Richard Haines

Cross-cultural management in South African NGOs

Abstract Little has been written on cross-cultural management in Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), despite their apparent importance in managing people through reconciling cultural influences from post-colonial. Western and local sources, and despite development NGOs working predominantly in multicultural societies. This article provides a model for analysing cross-cultural dynamics in the management of people through a concept of cultural crossvergence and hybridisation, and by incorporating the idea of locus of human value, focusing on instrumental and humanistic views of the value of people. Hypotheses are developed regarding the appropriateness of management systems to the cultural expectations of local staff, and the consequences for motivation and commitment. Through a study of local NGOs in South Africa, as an example of management in a multicultural, developing country, there is evidence of resistance to instrumental and results-oriented principles of managing people, such as performance related reward. Rather, there is a development of hybrid management forms that incorporate local, humanistic values and expectations. Yet cross-cultural issues appear not to be addressed formally through capacity building. These initial findings have implications for the way people are managed in local NGOs, and should be noted by local managers as well as policy makers in development agencies.

The Complexities of Development: The South African National Industrial Participation Programme in Perspective

From the late 1990s, the National Industrial Participation Programme (NIPP) and the associated Defence Industrial Participation (DIP) programme have become one of the more visible development-oriented programmes of the post-apartheid, African National Congress (ANC), government. Industrial participation and countertrade have remained surprisingly resilient as methods of public procurement exercises and potential means of leveraging technology transfers and economic and industrial development. However, analyzing the impact of such programmes and deciphering their myths (Balakrishnan and Matthews 2009) are challenges to the relevant state agencies, industry practitioners and scholars alike. Andrea Hurst points out that development analysis and prescription should be grounded in a greater conceptual appreciation of the complexities and contradictions of social and economic reality (Hurst 2010).

Transformation or Stagnation? The South African Defence Industry in the Early 21st Century

In post-Apartheid South Africa, the ANC Government faced the challenge of restructuring an unsustainably large defence sector. This was in the context of economic and social problems and a declining international arms market. This paper considers the restructuring of the South African industry over that period and more recently, providing a valuable case study of defence industrial restructuring in a small industrialised economy. It considers how the public sector (DENEL) and private sector responded to the cuts in defence spending and the impact of the Government’s decision to modernise the South African Defence Force through foreign procurement, the Strategic Defence Package (SDP) but with extensive offset deals. Within this context the prospects for the industry and the issues surrounding the privatisation of DENEL are considered. The SDP and its offset deals is seen to be continuing to have a considerable impact on the defence industry, but is of questionable value to the South African economy. While the defence projects seem to have some successes the experience of the non defence projects is poor and overall the value of the deals is nowhere near the promises made at the outset. Lack of transparency has created a environment where corruption was almost inevitable and successful industrial planning almost impossible. While there is still some way to go, the scepticism of offset programmes expressed by Brauer and Dunne (2004) seems to be justified by the experience of South Africa.

A bridge too far? The arms deal, the Coega IDZ, and economic development in the Eastern Cape

Abstract Offsets or industrial participation have become an increasingly important part of arms procurement, with the promise of economic benefits often being an important justification for spending large amounts of public money. However, the limited but growing research on the subject casts doubt on the net value of defence offsets to national economies. An important aspect af any offset agreement is its impact at the regional and local levels. This paper contributes to the continuing debate on the topic, by undertaking a case study of the South African experience, focusing on the Coega Industrial Development Zone, which is situated on the coast some 22 kilometres north-east of Port Elizabeth. The endurance of the Coega IDZ (Industrial Development Zone) project in the face of considerable national criticism from business, other provinces, and civil society, can be explained in part by its identification as the flagship of the NIP (National Industrial Participation) programme, and its reciprocal role in helping the private and public justification of the Strategic Defence Programme (SDP). The study finds that industrial participation schemes do attract and focus investment, but that they also deform efforts at more integrated development at sub-national levels, and further fragment the terrain for industrial policy conceptualisation. It suggests that the offsets targeted for the Eastern Cape do relatively little to address backlogs in development in the region.

Development in Adversity: South Africa’s Defence Industrial Participation in Perspective

Defence industrial participation (DIP) is a form of countertrade and falls in the sub-category of (defence) offsets. The South African DIP programme played a developmental role in the country’s defence industrial base (DIB), arresting its steady decline since the 1980s. This article discusses the perceived non-achievement of the 1997 DIP objectives and the reality of its manifestations over a 12-year period (2000–2012). It is argued that the DIP tripled the gross national product and improved the economy through the retention of some 58xa0000 jobs. However, the 2014 Defence Review paves the way for a new defence industrial dispensation. Notwithstanding, there is a need to explore the concomitant ambiguity that exists between perceptions of countertrade and offsets as trade-distorting practices and as value-adding prospects, and to ascertain how this reciprocal trade mechanism could be used better to promote the developmental aims and objectives of governments.

Reconciliation and the Land Question in South Africa: A Case for Negotiation?

Twenty years after South Africa’s transition to democracy, conflict over land has not been resolved. Several analysts have argued that the failure to properly attend to this matter puts the larger national reconciliation project in jeopardy (Ntsebenza and Hall in The Land Question in South Africa. Jossey Bass, San Franciso, 2007). Land reform has been an important element in stabilizing or destabilizing various post-conflict societies and demands careful management. This chapter focuses on the South African land issue with consideration to lessons emerging from the experience of other land reform processes in the context of national reconciliation programmes.

National Planning, Industrial Policy and the New Statism in Contemporary South Africa

This chapter explores the interplay between national and macro planning, industrial policy conceptualization and implementation, and state restructuring in South Africa. It also looks to contextualize such processes within changes brought about by contemporary globalization. The study draws from the emerging practice of development history as a means of providing additional insights into the current development policy within the country. This chapter has been informed by range of insights offered by intersecting traditions and discourses in critical institutionalist writings (Wood 2012).

A military history of Germany: From the Eighteenth Century to the present day

The central role of the army in the historical development of Germany has long been worried- at by historians and has formed the subject of a number of specialised studies. Yet since the publicaton of Gordon A. Craigs The Politics of the Prussian Army 1640-1915 (1955) and Karl Demeters The German Officer Corps in Society and State 1640-1935 (1965), there has been no attempt to synthesize the findings of these monographs into a book capable of appealing to the general reader until the publication of A Military History of Germany.