RESEARCH ARTICLES

 

Botho values and beliefs as a leadership style: the maturation of the studies in effective leadership

 

 

LE Jowah

Department of Management and Project Management, Cape Peninsula University of Technology JowahL@cput.ac.za

 

 

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ABSTRACT

Botho as a culture is a way of life which informs the way a typical African would lead, interact and socialise. Culture is not genetic but we all are born into a culture, yet culture affects human behaviour and dictates how people perceive things. The originality of cultural values becomes questionable with such diverse values, beliefs, and attitudes in this global village.
Inter-cultural interactions and cross-cultural mobility compounded by education, technology, and political interactions has influenced the botho value systems and beliefs. Botho cannot claim to be original given the colonisation of Africa and subsequent impact on cultural values. However, there are remnants of botho value systems in different varieties throughout the African continent. The fundamental beliefs and values are largely unshaken, though tainted with uncomfortable colonial intrusions which distort the traditional African perceptions about behaviour. The paper extracts the current botho values that inform leader-follower relationships, which are in agreement with the modern leadership philosophies in our current leadership. The African values are based on the philosophy that; "you are who you are because of other people." Emphasis is on respect for the elderly, communalism (team-work), and the philosophy of one-hand-washes-the-other as norms found in the botho value system.

Key phrases: botho; culture; emotional intelligence; interdependency; leadership theory; management concepts; team work; value

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1. INTRODUCTION

The word botho is used in different countries on the continent and is called according to the languages of the different people on the continent, with largely the same meaning and values. In South Africa the word is used thus; botho for Sotho and Tswana, vumunhu in Shangani and ubunthu in the Nguni languages. The same word is called umunthu in Malawi, ubuntu in Rwanda and Burundi, obuntu in Swahili, hunhu in Shona. By definition the word refers to the expectations of the society from an individual. Ncube (2010:77-82) defines ubuntu (botho) as a philosophy of humanism grounded in the African beliefs. This informs the way Africans would conduct themselves in all spheres of the life.

Sober (2001:13) refers to a philosophy as a study of humans and the world by thinking, reasoning and asking questions. Teichmann and Evans (1999:1) defines philosophy as the study of fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline. In a sense it is the theoretical basis of knowledge and experience, meaning that philosophy is a study, and is therefore an art and a science trying to answer questions.

Culture is the set of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group with characteristic features of everyday existence (Aquinas 2009:370). The behaviour of the individual members of the cultural group is based on human knowledge resulting in a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices characterizing the people. Botho is not a study, it is a culture, a way of being, we may study to understand it, but it is not born out of studying.

Whereas a philosophy is a study of truths and beliefs about life, morals, set of principles or beliefs, and a philosophy may be a result of much thinking and possibly research. Philosophy is abstract compared to culture which is observable and real, the author posits that there is a vast difference between culture and philosophy for the reasons stated.

A culture is there whether or not you study it, botho is a way of life into which a person grows and is the norm or standard by which an individual lives. It is about conduct and the way people relate in practical terms and how they perceive and experience the world they live in. A way of life is therefore accepted without questioning, anything outside of that way of life would be unacceptable. No one is born with a culture, but people are born into a culture which dictates values and systems of conduct and this is inculcated in an individual from the cultural group.

 

2. BACKGROUND

Botho is too often talked of in a rather limited way, the outsider observing from the outside thinks of botho as if it were a philosophy like capitalism, communism or socialism that you choose depending on your circumstances. Meaning you make a conscious decision to be capitalistic or socialistic, whatever your reasons are, you can shift if it doesn't work for you.

Further to this, botho is what in a sense distinguishes a person from an animal, because any conduct outside of the accepted norm is considered foreign and inhuman. Botho is fundamental to the wellbeing of an African in an African setting, anything else is frowned on, and in extreme cases it leads to ostracising by the family and the community at large. The community will quickly think of you as trying to be European or white if you show certain "unethical behaviours" alien to the community. In a sense the botho concept implies that there are many behaviours common among whites and other races which render them mannerless by the standards of the African.

2.1 Cultural standards and expectations

A typical African child would learn to respect the elderly including siblings older than them by the use of words like buti [brother] or sisi [sister] as prefixes to the name of the person. Together with that one would not call someone senior to you by their first names as that is a sign of disrespect and absence of manners. Rather address people by their surnames for men, and women with children are called by prefixing their firstborn's name; that becomes how you identify them.

