Management styles and organisation culture: Implications for entrepreneur development in Kenya

Abstract

To achieve the goals of industrializations and economic growth, the Kenya government is giving increasing attentions to entrepreneur development. Central to the issue of entrepreneur development is the need to adapt appropriate management styles and organizations structures that are congruent with cultural values of the organizations members. Entrepreneurship is key to social and economic development and is manifested in venture creation. Management is essential for the sustainability, maintenance, survival and growth of the organization. Management is ethnocentric. Just as the needs of the society are culturally determined, management is also influenced by cultural values. Management takes place within an organization and is shaped by organizational structures and social values of the organization's members. Effective management requires that management styles and organizational structures are culturally appropriate and provide an environment that promotes innovation and creativity. Further, the styles and structures must be regularly adapted to changing cultural context to provide the flexibility that is necessary for organizational leaning and development. This paper present the findings of the general characteristics of the Kenyan management styles and organization cultures and how it impact on entrepreneur development, based on the empirical investigations undertaken in various organizations operating in Kenya through the use of management survey questionnaires. The study was designed to collate information from manager working in Kenya, in order to describe the current management styles and organizational culture, the way they are changing and the future requirement and implication on entrepreneur development Data was collected through the use of management survey questionnaires with items drawn from contemporary cross cultural-management models, and focusing on managers as actors between April2003 to June 2003. It is evidenced from the respondents in the organizations researched, that the majority of the Kenyan managers recognizes and prefers, a more flexible, democratic, learning, empowering, and people oriented organization, that are managed by democratic and team oriented management styles. One key factor however, is the difficulty in agreeing between the manager's preference of management values, and the current organizational structures and management styles. The current organizational cultures in Kenya were found to be controlling, hierarchical, bureaucratic, and as such they impact negatively to entrepreneur development. This study therefore concludes that Kenyan manager exhibit some entrepreneur characteristic and are oriented toward entrepreneur development, but the organizational culture and management styles remains a major obstacle to creating a conducive environment that promote innovation and creativity. The management practices which are western based are not culturally sensitive and therefore do not promote entrepreneur development. It is therefore recommended that Kenyan managers and their organizations identify and adapt culturally appropriate management styles and organizations culture that enhance employees innovation and creativity and positively contributing to entreprepreneural development. Further the 'developed developing' dichotomies that has influenced management and organizations design and development in Africa has served to domesticate the western management thoughts in Kenya.