Some specific human resource management cases from Africa

The general literature on strategic human resource management in Africa is scant and where available, it is not updated and mainly concludes that strategic human resources hardly exist. The major reasons include lack of colonialists’ readiness to prepare African managers to think strategically, a culture that does not promote the spirit of creativity, innovation and risk taking. This is coupled with a long history of the dominance of bureaucratic public enterprises and strong political influence and patriotism (Kamoche et al. 2004; Budhwar & Debrah 2004). Now the focus is more on institutionalisation of western styles of management through sectoral reforms and the creation of an enabling environment for multinational corporations, which are emerging with some kind of a hybrid management culture.

For example, Swiss port (T) Ltd was established in 2005 as a result of a partnership between the then Dar es Salaam Airport handling Company Ltd of Tanzania and Swiss port International Ltd. The government owns 49% while Swiss port owns 51% of the shares. The company provides passenger ramps, cargo handling, clearing and forwarding services. The intention of this partnership is to make the company a world class ground handling company that commands high quality services and profitability. The mission is to provide reliable, high quality and cost effective airport ground handling and related services in order to increase shareholders’ wealth through a highly motivated workforce.

A study by Winsara (2008) shows that although the company has clear vision, a mission and strategic objectives, there were limited use of the strategic approach to human resource management functions and the use of support instruments. For example, the language used in performance appraisal was difficult for an ordinary employee to grasp. The appraisal form, which is an essential instrument in appraisal, was complicated as it was seemingly designed to meet western standards. The mainstream literature on strategic human resource management emphasises the need to ensure that all employees share and own the organisation vision, mission, and objectives in order to secure employees’ commitment. At the Swiss Port, ordinary employees expressed dissatisfaction, as they believed that the strategy of the organisation had nothing to do with what the staff expected. When one employee was asked how satisfied he was with the job, his answer was: ‘How can we be satisfied while all the objectives, missions and vision of the organisation are for the benefit of the organisation? No simple objective touches an individual.’

Therefore, having a strategic plan, which does not address its implications in terms of human resource management, is likely to fail because it will fail to secure staff commitment needed to accomplish the intended objectives.

The experience from public service in Botswana suggests that it has a fairly well planned system of linking the strategic plan with performance management. Nyamunga (2006) observes that the introduction of the strategic plan brought some clarity in the planning and service delivery at the ministerial level. However, the following challenges were noted:

· Inadequately defined objectives in some ministries created difficulties in generating appropriate measures because the objectives were interpreted in different ways.

· Unclear links between the strategic objectives and the annual performance plans created a situation where there was more focus on the operational perspectives than the strategic ones and even general staff performance at lower levels.

· In some cases, there were no link between the ministerial strategic plans and departmental strategic plans because the departments developed plans without reference to ministerial plans, and this led to operational conflicts and misplacement of resources.

However, by using the balanced score card, the public service links individual objectives, targets, and performance indicators with ministerial and departmental objectives, targets and outcomes. Although the experience has been more about linking strategic plans with individual plans rather than with human resource management as such, nonetheless it is good development towards better human resource management. Its effectiveness will be evaluated when we look at performance management later. The Botswana experience may be attributed to a long relationship of learning with South Africa where the level of education may be higher and practice more Eurocentric management principles than is common in sub Saharan Africa. Also, Botswana is one of the fastest developing economies in Africa. Therefore, historical Eurocentric orientation and a fairly healthy economic environment have had a role to play in the success of strategic management in Africa.

Therefore, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that strategic human resource management in Africa is practiced as academics intended. Common practice has been trying to link corporate strategic objectives with isolated human resource management functions, particularly in the area of performance management.