philosophy

Philosophy

Ubuntu

It is always exciting to discover an entirely new word with an entirely new meaning. When it comes from Africa, that somehow makes it all the more exciting and exotic. Ubuntu is just such a word and concept.

The world looked on with amazement as South Africa went from the threat of a bloodbath through the two extraordinary days of the election in April 1994 and came out into the peace and harmony of the New South Africa. True, all is not entirely settled yet and there are teething problems in many areas, but those who live there and those who visit bear testimony to the difference in the relationships between people and in the whole atmosphere of the country.

What made this possible? One of the major factors underlying the incredible ability of the black peoples of South Africa to move away from the past and begin the process of forgiveness and reconstruction, to join hands with white South Africans and to share power, is the concept of Ubuntu.

The word itself is Xhosa and comes from the same stem as "person". It has been translated "dignity", or "respect"; it could also be translated "humanisation" or "regarding others as worthwhile people". The word is broad and encompasses a whole philosophy and way of living. If being human and acknowledging the humanity of others leads to being humane, then this is a value that is worked on in oneself, and perfected in the interaction with others in the community.

It is this Ubuntu which ensures that a black person first greets the other, taking the time to ask how he/she is, and perhaps how their family are, before getting on to the business at hand. It says "I see you. You are a person with a context, with a life and with people you love. I acknowledge your worth in the scheme of things." To ask or offer service immediately, without this introduction of concern, is to devalue and insult the other.

It is this Ubuntu which causes the individual to subjugate his/her own personal advantage to that of the group to which (s)he belongs, in the understanding that the group advantage in the short term brings the personal advantage in the long term.

It is this Ubuntu which allows people to take the longer view, not to rush events or people, to wait and allow matters to run their course and not to go for the quick fix or the immediate benefit. It makes the "delayed gratification" referred to by Scott Peck in his "Road less travelled" possible.

It is, of course, not entirely new to us. We find it in the Old Testament in the formation of the people of Israel, where the tribes of the Exodus are welded into one community based on respect and commonality, and perhaps most clearly in the Jubilee Year concept in Leviticus, where the freedom and property of each member of the community is restored in the general amnesty of the fiftieth year.

Certainly it was the underlying concept of the communities in the early church where they not only "had everything in common", but were the forerunners of feminist and liberationist thought, treating each other with great respect.

What happened in South Africa to bring about the miracle we saw, was the superseding of the old multiple, separate and competing communities with the creation of a new community, where all the people of the country were members on an equal basis. This community started to operate in the early hours of the morning of 27 April, when young and old, black and white, rich and poor, men and women stood together in the queues, waiting to cast their equal votes. It grew on the lawns of the Union Buildings and in front of the TV sets in the homes of the nation as the new President took the oath of office to serve all the people of South Africa, and it continues in the new flag which embodies the rich diversity in unity of the different groups making the nation.

The formation of the new community allowed for a new overriding loyalty, where white South Africans may now also be accorded the respect and support of the community, and the common good is striven for before personal gain. It will take some time for this to become truly a part of the habitual thinking of white South Africans, bred in the materialistic, individualistic ethos of western capitalism; it will take some time for the black South Africans who lost their sense of Ubuntu in the brutalisation of their society over the last many decades, to regain their values; but a start has been made and the astonishing results are before us.

In line with the thinking of Scott Peck, Covey, and so many other writers of today, the formation of community, combined with a drive to rehumanise the workers, becomes a powerful tool in a new understanding of effective management. There have already been success stories of companies in South Africa putting this principle to work in their businesses, and the results are worth watching. There is a danger, however, in trying to "put new wine into old skins". If we are to try to develop a principle of Ubuntu and practise it using the existing hierarchical business structures, we will run into major problems.

Let us consider some of the main differences in the kind of management beliefs that operate
in the different streams:

In the hierachical structure, whatever the management theory is, there is a sense in which the workers are children to the parental managers. There may well be a shared development of objectives, or a democratically designed mission statement, but the actual outworking, and certainly the perception of the workers themselves, is that the company is run and the decisions really made, in the management offices. This is underscored a million times a day in the way people speak to each other, where people are and are not allowed to go, what facilities people are allowed to use, who may speak to whom, and about what. There is a hierarchy of perceived personal value reinforced at every level. This says, in effect, "Some people are more worthwhile than others; some people are more important than others; some people have more rights than others to what is available in terms of reward as well as privilege."

This is obviously disempowering and dehumanising to many of the "team", and has often been one of the causes of a lack of motivation among workers. In recent years there has been a reaction against strict hierarchy and autocratic management styles, and there has been a tendency towards a devolution of authority along with the tasks delegated. Whilst this has provided opportunities for real development of personnel and there have been many good things come out of it, it has also created the framework within which disasters like the Baring Bank collapse can happen. When "lower" ranks are allowed to take risks and make decisions previously reserved to the top levels of management while still operating within the hierarchical shape where the chain of communication is attenuated, sufficient natural checkpoints do not exist.

The application of Ubuntu, where the perceived personal worth of each person is equal, probably requires a flattening of the organisational structure to the extent that organograms completely disappear and in their place something akin to quality circles, where the weighting of the input each may have is determined in accordance with a formula worked out to suit that particular company.

The movement towards democratisation and devolution of responsibility and answerability in the workplace is in line with the whole shift in world paradigms, and is probably impossible to resist or reverse. What is important is that we should not make the mistake of training to overlay the old shapes with the new ways. We need to be radical in our evaluation of business theory in the light of praxis now, and to find the new underlying truth that will create the structures to see us through the next decades.

Certainly the human values of dignity and contribution are fundamental to this, and the possibility of introducing real caring and love as a basis for sound interpersonal interaction is exciting. This concept of Ubuntu may be the single most significant "export" from Africa in our time. It is also the basis for the way we at Eurofocus approach our work.

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