A Sacred Spirits Dilemma (A)
Employed by an African subsidiary of a French mining company, Anne Ormière was appointed project manager of a new mining project in the republic of French Equatorial Africa. While the project represented a potential 5% increase in the country's GDP and the benefits looked promising, it turned out that some of the proposed production areas were places of worship where local people conducted ceremonies to honor the "sacred" spirits of their ancestors. This topic ended up being the largest bottleneck for the project and the stakeholders could not reach an agreement on a solution. The case describes Ormière's attempts to resolve the conflict between the varying stakeholders. Part B describes the eventual resolution, after Ormière was informed that the "spirits" in the "sacred area" could be moved with little trouble. Ormière is left wondering why this information was withheld from her as she struggled to find a resolution.
Collection: IESE (España)
Ref: DPO-399-E
Format: PDF
Number of pages: 10
Publication Date: Apr 4, 2017
Language: English
What material is included in this case:
Description
Employed by an African subsidiary of a French mining company, Anne Ormière was appointed project manager of a new mining project in the republic of French Equatorial Africa. While the project represented a potential 5% increase in the country's GDP and the benefits looked promising, it turned out that some of the proposed production areas were places of worship where local people conducted ceremonies to honor the "sacred" spirits of their ancestors. This topic ended up being the largest bottleneck for the project and the stakeholders could not reach an agreement on a solution. The case describes Ormière's attempts to resolve the conflict between the varying stakeholders. Part B describes the eventual resolution, after Ormière was informed that the "spirits" in the "sacred area" could be moved with little trouble. Ormière is left wondering why this information was withheld from her as she struggled to find a resolution.
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Year: 2012
Geographic Setting: Africa
Learning Objective
This case is used to explore how a mining engineer in her twenties can engage various stakeholders (including local communities, national government representatives, and mining executives) so they come to a mutually beneficial solution to a seemingly intractable problem. The class discussion can begin with an analysis of the various stakeholder positions and interests to highlight the huge conflicts of interest in the case. We then reflect on what the protagonist could have done to resolve the issue more effectively.
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"A Sacred Spirits Dilemma (A)"
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