8. African Leadership Insights: The Role of Hope, Self-efficacy and Motivation to Lead

This chapter presents a study that investigated the connection between hope, self-efficacy and motivation to lead (MTL) in the development of leaders in South Africa. The continent’s history of colonialism, oppression and decolonialization formed the background for exploring the relationships between the variables and the possibility that the residual effects of history have negatively impacted the sense of hope, self-efficacy and MTL among some ethnic groups. Presented will be a statistically significant and positive correlation that was found between hope, self-efficacy and MTL; while some differences in hope were found between groups. The negative regression coefficients indicate an inverse relationship between the variables of hope, self-efficacy and Christian, in relation to MTL-S (leading for self-benefit factor). The positive regression coefficient indicates a positive relationship between self-efficacy and MTL-G (group-centred leading factor). The effects and interaction of these variables in relation to different groups provide information for the future development of leaders. The insights and findings of the study in a developing nation and young democracy may provide pertinent application in other nations in Africa. Ultimately, this chapter shows the need for Africans to create, maintain and sustain development in their nations.