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Purpose – The paper attempts to locate the debate on corporate governance in a social and cultural context.

Methodology – It draws on the traditional African philosophy of ubuntu and articulates how this might affect corporate governance frameworks. The paper utilises multiple methods that include interviews, a review of documents, and case studies. It analyses incidents from across Southern Africa that demonstrate how notions of ubuntu influence corporate practices.

Findings – The incidents in selected organisations reveal how multinational corporations are involved in the delivery of social welfare programmes to their employees and local communities. Such practices underscore the differences in perceptions about corporate social responsibility in the West and Southern Africa.

Practical implications – It highlights the implications of these practices for multinational corporations and auditors who do business in Southern Africa.

Originality – The paper argues that ubuntu informs corporate practices and influences perceptions on what constitutes ‘good’ corporate governance and ethics in Southern Africa. Finally, it proposes an alternative corporate governance framework informed by ubuntu, communitarianism, and stakeholder theories. Arguably, such a corporate governance framework will take into account the social and historical context of Southern Africa.

Research limitations – The proposed corporate governance framework might suit only those communities who subscribe to ubuntu values and communitarianism.

This article explores the use of informal socio-cultural practices to mitigate formal institutional voids in a qualitative study of informal self-employment in Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Informal socio-cultural values and practices such as ubuntu and indaba were observed to be making meaningful contribution to business and lives. Development of formal institutions as a consequence was not observed though. The article proposes that economic development efforts might best serve communities in sub-Saharan Africa by facilitating institutional development that converges with local socio-culturally informed practices rather than focus on attempts to absorb informal work into a homogenously understood formal institutional system.

Purpose – This article highlights the unintended consequences that resulted from the (abuse/use) use of management accounting information in a large automobile corporation in Zimbabwe.

Methodology – The article uses a case study and draws on Giddens’ structuration theory to help us understand how management accounting practices are produced and reproduced through interactions in organizations.

Findings – It reveals how the use of management accounting information can lead to the domination of other employees in organizations and result in unintended consequences such as redundancies.

Originality – The article lays emphasis on the unintended consequences resulting from actions of different players in the motor industry and their impact on workers and wider society. It also brings to the fore the dialectic of control which allows subordinates to mobilize resources and act otherwise. It concludes that management accounting practices are “situated practices” which reflect the dominant discourses and can be harnessed to liberate or enslave other players in organizations. The article suggests that adopting structuration theory helps us analyze the role(s) of accounting information and illuminate possible unintended consequences associated with accounting-based decisions.

Practical implications – Accountants should guard against misuse of accounting information, to justify political decisions made by managers.

Research limitations – The political and economic volatility of the environment obscured the interactions between engineers and accountants because the central focus shifted to survival beyond the crisis.