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Kenyan tribes more alike than different
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaCulture defines us as humans. As countries become increasingly interconnected and similarities grow between people groups, stark differences in culture remain. What makes North Korea different than Zimbabwe and Botswana different than Chile?
Do we hug, smile, shake hands, kiss, or keep stern faced when we meet a friend in public? Do we paint our homes certain colours in Spain versus Nairobi versus Bangkok? Do we value education, value helping others, value families, or value privacy?
Culture represents an identifiable unique community that conforms to basic assumptions about people and human interaction and connections to each other and to those outside the community. Edgar Schein breaks culture down into three main spheres. First, deep beliefs and assumptions about good and bad, right and wrong, that anchors cultures. These beliefs lead to the second sphere regarding a culture’s values that inform behaviuor opinions. Values then inform the third sphere where we may observe different displays of culture as artifacts.
Robert House and his enormous team of researchers formed the GLOBE Framework that delineated nine different aspects of culture that one can observe behaviour and values. Most scholars assign culture scores on the aspects of different countries as a whole. However, USIU-A, with support from Durham University, Global Communities, and USAID, surveyed 19 agricultural co-operatives in 12 Kenyan counties comprising nine different ethnicities (tribes). Among the many study objectives included testing different intra-ethnic aspects of culture among communities in Kenya. Many commentators assume that Kenyan ethnicities vary widely in their values and behaviours. Other observers proclaim cultural belief uniformity across our tribes
Attributes that define cultures
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaIn the fascinating quest into the history, preferences, and opinions of Kenya’s different communities, Business Talk continues this week on delineating our cultural differences and similarities.
Last week’s article detailed the meaning of cultural opinions, values, articles, and behaviours as well as how Kenyan ethnic groups were widely similar on four important aspects of culture: Uncertainty avoidance, in group collectivism, institutional collectivism, and performance orientation.
Culture represents an identifiable unique community that conforms to basic assumptions about people and human interaction and connections to each other and to those outside the community.
The United States International University of Africa in collaboration with Durham University, Global Communities, and USAid, surveyed 19 agricultural co-operatives in 12 Kenyan counties comprising nine different ethnicities (Embu, Kalenjin, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kisii, Luhya, Luo, Mijikenda, and Taita) to generate knowledge about culture, trust, leadership, and community empowerment
How fairness, trust give leaders honour
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaIn today’s world, different whale species hold the record for the largest brains. Even in the ancient development of modern humans, other now extinct competing human species, such as Neanderthal, contained comparably sized brains to ours now.
We show remarkable similarities with other primates, such as chimpanzees, in how we choose leaders based on their mouth width, physical height, and body posture as well as how we manipulate interpersonal relationships to climb up in social standing.
Richard Wrangham out of Harvard University delineates that other primates are able to notice tiny differences in moods, advantages, or power dominance amongst others in one’s group and utilise these cues to improve social mobility through coalitions and attacking or charming the friends of enemies.
While our brains nowadays do not win size awards, the way in which they are wired sets us apart from all other species
Factors Affecting Change Management in Telecommunication Industry: A Case Study of Telkom Kenya
No full textA Research Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The purpose of the study was to establish the determinant of change management in the telecommunication industry with a focus on Telkom Kenya Ltd. The Research was guided by the following research questions: Does the Structure of the organization affect change management in Telkom Kenya? Does the leadership of the organization affect change management in Telkom Kenya? Does the culture of the Organization affect change management in Telkom Kenya?
The research assumed a descriptive research method in analyzing, interpreting, and presenting data. The study focused on 99 employees including the managing director, senior managers, line managers and the staff members at the Enterprise Division in Telkom Kenya Ltd. A well-planned and carefully constructed questionnaire was used for data collection. The Questionnaires were distributed to the different respondents by hand and thereafter collected after submission. Out of the 99 target population, a total of 85 questionnaires were filled and returned giving a response rate of 86% and this was sufficient for the study. Descriptive statistics which include frequencies and percentages was computed for presenting and analyzing the data. Also, the research undertook inferential statistics by the use of correlation and regression analysis to establish the relationship between the variables and this was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.
The findings established a relationship between the dependent variable (Change management) and organization structure, the result established a strong positive relationship between the variables which was significant thus an increase in organizational structure results to improved change management. An analysis of research of the relationship between the dependent variable (Change management) and organization structure showed that the significant variation in change management was explained by the variations in organization structure.
