Abstract:
Management development in improving productivity has become powerful tool for management effectiveness, as
well as to address the management gap especially in developing countries. However, management development
programmes follow Western concepts and curricula which, in most situations, are not relevant to African context.
Data from interviews of 26 national managers in the Ghanaian gold mining industry produced definition of their
talent development and how they expect the development programme to run in industry. The definition is just a
reproduction of Western concepts of management development. Motivated by strong display of Ghanaian identity
and cultural practices during author’s interactions with some national managers, the main concern of this paper is
to assess how these Western concepts of management development could be localised to be consistent with
traditional Ghanaian learning methods to develop national managers (in the Western dominated Ghanaian gold
mining industry). Applying indigenous methodology, the Western concept of management development is
compared to indigenous approach. Results of comparative assessment of the two approaches reveal that
traditional Ghanaian education has it strong and enduring versions of the elements of the Western approach to
talent development, most of which the author speculates are stronger in driving the talent process than the
Western versions.
