Dissertation title: Challenges to public service Leadership:

Exploration within the Federal Ministry of Health in Sudan.

Rationale/purpose/relevance

The motivation to undertake this research was built against the background
of changes experienced within the FMOH between 2015 and 2017. During
this time, the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Health was able to
transform the potential of the department of medical supplies into reality by
building new infrastructure and creating an enabling work environment
through the effective leadership and vision of the new Minister of Health in
Sudan (Mustafa, 2017). It is no longer a cliché to note that effective
leadership is a problem in Africa with such narratives as mediocre, poor and
catastrophic used to appraise the performance of leaders particularly in
political and other public service positions (Rotberg, 2004). However, whilst
this negative characterization remains dominant, and rightfully so, there are
glimpses of effective leadership in some places. Against this background, the
researcher thought it wise to explore the leadership of the Ministry of health
in Sudan which has been acclaimed as an instance of effective leadership to
make sense of the phenomenon of leadership, its practice as well as some
key success factors for effective leadership in context. It has been argued
that leadership is a critical component and function in the management of an
institution (Bolden et al., 2011). However, it remains a contested
phenomenon (Grint, 2005). It has been argued further that the leadership
style adopted by an institution is important in making the organization
successful or unsuccessful. It follows that the art of effective leadership is
critical in influencing the workers to perform their roles competently,
efficiently, and willingly (Maddalena et al., 2016)). Therefore, it is supposed
that the output of employees in the organization depends on the kind of
leadership in place. Against this background, this study is relevant as it
could potentially expand the experience of the Ministry of Finance into other
Ministries and public service organizations, not just in Sudan but also in
other African countries.

In this respect, Secondary data expanded in the literature review chapter of

this dissertation will draw on such arguments presented by Yevtushenko and
Ahmed (2016) which provide a broader standpoint about factors that
influence of leadership at Sudan’s health distribution unit. Also relevant will
be the work of Azevedo (2017), which discusses the strategies for leadership
that improve the overall performance of the medical supplies and health in
Sudan. Other numerous sources will be reviewed to provide a
comprehensive contextual understanding and the inherent gaps in the wider
leadership literature to locate the present study. The empirical data
addresses four main research questions presented below:

Research question

In order to explore and to empirically investigate leadership practice within

the department of national medical supply fund and to address others this
research issues, four main research questions have been designed.

A-What contextual factors influence leadership practice within the

department of national medical supply fund?

B-Does, the national culture in Sudan, play a role in leadership efficiency?

C- How the notion of power shared between leaders help followers to

perform better?

D-What is perceptive of good or bad leadership?

Aims and objective

• To empirically investigate leadership practice in the department of

national medical supply fund.
• To explore the challenges of leadership within the department of
national medical supply fund.

• To examine the extent to which the local indigenous and cultural

context influence leadership practice.

Abstract

Leadership strategies in the context of Africa appear to benefit community

activities based on shared cultural roles and an independent approach to
decision-making. This study draws from secondary and empirical knowledge
to explore the importance and challenges of leadership within the Federal
Ministry of Health, with particular focus in the department distribution. The
study also highlighted areas where progress has been made as well as learn
about what leadership means in context. Empirical data have collected using
a qualitative method by conducting an interview, group discussion and direct
observation. The literature points out that unproven assumption of
leadership may be based on the misinformed perception of leadership in
Africa as most scholars focus on the political arena. The review also
established a gap in the approaches that have been used to explore
leadership in the African domain, a case study of Sudan.
Dissertation Structure

This study is modelled into seventh chapters. The initial chapter highlights
the context of the dissertation and outlines the research Rationale, purpose,
questions and objectives. The second chapter examines the common
assumptions connected to general leadership theories which are mainstream
and emergent theories. The third chapter explores the relationship between,
leadership and context, leadership and culture and leadership and power.
The fourth chapter describes the research methodology adopted to collect
empirical data. The fifth chapter describes the method used to collect
empirical data and how to be analysed. The sixth chapter presents the data
collection and analysis. The seventh chapter conclusion, recommendations
and identifies areas for future research.
Literature review