The findings established a relationship between the dependent variable (Change management) and organization leadership resulted to a strong positive relationship between the variables. Therefore, an increase in organizational leadership results to improved change management. The research analyzed relationship between the dependent variable (Change management) and organization leadership. The results showed that a significant variation in change management was explained by the variations in organization leadership.
The findings established a relationship between the dependent variable (Change management) and organization culture, established a strong positive relationship between the variables and was significant, therefore, an increase in organizational culture results to improved change management. The research analyzed relationship between the dependent variable (Change management) and organization culture. The results showed that there was a significant variation in change management that was explained by the variations in organization culture.
The study concluded that there are formal and informal evaluation processes in place at Telkom Kenya and due to the involvement, staff appreciate the differences between the firm now and before the recent change. It was also concluded that the firm has an increase in organizational leadership results into improved change management in addition; there exist mechanisms to ensure the changed state becomes the normal way of working.
The study recommends that employees should be encouraged to embrace change as thus has enabled learning opportunities to be easily available and this is effective when stakeholders are kept informed throughout the change process. It is also necessary for the institution to ensure that it has in place processes to ensure efficient consultation with the different stakeholder groups for easy change management through increased support. Finally, managers as role models need to encourage their teams to come up with suggestions for improvement. Further studies ought to be done on other telecommunication companies to be able compare the effect of structure, leadership and culture of the organization on change management in the sector as a whole. There is also a need to establish other factors affecting change management that are not covered in this study
CTW - 25 May 2018
No full textA Campus Weekly Magazine by the Marketing and Communications Department of USIU- Afric
The Effect of Positive Psychological Capital and Networks on the Success of Start-Ups in Kenya: A Case of Start-Ups Founders in USIU- Africa
No full textA Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The wish of every start-up founder in Kenya is that their business succeeds and overcome all challenges that they might face. Nevertheless, few are able to survive up to five years and as a consequence, they are looking for tools to help them not to fail. Therefore, the general objective of this study was to measure the effect of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) and networks on the success of start-ups in Kenya. The study examined three specific objectives, which were to investigate the benefits of PsyCap for the success of Kenyan start-ups, to determine the importance of networking activities for any Kenyan start-up, and to identify the significance of network structure in the growth stage of Kenyan start-ups.
The research design was a descriptive study using quantitative data. In addition, the population of the study was 133 USIU- Africa entrepreneurs that were either students or members of the business incubator program. The study sample size was 45 entrepreneurs and the study sampling technique was a stratified random sampling. Furthermore, data collection was done through questionnaires and the data collected was entered into a computer application package (SPSS) to quantitatively analyze the data both in terms of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Moreover, the data was then presented using tables and pie charts for clarity and ease of understanding.
One of the findings of the study was that the relationship between PsyCap and start-ups’ success is not statistically significant since p=0.239. Moreover, the researcher also found that the relationship between networking activities and start-ups’ success is not statistically significant since p=0.546. Additionally, the study revealed that the relationship between the structure of entrepreneurial networks and start-ups’ success is not statistically significant because p>0.05.
The researcher concluded that PsyCap, networking activities and network structure are respectively not related to start-ups’ success. Therefore, there was need to investigate the effect of PsyCap and networks on the success of a firm rather than a start-up.
The recommendation of the study was further research to be done on a large sample size that might be more representative of all Kenyan entrepreneurs and other studies might need to focus on each dependent variable separately in order to truly know their significance
Treat staff like your customers
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaEver feel like just a number? When we call our banks, we must provide our account number. Call a supplier, we must verify our phone number. Go to a Government of Kenya office and we must produce our ID number. Humans are not robots. We do not base our emotions off a numeric world, yet we get treated calculatedly numeric in the modern era.
Our workplaces should not be one of those locations where we feel like only a number. Unfortunately, offices usually look at employment in terms of transactional relationships rather than meaningful and sustained.
A new line of thinking from Stefan Strohmeier of Saarland University in Germany details how organisations should view and handle employees considering customer relationship management techniques.
Extensive research exists on handling clients and how to maximise such relationships. However, significantly less research has gone into longer term views on how to strengthen employment relationship management
CTW - 18 May 2018
No full textA Campus Weekly Magazine by the Marketing and Communications Department of USIU- Afric