Ubuntu Leadership in a VUCA World
Leading Ethically, Sustainably, Systemically and With Care
This book can be opened with
Note on our eBooks and Audiobooks: you can read our eBooks (ePUB or PDF) and listen to audiobooks on the free Emerald Books app on iOS, Android, and desktop. Or read and listen on Emerald's online reader (ePUB eBooks and audiobooks only). To purchase a digital book you will need to create an account if you don’t already have one. After purchasing you will receive instructions on how to get started.
- Description
- Contents
- About
In today's rapidly fragmenting global landscape, leaders face an unprecedented challenge: how to build bridges in a world increasingly defined by division. As organizations grapple with polarization—both internal and external—many leaders find themselves trapped between competing certainties that serve only to deepen organizational silos and societal fractures.
Ubuntu offers a transformative leadership paradigm rooted in the profound African philosophy that "I am because we are." This ancient wisdom recognizes that human flourishing is inherently collective, individual success is meaningless without collective prosperity, and that authentic leadership emerges from our fundamental interconnectedness.
Ubuntu leadership transcends traditional command-and-control models by emphasizing:
- Collective Wisdom: Recognizing that the best solutions emerge when diverse perspectives are genuinely valued and integrated
- Relational Resilience: Building organizational strength through deep human connections rather than hierarchical structures
- Shared Prosperity: Ensuring that success benefits the entire ecosystem—employees, communities, stakeholders, and future generations
- Compassionate Accountability: Holding high standards while maintaining dignity and care for every individual
Ubuntu leadership doesn't replace your existing competencies; it enhances them with a framework that ensures your strategic planning, innovation, and growth strategies are rooted in the understanding that together we rise, apart we fall.
This is leadership for the future: caring, connected, and designed to create lasting value in an interconnected world.
Chapter 1. Introduction; John D. Volmink
- Section 1. Social and Political
- Chapter 2. Ubuntu Versus Pragmatism: Navigating Leadership Tensions in Modern Africa; Anisah Ari
- Chapter 3. Reimagining Leadership Grounded in Traditional African Communal Practices; Ella Ruth Anaya
- Chapter 4. Exploring the Relationship Between Ubuntu and Human Rights; André Croucamp
- Chapter 5. Exploring Ubuntu Values from the Western Perspective; Michel Okitakoyi Lundula and J. Basil Read, III
- Chapter 6. Ubuntu as a Foundation for Transformational Servant Leadership in Locally Led Sustainable Community Development; David Blundell
- Section 2. Healthcare
- Chapter 7. Addressing Social Disconnection: Towards an Ubuntu-Prosocial Model of Relational Health; Heinrich C. Volmink
- Chapter 8. Cultivating Wellness Through Ubuntu Leadership: Fostering Collective Care and Resilience in the Social Impact Sector; Hlengiwe Nondumiso Zulu and Maurisa Moloto
- Chapter 9. A Call for Ubuntu-Inspired Political Astuteness in Nurse Education Leaders in a VUCA Nursing Education Ecosystem; Vhothusa Edward Matahela
- Section 3. Education
- Chapter 10. Language Bias in Ubuntu-Inspired Organizations: Exploring Prejudices Based on English Language Deficiency and Its Effects on Leadership, Performance, and Ubuntu Principles; Khanyisile Twabu
- Chapter 11. Unpacking Ubuntu leadership in South Africa: A Conduit for the Successful Leadership and Management of Rural Public Schools; Buhle Stella Nhlumayo
- Chapter 12. Amplifying the African Drum of Humaneness: Ubuntu Leadership as the Panacea for Leading Towards the Attainment of SDGs in a VUCA world; Themba Ralph Mkhize
- Chapter 13. An African Word but a World Concept: A Transformative Terrain in a Multilingual Intermediate Mathematics Classrooms; Kereng Gilbert Pule
- Section 4. Business and Entrepreneurship
- Chapter 14. From the Girl Child to the Queen Bee: Narratives, Roles, and Leadership Through Ubuntu Principles; Aradhana Ramnund-Mansingh, Rebecca Naidoo, and Valencia Moodley
- Chapter 15. Ubuntu Leadership Where It Matters: Leader-Follower Relationships; Marianne Louw
John D. Volmink is the chair of the Ubuntu Global Network under the Instituto Padre Antonio Vieira, Lisbon, Portugal.
Rob Elkington is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Business and Master of Management program at Trent University and an Extraordinary Associate Professor at Stellenbosch University.
Cecile Gerwel Proches is an Associate Professor based in the Graduate School of Business and Leadership, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), in Durban, South Africa.
Themba Ralph Mkhize is a Senior Lecturer at the University of South Africa and the Research and Innovation Committee Chairperson at the Department of Educational Foundations (UNISA, Pretoria).
Heinrich C. Volmink served as a Member of Parliament in South Africa and is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary in the Division of Public Health and Health Systems at Stellenbosch University.