A woman with a daughter called Mpho becomes Ma Mpho instead of calling her by her first name in the presence of children. Across Southern Africa one would come across the use of words like Ma, mai, amaiva, etc. In many of the languages in the region people distinguish between the seniors by the use of a prefix ordinarily used for plural when referring to a single person who is senior. An individual would say in Ndebele [for instance] liyapi instead of uyapi [li is plural and u is singular] as a sign of respect. Therefore the authority or age by the use of such prefixes, this is common in Chewa, Shona, Ndebele and many other regional languages.

That immediately gives respect to those older and ascribes to them a degree of "being more knowledgeable." There is a certain way of saying the same when speaking to the elderly since using the same language (tone or expressions) on people senior to an individual shows that one is "mannerless." This has never meant that someone younger may not disagree, but they disagree respectfully without being rude.

2.2 Examples of unacceptable and acceptable behaviour

This will explain the problem between the IFP President Gatsha Butelezi and Julius Malema, because he called the old man [very easily his grandfather] Gatsha, as if they were age mates.

All these values whilst they may not be important in other cultures, they define the African child and Africanness in terms of loyalty to those older than the individual.

This prepares the African child for a particular form of followership, given that whilst they may have intelligence, they still have to respect those older than them, regardless. Respect is first shown in the conduct in relation to how they address older people. In other extremes African sub-cultures [Xhosa] a young man who is not circumcised or has not been ritually passed on to manhood may not contribute in a debate where there are 'men.' This creates a power distance in the relationships and interactions that the African child experiences in their life.

Consequently, older folk you are not related to can send you to do something for them without any ill feeling. A senior who sees you misbehave can discipline you without consulting your parents, because every senior is an elder sibling, parent or grandparent. People who do not know the culture seem to misread and misrepresent the realities of the culture.

Prinsloo (2000:275-286) misrepresents the cultural understanding by saying that an elder person is more of a person than a younger person. It is grossly incorrect; living at different status levels does not make anyone less of a person. To the African, the power distance is based on the mutual understanding that an elder person has respect ascribed by virtue of their age which means they have more experience and presumably knowledge (Atwater, Dionne, Avolio, Camobreco & Lau 1991:1543-1562). This is very easily translatable to the statement "honour your father and your mother" (Exodus 20:12).

Motho kemotho kabatho [muthu kemuthu kabathu] "you are who you are because of other people" is key to the form of relationships as envisaged in an African cultural setting. This is purely another version of the philosophy by Lord Jesus Christ "do unto others as you would want them to do unto you" (Luke 6:21). This should be understood in the context of patriarchal or paternalistic systems where the elderly are expected to be wiser.

In the real sense the elderly are not given a free run as overly exaggerated by external observers who do not experience the culture but interpret according to preconceived ideas about the culture. The communal nature of the society dictates that decisions are taken together as a family, the eldest or more able is given to drive the agenda. The elder delegates and supervises, any one going against what is agreed on breaches family trust and is against botho, branded a traitor. Can be ostracised by his people except where he or she may have more power and with loyal followers.

2.3 Botho as determinant of other individual behaviours

Botho is universal on the continent but practiced with varieties given the history of the continent, the language differences emanating from divergent evolution. With all these differences, the fundamentals to the sub-cultures would be the communal, collectivistic, paternalistic and patriarchal approaches reminiscent across all African cultures.

The behaviour of an African therefore is judged on the basis of culture, seniority in age or occupation in a royal position, these statuses are considered synonymous with leadership. Consequently a leader is expected to behave in a particular way mostly as custodian of the cultural values. Comparison has been made of the cultural values that inform leadership and management styles (Alkebulan 2007:410-427, Banner-Haley & Walker 2003:663-665, Levine 2008:497) that are portrayed by Europeans as colonisers on the continent and Africans as the indigenous inhabitants of the continent. A summary of the elements of leadership and management retrieved from literature are contrasted in table 1.

