Quality Management in

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Quality Management in

Burkina Faso

Dialogue or monologue?

Afstudeer opdracht 2004

Lont E.G.H.

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s. 0952249

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, faculteit Bedrijfskunde: I.B.

Preface

End 2002, I was very lucky that my friend and colleague-student Sharon Becker introduced me to Luchien Karsten en Bart-Jan Pennink. We were both looking for a subject for final project, to write our Master’s thesis about. Luchien and BartJan introduced us again to Honorine Illa, a Burkinabé who was busy doing her PHD-study about Western African Management. She could need some help and we could need an interesting project. So, a synergy was born.

My research is about quality management in Burkina Faso. This subject is chosen because of the lack of information concerning this, and my interest and work experience (job on the side) as a junior, consulting in quality systems. In this research I have looked at the Quality

manager his interpretation of quality, because that is where it starts with. Next, I have looked which quality methods are used and how this is communicated to the employees. And last but not least at the role of the employee in this, meant-to-be, feedback loop. Quality management is a rather new experience in Burkina Faso, so very interesting to explore.

Form January until end 2003 I have lived together with Sharon in a house in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, thanks to the efforts of Honorine. We worked at the university of Ouagadougou and have visited companies in Ouagadougou as well as Bobo Diaulasso.

I may say I have enjoyed myself in Ouagadougou. The atmosphere was, imaginary, very relaxed: a big contradiction with the Netherlands. The coffee-bars and the night-life with its live-music, many dancing was delighting. After a few months we have met Hilde Toonen, an Anthropology student who lived in a very small village, where the electricity quit after 18:00.

I will always cherish the nights, with our new Burkinabé friends, djembees, tremendously sweet tea and the mind-expanding conversations under the African sky

First I would like to thank, in order to have created this experience, Luchien Karsten and Bart Jan Pennink for their helpful advice, feedback, support and the wonderful trip to the West of Burkina Faso.

Especially I would like to thank Honorine Illa for having prepared everything fantastic, the first weeks of our stay. It is wonderful, when you are a stranger in another country, that there is someone who guides you through, and that is what she did. Next, Roger was always helpful when we had any practical or domestic problems.

Sharon, my partner in crime: many thanks to your cheerful company: It was great to share this adventure with you and thanks for your support.

Also I would like to thank Serge Bayala, the men from the IT-centre who let us use their IT- room for using the internet, Madi Kouanda for sharing his office with us and all other people at the University of Ouagadougo who facilitated my research.

Thanks to Hilde Toonen, Auguste Illa, Victor Kambou, Adama Nana, Alphonse Kaboré, Kouem, Viviane and Nadege, who became our friends and who made our stay a wonderful experience.

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Thanks to our neighbours Godefroy and Isa and little Soa, Ramata, Yamina and Tahib for all their visits and their hospitality.

And of course thanks to my family, my brother Hotze Lont who helped me with feedback, writing this thesis. I would also like to thank my friends for their support and many emails.

And last but not least, Erwin Smit, in supporting me, during the finishing of my studies.

Introducing Quality Management in Burkina Faso

“Quality is to control things, which does not fit in this culture.

In Burkina Faso, life flows like it flows. The ancestors make life how it is.

This is a reason for the high passivity: ‘Ca va aller…’, while Quality management is about taking fate in your own hands, to avoid risks.”

Source: Interview William Ilboudou, April, 2003

Background of this research

In recent years, many publications have been written about quality management, although little is known in the literature about quality management in Western Africa, especially not in a country like Burkina Faso. This is interesting because the business world is getting smaller by globalisation. Trade between countries is increasing, and since a decade Burkina Faso notices the need to reach certain quality levels in order to trade outside the nation itself. But still, does the perception and application of quality match the quality as it is applied in the rest of the world? The goal of this research is to fill up this gap partially. This research is meant as an input for further specific research concerning this subject. Quality management is about improving the efficiency and effectiveness throughout the whole organizational process.

This indicates that partial studies will be necessary to create adequate knowledge. Certainly concerning that quality is dependent of its interpretation, like nowadays literature says:

Quality only exists in the eye of the beholder (Broekhuis, 2001, p.26)

This research is about how quality management is managed in Burkina Faso. It is important to remind the reader that the concept ‘Quality Management’ should not be seen as an already fixed concept, as it is applied in Europe, the United States, Japan or in other areas in the world. The purpose of this research is to look at how African managers deal with quality management as a continuous improvement of organizational processes. This indicates an explorative research with a multidisciplinary approach.

As a result of orientating conversations with B.J.W. Pennink and L. Karsten who work at the University of Groningen, and H. Illa who works at the university of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the opportunity was given for doing this research.

This threesome is since several years active in creating knowledge about African management styles, especially in Burkina Faso. Therefore, this doctoral research is a partial study for the promotion research of H. Illa. She is doing a study about African management styles in Western Africa. Her study contains many fields of management, and quality management is one of them, which gave me the chance to go to Burkina Faso, and investigate that part of her doctoral study in this developing country.

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The research question is formulated as follows:

How does the Burkinabé Quality Manager translate quality management to the shop floor and how is this adopted by the employees?

This research is brought forward by looking at the business context, next to quality management concepts. In the overlapping part between these two factors I have tried to convey how quality management is applied in Burkina Faso.

The context plays a prominent role, certainly when it soon appeared to me that, when introducing this study, ‘quality management in Burkina Faso’, some people reacted with astonishment. Many people only know Africa from the famines, civil wars and the slum areas we see on television. Many people do not know that the business life in Africa, also in Burkina Faso, has transformed drastically since the end of colonization, a few decades ago.

International trade is increasing. Inevitably, quality has made its entrance too, which has proven to be a lasting business concept, that has increasingly penetrated many markets and countries.

In this research we will look further at the role of the context, the business context on quality management in Burkina Faso, to see if it is true what Mr. Ilboudou has said in his quote on top of the first page.

Outline of the Dissertation

This study hands a diversified view on quality management in Burkina Faso. The focus lies on how the quality manager translates his view of quality towards the shop floor and the results of this. In this research I will therefore use certain dimensions, supporting a conceptual model. In chapter three I will further deal with this.

