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This paper presents insights on expatriates in Africa and sets out a research agenda for Africa’s expatriation. The objective of the paper is to provide background and context on expatriation in Africa and to stimulate and guide further research in this important area.

The reviewed papers were drawn from journals and other sources that reported on expatriation to/from African countries. It also incorporates an array of literature on contextual African issues, exploring conceptually how these relate to expatriation.

The review confirmed that there is little research on the topic, particularly with respect to outward expatriation and the studies that exist are one of a kind and stand alone. There has been no attempt to build systematic theory or develop a wholistic picture. This means that the field is wide open for more research. The data provide a picture of the current expatriate situation, including numbers, demographics, host/home locations, success rates and so on, and are provide a basis for further research developing and testing hypotheses regarding individual, organizational and country/national characteristics and how these influence and relate to expatriate experiences and outcomes. Researchers can also draw on the existing expatriation literature from around the world for replication studies to identify uniquely African issues as well as similarities with other locations. As Selmer (2016) noted, replication research is widely used in the sciences and is at the core of the scientific method and thus should be considered for expatriation research.

Limited previous research means there is a need for further research.

Expatriation is a critical aspect of companies operating internationally and companies are increasingly interested in doing business in African countries. Africa's economic growth and development are strong and foreign direct investment (FDI) into Africa is growing with consequent increases in the number of expatriates going to Africa. Understanding expatriation in the African context is thus very important to a variety of companies.

Management literature focusing on Africa is limited and this is true regarding expatriation. This means there is a need for researchers and practitioners to understand expatriation issues in this context, particularly considering economic growth on the continent, increasing interest in doing business there, along with increasing FDI and use of expatriates, as well as the expansion of African companies. This paper provides a research agenda as a guide on which researchers, including those in Africa, can build.

We discuss how experimental analysis can be integrated into strategic human resources management (SHRM) research in Africa so as to develop theory and value principles to guide executives.

The model we propose – experiment-based SHRM – is predicated on the use of experimental approaches to demonstrate the value of SHRM and to derive principles that guide research and practice in Africa.

We illustrate how scholars can conduct experiments from an SHRM perspective.

We discuss the strengths and limitations of the model and suggest ways of maximizing its potential.

The technique is a resource for scholars of SHRM in Africa. They can use it to supplement other approaches for studying SHRM.

This chapter discusses a typology of experimental analysis. The lack of such a typology in the context of Africa makes it a valuable contribution. Thus, it fills a contextual gap in the SHRM research methodology literature. It can therefore help graduate students and junior faculty improve their research.

Over decades, indigenous management practices and their values in Africa have changed from time to time. However, it continued to remain relevant in most business organisations in developing countries. Today in Africa and across the globe, there is a paradigm shift and stiff competition in human resource management practices as a basic element for effective and efficient business organisations’ performance. Effective human resource management practices and performance of organisations rely on the integration of indigenous management practices and sound strategies aligned to cultural values and cores business objectives. The study covers four regions of Africa as a continent. Empirical teachings of the study form a basis for active reforms and innovations, so as to revamp the use of indigenous knowledge, which was deliberately destroyed by colonial masters. Over the years, human resource management practice has evolved in favour of Western strategies and ideologies. Advocates for curriculum reforms in all African countries so as to incorporate indigenous knowledge content, since it is believed to be the future of Africa. An appropriate employees management practice in Africa is a necessary move in today’s business community as it enhances service delivery and performance. The application of indigenous management practices is believed to play a vital role and invokes effective decision-making practices in the business organisation. Therefore, the chapter traces the origin of indigenous wisdom and its fundamental structure in management practices. This chapter attempts to throw light on indigenous management practices and their values in business organisations in Africa.

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of goal setting in improving performance in an emerging economy, Barbados.

There is a substantial body of literature which has shown that goal setting improves performance in the developed world, but there is relatively little research examining these relationships in emerging economies. This experimental study sought to extend understanding of the impact of goal setting by testing goals in a carefully controlled environment in an emerging economy. The study considered assigned goals and performance, as well as the moderating impact of personal and cultural characteristics.

Results supported the hypothesis that specific, difficult goals improve performance. Personal characteristics did not moderate the relationship, but the cultural characteristics of individualism and uncertainty avoidance (UA) did.

The results of this study are limited because of the experimental nature of the study and the student sample, however, the results encourage further research and provide practical guidance for managers in Barbados.

The results suggest that, similar to developed countries, specific and difficult goals result in better performance, and that higher levels of individualism and lower levels of UA result in better performance under the individual assignment conditions of this research.

The research extends the goal‐setting approach to a new environment and provides a foundation for future research, and it provides evidence for managers in organizations in emerging countries that goal‐setting has a positive impact on performance.

The purpose of this paper is to consider effective leadership in Africa and the African diaspora. This paper reports the results of emic research in Uganda, Barbados, Canada and the USA.

A Delphi technique using open‐ended questions solicited ideas regarding leadership from knowledgeable participants, avoiding researcher bias.

There were differences among the groups on several attributes that made leaders effective. Ugandans suggested a good leader was “honest and trustworthy”; Canadians and respondents from the USA said “being inspirational/charismatic” Barbadians cited “being a visionary”.

Having data for only one African country and the small sample sizes from all countries limit the generalizability of the findings. The results do, however, provide a base of knowledge on which to build future studies on Africa and the diaspora.

The emic approach overcomes the western bias identified by scholars in most African research. Similarities and differences identified provide evidence of the importance of culture in effective leadership. The results provide a basis for developing further research studies.

An exploratory, qualitative multiple case study approach was used to investigate perceptions of leadership through the voice of young (ages 18-24) citizens of St. Lucia, West Indies.Specifically, investigators were interested in better understanding the young peoples’ leadership beliefs, experiences, and people of influence. Participants perceived leadership to be about helping other people, communication, teamwork, and morality.The most valuable leader development experiences were experiences that the young people perceived were connected to leadership.Participants viewed familiar adults, rather than famous foreigners or youth peers asthemostimportantpeopletoaidinyouthleaderdevelopment.

A sample of 343 Western business expatriates assigned to Hong Kong responded to a mail survey regarding usage of corporate career development activities and their extent of international adjustment. Although such activities are targeted at the job and its context, there was no (positive) association as anticipated between career development activities and work adjustment of the expatriates. Instead, there was a significant positive relation between these activities and psychological adjustment, as measured by subjective well‐being. Implications for globalizing corporations of these findings are discussed in detail.

This chapter focuses on the middle level of organizations. It is a critical synthesis level for culture. The authors explain how this level is influenced by the higher and lower levels of the organizational culture. The authors discuss how factors from the higher and lower levels may affect this level. It is at this level that culture has the greatest effect on an organization’s business capabilities, and therefore its operations and performance.