Introduction

So far, the literature exploring the concept of leadership in Africa has

highlighted the achievement of leaders in civic and private sectors as
mediocre, tragic and poor (Rotberg 2004; Ochola 2007). Despite this
appalling assessment, researches into the concept of leadership in Africa
remain scarce in scope. The initial approach used to model leadership in
African resulted in an asymmetrical comparison between the western
practices and African focused practices. Prevalent comparison highlighted by
literature without supporting evidence include binaries such as uncivilised
against civilised, developing against developed and individualistic versus
collectivist (Inyang 2009). Besides this comparison, some scholars believe
that the practices among the African leaders mostly illustrate conservative,
authoritative and resistance to change attributes. Although there exist
various studies advancing the perception of African leadership, scholars have
failed to explore the basis of African leadership culture. Only a few studies
have explored discourses assumption, connotation and models of leadership
in the African domain (Eyong, 2017). This represents a significant step in
the understanding of leadership in the African context. Hence, this study fills
these gaps by exploring four main areas of debate regarding the contextual
factors influences leadership practice, leadership and culture, leadership and
power as well as the perceptive of good or bad leadership.

Leadership and Context

Leadership is an essential ingredient for professional human development
(Boyum, 2008). It is a significant factor in the success and the effectiveness
of organisations (Preedy, Bennett and Wise, 2012). Despite all the popular
interest, there is no consensus about the definition, the best style, or the
best measurement of leadership (English, 2008; Grint, 2010; Preedy,
Bennett and Wise, 2012). Prefer declared that leadership is an ambiguous
concept in definition and measurement because of the difficulty in
empirically detecting the effects of leadership (Lakomski, 2005). However,
there is an agreement that leadership exists since a group of people merge
to accomplish a mutual goal and some agreement that leadership is
associated with influence. The major disagreement is regarding leaders’
behaviours. The majority of studies on leadership deal with identifying
effective characteristics, behaviours and practices of leadership. Many
approaches and theories have been generated, some overlapping and others
contradicting each other. The common denominator of all the theories is that
the interaction between leaders and followers is at the core of leadership.
Most behavioural scientists assert that leaders who can understand their
followers' viewpoint have a greater chance of effecting the desired change in
their organisation (Barbuto, 2000). A glance at the development of
leadership approaches demonstrates how the focus has broadened from the
leader paying more attention to the context, which includes followers,
setting and culture.

A brief glance at the history and development of approaches to leadership

demonstrates the recent increased attention to moral values, ethics,
integrity, enhancing the growth of followers, and the promotion of collective
interests rather than self-interest. In the early age of leadership studies, the
emphasis was on rational thought, as the predominant belief was that
rationalism was the best way to approach the world (English, 2008; Grint,
2010). This idea originated at the beginning of the scientific revolution,
which was influenced by Descartes (1596-1650) who stressed the
significance of rationalism to advance all aspects of human life (English,
2008; Shapin, 1996). The formal study of leadership started with Fredrick
Taylor (1856-1915). At that time, leadership was associated with control,
absolute compliance to administrative command, and repression. However,
later scholars have strongly disagreed with this view of leadership, and more
humanistic perspectives have emerged.

James MacGregor Burns (1978) is credited for shifting the focus from the
leader's traits and actions, to looking at leadership as a relationship of power
that is intended to fulfil mutual purposes. Burns' is the most influential
theory because of his clear division of leaders' behaviours into transactional
and transformational (Spendlove, 2007). Leadership in his view is a moral
endeavour rather than an act for manipulating others. These two styles
represent the task-oriented type and relational-oriented type. The context of
leadership in any organization is what leads to choosing the right kind of
leader. In a volatile environment, for example, a charismatic leader can
serve a better purpose than a transitional or even transformational leader as
he will use the charm to turn the volatility to his advantage and for the
better (Day, 2014).