Before applying the conceptual model, it is necessary to look at quality management and later on the parts of quality management that are preferred by the quality managers in Burkina Faso. In chapter two I would like to discuss the business context. A manager’s style and action is influenced by his social context and background. The background forms someone’s thinking cadre: also called: ‘habitus’. Further in this thesis, I will explain this theory more thoroughly. In this study, I am attempting to get a general view of the quality manager in Burkina Faso, and how employees, in general, behave according to the concept of quality. I will look at the habitus of individuals: broaden my view to look at the social context of the manager as well as its employees, to find links in ways of behaviour, especially where quality meets context. The quality management combined with the business context/ habitus should evolve in a certain style. Next, the comments of four so called experts: Ilboudou, Garango, Traoré and Bayili, in the area of quality management in Burkina Faso will be woven in this research.

Like Olomo says; ‘Large enterprises in Africa cannot neglect the cultural background of different social groups, which origins lie in the village: the ‘villageois’. Besides there should be a match between the African collective consciousness and the modern enterprise.’(Olomo, 1987, p.91)

In chapter four, the results of the field study done at four companies, will be analysed , which results in conclusions and recommendations for further research.

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Chapter One- Quality Management

Introduction

In this chapter, I want to give an overall view on quality management, its history, its applications and how the situation is now, at the beginning of the 21^st century. From understanding the reference of quality, the next step in this research is to look at the manifestation of quality in Burkina Faso.

1.1 Definition of Quality Management

In order to go further with this research it is necessary to understand what quality management stands for. Surprisingly there is no universal definition for quality management.

The meaning and definition differs from person to person. Gurus and academics who have written about quality management have a tendency to provide different meanings (Cole, 1999). This is confusing, especially for the quality manager and his employees as well. What is quality management? The facts about quality management may be found in its origin. No theoretical structure lies beneath these in practice gained insights. According to Dean and Bowen(1994), there is not yet a flourishing academic development. In my view, I see a change in academic studies focusing on quality since recent years.

According to the literature, quality management focuses on controlling, maintenance and improvement of the quality of goods, services and production processes in order to supply goods that lead from satisfying the customer to a rise of productivity (effectiveness and efficiency), of the organisation which contribute to the long term survival of the organisation (Broekhuis, 2001). This is actually not a clear definition of quality management because the word ‘quality’ remains uncovered.

Quality seems to be dependent of the context in which it is being used: like national norms and values. Quality can be applied in diverse cases, and be viewed at by many perspectives, which is hard to define. But it is essential for this report to hand an indication of those different meanings of quality in order to get an insight in some of the possible perceptions:

- ‘Quality management delivers a contribution to effectiveness and efficiency’(Dean and Bowen, 1994)

- 'Quality is the capacity of a product to fulfil its intended purposes' (Feigenbaum, 1991, p.13)

- ‘Quality is fitness for use” (Juran, 1988)

- ‘Quality is conformance to requirements’ (Crosby, 1979)

Concluding, when quality only exists in the eye of the beholder (Broekhuis, 2001, p.26), than the context plays a large role indeed. This is also endorsed by Edvardsson and Gustavsson (1991) who mention that the meaning of 'quality' is interdependent of cultural factors: ‘The culture where the product is delivered and the culture that is determinant for the reference scheme of the judger.’ This makes quality management a flexible concept and maybe

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therefore it has proven not to be a fad, because it could be adapted to the culture. Like Boorsma (1994) says: ‘Perceptions are subject bounded and dependent of personal features and the subject's needs and own norms and values.’

TQM

As said earlier, the roots of quality management lie in the practice of managing organisations.

Total Quality management is a certain interpretation of quality management according to Dean and Bowen(1994).

TQM is a thinking-structure without a strong theoretical frame. In my view; TQM is quality management, but quality management is not necessarily TQM. It is necessary to emphasize this difference because these two are often considered to be equal. Total Quality Management is a quality management approach which focuses on an overall implementation of quality standards and therefore, has a broader area wherein to operate. It is an approach of zero- mistakes, empowerment of employees and full customer satisfaction ( www.tutor2u.net).

Total Quality Management is not a part of the business operations, but the business operations and beyond. Total Quality Management is an answer to quality management and although it focuses on more points than quality management, it remains a part of quality management.

Therefore, in this study I will talk about quality management instead of TQM.

Goals

According to Jaron (1988), the goals of quality management are a good product performance and a zero-defect production. This leads to client satisfaction and has a positive influence to the purchase conduct. Recent literature claims that indeed, because of the increasing productivity and standardization, customer satisfaction rises (Gumnes 1992 , Edvardsson et al.

1994).

According to M. Broekhuis(2001), there are a few developments going on in the field of quality management. Keep in eye that the focus on the available literature is mostly Western, or Eastern- oriented. Although, the increasing globalisation diminishes this argument, developments concerning Quality management are the following:

- Clients are getting more conscious about their possibilities of choice.

- The social environment, including the government is getting more critical considering products and production processes.

- Overall, the complexity of products increases

1.2 Habitus and Quality Management

All these different perceptions of quality give a notion of what quality is about, but remains subjective. Quality Management is a concept with principles, which are to increase the efficiency and increases the visibility of problem areas. For another part, the quality management method is also colored by the context. The context of a country consists of many determinants, like religion, language, social structures etcetera, which will be discussed in chapter two. A person living in a certain context is influenced in his thinking, action and speaking of these determinants. This external influence of one’s mind, which is determined by environments variables, is called habitus. ‘L’habitus, c’est d’abord le produit d’un appretissage devenu inconscient qui se traduit ensuite par une aptitude apparemment naturelle a evoluer librement dans un milieu.’(Sciences Humaines, 2002, p.5)

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The habitus leads to a certain style, in this study, a typical Burkinabé quality management style. This shows the importance of habitus concerning quality. Someone who grows up in a certain context, is getting confined with a certain situation, given a certain culture wherein something happens, has to react in order to stay acceptable for the group as a whole. He can do this by recognizing certain expressions and translate this, in what this means: his own habitus. Next, he knows how to react (Kamann, 1996, p.86) In this research this is very interesting: What is a well-accepted role of a quality manager? Next, what is a well-accepted role for an employee in Burkina Faso? Habitus is the social inscribed in the body: a feel or sense of the social game. Habitus is culture, and like culture it pervades or saturates social processes. Unconsciously, habitus implies a degree of social determinism. Meanings and consequences are not transparent to the actors themselves. In my view, habitus contains the unconscious rules of conduct.

Quality is habitus related, but first I would like to go further in our quest of quality management and its origin.

1.3 History Quality Management

Process control started in the perspectives of Taylor. In the 19^th and 20^th century, Taylor’s organizational concept: 'Scientific Management' and Fayol's classical Adm. Man. Concept (Kilmann, 1977) have had a great influence on the way of organising organisations and the way quality management, so far only in the industrial sector, became necessary for mass production in the Western world.

