We are ending with a highly readable piece of non-fiction: Klitgaard, Robert (1990) Tropical Gangsters: One Man's Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa about Equatorial Guinea
Perpetually dissatisfied with my cross-cultural management course, I have taken a new tack this semester and am very happy with at least the readings. I usually face the challenges of 1) giving some idea of culture shock to traditional undergrads, mostly white, middle-class Catholics from the suburbs of Boston and New York or the boon-docks of rural northern New England and 2) combining this experience with elements of management (not just leadership). I have oriented the course towards the development industry (in Africa because I have some experience there).
I opened with a novel (available cheap on half.com): Dooling, Richard (1994) White Man's Grave. New York. Picador Perhaps at a liberal arts college I should have used Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but Dooling's satirical novel takes a white, middle-class American on a tour of the development industry (Peace Corps) and local government in villages in Sierra Leone.
The guts of the course come in a superb new paperback textbook by (full disclosure here) an old Peace Corps buddy of mine (who also writes adventure novels): Nolan, Riall (2002) Development Anthropology: Encounters in the Real World. Boulder, CO. Westview Press. This text presents basic ideas of culture, of the discipline of anthropology, of the development industry "in the mature stage of its life cycle - there are no new ideas," of what it's like to work on a project, etc. We switched into low, low gear to examine the planning tools that Nolan outlines, some of which come from management. The book ends in a polemic; Nolan criticizes the development industry for cultural insensitivity on the one hand and the discipline of anthropology for being academically critical instead of getting involved in development projects on the other hand. Thus it captures the spirit of what we in OB call applied behavioral science.
We are ending with a highly readable piece of non-fiction: Klitgaard, Robert (1990) Tropical Gangsters: One Man's Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa. NYC. Basic Books. (also available cheap at half.com] Klitgaard left the economics faculty at Harvard to represent the World Bank in the former Spanish Equatorial Guinea. And he brought his surfboard. This book presents both development issues and personal experience and illustrates the usefulness of cultural sensitivity in cross-cultural management.
