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While the problem of unethical leadership is undoubtedly a global one, the urgency of generating ethical leadership to advance the development of Africa has never been more evident than it is today. The challenge for higher education in developing ethical leaders is of core importance, as it is responsible for providing the main recruiting ground of business leaders. The current paper reports findings of a qualitative study of postgraduate students’ ethical development at the end of courses in business ethics aimed to enhance moral reasoning and ethical decision-making. The paper aims to ascertain whether stand-alone ethics courses are more effective than integrated ones in achieving academic ethical competency.

The study adopts an idiographic approach which aims at eliciting individual student subjective perceptions of the effects of the direct and indirect courses of ethical instruction on their moral reasoning and ethical practice. The research design broadly follows Mill’s (2017) method of difference.

Findings indicate perceived differences in the relative effectiveness of stand-alone and embedded ethics courses among students but also show that most students hold positive overall evaluations of the effectiveness of the both types of ethics instruction.

Limitations to the study include that it is cross-sectional, involves a small sample of postgraduate students and is restricted to two management courses at one institution of higher learning. Furthermore, while Mill (2017) provides a useful research design in this context, it is not able to indicate causality, as there are other possible unidentified “third variables” that may be the actual cause of student differences between embedded and stand-alone ethics courses. The study is not able to show the durability and transfer of ethical competencies into students’ later working lives.

The study provides a useful practical educational contribution to the extant knowledge in the field in that it suggests that ethical courses aimed at giving students a moral reasoning “toolkit” for ethical decision-making are more effective when delivered in the stand-alone format, whereas practical decision-making skills are best honed by embedded business ethics courses.

The problem of corruption in business and politics in South Africa is widely documented and has been regarded as responsible for creating a serious developmental drag on the alleviation of poverty and quality of lives of the majority of people in the country. The moral/ethical competency and behavior of future business leaders is partly the responsibility of institutions of higher learning. The study aims to find the most effective means of imparting moral awareness in postgraduate students who are likely to take up business leadership positions in their future careers.

The study provides useful contribution to the extant knowledge in the field in the African context in that it suggests that ethical courses aimed at giving students a moral reasoning “toolkit” for ethical decision-making are more effective when delivered in the stand-alone format, whereas practical decision-making skills are best honed by embedded business ethics courses.

This paper aims to scrutinise the concept of “African Management” that increasingly fuels the debate on the management research of African organizations. Indeed, while management research in African context is all but invisible in management literature, the notion of “African management” emerges through a piecemeal corpus of literature that has arisen in response to the exclusion and marginalisation of Africa in the broad field of management literature. The idea underlying this reasoning is that the Western management model prevailing so far in Africa is inadequate because of cultural considerations. However, what is meant by “African management” still remains unfamiliar to both researchers and practitioners.

The authors conduct a selective review of the fragmented “African management” literature to identify directions it follows. This is carried out through an analytical framework aiming at investigating the usability of the “African management”.

The paper identifies the key elements underlying the “African management” narrative. It also articulates these elements within a frame which represents an unprecedented attempt to render advocacy of “African management” more insightful.

The vibrant economic trends of Africa and its forthcoming dynamics are on the spotlight. At the same time, this upturn raises again a central concern about African societies’ development in which organisations are expected to play a pivotal role. Yet the paucity and fragmented nature of the current state of “African management” research do not enable either practitioners or academics to get a deep understanding of African organisations. This article constitutes a major contribution by setting up a scheme of identifying convincingly the analytical parameters that really count in African organisations.

Leadership and governance are all about “people” and the “common welfare”. Africans have an Ubuntu philosophy which culturally calls on individuals to promote the welfare of collective society. It is therefore paradoxical to note how African leaders and governance regimes perform poorly when it comes to the usage of public resources to create conditions for collective human welfare. Why do leaders instead of championing societal advancement rather advance their selfish, egoistic and sectional interests? This study aims to unpack a prevalent paradox and discuss a new approach of linking the rich Ubuntu philosophy to Africa’s governance and leadership discourse.