In the early days, the front man was being held responsible for the quality of the products.

Later in time, independent inspectors took over this role. Features of the products were being measured and compared to certain specifications. Standardisation of the product was the most important co-ordination mechanism. Next to the inspection of the final product, quality surveillance took also place by the dealing with complaints.

At the end of the 1930's and beginning of the 1940's, under influence of Shewhart (1931) efforts are made to reduce the control costs and dropout costs, by building in control points and feedback-mechanisms stream upwards in the process. This forms the basic idea of process control (Ross, 1993).

To take systematically care of costs, it became necessary that an optimal number of end products satisfies the demands that are determined by specifications (Ettinger, 1993). Quality management is now still pointed at controlling the mass fabric processes. Emphasis lies in the technical (process) control of quality. While the inspection and examination are being developed further, it is realised in the end 1940’s, that the quality of the end products is determined by the quality of the design, ‘quality engineering’.

From the 1960’s, control of the production processes is further refined and statistical methods are applied. (Bossink et al , 1992)

Quality is more often reviewed as meeting certain production demands. The emphasis lies on the control and standardisation of the production processes, the implementation of procedures as measurements to control processes and to solve technological problems. Handbooks are being developed. More attention is paid to determining quality costs and audits are being done (Broekhuis, 2001). In a small number of large organisations, the insight was developed that to all organisations and enterprises, the same number of common demands can be posed, focusing on control. These general demands were first formulated in the military industry and printed on a standard paper: AQAP (Allied Quality Assurance Publications).

This ‘successful’ approach was followed by the ISO-range. According the definition of the ISO norms, quality insurance of quality control and the whole of all planned and systemized

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actions necessitate a certain degree of confidence that a product or service is meeting the imposed quality standards (NEN-ISO, 1988,p.4)

From the 1970s quality management has developed to a vision of organising and controlling, called Total Quality management.

From the 1980s, Total Quality management is being seen as an organisations’ strategic policy instrument. According to Hackman and Wagenar (1995); four assumptions form the base of TQM. The supply of a qualitative good product is eventually cheaper than the supply of a qualitative bad product.

Employees are, out of nature, already involved with the tasks they are doing and show already the urge to improve the work done, but only if they are given the possibilities.

Organisations are seen as so-called systems with strongly interrelated dependent parts with problems that nearly always cross de functional boundaries. The top manager is responsible for the production quality and he can only do this by improving the organization.

For this research it is interesting to look at the source, from where quality policies are being derived from: the Deming Method.

1.3.1 The Deming Management method

W. Edwards Deming was a famous and strong proponent of quality management and a member of the few credited, contributing to the rapid revitalization of the Japanese economy after World War II. (1982) The reason for including the Deming Method is that many concepts of quality are derived from his method. In this study, the dimensions I use as instruments of analysis are related to this method. Concepts underlying the Deming Management method;

9 Visionary leadership

9 Internal and External cooperation 9 Learning

9 Process management 9 Continuous improvement 9 Employee fulfilment 9 Customer satisfaction

Visionary leadership

Visionary leadership deals with the role of top management in defining a long-range vision of an organization’s development, communicating this vision, implementing a plan of action, inspiring and motivating the entire organization toward the fulfilment of this vision. The defined and communicated vision ‘articulates’ a view of a realistic, credible and attractive future for the organization. (Bennis and Nanus, 1985). Top management leads by defining, communicating, and motivating continuous improvement.

Internal and External cooperation

The extensive literature review by Johnson and Johnson (1989) suggests that cooperative behaviour results in superior achievement under most circumstances, including different tasks and contexts. External cooperation, manifesting itself as a cooperation between a firm and its suppliers, has merits in the Just-In-Time purchasing systems (e.g., Ansari and Modarress,

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1990) Transaction cost theory urges organizations to choose suppliers to lower their transaction cost; organizations, therefore, would prefer to hold suppliers at an arm’s length and, quite often, have short term, adversial, rather than long-term, cooperative relationships with them (Donaldson, 1990)

Learning

The ability and willingness of the organization to engage in learning or knowledge-seeking activities at the individual, group, and organizational learning (e.g., Brown and Duguid, 1991) Deming spoke often of the tragedy of workers not being trained properly to perform work, let alone improve it, and not understanding the implications of their work on other’s work.

(Deming; 1986)

Process management

Reduction of variation signifies learning; this learning necessarily encompasses the four constructs as described in Huber’s article: knowledge acquisition, information interpretation, information distribution, and organizational memory. Process task knowledge and profound knowledge must first be acquired. Profound knowledge generates new information about the process that must be interpreted, understood, and verified; this information must then be communicated and applied appropriately; and last, this information and the results of application must be documented.

Process Management

Complementing the methodological approaches in process management is the set of practices regarding individual workers and their involvement in the transformation process. This indicates understanding the totality of the work system-technical and social- specifying system.

Continuous improvement

Continuously improvement is receiving increased attention in part due to the inherent character of global competition that thrives upon progress of product. According Deming consistency means better and better quality and less and less variation. Innovation is also integral to both the concept of continuous improvement and to Deming’s notions.

Employee fulfilment

This multidisciplinary concept defined as the degree to which employees of an organization believe that the organization continually satisfies their needs, arises fundamentally from employees’ being able to derive pride of workmanship, satisfaction, and commitment from the work they do.

Second, job commitment,‘ one’s loyalty, identification, and involvement with the organization’ (Mitchell, 1979: 249) are considered to be important next to pride in workmanship.

Customer satisfaction

Quality arises from the triangle: 1 The product, 2. The provision of training to the customer and 3. The customer and the way he or she uses the product.

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2. training

1.product 3.customer use

According to the literature, quality management is about accommodation and co-ordination of all transformation processes in the organisation. It starts from noticing signals to the supply of after-care during the delivery. Now, the opposed quality standards must be collectively generated from a formulated quality policy. Quality no longer focuses on technology only, but also on the wishes and demands of customers.

In my view, Deming gives a rather total image of focus points, where several methods are derived from. When focusing on these elements discussed above, there are several methods which help to improve the quality.

1.3.2 Methods to improve quality

A number of the most general methods used all over the world are listed below. In the research these measurements can be considered as referential in order to get insight in the methods being applied in our case studies.

