Mtn Rwanda - Managing Cultural Diversity

EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICAN MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE (ESAMI)

EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAMME

INTAKE 23 DAY CLASS

ESAMI HQ / ARUSHA

MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY PROJECT PAPER

UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL ISSUES WHEN APPOINTED AS AN EXECUTIVE MANAGER IN A MULTINATIONAL COMPANY NOT IN YOUR COUNTRY

CASE STUDY:MTN RWANDA

Submitted by: Mrs. URUKUNDO Charlotte

23HQ11350 F

Submitted to: JOOP REMME

January, 2011

INTRODUCTION

With the globalisation aspect of business all over the world, people of different nationalities and different cultures background are moving to look for jobs that fit their career and ambitions. We therefore acknowledge that the importance of cultural diversity is highly increasing across the world in workplaces requiring effective management of associated challenges.

In this paper we will discuss how a Chinese Manager who has been appointed in MTN Rwanda in the middle of 2008 has handled the multicultural aspect of the company and brought employees to a common interest through which all the differences have been resolved thus conducting the workplace safe for diversity.

We also consider that this paper contribute to the understanding the overview of Rwandan culture within a specific workplace of MTN Rwanda where we've spent 2 weeks of internship as Assistant of the Human Resource Manager during our research of the end University studies.

1. MTN RWANDA BACKGROUND.

MTN Rwanda is a Telecommunications company based in Rwanda with its Head office in the capital city of Kigali. Formed in 1998, the company has recorded exceptional growth and this trend is continuing into the future. It is part of the MTN International Group that is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange whose headquarters are in Johannesburg. MTN Group has got operations in more than 10 countries and is expanding into emerging markets in Africa and the Middle East.

Building on the overall MTN Group culture of service excellence and setting the trends in the telecommunication industry, MTN Rwanda through the past years has managed to build its brand to be the top most favorable brand in Rwanda. In MTN, the management team is itself multicultural including the newly appointed executive manager which is a Chinese, a Japanese in charge of telecommunication, a Swiss in charge of development of new products, a Kenyan in charge of website and networking and 3 other Directors who are Rwandans, other staffs on the low level are mostly Rwandans.

2. STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTED BY THE NEW EXECUTIVE MANAGER

We keep in mind that the new Manager didn't have to set new rules and regulations because he has been introduced in an ongoing Company organisational Culture. To gain the confidence of each and everyone and to efficiently attain the goals of the Company the Chinese focussed on Performance appraisal as a part of guiding and managing employee's career and team working as the pillar of his success. For the purpose of this assignment we will discuss the performance appraisal only.

2.1 Performance appraisal.

A performance appraisal is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated mainly in terms of quality, quantity and timeframe, by his supervisor .

In this paper we've put our self in the position of Human Resource Manager and tried to sort out some points of Rwandan culture at workplace that he must keep in mind to be successful. As a non Rwandese Manager evaluating the predominantly Rwandese workforce,