Review of Vonk, A.; Freitas Silva,V. (2024) cultural confluence in organizational change: a Portuguese venture in Angola

Müller, L.F.

Journal of Economic and Management Studies
1
Book review
Alette Vonk, Vasco Freitas Silva, eds. Cultural Confluence in Organizational Change: A Portuguese
Venture in Angola. Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2024. XIX, 159 pp. Euro 49.04. ISBN: 978-3-031-
45402-8.
The book is the result of the shared insights and collaboration between Vasco Freitas Silva
and Alette Vonk. Silva is a Chemical Engineer and Country Manager of a Portuguese
engineering venture in Angola. Vonk was academically trained in Development Sociology
and is currently a Dutch University Lecturer in Intercultural Management and a business
consultant. Their manuscript is based on their research concerning the confluence of
tradition and modernity within an organization in Angola. Interestingly, the Portuguese and
Angolese cultures have long existed side by side in this southern African country. When the
Portuguese came to Angola in the seventeenth century, they had to sign a peace...Show moreJournal of Economic and Management Studies
1
Book review
Alette Vonk, Vasco Freitas Silva, eds. Cultural Confluence in Organizational Change: A Portuguese
Venture in Angola. Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2024. XIX, 159 pp. Euro 49.04. ISBN: 978-3-031-
45402-8.
The book is the result of the shared insights and collaboration between Vasco Freitas Silva
and Alette Vonk. Silva is a Chemical Engineer and Country Manager of a Portuguese
engineering venture in Angola. Vonk was academically trained in Development Sociology
and is currently a Dutch University Lecturer in Intercultural Management and a business
consultant. Their manuscript is based on their research concerning the confluence of
tradition and modernity within an organization in Angola. Interestingly, the Portuguese and
Angolese cultures have long existed side by side in this southern African country. When the
Portuguese came to Angola in the seventeenth century, they had to sign a peace treaty with
the local Queen Njinga. Without the treaty, she would not allow the Portuguese to send their
Catholic missionaries to her country. Remarkably, as Silva learned along the way,
acknowledging the authority of an Angolese leader or Soba is still very necessary to
establish a peaceful relationship with the locals in a modern venture in twenty-first-century
Angola! As the authors put it: ‘Africa has two versions of everything’ and, henceforth, tradition
and modern leadership correspondingly converge in the management world of postmodern
Africa.
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