PDCA cycle

The plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle is one of the most powerful, yet simple forms of continuous improvement. An ‘improvement team’, which is based of managers as well as personnel, focuses on a common shared problem following a fixed decision-pattern.(van Ool, 2001)

7 Wastes

This approach focuses eliminating the following wasteful shop-floor practices(van Ool, 2001):

- Overproduction - Time spent waiting - Transportation

- Manufacturing processes

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- Excessive inventories - Unnecessary movement - Defective products

4-S Movement

This is from origin a Japanese quality method focussed on cleaning. Straighten up the work area, which improves the security, efficiency and quality (van Ool, 2001).

- Seri: Straighten up the work area - Seiton: Put all necessary items in order - Seihetsu: Keep the work site clean and tidy - Seiso: Follow procedures in the workshop

Quality Deployment

This technique is a form of continuous improvement that seeks to identify problems before they occur. Staff begins by determining customer’s requirements and work backward in order to see how these requirements can be met (van Ool, 2001)

Team and groups

Small groups and teams become more important as a manager gains experience in continuous improvement. A broader cross-functional perspective gains insight and possible solutions in tackling weaknesses in the process. (van Ool, 2001)

Total Productive Maintenance

TPM is being used as a tool to prevent malfunctions. Though it is not always apparent, the TPM-approach claims that the condition of machinery directly reflects the behaviour of people in the firm (Slack,1995).

Just-In-Time manufacturing

This technology is developed by Toyota Motors and is the outcome of more than 30 years of work and experimentation. JIT is a form of efficiency, which enables manufacturing different products on the same product line, without driving up overhead costs (Slack, 1995).

GHP (Good Hygiene Practice)

In French this is called BPH (Bon Pratique d’Hygiène). This method is used in the food industry. This method focuses on cleaning and disinfections. GPH are measurements and requirements to produce safe food. These requirements are prerequisites to other and more specific approaches, such as HACCP (www.fao.org).

HACCP

This is a systematic approach which identifies, evaluates, and controls hazards which are significant for food safety. HACCP ensures food safety through an approach that builds upon foundations provided by good manufacturing practice. It identifies the points in the food production process that requires constant control and monitoring to make sure the process stays within identified limits. Statistical Process Control systems are relevant to this operation (Potmus, 1995)

Quality Circles

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Quality Circles are founded in Japan, in the 1960s. Small voluntary groups of employees and its supervisor form these groups. These circles of eight to ten persons will brainstorm over various business problems, by identifying the problem, analysing the problem and solving the problem. Quality circles increase the employees involvement, creates bonding and reveals information by openly discussing opinions (www.tutor2u.net).

Now that the more general related information about quality management are being discussed, the next step is to focus on quality in a developing country like Burkina Faso.

1.4 Quality Management in a developing country

‘By the 1980s, firms outside Japan had begun to experiment with the new methods. Today, they are being adopted by a large number of the world’s manufacturers. A fear, according to Ballance, who works for UNIDO, is that this international migration of managerial principles and production techniques is too selective. Firms in industrialised countries are proving to be willing converts but in developing countries the pace of acceptance is far too slow.’

( Ballance, et al.,1995, p.4)

An abundance of cheap labour and a relative scarcity of capital characterises the economies of most developing countries. These conditions are similar to those faced by Japanese manufacturers shortly after the Second World War. Like many of their counterparts in today’s developing countries, Japanese companies lacked the finances needed to purchase new equipment and modernise their plants. Engineers and managers quickly recognised that continuous improvement was an effective and inexpensive way to counter these drawbacks.

Product quality could be improved and costs reduced without large-scale spending for additional equipment and machinery. (Ballance, 1995, p.11) This indicates that quality management is indeed compatible with the social and economic conditions in developing countries, like in Africa. It is important, that a company generates its own innovations and to adapt equipment to suit these unique conditions. For example, quality management is founded on the shop floor. The notion of quality deployment enables firms to stay in touch with their market and tailor their products to meet customers’ needs. An important information input is the informal information. This can be generated during the daily course of events on the factory floor. It is derived from the experiences of production line workers and pertains to the use of material, components, machinery and the manufacturing processes of the firm. (p,13)

A system of ‘policy deployment’ can be set up to ensure that decisions filter down through the ranks and that all workers understand the reasoning behind these decisions. The idea of improvement teams, the advantages and disadvantages of quality control circles and systems of ‘total productive maintenance’ are other techniques. Many times, sources of waste and efficiency, excessive inventories, variation in production processes which require rework or results in defectives, unnecessary waiting time by workers or machines, or excessive movements of material around the plant. These are prime targets. (p.15) The problem is that employees or managers accept these problem areas as part of the normal routine.

Another method is statistical process control: ‘SPC (Statistical Process Control) offers several advantages, which make it particularly attractive to manufacturers in developing countries.

Most important, it provides a means of improving productivity and product quality without incurring large additional expenses for equipment and machinery

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Research from UNIDO shows that managers’ misconceptions about continuous improvement are the most important sources of difficulties. Others assume that particular procedures such as Statistical Process Control are synonymous with the overall approach.

UNIDO uses the term ‘misconception’ meaning that managers expect instant results, while it takes time before the benefits of quality management becomes visible. The term

‘misconception’ makes the concept quality management appear to be determined, instead of flexible, dependent of its context. The question is: Is it better to speak about misconception or to speak about another perception? In my view, although quality is a flexible context, dependent of the interpretation of its beholder, quality management remains a holistic approach of improving the business processes. Partial implementation could also be called a typical quality management style, but contradicts the basic ideas behind quality management.

It is difficult to draw a line, in saying that simply implementating one element is misconception, and applying three quality measurements is not. This research is about exploring the quality management style in Burkina Faso, instead of saying that quality management in Africa has to meet certain quality aspects in order to call it quality management, while quality management in Africa has to meet certain features in order to call it quality management. This remains a discussion point.

Another frequent source of difficulty arises when senior managers delegate responsibility for improvement programs to subordinates, either because they do not regard these activities as sufficiently important or because they lack a comprehensive understanding of the work. More widespread opposition emerges when managers use improvement programs as a means of shedding workers. Such an approach is common, although it runs counter to the goals of continuous improvement. Procedures for sharing information and various forms of cooperation are jeopardised when concerns about job security are intermingled with efforts to improve productivity and efficiency.’(p.17)

Another problem is the competency of the manager. Unfortunately, in Africa there are few sources of such managerial expertise. State-owned firms and family firms are unlikely training grounds. Multinationals can be a useful source of training and experience in improvement activities. Next, higher education for starting managers is still marginal, but increasing. Not too few, managerial skills are taught at foreign universities. Often there is a gap in the gained knowledge and practice of the business life in Africa. Besides, the payment of managers is far lower than what he or she could earn abroad. So, you might say that there is little inflow of information concerning quality management and there is a relative high outflow of know-how.