 

 

Celebrations of any kind are generally open to the public except for the special parts of the celebration that relate to the family. As indicated in current existing literature, the western concept is too individualist by the botho standards (Vallentyne Steiner Ouka 2005:11-24) and excludes people, celebrations are family or individual centred and people come by invitation. Botho does not invite people to community functions or celebrations.

A typical botho rural community is known for its coming together to work, this is called letsema in Sotho, hoka or nimbe in Shona, ilima in Xhosa. A family would invite neighbours to come and help with the harvesting, food would be prepared for the workers from the community, the people come and work for the full day. Each family invited would send one or more people to the letsema, these people are not paid, they are provided with food for the day. Communal activities and helping with tasks is part of the culture, and the understanding is that 'one hand washes the other.' If you do not come or send someone, no one will come to your aid should you need help tomorrow, it is therefore part of your community obligation to come together and work.

Funerals are a community tragedy, you do not mourn alone, "an injury to one is an injury to all." You do not invite people to a funeral, as soon as they hear about your loss, they will come and give you company until the burial. Too often they bring in supplies that may be necessary since you will have sympathisers coming. With some tribes, no fire is lit in the home until two or three weeks after the burial. The neighbours and the community at large will supply you with all the food required for your entire family until the mourning period is over.

Weddings are communal and everyone in the village celebrates together with the family, no need for invitations to a wedding in your community. When mahadi [bride price] is negotiated, all close family members are informed and they participate in the setting of the price. Marriage is for the community, and a daughter-in-law from another village is respected and treated as a daughter-in-law to the community into which she has been married. Things are done together, there is a sense of togetherness, of belonging, one is only complete because other people complement their humanness. Botho is about the whole being and how they relate to the community and to the outside world.

The oral law is presided over by the chief of the community and is subject to biased interpretation, like in the western courts. The law is not written down in any statutes and needless to say there will be prejudices in the implementation of the law. People do not go to school to learn about botho, they learn botho as they learn the language of communication. The basic fundamentals of the botho-way of life put high value on the life of a person more than on material gains, focuses on mediation as opposed to confrontation, working together as opposed to competition, chooses restorative and not retributive justice (Littrell 2011:65-91).

The cultural philosophy works to change behaviour to create harmony as opposed to punishment of the individual, it promotes interdependency of human beings. Hence the saying that "what has befallen your friend today has passed away, tomorrow it will be your turn" and the person you are fighting may be your friend.

 

3. BOTHO VALUES IN MODERN MANAGEMENT

Botho as a culture has been highly hybridised and corrupted by elitist white philosophy of life to the point of near extinction. At colonisation Sub-Saharan Africa was illiterate and depended on oral history for records, the nomadic life inherited due to migration south removed the education facilities from earlier civilisation.

The re-introduction of education was inevitably introduced with an alien language and culture which impacts on the individual behaviours which affect leadership beliefs and styles. Leadership is only as effective to the extent that there is a willing followership that can be communicated to. Because botho leadership concept is founded on the cultural values, an erosion of the cultural values inevitably impacts on the calibre of followership. The philosophy was never developed along business lines since the education taught was based on the colonisers' language, philosophy and perception of life. This was compounded by the colonial effects on the status quo and the absence of African values to match the capitalist values of the West.

Consequent to that, there was bred a generation of African leadership that epitomises western values at best and preys on the weaknesses of its ever trusting and semi-illiterate followership. A large part of the original botho values are put into western literature and coated as researched findings on how to manage and lead organisations effectively. Working together and forming teams to create synergy (Brown & Hyer 2010:15) is a natural phenomenon by the botho values as evidenced but the use of letsema. Most of the effort put into trying to build effective teams occur naturally in the African value system and are a given in the way an African would live and work. Collectivism and communalism are predominantly the way of life, meaning that leadership is combined effort for all people involved in the performance of the task. The following are discussed briefly as found in modern literature (Ncube 2010:77-82).

3.1 High value on the life of a person

This is possibly based on the religious beliefs that when a person dies their spirit goes to live with the ancestors. There is a strong conviction in the African value system that whatever you do to your fellow, God will punish or reward you. The fear and respect of the deity creates this respect for fellow human beings, bearing in mind that you are who you are because of other people.