The new emerging trends of leadership are however also setting the context
of leadership. In the new era of equality, it is only right to have a shared
form of leadership where each person contributes their leadership qualities
and capabilities towards the ultimate success of an organization (Storey,
2016). This will however only work in some cases and not in others. The
ultimate solution is for a relational leader. Once a leader can relate better
with his followers, they trust and open up to him. This allows the leader to
appeal to not only the physical but emotional aspects of the employees in
making any decisions that pertain to the success of the company. The trust
that this leader gains is what is important in setting up the route and pace of
success and changes necessary within the organization. This is a new
emerging trend that is very useful in all types of organizations and at all
levels of management and leadership (Wilson, Cummings, Jackson &
Proctor-Thomson, 2017). Drawings upon the above-mentioned theories of
leadership and comparing post-heroic , with the more traditional ones it
can be observed that the traditional theories take a universal approach while
the post-heroic consider the context and the inclusion of followers in the
process of leadership .

The main aim of drawing a comparison of these leadership debates is a way

of showing that leadership does not have to be all about authority and the
leader is in charge. Leadership can be a shared responsibility that will ensure
that leadership capabilities and skills are drawn from the innate leadership
skills and strengths of various individuals within an organization (Chatwani,
2017). The aspect of leadership being held by one person is what makes
changes within an organization fail to be implemented effectively by the
followers as their input was not considered during the making of these
changes. With the emergent theories such as the distributed, collective and
shared theory, it will be interesting to demonstrate what contextual factors
influence leadership practice within the department of national medical
supply fund.

Mainstream theories on leadership

Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership in this perspective indicates that people perform

their task based on contingent reward (Northouse, 2013). The leader’s role
is monitoring compliance with the standard and taking action when
deficiencies occur, without interest in changing the context. Top-down
directives determine tasks and responsibilities. The subordinates generally
work from a routine, and their perspective is disconnected. The German
sociologist Max Weber observed the consequences of this mechanistic
approach. He asserted that mechanistic forms of organisation could trap
people in an iron cage of bureaucracy, fail to nurture personal growth, and
be a form of domination (Morgan, 2006). However research by Norbash,
2017 indicates that Change in an organization is imminent and when change
is due, there is a need for a transactional leader that will have the ability and
knowledge to move the organization from the current level to the next one.
A transactional leader is charged with huge responsibilities to enforce
changes such as company restructuring or acquisitions. This, therefore,
demands to hire the person with the right skills including multidisciplinary
experience and one who relates well with people. These are skills that will
ensure that the transition being sought will be successful and take place
within the recommended time frame. The primary focus of any transactional
leader based on the theory of transactional leadership is all about focusing
on seeking rewards using all the legal means possible to effect such changes
such as paying the right salary for a particular job. This way, the leader can
have his/her way and run the organization in the manner that is necessary
with no resistance as followers are happy to perform their task because of
the high salary they receive. Day,(2014) states that in order to make a
leader much more effective and successful, there is a need to equip them
with more intense leadership training centred on making changes possible.
Some of the skills that can be equipped in them as well as those that are
sought after in a leader include information gathering skills. These are
important in getting the views of stakeholders about the changes as well as
gain tips from them as well. There is also the need for communication skills.
These come in handy once the transition has started in the organization as a
way of convincing people to come on board with the changes and embrace
them. These are skills that can be taught in a leadership training forum.
Transformational leadership

In this kind of leadership, leaders promote positive change in those who

follow. Burns (1978) asserted that engaging the full person of the followers
results in transforming factions into leaders and leaders into moral entities.
In the transformational approach, leaders display four important traits:
educational, critical, ethical, and transformational. In the educational role,
they assist the organisation in acquiring knowledge. They are critical leaders
because they help the organisation move beyond the status quo, by
encouraging the concept of a double-loop learning process which was
proposed by Argyris in1957, and involved sensitivity for any clue assists
better future (Morgan, 2006). They are ethical leaders because they
encourage democratic values and good relationships and encourage team
members to be reflective. Many leadership approaches overlap with
transformational theory, with considerable attention to ethics, morals and
values.

