Invitation from the South African Journal of Business Management to contribute to the Special Edition: Women in business in Africa

Submission due date: 30 June 2020 

Extended submission due date: 30 October 2020

The outbreak of the virus that causes COVID-19, and the relating measures put in place to contain the epidemic, have placed constraints on researchers to finalise their submissions in time for the previous deadline of 30 June 2020. We are, therefore providing a 4-month extension to assist authors in completing and submitting their manuscripts towards the themed collection.

Guest editors:
Prof. Anita Bosch, USB Chair: Women at Work, University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa. Email: abosch@sun.ac.za

Prof. Lize Booysen, Graduate School of Leadership and Change, Antioch University, USA; Adjunct Faculty, Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, NC, USA; Professor Extraordinaire, University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa. Email: abooysen@antioch.edu

Background to the special issue:
The South African Journal of Business Management (SAJBM) has been disseminating research that has real significance for management and leadership theory and practice. The focus of the journal falls into two categories within the business environment, namely managerial and leadership theory and management and leadership practice.

A review of the articles published in the SAJBM, specifically relating to women employees, managers, leaders and entrepreneurs, revealed that twelve articles were published over a 40 year period, with the first, authored by Sandra van der Merwe and titled “A portrait of the South African woman manager”, appearing in 1979, ten years after the initiation of the SAJBM. During the eighties, titles of two studies published indicate the tentative positioning of topics advocating women’s rights, with the late Rita Kellerman asking whether working women and organisations were compatible, and Truida Prekel penning an article titled “Why a special look at women?” The late Ronel Erwee wrote two important articles, the first proposing entrepreneurship as a career option for women (1987), given the fact that women were not necessarily welcomed in the corporate world at the time. Her second article (1992) addressed the issue of organisational variables that influence female advancement in South Africa. The last contribution by Ronel heralded a period of drought for articles about women at work which was only broken in 2005 with an article by Akinola on gender and structure in the cocoa industry in Nigeria. More recent gender articles in the SAJBM, amongst others, problematised women through the queen bee syndrome (Johnson & Mathur-Helm, 2013), investigated work-family conflict (Bagriam & Harrison, 2013), reported on gender differences in workplace spirituality (Nasurdin, Nejati & Mei, 2013), explored women’s leadership competencies (Samuel & Mokoaleli, 2017), related cultural influences on innovation among female entrepreneurs (Idris, 2010), and on women’s entrepreneurial cognitive ambidexterity (de Villiers Scheepers, Boschoff & Oostenbrink, 2017). Three more articles published in the SAJBM considered differences between men and women, outside the work context, as users of technology (Kotze, Anderson & Summerfield, 2016; Nel & Raleting, 2012) and other household goods (Nel & Raleting, 2012; Priilaid & Horwitz, 2016). Furthermore, the above contributions predominantly focused on South African women and workplaces, and there is a dearth of research on the lived experiences of women at work in the rest of Africa. Whilst scholarship on women in the workplace, focusing on African populations, have been published in other South African and international journals, it still constitutes a negligible slice of the global women at work research agenda (Akanle & Nwaobiala, 2019; Booysen & Nkomo, 2006, 2010, 2014; Bosch, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017; Carrim, 2018; Grover, 2019; Jaga, Arabandi, Bagraim & Mdlongwa, 2018; Lauwo, 2018; Palmer & Bosch, 2017; Ribeiro, Bosch & Becker, 2016).

Consequently, this limited count and diffuse topics relating to women at work in the SAJBM, and in scholarly research in general, coupled with the lack of focus on women at work in the broader African context, signals a need for a special issue focusing on Women in Business in Africa. This issue wishes to extend knowledge on how the entry of large numbers of women into paid work in workplaces, business management and leadership and business ownership in Africa has been marked by changes in legislation, economic, behavioural and relational patterns, and mind-shift changes regarding gender stereotypes, gendered work and workplaces. More specifically, the special issue will invite publication of research that highlights positive developments in women’s business and organisational participation in Africa, as well as expanding our understanding of how women overcome and circumvent limitations or how women reconfigure and adjust existing social patterns when leading and managing business organisations. In this special issue we wish to move beyond theorising barriers or limitations that women experience, and instead explore the agency that women hold, develop and employ when navigating spaces that were previously predominantly occupied by men.

While interested authors from any country are invited to submit their work for possible publication, Africa-related themes are especially encouraged in the context of the dire need to develop indigenous theories and understanding of women at work in the African context. Both conceptual and empirical contributions are welcome. Interdisciplinary contributions as well as those employing rigorous and novel methodological approaches are particularly welcome. Topics of interest, among many other possibilities, include but are not restricted to:

• Comparative or in-depth analyses of women in the workplace and the implications for organisation theory, especially leadership, employee relations, inclusion, research and practice.
• Critical analyses of the notion of “gendered work”, or “gendered workplaces”, through the lenses of specific theoretical models or theory. For instance, postcolonial and other liberation theories, critical discourse analysis, institutional ethnography, analyses of intersections of gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexuality etc., and other contemporary theoretical tendencies.
• Historical and/or situational analyses and perspectives: local practices mutating into women-friendly management and/or leadership practices.
• Case studies of generative women-friendly management and/or leadership practices in organisations.
• An evaluation of the effect of women-friendly management and/or leadership practices on individuals and organisations.

Full paper submissions (not under review elsewhere) adhering to the SAJBM Editorial Policy Guidelines should be submitted online by 30 October 2020. All submissions will be submitted to a rigorous double-blind peer review process, with both the Guest Editors acting as action editors and making the final decision for publication in consultation with the Journal Editor.