A common problem, according to Ballance et al (1995), with implementing improvements, is despite the enthusiastic embracing of the qualitative concepts, methods and methods, the incorrectness of implementation. Next, many quality methods are company specific and cannot be implemented somewhere else.

Next, development countries are, compared to Western countries, quite late in time with implementing systems, which may be out of date already before the implementation is succeeded. The effects of implementing quality improvements may appear less promising, but in fact it takes time before the results are visible. Quality improvements often take a holistic approach. In reality, most improvements are made partially, while every part of the production process is related to each other. This often results in just a replacement of the bottleneck.

Concluding, quality management seems to fit well in developing countries because of the following conditions: Measurements are not necessarily expensive and labour is cheap. The

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UNIDO report shows some problems in implementing quality measurements. First, some managers have misconceptions of quality management. Next, some managers delegate responsibility too easily because they do not consider it as important enough. Another problem is the lack of competent managers in Africa. Little training is given. Incorrect implementation is another phenomenon in developing countries who adopt quality management. So far developing countries. How is quality management manifested in Burkina Faso?

1.5 Quality Management in Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso, it all started in the early nineties with the implementation of quality circles, and later on it is enlarged to TQM, HACCP (technical standard in the food production), BPF (bon pratique Fabriquement) and other methods. Later on, a normative approach was being applied, caused by ONAC. In 1998 the government created a National Standardisation Unit with several key objectives: development and dissemination of information on standards, technical specifications and codes of practice, training of companies in Quality management and certification of conformity of products and companies to standards. : ONAC. , supported by UNIDO: which promotes HACCP, GMP and GHP.( B. Diawara and H. Sawadogo, 2000) ONAC is the association which has also set up the FASO-norm. This may be seen as a pre- stage before national implementation of the ISO-norms: there are no official national norms yet. The Faso norm is still in an early stage and there are until today problems concerning personnel and finance. Next to the Faso norm, there is also a ‘Program Regional Qualité’ This is being supported by the European Union. Next, there is ONUD : Eight Western African francophone countries point to the following points: accreditation, normalization, and in three years they hope to reach a common regional standard. All these forms are ways to come closer to ISO.

There is one overall organisation concerning quality management situated in Ouagadougou, called ABMAQ( l' association pour Management de la Qualité) The former name was l’association pour les circles de Qualité et le Management participatif (ABCERQ). This indicates a revision in approaching quality management. In stead of quality circles, emphasis lies now on quality management and HACCP. ABMAQ is a public association, started by the government in 1994. The emphasis lies on formalisation at enterprises, which is collectively financed. From the early nineties, quality management has made its appearance in Burkina Faso, and initiatives have increased since then. Their goals are the following:

9 Contribute in the progression of the diffusion and the vulgarisation of the Total Quality management.

9 To give an original contribution to the development of a philosophy and practice of management practices adapted to the specific socio-cultural features of Burkina Faso.

9 To encourage the exchange between enterprises, the consultant, the public services and the institutions for all appropriate

9 Provoking and providing a fruitful co-operation with all movements related to the participated quality

9 Developing actions in favour of the practices of participate management.) 9 Developing actions of a permanent formation.

9 Developing all adopted means for favouring the founding and control of Quality management.

(brochure ABMAQ, 2002)

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The organisation exists of active members, Burkina’s largest enterprises, like in 1996 it had 16 members, like: SIFA, SAP, SAVANA , FASO SOFITEX, Onatel, companions and honour members.

There are specialised committees concerning Industry, Service and Public Administration The means to accomplish its goals are seminars, conventions, conference, diffusion of publications, television and radio broad casting, etc.

Every year in June, all members gather for four days, attending workshops, discussions and sharing knowledge by appointing problems whereas together they brainstorm over the possible solutions. The way the problems are recognized is according to the PDCA principle, in the form of quality teams.

These quality-promoting organisations were brought to life by the government in order to compete with other foreign countries. Quality management is still in development, as far as there is no official quality standard vivid. In this research we will look at how these impulses of these organizations are operationalised in practice.

1.6 Conclusion

Quality management has been spreading over the world increasingly. Quality management, created in Japan, has developed to a wide management philosophy. Many companies in Europe and the U.S.A. have translated one or more concepts from the Deming Method, concerning: visionary leadership, internal and external cooperation, learning, process management, continuous improvement, employee fulfilment and customer satisfaction.

Quality has infinite definitions which makes it difficult to ascertain that the same interpretations are meant. Research from UNIDO shows that looking at Africa, manager’s possible ‘misconceptions’ about quality are indeed the most important source of difficulties, followed by incompetent management, misimplementation and slow adaptation. Though, it remains a difficult area to define: what is a misconception and what is just another style of quality management? The quality management style in Burkina Faso is dependent of the habitus of the actors. One’s habitus is determined by surrounding variables which have influenced one’s mind, which has its influence in business life. In the next chapter we will look further at the determinants of the habitus of the quality manager and employee in Burkina Faso.

In the early 1990’s, quality management was introduced in Burkina Faso. The government installed an organisation responsible to promote quality, especially quality circles. Later, focus went from quality circles to TQM, HACCP en GHP. In Burkina Faso there is an informal norm: The Faso norm, which is forerunner of the ISO-norm which will enter the nation early 2006.

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Chapter two- Business Context

Introduction

In order to understand how Burkinabé quality management is being applied, it is useful to look at the business context first. Many management styles are imitations of Western countries; the U.S., Japan and Europe. Later on, emphasis is also put on the African way of managing of one’s own, instead of denying this. It seems like African companies may not only learn from Western Management, but also the other way around. Western managers can nowadays buy a book, which may help them to improve their management: ‘African leadership for managers: from dialogue to decision’ by W. H. J. de Liefde (2002)

.It describes the following recommendations, from African management perspective:

- Meaning creates a feeling of involvement with the company. This unity feeling is essential for companies to survive on the long term.

- Management style based on universal values: humanity, dignity, trust, respect and risk.

