Business management education in the African context of (post-)Covid-19: Applying a proximity framework

ABSTRACT

What happens when Covid-19 meets Africa? To find answers, this article examines tertiary management education delivered by the continent’s business schools in the context of Africa’s susceptibilities to the pandemic. The concept of proximity is applied as an axiomatic analytic complement to Covid’s transmission pathways impacting on the psychosocial foundation of human relations, people’s spatial distribution and their time perspectives. Taking management literature into account, proximity is applied to Africa’s business schools in terms of their immediate and long-term responses to the pandemic, suggesting practical post-Covid reforms considered from a humanistic management approach to management education and scholarship. A theme throughout this article is that Covid-19’s exposure of contextual vulnerabilities presents an opportunity and imperative for business schools’ re-missioning and renewal to enhance relevance, quality and building post-Covid resilience. The article provides a framework for the study of other Covid-sensitive sectors or organizations and theory development and testing using different proximity conceptualizations, frames and combinations thereof. Limitations of the study are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Africa
• vulnerabilities
• Covid-19
• proximity
• management scholarship
• business school reform

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See special issue of the Africa Journal of Management, Honig and Hjortso (2018); Lee et al. (2018); Kiggundu (1991, 2013).

2 See AABS, https: www.aabschools.com.

3 Africa hosts around 1900 universities, most of which offer some form of business management education. For more information about the size and types of schools (i.e., public, private, independent) refer to the following link: http://www.webometrics.info/en/Africa.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sherwat E. Ibrahim

Sherwat E. Ibrahim is Associate Professor of Operations Management and Director of the MBA programs at the School of Business, American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt. She holds a PhD in Technology Management from Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ, USA. Her research interests include Africa sustainability, global value chains, supplier governance, and technology adoption.

Alan F. Fowler

Alan F. Fowler is honorary professor of the Centre for Philanthropy and Social investment at Wits University and emeritus professor of the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, The Netherlands. His practical and academic contributions centre around civic agency and non-profit organisations. He is a past-president of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR).

Moses N. Kiggundu

Moses N. Kiggundu is Distinguished Research Professor and Professor Emeritus, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ontario, Canada. He earned his PhD in Management and Administrative Sciences at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. For almost half a century, his active scholarly work has been focused on the study and practice of management and administration in Africa and other emerging economies. He works to advance management scholarship and practice and has a keen interest in the evolution of management education and business schools in Africa, and elsewhere. He currently serves as the Founding Editor of the Africa Journal of Management.