Bosch (2013). States that transformational leaders are also once that are
tasked with making changes happen in an organization similar to the
transitional leaders. The main difference between the two, however, is in the
approach used. Transformational leaders according to the theory of
transformation rely more on using the people to make these changes rather
than make all the important decisions alone. This is a leader that involves
the subordinates and followers in all the decisions and final approvals of any
changes that need to take place.

In order to make any changes possible, it is important to be in consultation

with those that will be directly affected by these changes including the
employees and shareholders. This is a way of not only motivating them to
accept these changes but maximize their abilities to increase their
capabilities once the new changes are in place. These leaders also aim at
incorporating the changes that the employees contribute as they are the
ones that will be dealing with any repercussions of the changes and this will
make adoption easier. Transformational leaders also tend to be inspiring and
empathetic towards their followers, an important skill to instil changes within
the organization easily as well as smoothly at all times (Chou, Lin & Chang,
2013). Transformational leadership focuses on the needs of the institute and
its objectives. The inclination is to put leading first, and the leader's actions
are a combination of charismatic influence and control to fulfil the
organisation's objectives (Parolini, Patterson and Winston, 2009).

Charismatic leadership

Two of the things that make a charismatic leader much more successful in
instilling changes within any organization compared to the transitional and
transformational leader is personality as well as a charm (Li et al., 2015). A
successful leader is the one that has the trust of the people through natural
attraction to them and reference. One can be a charismatic leader and still
hold better and more personal relations with the employees or followers
(Storey, 2016). A charismatic leader relies on their personality and charm to
make people align their loyalty to them making it easy to influence them to
accept and adopt any changes deemed important and necessary by the
leader within an organization. These are leaders that have confidence that
they can make any changes possible and they use the same confidence to
convince the followers. People tend to trust and believe in confident leaders.
Charismatic leaders are also creative and especially when they foresee or
encounter a challenge. It is this creativity that allows them to be at solving
problems as they arise even without prior notice or anticipation (Zehndorfer,
2015).
A charismatic leader compared to the others does not have to gain these
leadership skills from experience or education as is the case with the other
types of leadership. This is a leader with these inherent leadership qualities
and learns the rest along the way. This is the reason that they are better
equipped to be leaders in handling volatile situations and changes within an
organization. This is because they use their determination, natural
communication skills and vision to pull followers towards their side and
agree with him and all the changes necessary for the ultimate success of the
organization (Sparks, 2014). They use their charm to ensure that once the
changes are completed, the followers will feel part of the changes and hence
adopt them.

Emergent leadership theories

Relational leadership

Relational leadership is solely based on emotions and feelings of empathy

and genuine interest in others and what they can offer. It is leadership
where the leader is purely concerned about the followers from their personal
to professional life. It is aimed at cultivating a deep sense of understanding
and trust for the leader by the followers (Akram, Lei & Haider, 2016). This
form of leadership takes time as trust takes time to be earned. However, it
pays in the end when the leader needs to make any changes. The followers
already trust in the leader and his leadership abilities and hence will fully
support the changes that will be made without even raising any questions as
is normally the case with other leadership theories (Clarke, 2018). A
relational leader is better equipped to understand what the people need as
he has interacted with them on a personal and professional basis (Akram,
Lei & Haider, 2016).

This is an emerging leadership trend that brings in more positive results for
organizations when the time for changes are due. The kindness and
empathy, as well as genuine interest of a leader, eliminate the tension that
is normally present between leaders and followers. This, therefore, makes
communication from bottom to top simple and faster. The aspect of
vulnerability that makes followers afraid to voice their opinion are absent
and hence when changes are made, they are accepted by all, contributed by
all and supported by all, leading to eminent success for the organization.
This is a type of leadership where excessive authority is unheard of, and it
fosters friendship hence increasing productivity and reducing turnover rates
that are often common in organizations with the traditional forms of
leadership in place (Lei, Akram, Haider & Akram, 2016).