- Stories as bridge-builders

- Art as inspiration: Images may help to get the dialogue started between manager and employees

- I am because we are: Ubuntu

- A dialogue wherein everybody’s voice is respected, no matter how long the dialogue will take. When everybody has spoken, the manager makes up his mind

- Be a natural leader, by believing in people, to give his skills and to listen without prejudice

- African leadership as counterbalance against individualism and the technical rationality of the West.

- Leadership based on truth, which makes employees more willing to change.

- The African life cycle of changes, which helps to identify the identity of the organisation.

Of course this book is a pro-African book with exclusion of the negative sides of African management, but still gives an interesting view of this subject because normally there was only a one-way traffic of knowledge transfer.

With this example, first I only want to show that using Western concepts as if they form the centre is just a perception of the West. Second, that there is a certain cultural determined embeddedness which has resulted in these features. The interpretation of quality management depends upon the cultural background: the social context of the subjects in this research.

Therefore, I will look further at the business context of Burkina Faso, which constitutes the habitus of the quality manager as well as its employees.

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2.1 Habitus

Habitus is in my eyes the blueprint of your context, that you carry along inside of you. This comprehensive concept reflects background influences: the social context.

Habitus is a second nature and consists of gestures, thoughts and ways of being, which are incorporated subconsciously. These are the mental routines which provides subconscious ways of dealing without the need of thinking. Les habitus sont des forts marqueurs de l’origine sociale, ethnique, nationale d’un individu………Chacun d’entre nous est porteur de plusieurs habitus acquis d’un environnement diversifié (famille, école, television…) (Sciences Humanes, 2002, p.109)

The concept of quality management has to be translated by the manager, into the local company discourse. So the translation process could be seen as ‘learning to speak another language’. ( Karsten and Illa, 2001) ‘The advantages of promoting a specific approach, is that the transfer of management knowledge will no longer take place in a coercive nor a mimetic way, but in a normative way’. The habitus of the African manager is ingrained in the African culture and a product of an ancestral heritage where life in a community, hospitality and trust plays a principal role. (Mbigi, 1997)

Bourdieu’s symbolic and social structures lie in the habitus, hereby noticing the role of central agencies and gender, race and class. A transfer of knowledge takes place at the micro level of organisations where managers engage in a local discourse.

‘At the macro level, managers, consultants, gurus and the media are often engaged in the continuous transfer of knowledge, which is captured in management concepts.’ (Karsten and Illa, 2001, p.99)This article describes too that when a concept starts spreading, it will either be interpreted differently by people or it will be used to accomplish different things. Concepts have to be flexible to accommodate different interpretations.

The habitus of a manager is reflected by his ‘knowing’ and the gap between knowing and knowledge is bridged by the interaction between groups and individual members of groups.

Their common experiences lead to a joint understanding of how things should be done, and this way develop a shared meaning( Karsten and Illa, 2001).

The habitus is like an ordering framework of thinking and doing. Knowledge from the past, the cultural heritage plays an important role in the habitus. A manager’s habitus plays a large role in giving a certain interpretation of a certain phenomenon. The business context plays a crucial role in determining the habitus of actors in Burkinabé business life, and results in certain ways of dealing with several issues. ‘Habitus explains how agents share a culture and its practices, within asymmetrical social positions and relations of domination’ (Bohman 1999, 133: Karsten and Illa, 2001)

Now we have discussed the concept Habitus, it is time to look at the different characterizations which form the cultural environment.

2.2 Business Culture

According to Cornelis (1998), culture is the collective memory of a society. For me to write down the collective memory of Burkina Faso would be an impossible task, for I will not be able to collect, in my life time only, each subject’s memory. Next, within the culture of Burkina Faso, lie many subcultures (Sims, 1993). In order to get insight in the habitus of the quality manager and its employees, which has its influence in quality management, I will look at some determinants that play a role in determining one’s habitus. Remember that this

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attempt is never complete. Future research may build further on this matter. History, colonization, finance, religion, concept of time, the role of families, social structures and politics indicate the business culture as we see it today in Burkina Faso:

History

Before the colonization Africa had a long history with economic trade between people, Europe and the trans Saharan commerce with North Africa and the Middle East (Albert, 1995).

The colonisers brought the export-import industry on a higher level. In a short time, transportation, technology and modern services have been set up.

After the colonisation, in the 1960s an 1970s, the government played a big role in the creation of new businesses. The government had a high stake in almost every industry (Albert, 1995).

Some big companies have some advantages because of knowledge in the trade conditions that were of value in the colonial time. Next to modern companies, the informal sector, the very small enterprises which are not structured, grows rapidly. African companies run by the government are considered to be likely inefficient

Burkina Faso became independent of France, in 1964, after a colonization of nearly 70 years (CIA World Fact Book ,2003). The politics have been turbulent since then. There have been several ‘coups d’état’. The last coup was in 1987, where the current president Blaise Compaoré assassinated the former president: his best friend for years: Thomas Sankara.

Thomas Sankara had a social communistic way of governing, whereas Blaise is considered to be more liberal. This changed business life into a diminishing interference by the government, which has speeded up the transition phase from public to private companies.

The focus, after colonisation, was put on the economic structure and the government’s role. In the end 1980s, focus became to lay more at companies itself and transitions from public companies to private companies has taken off. In this research we will only look at private companies.

The actual business culture in Burkina Faso is a mix of modernity and traditional features.

There is a very large traditional informal sector, formed by small family business. Next there are still the formal public companies. These companies are owned by the government, and are considered to be rather rigid. From the eighties on, privatisation is increasing, which increases the formal private sector. Since this privatisation, there is a transfer of systematic and mechanic methods from the Western management science. The African company is hybrid.

This shows the important impact of culture.

One of the features of Africa is that they have, in less than half a century, done all steps of industrialisation. She believed to be able to manage in an industrial revolution without recognition of the small family business’s steps of how this is formed, the customs and symbols that characterise the European companies of today. (Olomo, 1987)

“The heavy heritage of the African company today: a melting pot of micro cultures where its collective base is pointed at suspicion, a hostile view between the production systems, the nostalgia of an era where the relations to work were immediate and hospital and sociable.

