New book explores organisational communication in Africa

Senior Lecturer in the Media Department, Dr Blessing Makwambeni, is amongst the editors of a groundbreaking new book, Organisational Communication in Africa: Navigating a Digitalising World.

The book brings together empirical work that examines how digitalisation is impacting on and re-configuring organisational communication in different countries across the African continent. It provides new insights, theories and practical strategies for engaging with organisational communication from a Global South perspective.

Makwambeni edited the book alongside Dr Sam Usadolo of Durban University of Technology and Dr Queen Usadolo of North West University and said the project arose from everyday conversations between the trio.

"Sam, like me, is a communication scientist while Queen specialises in organisational behaviour. We wanted a book for our modules that borrowed from both fields to examine contemporary issues in organisational communication from a Global South perspective.

"Luckily, Palgrave Macmillan took an interest in our project and gave us two contracts. So, this is the first of two books we are publishing. The second one that focuses on the intersection of organisational behaviour and organisational communication and technology is coming out in February next year."

Makwambeni also co-authored one of the chapters in the book, titled Appropriation of Artificial Intelligence in Organisational Communication: A Scoping Review.

His co-author is Dr Patricia Makwambeni from the University of Cape Town.

He hopes it will provide guidelines on AI appropriation in organisations in the Global South and beyond.

The release of the book has left the academic "even more hungry to quench my insatiable appetite for publishing".

"My publication count is now close to 40 and I keep dreaming for more and have become even more impatient. It is kind of surreal. I hope this book will make a small impact by contributing towards the decolonisation of communication and organisational communication in particular. Oftentimes, I hear fellow academics saying there are no African textbooks on organisational communication. Now there will be no excuse."

The book's release caps a stellar year for Makwambeni, who has co-published two journal articles and six book chapters in 2024, with two more articles expected by year-end, "which will take my publication count beyond 10 for the first time in my career". This will result in more than six research units for the academic.

*The online version of the book was released on 10 November and the hard copy will be released on 21 November.

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