Distributed, collective and shared leadership

What the traditional forms of leadership and leadership theories rely on a

leader is just one individual that holds all the power, decision-making skills
as well as authority over the rest of the people who are simply followers. In
even some of the best leaders such as transformational and charismatic
leaders, the power is still held by one person despite them trying to give a
share of the decision making to the followers. In the recently emerging
leadership theories, there is a shift towards distributed and shared
leadership among all the players in the ground. In teamwork, for example,
there is no team leader as everyone shares the leadership responsibility
equally. This means that the final decisions are shared, and no one person
holds the authority (Goksoy, 2016).

The reason for the adoption of this new form of leadership is a way to tap on
all the skills, experiences and knowledge of all the people rather than rely on
those of only one person. Each person is allowed to bring their best skills
forward, and the end result is the ultimate success of the group or
organization. The capabilities and innate leadership talents of each person
are tapped and utilized and hence a sense of ownership, belongingness and
togetherness followers (Tian, Risku & Colin, 2015). This leads to minimal
turnover rates and increased productivity as each person feels responsible
for the success and work harder to minimize losses. There is also minimal
conflicts that are common over leadership and authoritativeness that delays
changes and progress (Chatwani, 2017).

Leadership models in African Context

Contemporary literature exploring leadership in the Sub Saharan African

mainly focus on comparing as well as contrasting between the Western
practices and what is perceived to be illustrative of leadership in Africa
(David, 2005). Such comparisons have resulted to contraries such as the
uncivilised versus the civilised, the developing against the developed, and
the humanistic against the instrumental (Jackson, 2004). Interestingly,
these opposites and political notions are consistently practised due to the
limited understanding of leadership in the African domain. The insufficient
knowledge implies that critics and political theorists continue to depend on
these perceptions that were formed during the colonial era as a
demonstration of leadership in the African context. However, Inyang (2009)
argues that provided that the connection between the coloniser and the
colonised supports the western supremacy, these opposites could not have
generated a fair understanding of the dimension of African perception of
leadership. The main argument among the colonialist was that the western
methods were civilised while those of African culture appeared to be inferior
(Jackson 2004; Inyang 2009). Based on this belief, leadership in the African
context appear to have been ignored and considered ineffective from the
colonial lens.

However, more recent literature has begun to reveal the development of

African based leadership in a much better way than the classical literature
(Jackson, 2013; Fouries et al. 2015; Khoza 2012). The development of the
emerging literature advances Jackson’s (2004) assumption of hybridity.
Other scholars such as Bolden and kirk (2009) have demonstrated the
similarities between the African leadership and specific elements of
leadership elsewhere. Other scholars such as VanZyl and Dalglish (2009)
have doubted the typological existence of African based leadership. Based on
this dilemma, some of the literature is limited to the degree to which the
African nations make an identical social unit provided the multifaceted
composition of Africa as a continent (Nkomo 2006). Although these concerns
have resulted in multifaceted assumptions and narratives, it will be
fascinating to understand what leadership theories and narratives have been
applied to Sudan. In fact, this presents a gap for the first research question.

Leadership and culture

Scholars in leadership hold three perceptions about leadership and culture:

the critical constructions, the cross-cultural and the universal. The classical
models of leadership appear to advance the model of universalisation
ignoring the aspects of cultural difference as well as cultural diversity.
According to classical scholars, organisations such as Disneyland and
McDonalds depict a global brand that is enjoyed across the globe implying
the converging nature of culture in generating a human and cultural
universality (Brown 1991). However, cross-cultural scholars Hofstede (2001)
contradict these views by emphasising cultural diversity between nations.
For example, Hofstede (2001) depicts six aspects of culture that
differentiates one country’s culture from another country.

