Indigenous Responsible Management: The Story of Egypt

Responsible management (RM) is a topic of interest in the western world. Contemporary scholars explore ways of integrating responsible management education (RME) within curricula of business school. With the growing interest in the factors that contribute to attaining RM practices, one looks to communities, institutions and whole civilisations in order to learn from them. Such information would be helpful not only for the context from which they originate, but also for institutions with similar goals in different locations around the world. As one of the notable centres of ancient civilisation, Egypt was known for its diversity of occupations including trade. The Egyptian civilisation guided by traditional values flourished in many aspects. This chapter explores the traditional tenets that nourished growth and development of management practices in ancient Egypt as a way of discovering what factors can contribute to RM today. There are attempts to integrate the principles of RM into business practices and education especially into the curricula of business schools. This chapter provides insight to the principle of RME as is seen in contemporary Egypt but also provides knowledge of ancient wisdom that contributes to our understanding of RM in Africa. It attempts to draw from Egyptian heritage while exploring the deeper understandings of RM in Africa.