Malawi was once a British colony—but is now a relatively small (population about 17.4 million) but independent country in Central Africa. Thus, it inherited a British administrative tradition, which is very Western and very bureaucratic. And thus it also benefits from significant investment from Western MNEs, with many local subsidiaries. However, traditional Malawi cultural values, which emphasize family membership and attention to status, are also superimposed onto local and multinational business administrative systems, mostly imported from Europe and the US. In the Malawian culture, workers view employers as an extension of their families. They expect to be provided with a broad array of benefits from their employers, such as housing and transportation. Malawi society also places great importance on status differences. The relationship between managers and subordinates is viewed as authoritative; workers give deference and expect managers to act paternally. Malawians view proper protocol as very important. Managers often resist accepting individual blame for their mistakes and do not directly criticize their subordinates. Malawian managers rarely delegate authority because the culture believes that delegation strips managers of their authority and thus lowers their status in the eyes of their subordinates. How do these cultural practices influence the development of T&D programs by MNEs in Malawi? MNEs setting up local operations in Malawi must consider the following three realities when developing training programs: ■ Western models of innovation, motivation, leadership, etc. will not work well in Malawi. For example, most Western (European and Anglo) management experts believe that proper leader behavior depends on the situation: there is no one right way to lead. However, the Malawian culture believes that leaders should always be authoritative. Consequently, HR professionals must first learn how these issues apply in a Malawian culture and then train Malawian workers accordingly. ■ Status-conscious Malawian managers will resent being told to attend a training program. They will interpret this gesture as an indication that they are considered “below-average” performers—and will assume that their subordinates will make the same assumption. A company must thus carefully prepare a strategy to solicit trainee attendance in a way that will not cause managers to “lose face” with their peers or subordinates. ■ Training methods must be congruent with employee learning styles. Malawians learn best in “process-oriented” education settings. Consequently, training methods that use experiential and small-group techniques and other “supportive learning” techniques should be used in lieu of those that focus on lectures and rote learning. Source: Adapted from Jones, M. L. (1989). Management development: An African focus. International Studies of Management and Organization, 19(1), 74–90; and updated (2014) from the following: http://www.afribiz.in.

1. Malawi was once a British colony—but is now a relatively small
(population about 17.4 million) but independent country in
Central Africa. Thus, it inherited a British administrative
tradition, which is very Western and very bureaucratic. And
thus it also benefits from significant investment from Western
MNEs, with many local subsidiaries. However, traditional
Malawi cultural values, which emphasize family membership
and attention to status, are also superimposed onto local and
multinational business administrative systems, mostly imported
from Europe and the US. In the Malawian culture, workers view
employers as an extension of their families. They expect to be
provided with a broad array of benefits from their employers,
such as housing and transportation. Malawi society also places
great importance on status differences. The relationship
between managers and subordinates is viewed as authoritative;
workers give deference and expect managers to act paternally.
Malawians view proper protocol as very important. Managers
often resist accepting individual blame for their mistakes and do
not directly criticize their subordinates. Malawian managers
rarely delegate authority because the culture believes that
delegation strips managers of their authority and thus lowers
their status in the eyes of their subordinates. How do these
cultural practices influence the development of T&D programs
by MNEs in Malawi? MNEs setting up local operations in
Malawi must consider the following three realities when
developing training programs:
■ Western models of innovation, motivation, leadership, etc.
will not work well in Malawi. For example, most Western
(European and Anglo) management experts believe that proper
leader behavior depends on the situation: there is no one right
way to lead. However, the Malawian culture believes that
leaders should always be authoritative. Consequently, HR
professionals must first learn how these issues apply in a
Malawian culture and then train Malawian workers accordingly.

2. ■ Status-conscious Malawian managers will resent being told to
attend a training program. They will interpret this gesture as an
indication that they are considered “below-average”
performers—and will assume that their subordinates will make
the same assumption. A company must thus carefully prepare a
strategy to solicit trainee attendance in a way that will not cause
managers to “lose face” with their peers or subordinates.
■ Training methods must be congruent with employee learning
styles. Malawians learn best in “process-oriented” education
settings. Consequently, training methods that use experiential
and small-group techniques and other “supportive learning”
techniques should be used in lieu of those that focus on lectures
and rote learning.
Source: Adapted from Jones, M. L. (1989). Management
development: An African focus. International Studies of
Management and Organization, 19(1), 74–90; and updated
(2014) from the following:
http://www.afribiz.info/content/2014/foreign-transnational-
corporations-in-malawi; and 2014 CIA World Factbook.
Available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-
world-factbook/.
Discussion Questions
1 Are there any training techniques that are culture free? Why
or why not?
2 How would you design a training program (e.g., to use a new
software for tracking sales) for Malawi? What would it look
like? Who should deliver it? How should it be delivered? What
language and cultural variables would you take into
consideration?