Work-Family in Africa
Special Issue - Africa Journal of Management
Guest Editors
Prof Samuel Aryee, University of Surrey, UK
Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management
Email: s.aryee@surrey.ac.uk
Prof Jenny M Hoobler, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Professor of Human Resource Management
Email: jenny.hoobler@up.ac.za
Deadlines
Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 May 2019
Full Paper Submission Deadline (Full papers may be submitted without having previously submitted an abstract.): 31 January 2020
Background
Recent work-family (WF) meta-analyses have all but left out the scholarship of and about work and family intersections in Africa (Allen, French, Dumani, & Shockley, 2015; Shockley, Douek, Smith, Yu, Dumani, & French, 2017). Yet WF research is accumulating in South Africa, Ghana, and other African nations (Hoobler & Koekemoer, 2018). And characteristics of certain African cultures suggest that work and family may be more intertwined and family may play a larger role in work for people in African nations, as opposed to nations in the Global North (Aryee, 2005), based on higher degrees of collectivism (vs individualism) and femininity (vs masculinity). To date, what we know about work and family in Africa has taken a somewhat piece-meal approach. For example, new research has been performed just on entrepreneurial women in sub-Saharan Africa (Wolf & Freese, 2018), domestic workers in South Africa (Hoobler, 2016), and a new conflict measure just for South African workers (Koekemoer, Mostert, & Rothmann, 2010). We ask whether it is time to take stock of the literature as a whole. Just as Nkomo (2011) asked if there is or can be an African way of leading, is there an Afro-centric version of work and family intersections? Is this unique? What can be learned from studying work and family in African contexts?
Lest we fall prey to essentialist notions of Africa as a mono-culture, we encourage multi-level models that acknowledge ethnic, cultural, industry, and national influences on various relations and outcomes. We encourage papers that explore tried-and-true topics such as WF conflict, enrichment, and balance, but also new ways of looking at the WF interface, especially via emic approaches such as grounded theory. We welcome conceptual, theoretical and empirical (both qualitative and quantitative) papers that advance our understanding of work and family intersections in Africa.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Work-family conflict and/or enrichment and/or balance
- New constructs that capture work and family intersections in Africa
- Comparative research on WF in developing and developed nations
- Management implications of WF intersections
- Multinational corporations' influence on WF management and cultural preservation in Africa
- Ethics and CSR issues related to WF policies and interpersonal treatment
- Technology's influence on WF for African workers
- WF in entrepreneurship
- Historical perspectives on WF in Africa
- The future of WF in Africa
- WF-focused interventions that might be appropriate for various African cultural contexts
- Post-and anti-colonial perspectives on WF
- Boundary/domain/role management and crossing in Africa
- Work-family human resource practices and employee and organizational outcomes
Africa Journal of Management
AJOM is published by Africa Academy of Management (AFAM), an affiliate of the US-based Academy of Management. As the first scholarly journal of AFAM, AJOM gives voice to all those who are committed to advancing management scholarship, education and practice in or about Africa, for the benefit of all of Africa. The purpose of the journal is to advance management theory, research, education, practice and service in Africa by promoting the production and dissemination
of high quality and relevant manuscripts. AJOM welcomes manuscripts that develop, test, replicate or validate management theories, tools and methods with Africa as the starting point. The journal also publishes research notes, book reviews and insights, and comments and debates from readers on published papers or important management questions of the day.
Founding Editor I Prof Moses Kiggundu I Carleton University, Canada
Senior Associate Editor I Prof Bruce Lamont I Florida State University, USA
Submission Guidelines and Process
- AJOM operates an international double-blind peer review process.
- Authors should refer to the AJOM website for instructions on submitting a paper.
Submission must be done via the Africa Journal of Management Editorial Manager at
http://www.edmgr.com/rajm/default.aspx
- Authors are encouraged (but not required) to submit a 500-word abstract and outline to Prof Jenny Hoobler at jenny.hoobler@up.ac.za by May 31, 2019. Notification of abstract acceptance will be done by July 1, 2019. Please note that acceptance of abstracts does not guarantee inclusion in the Special Issue as all full paper submissions will still be subjected to double-blind peer review.
- Authors with accepted abstracts, and those directly submitting full manuscripts, should please do so by January 31, 2020.
Please direct enquiries about this special issue to the Guest Editors:
Prof Sam Aryee: s.aryee@surrey.ac.uk
Prof Jenny Hoobler: jenny.hoobler@up.ac.za
References
Allen, T. D., French, K. A., Dumani, S., & Shockley, K. M. (2015). Meta-analysis of work–family conflict mean differences: Does national context matter? Journal of Vocational Behavior, 90, 90-100.
Aryee, S. (2005). The work-family interface in urban sub-saharan Africa: A theoretical analysis. In Poelmans, S.A. Y, (Ed.), Work and Family: An International Research Perspective (pp261-286). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hoobler, J. M. (2016). Domestic employment relationships and trickle-down work–family conflict: The South African context. Africa Journal of Management, 2(1), 31-49.
Hoobler, J.M., & Koekemoer, Eileen. (2018). Generalizability of work-family studies
to the Global South? A meta-analytic test using South African research. Meetings of the Africa Academy of Management, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Koekemoer, E., Mostert, K., & Rothmann Jr, I. (2010). Interference between work and nonwork roles: The development of a new South African instrument. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 36(1), 1-14.
Nkomo, S. M. (2011). A postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of 'African'leadership and management in organization studies: Tensions, contradictions and possibilities. Organization, 18(3), 365-386.
Shockley, K. M., Douek, J., Smith, C. R., Peter, P. Y., Dumani, S., & French, K. A. (2017). Cross-cultural work and family research: A review of the literature. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 101, 1-20.
Wolf, K., & Frese, M. (2018). Why husbands matter: Review of spousal influence on women entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa Journal of Management, 1-32.
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Jenny Hoobler
Professor
University of Pretoria
South Africa
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