Abstract:
Following the widespread implementation of liberalization policies across the continent and
resultant ‘subsidiarity’ of the industrial sectors by mostly Western multinational firms, management
development in Africa has been dominated by Western approaches. The alternative is
contextualization of research approaches that take into account the cultural and societal values of
the people being researched. The article therefore proposes two methodologies believed to be
contextual to management development research in multinational firms in Africa. These include
indigenous methodology and postcolonial methodology. The two methodologies are complemented
by appropriate data collection and analytical approaches, which have also been suggested.
Data for this conceptual paper were mainly from review of extant popular and academic
literature. The article concludes that applying the proposed methodologies could help tackle the
neocolonial influence in African industries to decolonize indigenous people from Western hegemony
and management development approaches that do not tackle the development problems of
indigenous managers. Theoretically, the article contributes to literature on postcolonial management
and organizational studies and, practically, contributes to alternative and appropriate
approach to research into managerial skills development problems in Africa.