Furthermore, the GLOBE research project incorporates three more aspects of

Hofstede’s six resulting in nine aspects of uncertainty avoidance;
performance orientation; collectivism against individualism; femininity
against masculinity; human orientation; short-term against long-term
orientation; indulgence versus restraint; power distance; and assertiveness.
However, there have been inquiries regarding the development of these
research. The basis of these inquiries is that the approach applied have
limited the significance of leadership as well as a culture by classifying them
into the dimension with a few numbers of variables. Fang (2003) has
criticized that these research frame culture at national context is implying
that the nations and regions appear to be homogenous when they are not.

The post-colonial scholars in the field of African leadership believe that the
imported western ideologies of leadership cannot be integrated into the
African context. These scholars call for the need of Africa to develop
indigenous models of leading that consider the African value structure as
well its natural environs. The foundation of their argument is that while there
exist common strategies and problems of leadership around the globe, the
continent of Africa encounters different problems. Among the problems
include the complexities of multifaceted cultures, languages and tradition.
Furthermore, the African context has a diverse political, social and economic
environments among the countries. Social allusion has been developed to
the harmonious system that characterises the African social system.
Scholars in the postcolonial field use these factors to highlight that the
functionalist model in a Western context such as transactional Leadership is
not credible in the frame of African leadership (Nkomo 2011; Haruna 2008).
The views of post-colonial scholars demonstrate the emerging indigenization
desire whereby individuals from multifaceted cultures are opposing the
universal values in favour of indigenous customs that portray an exceptional
sense of intellectual and cultural identity. There are extensive acceptance
among the critical leadership literature implying that native people in various
regions of the globe exercise leadership based on the philosophical
perception and their way of life (Bertsch, 2012; Turnbull et al., 2012).
People are increasingly aware of their traditions leading to a high decline in
cultural change and global assimilation (Bertsch 2012). Bertsch’s views
support the argument that leadership is a culturally contingent and provides
an explanation for the African renaissance towards solving the African
challenges through indigenous ways.

Opposing the views of the traditional theory of cultural diversity and

agreeing to the recognition of cultural diversity are the recent argument of
the critical constructions that believe that culture is the critical dimension of
leadership. Specifically, this view is grounded on the notion that leadership
is a cultural act integrated into the language, believes, rituals, values, and
beliefs (Jackson and Parry 2010). Also, the significance of leadership is
primarily the depiction of local realities or the development of the immediate
realm where individuals experience life on a daily basis. The similarities
among these three perceptions are that globalisation cannot be ignored and
some practices and behaviours are common among people in the context of
leadership. However, these narratives fail to provide the precise leadership
practices and narratives. Therefore, the research contributes to the
arguments provided not only to the cultural diversity but to the complication
of human practices which is the key determinant of leadership. Besides,
provided that the study is achieved from a different philosophical context, it
is likely that the thought of leadership will be expressed in diverse ways.

The concept of a hybrid culture appears to be inevitable strategy provided

the unsuccessful effort to westernise the local African traditions since
leadership forms of indigenous culture continue to be achieved in
organisations such as the Ekpe in the Cross River. Besides, it has been
demonstrated that western strategies cannot be integrated into the African
system as they could in the Western institutional domain. This is evident
with the approach of many governments and organisations in African to
spend a significant amount of funds on training their staff in western
leadership philosophies with the aim to make them effective leaders. Kuada
(2010) observed that various western leadership initiatives have been
unsuccessful in transforming the African practices. Instead, the leaders
appear to understand the indigenous behaviour as well as politics to achieve
success. Based on the models presented by postcolonial scholars, the
current research believes that while there be desires for theorising African
leadership, it is complicated to generate the concept of leadership that is
holistically African because of the colonial experience as well as the current
impact of globalisation. Through a focus of specific local communities and
tribes, the study will be able distinct the various concepts of leadership as
well as the variety of strategies that underpin leadership in different cultural
contexts in Sudan. The existence of this gap in the literature will benefit the
research in demonstrating how national culture in Sudan play a role in
leadership efficiency.

