The Ubuntu Mindset
George Frempong, Raavee Kadam · 2025
The persistent calls for Indigenizing the academy and decolonizing business schools necessitate a paradigm shift that legitimizes other knowledge systems and multiple ways of knowing, doing, and being beyond the dominant Western thought. Our chapter introduces readers to the Indigenous African concept of Ubuntu (I am because we are) and argues that Ubuntu, as a management and leadership philosophy, can be adopted within the praxis of management education to train future managers and leaders to cultivate people-centred mindsets. The Ubuntu philosophy contends that people are inseparably bound in each other’s humanity, and a person is a person only through other humans. Ubuntu, which served as a transformative tool for an entire nation – South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy, can offer new perspectives on organizational and people management that are more compassionate and humanistic. We contend that Africentric knowledge systems and values such as Ubuntu are universal and fundamental to our understanding of inclusive learning environments and human development and, therefore, critical for the field of management learning to remain relevant for all students.