Submission guidelines:
Submit your article to the special issue at https://sajbm.org. When you submit the article, select ‘Original Research –Special Collection: Women in Business in Africa’  as the journal section. The submission portal is accessible at https://sajbm.org. For more details on the editorial procedures, go to the submission procedure (https://bit.ly/3eN7VMq) and submission guidelines (https://bit.ly/31wGgLQ).

Of course, we will be happy to provide you with any assistance during the submission and application process. Kindly enquire at special-issues@aosis.co.za

List of references:
Akanle, O., & Nwaobiala, U.R. (2019). Changing but fragile: Female breadwinning and family stability in Nigeria. Journal of Asian and African Studies, in press.

Akinola, G.O. (2005). Gender factor in the structure and conduct of the cocoa industry in Nigeria. South African Journal of Business Management, 36, 7–22.

Bagraim, J.J., & Harrison, E. (2013). The anticipated work-family conflict of future business managers: Does gender and maternal employment matter? South African Journal of Business Management, 44, 41–46.

Booysen, L.A.E., & Nkomo, S.M. (2006) Think manager – Think (fe)male: A South African perspective. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 1(2), 23–33.

Booysen, L.A.E., & Nkomo, S.M. (2010). Gender role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics: The case of South Africa. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 25(4), 285–300.

Booysen, L.A.E., & Nkomo S.M. (2014). New developments in employment equity and diversity management in South Africa. In L.A.E. Booysen, A. Klarsfeld, E. Ng, A. Tatli (Eds). International Handbook on Diversity Management at Work: Country Perspectives on Diversity and Equal Treatment (pp. 241–265). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Bosch, A. (2017). Rethinking women’s workplace outcomes: Structural inequality. In Bosch (Ed.), SABPP Women’s Report 2017 (pp. 13–17). Cape Town: SABPP.

Bosch, A. (2016). Pregnancy is here to stay – or is it? In Bosch (Ed.), SABPP Women’s Report 2016 (pp. 3–6). Johannesburg: SABPP.

Bosch, A. (2015). Reasons for the gender pay gap — what HR practitioners should know. In Bosch (Ed.), SABPP Women’s Report 2015 (pp. 3-6). Johannesburg: SABPP.

Bosch, A. (2014). Women’s reproductive options — career and HR implications. In Bosch (Ed.), SABPP Women’s Report 2014 (pp. 4–6). Johannesburg: SABPP.

Carrim, N.M.H. (2018). Behind the mask: Hybrid identity work of Indian women managers in corporate South Africa. African and Asian Studies, 17(4), 371–393.

De Villiers Scheepers, M.J., Boshoff, C., & Oostenbrink, M. (2017). Entrepreneurial women’s cognitive ambidexterity: Career and cultural influences. South African Journal of Business Management, 48, 21–33.

Erwee, R. (1987). Entrepreneurship as a career option for woman: An overview of research. South African Journal of Business Management, 18, 152–162.

Erwee, R. (1992). Organizational variables influencing female advancement in South Africa. South African Journal of Business Management, 23, 8–15.

Grover, R. (2019). Far from the factory? Investigating how women travel to work in rural Cote d’Ivoire. Journal of  International Women’s Studies, 20(4), 24–38.

Idris, A. (2010). An inter-ethnic study of gender differentiation and innovativeness among women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. South African Journal of Business Management, 41, 35–46.

Jaga, A., Arabandi, B., Bagraim, J., & Mdlongwa, S. (2018). Doing the ‘gender dance’: Black women professionals negotiating gender, race, work and family in post-apartheid South Africa. Community, Work and Family, 21(4), 429–444.

Johnson, Z., & Mathur-Helm, B. (2011). Experiences with Queen Bees: A South African study exploring the reluctance of women executives to promote other women in the workplace. South African Journal of Business Management, 42, 47–55.

Kellerman, R. (1980). Working women and organizations – are they compatible? South African Journal of Business Management, 11, 69–74.

Kotze, T.G., Anderson, O., & Summerfield, K. (2016). Technophobia: Gender differences in the adoption of high-technology consumer products. South African Journal of Business Management, 47, 21–28.

Lauwo, S. (2018). Challenging masculinity in CSR disclosures: Silencing of women’s voices in Tanzania’s mining industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 149(3), 689–706.

Nasurdin, A.M., Nejati, M., & Mei, Y.K. (2013). Workplace spirituality and organizational citizenship behaviour: Exploring gender as a moderator. South African Journal of Business Management, 44, 61–74.

Nel, J. & Raleting, T. (2012). Gender differences in low-income non-users; attitude towards Wireless Internet Gateway cellphone banking. South African Journal of Business Management, 43, 51–63.

Palmer. A., & Bosch, A. (2017). What makes representation of executive women in business happen? Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 36(4), 306–320, doi: 10.1108/EDI-09-2016-0071

Prekel, T. (1980). Why a special look at women? South African Journal of Business Management, 11, 62–68.

Priilaid, D., & Horwitz, B. (2016). How price moderates assessments of coffee quality across profiles of gender and experience. South African Journal of Business Management, 47, 49–60.

Ribeiro, S., Bosch, A., & Becker, J. (2016). Retention of women accountants: The interaction of job demands and job resources. South African Journal of Human Resource Management, 14(1), 1–11. Doi: 10.4102/sajhrm. v14i1.759

Samuel, O.M., & Mokoaleli, I. (2017). Analysis of gender and leadership role competencies, perceptions and stereotypes in an organisational context. South African Journal of Business Management, 48, 55–66.

Van der Merwe, S. (1979). A portrait of the South African woman manager. South African Journal of Business Management, 10, 57–63.