Bad and Good leadership practice

Laub (1999) carried out a doctoral research study which contributed to the
development of the Organization Leadership Assessment (OLA) instrument.
This instrument has been employed in many empirical studies about servant
leadership. The research of Laub explains that the way servant leaders treat
people, the personal qualities, the characteristics contributing in the
development of followers and the building of community are a significant
number of characteristics of servant leadership. A research project carried
out by Joseph and Winston (2005) to explain the correlation between
employees’ perception of servant leadership and leader and organisational
trust. The well-known research of Laub (1999) is employed in this study to
develop an organisational leadership assessment tool. It is explained in this
study that organisations where servant leadership is practised to establish a
high level of trust in both organisations and leaders. In essence, the study
shows that trust is integral to servant leadership. Zhou and Miao’s (2014)
study result demonstrate that managers who practice servant leadership
emphasise the importance of assisting and developing employees.
Employees want to learn and emulate the manager servant conduct. The
behaviours of those managers, namely forming quality relationships with
employees, prioritising subordinates’ personal development, creating a sense
of community, considering team members’ opinions when making the
decision are the factors that lead to an effective working environment. This
environment makes employees feel a sense of caring and valuing their
contribution from the organisation which brings about more commitment at
work in response.

Intellectual stimulation is another key behaviour that is described as a

characteristic of transformational leaders. This factor is shown in the process
by which a leader stimulates followers to deal with organisational problems
analytically. In this process, a transformational leader will encourage
followers to be creative and innovative by questioning assumptions, deal
with problems in different ways, and address the same issues in new
approaches (Birasnav, 2014). This is similar to the work of Jha (2014) as
cited in Irshad and Hashmi (2014), where intellectual stimulation is
described as the way that a leader puts in a huge effort to build a healthy
environment at the workplace by motivating staff to question and think
about their work, and try to deal with problems in creative ways. In essence,
the leader also tries to create opportunities for employees to learn and study
to have innovative ideas. The concept of intellectual stimulation is
interpreted by Roe (2014) who says that intellectual stimulation refers to the
process the leaders teach followers to be clever. Asking employees to
challenge the status quo will be focused on this process to create creativity
and innovation among followers. Making mistakes will be seen as a process
of learning, and there will be no public admonishment.

Individualized consideration behaviour of transformational leaders refers to a

personalised interaction in relationship between follower and leader in the
ways the leader carries things out, provides relevant mentoring, and
understanding followers. Specifically, this depicts the level to which
followers’ individual needs and concerns are put in consideration of the
leader (Grant, 2012; Zwingmann et al., 2014). A comprehensive explanation
is given by Northouse (2015) who is of the opinion that this factor of
transformational leadership refers to behaviours by which a leader builds a
supportive climate for employees. The leader will carefully listen to
employees’ individual needs and concerns. The leader plays a role as adviser
and coach to help employees to become fully actualised and grow through
personal challenges. Empowering is a core behaviour of servant leadership in
which servant leaders provide followers with the freedom to make decisions
about their work. By sharing power with followers, it allows followers to have
self-control, be self-sufficient and have confidence in their capacities since
they can think and deal with difficult situations in the ways that they are
comfortable with (Northouse, 2015). In its basic meaning, empowerment is
described as sharing power, decision-making authority and responsibility
from leaders or managers to other subordinates in the organisation (Daft,
2015; DuBrin & Dalglish, 2003).

