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undertaken in Africa do seem to support this supposition (Blunt and

Jones, 1992, report one study in Kenya by Blunt in 1976 and one under-

taken in Malawi by Jones in 1986). Management commitment may

ignore means in favour of ends, although not reflecting an achievement

orientation (Montgomery, 1987). This may reflect an ethical disregard

for wider stakeholders, and a pursuit of corporate objectives as they

dovetail with their own objectives. Kiggundu (1989) underlines the

political nature of this agenda; and de Sardan (1999) argues that corrup-

tion is embedded in the logics of such practices as negotiation and gift

giving in Africa. In addition,

• management principles reflect an external locus of controlwhere events are
  considered as not within the individual’s control, where creative poten-
  tial is regarded as being limited, and people are generally fixed in their
  ways and not malleable or changeable (Kanungo and Jaeger, 1990). This
  may well reflect also a mistrust of human nature, and a belief in the
  undisciplined attitudes of workers to industrial life (for example in
  Nigeria: Abudu, 1986). Decisions are focused on the past and present
  rather than the future (Montgomery, 1987; Kanungo and Jaeger, 1990)
  and therefore may be deontological in nature rather than teleological.
  Action is focused on the short term, and success orientation may be
  moralistic rather than pragmatic as a result. This may reflect a passive-
  reactive orientation (Kanungo and Jaeger, 1990). These principles then
  may lead to


• authoritarian management practiceswith reliance on the hierarchy, use of
  rank, low egalitarianism, and a lack of openness in communication and
  information giving (Montgomery, 1987; Blunt and Jones, 1992, 1997),
  with the main management orientations within post-colonial manage-
  ment systems towards managing internal processes and managing
  power relations. This results from and is related to the top-down man-
  agement identified earlier.

Post-colonial personnel administration

The way these aspects relate to personnel practices in developing countries is
through an administrative emphasis on control. HRM systems (at least in the
Western sense) are likely to be underdeveloped. These aspects are compared in
Table 9.1 with other systems of people management operating within ‘develop-
ing’ countries. Western practices are often introduced in order that ‘modern’
HRM principles may challenge the predominant control and process focus of
personnel administration in developing countries. Yet the suitability of those
principles and practices summarized under ‘post-instrumental’ management

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