factors behind it. Another interesting finding is that the control variables did play a significant role in the Chinese sample, whilst it was not the case in the Tanzanian sample."

Thesis Rijnen

Ubuntu in management practices

Empirical results from Tanzania and the design of a Ubuntu quick-scan instrument

"It is said that Ubuntu is part of the gift that Africans will give the world, as of this the main research question of this thesis is whether the African philosophy of Ubuntu could be an improvement or renewal for management practices throughout the world these days?

At the end of the last century, Ubuntu came forward as a viable management concept for the African continent. Since then many papers have been devoted to the subject of Ubuntu. Although this matter has been studied by several scholars (Broodryk, 2006; Mangaliso, 2001; Mbigi, 2005 etc) it is truly remarkable that no empirical results are available on this subject, so far. This paper contributed to the writings on Ubuntu by: the development a quick-scan instrument to measure the extent of ‘Ubuntu’ inside a corporation and most important this paper presented empirical results of Ubuntu in Tanzania.

The renewal of Ubuntu origins after the decolonization of Africa, which led to a greater recognition of the wide diversity of religions practising on its soil. The Europeans had imposed a vast array of extraneous values and norms on the African populations and the political changes after 1990 made way for a recognition of African systems of values and norms that had always underpinned large parts of the society. One of them is Ubuntu.

In the hands of academic philosophers, Ubuntu has become a key concept to evoke the unadulterated forms of African social life before the European conquest.

Ubuntu is defined as "humaneness: a pervasive spirit of caring and community, harmony and hospitality, respect and responsiveness, that individuals and groups display for one another. Ubuntu is the foundation for the basic values that manifest themselves in the ways African people think and behave towards each other and everyone else they encounter." (...)

An empirical study has been done at three major Tanzanian companies to measure their Ubuntu level with help of the newfound quick scan. The overall conclusion, based on the five dimension was a high level of Ubuntu amongst the peer group and a reliable quick scan instrument to measure Ubuntu, with a Cronbach alpha of 0.924"

Research report Sigger, Polak and Pennink

‘Ubuntu’ or ‘Humanness’ as a management concept
Based on empirical results from Tanzania

"When assessing the African landscape in terms of management concepts, one cannot ignore Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an African management concept formulated by the South-African Lovemore Mbigi. The concept has a strong focus on humanness. Until now no clear evidence has been found to confirm the existence of Ubuntu in African organisations. This paper explores to what extent the management style of African managers can be classified as Ubuntu. A measurement tool related to the philosophy of Ubuntu is developed to enable the empirical study, and empirical data collected in Tanzania. Furthermore, the potentials and limitations of Ubuntu as a management concept are investigated in relation to management approaches in the Western world."