It is claimed by DuBrin and Dalglish (2003) that there are four components
such as meaning, competence or self-efficacy, self-determination, and
impact, which identify that empowerment is in place in an organisation.
Meaning implies to the sign of the work objective explore in connection to
peoples’ standards or principles. The meaning of work can be created when
the requirements of the work role match with an individual’s beliefs, values
and behaviours. Thus, it is believed that empowerment is practised when
employees are assigned to do meaningful work. Competence links to the
idea of empowerment when an employee believes that he or she can deal
with the work assigned effectively. The performance requirement of the work
is not beyond his or her competence (Daft, 2015; DuBrin & Dalglish, 2003).
Employees will feel that they are empowered when they have self-
determination. This component is described as choices that a person has in
initiating and regulating actions, or that he or she has the power to select
the best way of addressing a particular problem. The impact is related to
empowerment when a person can influence administrative, strategic, or
operating outcomes in his or her work (DuBrin & Dalglish, 2003). The level
of these components can explain that empowerment is practised in an
organisation or not. Similarly, the work of Daft (2015) note that there are
five elements: information, knowledge, discretion, meaning, and rewards,
which shows that employees are truly empowered to do their work in an
organisation effectively. For the information element, employees are
empowered when they have access to information about company
performance such as company financials and financial literacy. Furthermore,
to be empowered, employees should receive expertise to contribute to the
goal of the company. This means that the company should organise training
programs or uses other development tools to provide the knowledge and
skill required for employees. Discretion is explained that employees should
receive power to make significant decisions. When employees are
empowered, they can determine the organisational direction and work
procedures. Meaning is interpreted as employees attain an understanding
into the meaning and impact of their work. Organizations that fully empower
employees make employees see their work as meaningful and important
(DuBrin & Dalglish, 2003). Employees who are empowered to recognise the
impact their work had on the organisation and considered themselves as
influential and capable. Rewards are related to empowerment when
employees get rewards based on organisational performance. In this
context, it will be interesting to outline the context of bad and good
leadership in African perspective.

Leadership and Power

The literature relates leadership to power in the context of individuals’ in
position, and the use of power in the production of knowledge about
structures, processes and systems (Foucault, 1981). The concept of power is
highly contested (Lukes, 1974, 2005; Connolly, 1993). Power has
traditionally been defined as power over, where the person who possesses
the power is in a position of dominance (Weber, 1978) and this person, by
their position, will carry out their will despite resistance from the person
whom the power is aimed. Dahl (1957) holds the same view to the extent
that the power is exerted on the subordinate in the social relationship who
would do or act in a way they would not otherwise do. Hobbes (1989) sees
power as the potential to act or do something. Power is therefore defined as
a potential action (power to). Lukes (2005) agrees with the notion of power
as a potential action rather than something that actually happens. A feminist
definition of power focuses primarily emphasizes the social instead of a
political aspect of power and demonstrated how the concept of power has
marginalized women from the exercise of power. As such, these views
illustrate the negative and positive impact of power. One explanation for the
complexity and contested nature of power is that power is moulded by
contextual and political interests (Lukes, 1986; Said, 1986).

In this context, the ideals of unethical leadership activities are

controversial as it seems to be a historical outcome rather than a moral and
ethical description of local African traditions. Therefore, the current research
assumes that some of the popular models of African leaders fail to provide a
fair understanding of contextual leadership philosophies. Specifically, most
scholars appear to focus on challenges instead of theorising the leadership in
context. As such, research emphasising by leadership principles with the
local cultures could better model leadership within the small groups. It will
be fascinating to demonstrate how the notion of power shared between
leaders help followers to perform better.
 Conclusion

In conclusion, the research questions are designed to understand the

extent to which local indigenous and cultural difference affect leadership.
The review has discussed the arguments and theories of leadership that
affect Africa. The review has also examined the western and African
perspective of leadership with the main lesson that leadership practices in
Africa appear to support a communal strategy based on shared cultural roles
as well as the independent process of decision making. The idea of Ubuntu
has been explored as an approach to understanding African leadership
studies. The review established a gap on the strategies that have been used
to explore the context of African leadership. Of the limited literature that has
been reviewed, scholars have followed a specific approach that either
focuses on organisational strategies or social anthropological. The main
challenges of these approaches are the limited understanding of African
leadership. Since formal institutions and local organisational function
concurrently, it will be effective to examine these two strategies by applying
a method that best informs each strategy. The development of the approach
and perspective highlighted in this review addresses the questions of the
research.
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