Tribe and Village in African Organizations and Business

The paper argues that African organization sand business relations reflect pre-industrial social norms found by anthropologists in kinship based, rural communities. African society is a hybrid mixture of an emerging industrial economy and a set of norms and behaviours which have been carried over from tribal and peasant communities. In modern, urban organizations the presence of pre-industrial norms is seen in the continued importance of in-group/out-group differention, gift exchange and kinship obligations. The paper suggests an explanation of the continued permanence of pre-industrial cultural traits and offers a theory showing their inner, social logic. Drawing on examples from the existing literature on African management it is shown how the pre-industrial norms are manifested in organizational practice and business.