Unfortunately, one concludes that except for rare exceptions, the African company did not succeed in working out this original handicap. Without doubt, because in the majority of these countries, the public industrial establishment has been stuck for a long time.” (Olomo,1987)

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Sources

Burkina Faso is a country with little sources which makes it one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2002, the Gross Net Product per head of the population was 1100 dollar (CIA World Fact Book, 2003) The climate is very hot and dry, while 90% of the population is dependent of agriculture, next to industry and service sector. There are little production companies, because of the lack of financial sources. According to Ilboudou (2003), banks are no banks like you know them in Europe: credit is given for maximally three years. Interest rates lie sometimes above 17 per cent. Energy costs, functional costs are very high. A lawyer is as expensive as a Dutch lawyer: setting up a contract is very expensive. Telephone costs, water costs are for companies very high. The water costs system invented by Sankara makes water relative cheap to the small user, and much more expensive for the big user. So companies have extremely high water costs.

The African companies are given all kinds of technology and production sources. While, there remain financial problems, bad productivity, weak penetration of the market, one sees that it is not only important to produce, but also to lead, organise and look forward. The technical source is than already degraded and the educated people demobilised. (Mbigi, 1997)

Ethnies

There are sixty different ethnies in Burkina Faso, and as many different languages. The largest group is the Mossi, who speak Morée. Other relative large groups are: Bobo, Sénoufou, Fulani, Gourmantché and Lobi. Between these groups there is a certain tendency of hierarchy. Some ethnic groups are for ages until today even considered to be slaves, but most groups just tease each other a little. The majority of the population speaks the Mossi language: Morée.

Religion

The role of religion, destiny and ancestors (spirits) has a high impact on prevision and the role of fate or self-creation. There are multiple religions in Burkina Faso. First, you have animism, a traditional religion, where most Burkinabé people believe in, independently whether you are a Moslem or a Christian. This religion may seem in the Western eyes as superstition but for the African people this religion is a day-to-day view of the world, with respect to God, your ancestors, the ever-lasting soul and the whack. The Whack is like voodoo, which emphasises that you shouldn’t make anyone angry with you, cause it may endanger your life. Talking to several people showed me that many people faced with a problem do not try to find the source of it, but the person, who is responsible for it. This may also explain the socially desired answers and that many people act nice but may think very differently about you. This influences business life too.

Next, you have Catholicism, Protestantism and the Islam. Most African people I have met were very religious and believe that whether positive or negative things happen, it is the will of God. Maybe therefore, African society is characterised by a weak control of uncertainty.

There is little fear for the future, which creates large tolerance towards different ideas.

(Hofstede, 1991)

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Concept of time

Much criticism from non-Africans is focused on the lack of efficiency in West-African firms.

This may appear because of the surplus of labour. Production efficiency can be defined as the goal of maximising output with the minimum amount of inputs. The concept of time has an important role to play in this equation. It follows that costs per unit of output will decline if the production target can be met in a shorter period of time. In other words, a firm that can manufacture the same number of units as its rival quicker, and doing that without additional inputs or equipment, will be more efficient.

For Africans time is not linear, and certainly not utilisable: time is money. The perception of time is cyclic, not measurable and not in notions of efficiency, punctuality and prevision.

(Ballance et al, 1995, p.45)

Time is consumed, the way it follows the rhythm of happenings and cannot be seen rational.

But there are according to Bourgoin (1984) links with punctuality and social relationships. An employee will be more punctual to a supervisor than the other way around.

What I observed, is that people do not think in working hours. People do not switch a button like most people do in the West, working from nine to five. In Burkina Faso, the working days are longer, but less efficient, with many interruptions.

Talking about this different concept of time in Africa, made one of the experts, Richard Traoré quick to take offence: “ It is dangerous to look for explications in the culture. The word racism I seldom use, but it is superior thinking whenever you say: ‘Africans do not look forward, we Europeans do’ You may not say that. They are just busy doing other things”.

Ubuntu

Family and close friends (who are considered to be family) play a crucial role in the Burkinabé life and may be considered to be an insurance: You take care of your family and your family takes care of you. In business life, many jobs are created for family members:

‘The modern European life has entranced Africa one hundred years ago, and influenced it dramatically. In the African patronage system it is criminal when you do not help your family, with all you can. This influences business life too. Your family must profit from your situation’ (Mbigi, 1997) Like Stephen Ellis, Africa-expert,(Trouw, 2003) argues: “We are all responsible for one another. Parasitism exists but depends of its context. The success of Chinese entrepreneurs could happen because of the family networks. Many entrepreneurs use their family to collect capital.”

“ For the continent Africa, Ubuntu will be the force behind African Renaissance. African management is managing groups. The African people are group-people. The community life is essential in Africa.”(Mbigi, 1997, p.24)

Ubuntu means ‘the person is a person through other persons’. The principles of Ubuntu are according to Mbigi, the spirit of unconditional African collective contribution, solidarity, acceptance, dignity, stewardship, compassion and care, hospitality and legitimacy.

‘The Northern (European) heritage will continue and contribute to issues such as strategic planning and control, and the applications of financial ratios; The Asian heritage will further support African managers in applying techniques to manage value adding processes, process-

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innovation and measurements of efficiency; The African heritage, based on Ubuntu, will help improve the management of people and relationships’(Mbigi, 1997, p.8 )

Ubuntu stands for collectivity, trust and solidarity. In my observations and many discussions about Ubuntu, I came to the conclusion, that Ubuntu is indeed a way to survive, like Chudi Ukpabi, journalist and consultant considering international development, from Nigeria explains (Trouw, 27-09-2003): “The intensive family commitments and responsibilities are not a cultural, but an economical occurrence.” He argues that the collectivity is like a treaty:

meant for increasing the chances of survival. Collectivity is indeed a wide-spread phenomenon in Burkina Faso, but I cannot agree in the trust-issue. In my observations, I saw that many relations were rather based on suspicion: The reliance on other people is larger than in the West, where individualism, social securities and further developed legal systems have more impact. Like Ilboudou has said in an interview: “People are very rancune, and are, at first contact, not neutral towards the other, but already have in their mind: Might this other person harm me? There is a lot of suspicion.” I regard the collectivity as a survival instrument. "Though, the African social universe has always composed networks of parents, friends, clients, allies, which goal is to help the individual to resist the dangers of the outside world. Such a structure makes the modern company to identify the horizontal and vertical cooperation fields, and work on relations, negotiations, exchange of labour, that would make it possible to weaken conjuncture fluctuations, and to create a relational atmosphere, which seems to be necessary in Africa.”(Mbigi, 1997)

Therefore, if you do not belong to the group, your position is endangered. This will lead to socially preferred behaviour, while one may think differently. Of course this is a common human phenomenon, but in Western countries, individualism is more accepted.

