The Discourse of “OGA” As Relations of Power in Organisational Praxis: Towards A Theory of Organisational Leadership

Abstract

This study proposed a framework for understanding the process and outcome of interaction between indigenous Western leadership behaviours in an organisation undergoing change. The concept of Oga was used to examine the process of organisational change in order to understand the mechanisms promoting and/or sustaining the coexistence of two seemingly incompatible leadership behaviours drawn from two different cultures. Using Weber’s ideal constructs of leadership and authority relationships of rational bureaucracies in combination with studies in cross-cultural and comparative management, a conceptual and theoretical framework was developed to examine the interaction and coexistence of Western and traditional models and practices of leadership behaviour within a cultural context. Methodologically, the case study approach in the tradition of qualitative research was used through ethnographic and phenomenological techniques of data collection and analysis. It is argued that qualitative research method is appropriate for this research as it captured the dynamic process of the coexistence of two different types of leadership behaviours drawn from two different cultures. Findings indicated that the coexistence of Western and traditional practice of leadership behaviour as embedded in the concept of Oga produced and facilitated mechanism for organisational commitment. This coexistence created and sustained the realization of the goals of the organisation through the practice of organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) by both superiors and subordinates. Conclusively, the concept of leadership syncretism was proposed as a framework for analyzing leadership behaviour and authority relations in situations of organisational change within a cultural context. It is recommended and suggested that concepts of convergence, divergence and crossvergence as they are used in the literature need to be re-visited.