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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Managers and Their Entrepreneurs: Power and Authority in Indigenous Private Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria
Author:Ukaegbu, Chikwendu Christian
Year:1997
Periodical:Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives and Area Studies
Volume:16
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:115-138
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:private enterprises
management
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
Labor and Employment
Abstract:Little is known about the organization and management of medium and large-scale manufacturing enterprises set up by Nigerian businessmen. Using questionnaire, interview and observational data gathered in 1991 in four states of eastern Nigeria - Abia, Anambra, Enugu and Imo - the author analyses the perceptions which managers in these enterprises have of the founding entrepreneurs, the way in which the former are involved in decisionmaking and how this is related to the power structure in the enterprise, and the implications of perceived entrepreneurial behaviour for the future of the investment. The findings indicate that generally managers recognize the entrepreneurial abilities of their employers. Their criticism mostly centres on the concentration of power in the hands of the owner-founder, which may be a promising strategy as long as he is available to direct affairs, but which can prove costly to the investment if he is incapacitated or dies. Managers' prescriptions for enterprise durability emphasize transformation in the ownership and management structures through sale of shares and decentralization. A combination of patrimonial and professional management systems may be the most appropriate, coupled with a conscious intervention through education in order to achieve deconcentration of entrepreneurial power and control. Bibliogr., sum. (A version of this paper also appears in: African entrepreneurship: theory and reality, ed. by Anita Spring and Barbara E. McDade, Gainesville, Fla., cop. 1998, p. 181-198.)
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