The feeling for community is naturally more important because there are hardly any social securities like we have in the Western world. This makes the reliance on other people have much more impact. Next, the chance that other people may harm you will enlarge when you do not belong to the group. During my stay in Burkina Faso I noticed strongly that people could feel really upset with someone, but when I saw that other person coming by, he or she was welcomed like a good friend. Honesty in behaviour towards someone, may create that someone will stand opposite of you, this person may convince others, and your social position may be endangered. The influence of others on someone is larger than in the West. Showing the features of Ubuntu benefits your social position.

Ubuntu is the willingness to step forward to your fellow-creatures. Traditionally every African learns from childhood on that you are nothing without the others. In management, therefore there is a consensus-democracy : to please minorities too within the decision- making. Ubuntu brings along this consensus-democracy. The dialogue is very important. It does not imply that most votes count, but that all parties are gathered, and a consensus where all parties agree, will be made. For me this is hard to understand. It is so difficult, let alone impossible, to come to an agreement where all parties agree, especially when there are explicit hierarchies. Future research on the phenomenon of consensus-democracy versus hierarchy may discover more grounded explanations. My hypothesis herein lies in the common acceptance of social positions in various layers of the hierarchy. A child or a slave has little to say in the ‘consensus-democracy’ while a chef is accepted to have the final word.

Next, ‘social intelligence’ may occur. Belonging to the group is important, wherefore one may say he agrees, while in fact he does not. Therefore, everyone wants to climb up in the hierarchy, to increase one’s personal power, so your influence will be larger. Besides the hierarchical social structure, the power of negative personal influences is not neglected, therefore, a common agreement comforts and strengthens the group.

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The community feeling is given from group to individual. There are vertical alignments with ancestors, spirits and God, and horizontal alignments with the clan, the family members, and the group. Everyone derives one’s thinking, believe, faith etc. on the group in exchange of protection.(Mbigi, 1997)

The consensus necessity, like Mbigi says too, has according to Albert Ouedraogo (1995) much impact. Death, marriages and birth play an important role in companies too. Everyday- production life stops for a few hours or a day.

The need of harmony in the group, to decrease frustration, costs a lot of time and may harm the efficiency. The relationships are warm, but social status, mostly confirmed by money is also very important

French hierarchic system

In the formal sector there is still the French hierarchy traceable. Most inhabitants of Burkina Faso show a strong dislike for the French people. Still, the heritage of the French is alive in business life. Especially when the top management consists of Frenchmen. These companies are bureaucratic and have many lines, which show the high hierarchy running through their organization. Although the high bureaucracy, the French companies have been an example for Burkinabé’s, although you may doubt whether economic development like this may be marked as ‘good’:

There is a major problem with managing, not because of the traditions, but because of the lack. The modern institutions have no bonding with tradition. (Mbigi, 2001, p.25)

Villageoisie

During my stay I noticed the grand difference between village life and urban life. From ongoing urbanization and modernization, with its way of dressing, music, disco’s, mobile phones, going to the village is like a jump back in history of 500 years, where many people have hardly any transportation or electricity.

But what is typical in the village-life? During my several visits to the village and many conversations with villagers and the chef, made the impact of ‘chefferie’ very clear.

‘Chefferie’ is a word, used in Burkina Faso, to mention a hierarchic and traditional system with a chef on top. Every village has a chef. This chef has many privileges. He has the most women and children of the village and lives like a king. The people come to him daily to greet and to give him their honours and gifts. The chefferie is hereditary. This born empowerment gives the chef the right to be like a father to his villagers, by speaking justice. Many chefs enrich themselves, which has increasingly grown to resistance lately, because of the upcoming modernization. In many companies the manager is regarded as being the ‘chef’ of the company because business culture is determined by its habitus. Because of the ‘chefferie’, employees are often regarded to be humble. Though, not everybody agrees:

“I am very fed up with everything that is being said and written about African management. It is not that simple. It is nice to write that it is all related to village life: Forget it! Forget it!

That’s already outdated! I just want to say that it is more different than in Europe. My generation does not even come from the village. We do not even know how life in the village would be. Times are changing fast. Maybe the generation of my father had some village-

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influences. Now in his village of birth it is even a discussion now to have elections for becoming chef” (Interview Traoré, 2003)

“The traditional African organisation has not collapsed by the western production system. She keeps functioning, although it is on a lower level and survives within an organisation like one has seen in for example the relation between an individual and its authorised establishment.

The survival of the village-way of production with its own rhythm, duties maintain certain nostalgia of an era, which has not passed.” (Olomo, 1987)

The cause of the reality is that not the modern company, but the absence of an intermediary, the transition between village life and the anonymity of registration numbers, organograms and statutes. It is according to Olomo (1987) important that organisations try to reconstruct the hospitality of the village life, to get a connection, to rebuild a strong family, of the new organisation.

Behind the scenes

“Many Burkinabé's and Lebanese have a non-transparent way of managing, where corruption often takes place. ”Here in Burkina, we do not choose for innovation or quality, but for corruption that is the easiest way that is being offered. Mister government is obstructing the right way to follow. “(Ilboudou) This remark is of course rather radical, but the occurrence of bribery and nepotism is not that rare. Much money is being shifted behind the curtain, to get things done. Business relationships are often based on friendship or family, which makes this phenomenon hard to diminish. In Burkinabé business life, you have to know people. Many people are being bribed, have connections with institutes, or the government, and there are many things put in scenery, behind the scenes. When you want to export, it’s best to know the customs.

“Little functions real, like it would function according to economical reason. Most companies are not mixed, but only exist out of family connections. The same story for the Lebanese and the French companies. The decisions are often not made out of economic and logical decisions but depend on these connections, and how much money one person has brought in the company. This does not only count for small companies, but also the big ones.

There is a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy:, juridical procedures, which debenefits companies in order to let the government gain “ (Ilboudou, 2003)

During my stay many people were complaining about the bribery and that many things were set unfair, because poor people never know the rich people, while you have to know the right people, to get something done. This emphasizes again the importance of Ubuntu.

The Burkinabé Manager

In Burkina Faso, there are many problems with top management. According to Mr. Bayili (2003) there is a shortcoming of commitment because many managers are afraid to loose control. Some top managers are very occupied with breaking and stopping changes. Another large problem is the group of managers working at public companies owned by the state.

They do not feel responsible at all and are unmotivated to improve the enterprise and think significantly different than companies that are privatised.

The problem with many Burkinabé managers who have had a higher education is that they think they have reached the finish by getting their degree. In Burkina Faso there are managers

Quality Management in