This study discusses from secondary sources of data, mainly drawn from journal articles, internet sources and scholarly books relevant to leadership and public administration in developing African countries and how Ubuntu African philosophy can be deployed to ensure leadership ethos. In attempt to obtain a more comprehensive and systematic literature review, the search covered all terms and terminologies relevant to the objective of the study. The search process mainly comprised four categories of keywords. The first category involved the concept as approximately related to leadership: “leadership and civic culture”, “Ubuntu culture” and “African collectivist culture”. For the final category, words such as “crisis”, “failure” and “experiences” were used.

This study contends that the preponderance of corruption and poor leadership in Africa is anti-cultural, anti-human, anti-ethical and anti-African; hence, those individuals who indulge or encourage leadership paralysis are not “true Africans” by deeds but merely profess to be. Linking the African Ubuntu philosophy to public leadership, the study maintains that the hallmark of public leadership and governance is to develop the skills of all and caring for the society.

This study draws attention to the need for leaders to espouse virtues so that leadership becomes a tool to promote societal welfare. The hallmark of public leadership and governance is to develop the skills of all and caring for the society. It involves weighing and balancing professional and legal imperatives within a democratic and ethical context with an ultimate responsibility to the people and public interest. It is not a responsibility to a particular set of citizens, but a commitment to be just and equitable to all. The preponderance of corruption and bad leadership is anti-cultural, anti-human, anti-ethical and anti-African; hence, individuals who indulge or encourage leadership paralysis are not true Africans by deeds but merely profess to be.

This study draws a clear link between indigenous African cultural value system and ethical public leadership. It draws congruence between Africa's Ubuntu philosophy of civic virtue and Africa's leadership/governance. This will bring about a renewal of thoughts and practice of public leadership on the continent, as it has been demonstrated that a true African seeks collective social welfare and not selfish interest.

The purpose of this paper is to explore leadership for diversity informed by intersectionality and radical politics. Surfacing the political character of intersectionality, the authors suggest that a leadership for diversity imbued with a commitment to political action is essential for the progress towards equality.

Drawing lessons from the grassroots, political organizing of the black and Indigenous activist groups Combahee River Collective and Idle No More, the authors explore how these groups relied on feminist alliances to address social justice issues. Learning from their focus on intersectionality, the authors consider the role of politically engaged leadership in advancing diversity and equality in organizations.

The paper finds that leadership for diversity can be developed by shifting towards a more radical and transversal politics that challenges social and political structures that enable intersectionality or interlocking oppressions. This challenge relies on critical alliances negotiated across multiple intellectual, social and political positions and enacted through flexible solidarity to foster a collective ethical responsibility and social change. These forms of alliance-based praxis are important for advancing leadership for diversity.

This paper contributes to studies of leadership and critical diversity studies by articulating an alliance-based praxis for leadership underpinned by intersectionality, radical democracy and transversal politics.

Research on sustainability in higher education institutions (HEIs) is unequally distributed globally. The existing publications on sustainability in HEIs have largely focussed on the Global North. Meanwhile, little is known about the state of sustainability in HEIs located in the Global South, and within African HEIs in particular. This study aims to fill this gap and investigates the status of sustainability activities in participating African HEIs.

A Delphi study involving 32 experts from 16 African countries and a total of 29 HEIs was conducted between December 2017 and May 2018. Experts were asked to share their insights on sustainability and Africanisation through an online questionnaire in two rounds.

Although 30 of the 32 participants agreed with the provided definitions of sustainability and sustainable development (two participants did not answer), 11 of the participants commented that important issues such as governance and culture were missing. This trend indicates that the sustainability discussion is still led from a western vantage point. Nevertheless, Africanisation plays a role in around two-thirds of participating HEIs’ sustainability activities, with the language factor representing the most pressing issue.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the current state of sustainability activities and Africanisation of participating African HEIs, and the importance of language and culture in this process.

This study is one of few works that have investigated the state of sustainability activities in African HEIs. Furthermore, it adopts a positive stance on sustainability in Africa, rather than focussing on negative circumstances.