How can we help to develop Chinese and African managers? Building synergies through hybrid practice-based management partnerships

The insights from the studies in this edited collection heighten the need to understand the impact of the Chinese presence in Africa at the management and organisational levels. On paper, a China-Africa relationship is deemed to be intrinsic and mutually beneficial to both parties, but the evidence noted here and elsewhere is mixed and points to a crucial divide between the strategy and operations of Chinese firms across Africa. Such a divide is made worse by several factors, one of which is the lack of consideration of African management talent. With the majority of African employees being consistently engaged in low-skilled jobs and supported by inadequate HR policies, there are important questions around the value-added impact of Chinese investments in up-skilling African employees and managers by sharing managerial know-how and training to enable the progression of an African management talent base. This chapter explores the scope to do this by proposing a China-Africa Hybrid Practice-based Management Development (CAHPMD) framework, which looks at ways of co-creating conceptual and practical spaces for management development partnerships and synergies with African-based Business Schools (ABS) to educate and co-develop African and Chinese managers in a post-China-Africa era.