Abstract
{ "background": "The unique governance challenges faced by enterprises in post-genocide societies are under-researched, particularly regarding the interplay between mandated national unity policies, such as Rwanda's, and firm-level strategic decision-making. This creates a gap in understanding how corporate governance adapts to and fosters resilience within a specific socio-political reconstruction context.", "purpose and objectives": "This working paper aims to develop a diagnostic framework to analyse the evolution of enterprise governance structures and their contribution to organisational resilience in Rwanda's post-conflict economy. It seeks to identify the mechanisms through which national reconstruction policies have been internalised and operationalised at the firm level.", "methodology": "The study employs a longitudinal, multi-method design, integrating archival analysis of corporate reports and policy documents with in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior executives and board members from a stratified sample of enterprises. Thematic analysis was used to code and synthesise the qualitative data.", "findings": "A dominant theme emerging from the data is the strategic internalisation of national unity principles into corporate ethics codes and stakeholder management practices, observed in over 70% of sampled firms. This is frequently coupled with a hybrid governance model that blends conventional corporate oversight with community-based accountability mechanisms.", "conclusion": "Enterprise governance in the studied context has evolved into a distinct hybrid form, serving as a critical intermediary between national reconstruction goals and microeconomic resilience. This adaptation appears to be a significant, though not uniformly applied, factor in sustaining long-term firm performance.", "recommendations": "Policymakers should consider formalising guidelines for community-integrated governance structures. Firms are advised to conduct resilience audits based on the developed diagnostic framework to identify governance-related vulnerabilities. Further research should quantitatively test the framework's predictive power for firm survival and growth.", "key words": "post-conflict reconstruction, corporate governance, organisational resilience, hybrid governance, business ethics, stakeholder management", "contribution statement": "This paper provides a novel diagnostic framework for analysing firm-level governance adaptation in post-genocide economies,