ABSTRACT
Bantu (the plural of Muntu: ‘human being’) is a linguistic term in some very similar languages, such as those of the Zulu, Xhosa and Luba, the latter being the subject of Placide Tempels’s study. This paper relates Bantu Philosophy with a domain which is usually less connected to Tempels’s research, namely, management sciences. Because of globalization and migration, the cooperation between African and Western colleagues is growing inside and outside of Africa. In intercultural offices and businesses the diverse orientations of fellow workers are leading to structural misunderstandings. Since philosophy focuses on the fundamental orientations on which our thinking and actions are based, it provides management sciences insights for understanding misunderstandings. The aim is to critically examine the value of Bantu philosophical orientations for African Ubuntu (a term from the Zulu Bantu language that emphasizes a communal nature of African cultures) and intercultural management theories. An entry point for the analysis is the debate between religionists and empiricists. Tempels’s insights might offer implicit or explicit lessons for the conditions of intercultural collegial relations, in particular because he ponders philosophy as being capable of constructing common grounds for intercultural encounters. To justify the perspectives of both religionists and empiricists, there will be a plea for integrating the dimension of holism and dualism into management sciences.
