The 21st century is a global village in which the environments we dwell in are slowly and most times already complex adaptive systems politically, socially and economically. From an organizational theorist point of view changes in an organization during the industrial revolution shows an increasing trend of division of labour at work, which was admired by the Scottish economist Adam Smith, in his book , Wealth of Nations (1776). This led to highly specialized roles in many sectors from manufacturing to scientific research. However, such organizational systems have had such a negative impact on social systems. We see that in today’s big firms and banks. For example, as the major banks in Southern Africa business’ practices have not been lenient to the middle and low-income consumer. Hence, middle and low-income consumers are subjected to an average of ZAR200 bank charges per month. In addition, banks in Zimbabwe have not provided ‘convenience’ as an innovative product offering to consumers. Consumers are still required to carry cash as opposed to using their bank cards everywhere they choose to do shopping. When one finds themselves paying with a visa, master card or credit card in an establishment, consider it a rare privilege bestowed upon you. This shows that organizational systems like the Banks that are highly specialized, mechanistic structured organizations generate spillovers into the social systems they reside by propagating severe limitations of inflexibility and lack of innovative ability as the organizational system is designed to achieve predetermined goals. In addition, employees, scientists or researchers can develop ‘tunnel vision’ approaches in addressing problem in organizational performance which has direct social impact on the market they seek to serve. Thus, it becomes imperative to integrate the needs of the consumer with that of the organization via multidisciplinary market research that seeks to create value through social innovations with a positive social impact.
It has been shown that work in many parts of the globe have shown that in designing any kind of social system, such as an organization the interdependence of technological and human needs must form part of the business model. This perspective is in line with the open-system framework of Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker (1950). To put this more practically let’s look at the Renewable Energy sector in advanced economies compared to developing and emerging market economies. The Renewable Energy sector has been in business for the last 3 decades or more in countries like Denmark, Germany & Netherlands. They have managed to benefit from the insights of industrial revolutionists like Adam Smith in the specialization of skills. This may be due to the fact that the environment in which these organizations conduct Research & Development where at most times stable and NOT complex systems. Rather systematic and mechanic. This means the organizational culture most times adopted the national culture of prescriptive strategies. Hence, one would find that in such society the degree of standardization and the degree of specialization of a Researcher/Scientist in the energy sector is fairly high and in response and in line with the embedded social system of the country. Whereas, in countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, Renewable Energy, (in my professional opinion), research in this part of the world is more of an Art than a Science. This is due to the fact that the social systems, in which these countries seek to change are constantly changing politically and economically. Thus, it requires researchers and scientists with a multidisciplinary approach in understanding ALL of the social systems at play in one country and not just the renewable energy technological implications on the consumer. Hence, the prescribed socio-economic terms ‘developing’ or ‘emerging markets’ is indicative of a constantly growing economy. Thus, emerging young researchers/scientists need to be multidisciplinary when they seek answers or solutions to Africa’s development requirements. This means open and flexible styles of research methodology with a high degree of standardization and medium-to-low degree of formalization are required in the African markets.
Copyright @ 1 November 2011. BlogSpot by Tambudzai Ndoro, Principal Director of Ndoro Resources (PVT) Ltd., (2011)
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