Increasingly leadership and management literature shows a relationship between high productivity and the happiness of the people in the system. The history of labour and the subsequent founding of labour unions during the period of industrial revolutions in the 1886 -1890 period was characterised by the mechanised form of managing human beings (Hellriegel, Jackson & Slocum 1999:45). There was little consideration for life and labour was cheap, the strikes resulted in more than 600 000 people out of work and others dying in a bomb blast. Before colonisation, primitive though the African continent may have been, the value of life has always been that 'you are who you are because of other people.'

3.2 Focus on mediation not on confrontation

The African approach to relations is conciliatory and based on community values and not individualistic gains. In the process the value system tends to reduce the power distance and bring people to the same level. Conflicts are resolved through mediation and collective bargaining (Jones & George 2009:452) and because no formal written documents are used in the traditional processes, the presence of other people serves as guarantee to any agreement. Consequently, the extreme case may be the parents or relatives of an employee may come to see the manager if the manager has a problem with their relative. The extended family concept is extended outside of the ordinary formal employment structures as we know them. You only negotiate if you are prepared to compromise.

3.3 Working together not competition

Individualism is looked at as a lack of botho and as selfishness because it works against the basic principle that you are who you are because of other people. Collectivism is the norm, and issues are considered in the sense of "we" as against "I." Cooperation and teamwork are therefore part of the accepted behaviour given the correct context. Team spirit is inherent and communal decisions are taken in instances where in the western culture an individual would take a decision. The father and mother of a girl to be married leave the process to the family members largely, thus the uncles, aunties, sisters and brothers are involved.

3.4 Restorative not retributive justice

Special efforts are made to keep the family intact by group chastisement, doing things together and helping where necessary. Because the society is communal and gregarious, there are sympathisers always even where someone has strayed, ways are improvised to keep the flock together. This is why Africans never had jails, all errors were corrected within the context of the community without denying a person the right to freedom to walk around because of an offence.

3.5 Works to change behaviour and create harmony

One definition of leadership refers to leadership as the ability to influence people to change behaviour and work towards a desired goal (Jones & George 2009:497). Embedded in the botho culture are strong elements of transformational leadership and support structures used to move people together. Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt and Van Engen (2003:569-591) assert that transformational leaders make subordinates become aware of their importance, facilitate the growth of the individual, and motivates the subordinates. By getting people to participate in communal structures and the decision making process, people feel empowered and belonging (Ncube 2010:77-82). This is not common in the western structure where there is no collective ownership, typical African leaders lead with the collective.

In a sense the effects of collectivism are the transference of skills, transference of ownership and the resultant synergy found in working together. The botho approach recognizes the importance of inclusive leadership as a strong motivator for good performance. The paternalistic approach creates the father figure which recognises the need to form synergy, as evidenced in the expected high emotional intelligence as related to age and experience.

Botho is based on the understanding that 'you do unto others as you would want them to do unto you'. Hence the use of universal proverbs like; 'one finger cannot crush a louse'. Meaning that working together, under the watchful eye of the elderly and more experienced produces the desired results (Bandawe 2005:289-300). Cultural values govern the way people think and act, it also influences their perception of good leadership meaning a botho leader is expected to work in teams, convene meetings both for information sharing and problem solving.

3.6 Interdependency of human beings

The lifestyle, character and responses to stimuli amongst the African are governed by collective values. Human beings are interdependent based on 'one hand washes the other' philosophy.

Thus, if there is a funeral at the neighbour's house you do not wait for an invitation, you simply attend. If you do not attend then they will also not attend should you have a death in your family. Not attending a death in a community may be a bad omen and may be considered to be worse than witchcraft.

3.7 Respect for the elderly or those that are older than you

Diversity among people originates from history, religion, political boundaries, languages and the different experiences as they relate to their geographical location. The more people live isolated from the rest of the other people, the more they evolve in their own direction without interruption (Dorfman 1996:267-349). This accounts for the cultural differences amongst people, but many other ethnic attributes are retained with variations across boundaries and languages. Botho is universal amongst Africans born and bred on the African continent, albeit with slight variations.

 

4. THE MODERNITY OF THE ANCIENT BOTHO LEADERSHIP STYLE

Educational institutions charge large sums of funds for students to attend and qualify with qualifications in leadership and management, and these theories are a result of many years of research. Much of the 'research findings' is the norm in the traditional botho management and leadership styles. The problem with the African is that none of these have been documented, consequently they are not known by the outsider. Kirk and Bolden (2006:70) submit that leadership literature downplays the importance of indigenous knowledge, values, and behaviours in relation to leadership and management.

