7th Biennial Conference of the Africa Academy of Management

January 8-10, 2024
Stellenbosch Business School
Cape Town, South Africa

Transforming Organizations in the Digital Era: Dignity, Justice, and Prosperity in Africa

Globalization and digitalization are having a transformative effect on the nature and organization of work as organizations strive to adapt to the competitive pressures unleased by these twin environmental forces. For many organizations, adapting to these pressures has entailed the adoption of new business models as they strategize to explore and exploit the threats and opportunities in the increasingly changed environment. Additionally, digitilization has engendered new forms of work organization and altered long standing employment conditions.

In tandem with these adaptive organizational responses are shifting societal values. For example, the previous prioritization of achievement of organizational goals at the expense of the well-being of individual employees is increasingly being replaced to one that focuses on the sustainable management of employees. These environmental forces particularly digitilization has enabled organizations to enhance operational processes, develop innovative products and services, provide high quality jobs for segments of the workforce, and individualization of employment conditions.

Yet, these benefits are counterbalanced by the emergence of a growing number of employees who find themselves in precarious jobs, have limited opportunities for skill development, deteriorating working conditions, and increasingly constitute the working poor.

The theme of this conference “Transforming Organizations in the Digital Era: Dignity, Justice, and Prosperity in Africa” is intended to provide a forum for a robust exchange of ideas and sharing of research findings to illuminate our understanding of how organizations in Africa are adapting to the preceding transformative forces of globalization and digitilization. Additionally, the conference aims to understand how the nature and contexts of work can be redesigned to foster sustainable management of employees to promote workplace dignity, justice, and prosperity for employees and their communities.

We therefore encourage submission of empirical and conceptual papers that speak to the theme of the conference and explore answers to such questions as:

• How do African organizations conceptualize their environments and the competitive forces that define these environments?
• What strategies are adopted by African organizations to respond to these competitive forces and what are the drivers of these strategies?
• What interorganizational alliances are being forged by African organizations to promote the development of innovative products and services?
• What are the forms of digitalization adopted by African organizations and how are they changing the nature of work organizations?
• Have African organizations embraced corporate entrepreneurship and what are the successful factors?
• What are private-public sector strategies to enhance the competitiveness of African organizations?
• What roles are governments playing in the regulation of employment conditions to minimize the tendency of organizations to reproduce inequalities through their employment practices?
• What new forms of work organizations (e.g cooperatives) have been formed to promote productive activities in rural communities? How are they operated and what are drivers of their effectiveness?
• What role do labor organizations play in protecting the rights of employees as well as their sustainable management?
• What employment practices and work contexts have emerged in African organizations to promote dignity and justice for employees?
• What are the drivers and forms of digitilization in the public sector and how are they impacting on operational effectiveness?

Conference Proceedings:

Proceedings Editor: Dorothy Mpabanga, University of Botswana, Botswana (dorothym366@gmail.com)

Abridged versions of accepted papers may be selected for publication in the Best Paper Proceedings of the Conference. There will be a best paper award for each track. Winners will receive a certificate and the paper will be highlighted in the conference program. Best papers will also be considered for publication in the Africa Journal of Management (AJOM) subject to the journal’s blind review process.

Please check the AJOM website at https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rajm20/current

About The Host Institution:
Established in 1964, Stellenbosch Business School was the first business school from an African university to receive the prestigious Triple Crown of international accreditations, reserved for the top 1% of business schools worldwide. The school focuses on post-graduate education with programmes including PG-Dip, specialist masters, MBA, and PhD. Short courses are provided by an executive development arm of the school. Many programmes include a responsible leadership dimension as part of the school’s commitment to developing responsible leaders for a better world -- a key differentiator of the school’s programmes, research, and social impact activities. There are six research Centres at the school with expertise in Development Finance, Governance, Women and Work, Futures & Foresight, Conflict & Collaboration, and Responsible Leadership. The school also has strong pedigree in entrepreneurship hosting the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for South Africa and its own Small Business Academy for entrepreneurs in informal settlements across three provinces of the country. Stellenbosch Business School is a member of PRME and a number of alliances of leading business schools including the Council on Business & Society, the EMBA Consortium, and the Global Innovation Challenge.