There is a disjuncture between the life that the African lives in his community and what he gets to do when he works for the 'white man.' Any effort to practise the African values will be looked upon as 'incompetency' by a white manager, and the bulk of the blacks work under whites anywhere. All they can be applauded for is the ability to manage cultural diversity (Jackson 2004:79), and management of multiple stakeholders. Apart from that, being humanistic, the approach will be considered as 'weakness' and inability to manage people.

Any behaviour outside of the botho way of life is seen as lack of manners, or classified as bad behaviour amongst traditional Africans. On the other hand there seems to be a serious cultural lag in that the blacks are taught values at home which disagree with the schooling system, and this creates the lag for the average person. Some of the key competencies of effective leadership resulting from many years of research are listed in Table 2.

 

 

Of particular interest from the table above will be, team building, negotiating, leveraging diversity, empathy, emotional intelligence [age related], flexibility, oral communication, motivation, networks, continual learning, forming alliances, fairness and developing others.

3.1 The effects of botho on behaviour

These characteristics of effective leadership are embedded in the botho culture or are easily implementable as part of the culture. Because of the nature of the culture of collectivism, it reduces the power distance, personalizes relationships even with those that are senior and brings senior management to the operational level. Beil-Hildebrand (2006:136) suggests that the relationship between the employees and senior management are improved by the concept of management by walking around (MBWA), this is exactly what an effective botho oriented leader would do, interact with people.

The ideal botho then in its undiluted state promotes formation of teams because tasks are always collectively attended to, this; allows for many heads thinking over the same problem together (participative leadership), allows for ease of negotiating at all levels (transformational leadership), and the presence of many people working towards one goal (teamwork) with everyone feeling they are recognized motivates the employee. The management has an expanded network because they interact with too many of the employees and thereby may have influence on the behaviour of the subordinates which will lead to their development (Chen & Tjosvold 2006:1727-1752).

3.2 The implicit theory amongst the botho people

The death of an employee's family member may sound too distant for the western style leadership, but in the botho structure an injury to one is an injury to all. Consequently fellow employees and senior management attending such funerals serves to create the spirit of a family in the business. The coming together and the concept of "the whole is more than the sum of its parts" (Ennen & Ritcher2010:207-233) is a concept inherently built into the botho structure. Thus you cannot leave another person to suffer where you are able to help; the focus is greater on the fellow being than it is on the other issues which are considered secondary to life.

Whilst this might sound idealistic, yet other leaders have practiced it and have grown big businesses using these principles. Sam Jonah as cited by Luiz (2006:111) implemented the botho approach in the management of Ashanti Gold. He started a federal structure for the mining company and practiced MBWA. As senior manager he empowered people by making them participate in strategic management issues and many attributes of leadership were attributed to him, i.e.

■ was very firm and yet loving (the paternalistic part of botho);

■interacted freely and was likeable by subordinates;

■ always encouraging (patriarchal approach in botho);

■ did not discriminate and considered all people equal (the father figure approach in botho);

■ attended their family members' funerals (deaths are community tragedies to be shared by all);

■ took personal interest in the welfare of the employees; and

■ mixed social life with business life (he was who he was because of other people).

Jonah built schools and hospitals for the community, because it was this community that made him who he was.

3.3 Botho and emotional intelligence theory

There are striking similarities between the African values and emotional intelligence. Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee (2013:6) define emotional intelligence (EI) as abilities or skills to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of oneself and others. Five EI competencies suggested are: self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy and social skills. Turner and Muller (2005:149-161) observed specific instances where appropriate leadership styles and emotional intelligence of the leader produced effective project leadership. This is in agreement with Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee (2002:37) that the 'leader's emotional intelligence has a greater impact on his or her success as a leader, and the performance of the team than does a leader's intellectual capability. Extremera, Fernández-Berrocal and Salovey (2006:42-48) posited that there was a relationship between age and levels of emotional intelligence, meaning generally more matured people have higher levels of emotional intelligence.

This is in full agreement with what botho has always practiced though it was never researched and documented. Appropriate EI enables leaders to practice proper judgment, manage the human resources and effect the required change. African culture accords respect to older people because it is expected that after all their experiences, they should have developed such a level of emotional intelligence. See Table 3.

 

 

Managers with high levels of emotional intelligence will understand their feelings, the other people's feelings, and will most definitely manage their feelings so that they do not get on the way of proper decision making (Epstein 1998:46). EI assists managers to perform critical interpersonal roles as; figurehead, leader and mentor (Early & Peterson 2004:100-115). EI impacts on the success of tasks, effective leadership is indispensable if the multi-disciplinary task should be delivered according to schedule. The diagram below (figure 1) illustrates the elements of emotional intelligence.

 

 

Emotional intelligence has the potential to contribute immensely to effective leadership in multiple ways and can help managers to make effective and efficient contributions to society (Begley 1998:74). EI enables the leader to keep his self-confidence and enthusiasm which will energise subordinates to help the organisation to reach its objectives, it further assists to awaken employee creativity (Zhou & George 2003:545-568). This is exactly what age does to the African in charge, makes them fatherly, compassionate, and understanding because these are the expectations from a cultural perspective. With age come experience and maturity and the ability to be self-aware, others aware and socially aware.

3.4 You are who you are because of other people

Managers spend 80%+ of their working time interacting with their subordinates at the work place (Strohmeir 1992:45-48). This high level of interaction demands for the ability of the leader to handle subordinate problems, organisational problems and personal problems without breaking down (Loo 1996:6-14). High levels of EI are an indication of possible effective leadership as a critical factor for enterprise management. Botho teaches team work, consensus which means a botho conscious manager is more likely to interact extensively, in the process, they have access to the emotions and problems of their subordinates.

Many studies show that high IQ score is not a guarantee for outstanding job performance and this tool has failed to provide sufficient variance in success criteria both in education and the organisational environment (Dulewcz & Higgs 2000:341-372). Research findings show that emotional competencies (the potential of EI translating into practical capabilities) is twice more important than IQ (Goleman 2001:27-44). EI is therefore an indispensable variable necessary for effective and successful management. Ascribing respect and honour to senior people is based on the presumption that they have extensive experience and are now emotionally stable and effective. Managers with high emotional intelligence are known to be more proactive, communicate openly and tend to delegate (which is a form of empowerment) and have above average interpersonal relationships compared to those with low emotional intelligence. All these speak to the ideal expectations from a botho view.

Leadership is "influencing, motivating, and enabling others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members" (McShane & Von Glinow 2009:176). Another important element of the botho structure is the need for a particular type of a followership. Followers with the botho values will be easy to mobilise under the leadership of someone elderly or well respected using the same values. Behind every successful leader are great followers, though academics have not been in agreement on the correct definition of a leader (Acquinas 2008:112).

Leaders have followers and effective leaders somehow get others to do things that are helpful for group performance. Bagrain, Cunningham, Potgieter and Viedge (2010:59) posit that leadership is a "social process of influencing people to work voluntarily, enthusiastically and persistently". The botho culture pre-disposes people to subservient behaviour in pursuit of both individual and community goals. Africa remained largely unchanged throughout the dark ages, this benefited the retention of cultural values of which botho is a critical part thereof. The evolution of leadership theories comes because of industrial revolution and the shift in the livelihood of the inhabitants. The African leadership styles dependant largely on the beliefs, attributes and the cultural values held outside of modernization.

 

5. CONCLUSION

Not much has been written and hence little is known about botho. Botho is an important component of effective leadership different from the insensitive and individualistic western form of leadership. Properly implemented in its pure form, botho can remove tyranny and the inhuman disregard for employee emotions in the western style of management. Needed is a humanistic approach that treats subordinates as fellow emotional human beings needing of assistance from those better privileged. Botho inevitably brings in new thinking and shifts in paradigms that will make the work place another family away from home and encourage productivity.

The followership in the system is critical as it is followership that permits leaders to lead in a particular way. If botho is to be used, it calls for continuous learning by both subordinate and manager which should not be practiced exclusively at work, but it should be a way of life. Botho is culture based and is spontaneously followed by those from that background without having to think on how to behave. It is not book based, it is rather societal and permeates through the social aspects of everyday life of the individual.

 

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