Does the historical and institutional re-construction of Ghana support the transfer of HRM practices?

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether the historical and institutional re-construction of Ghana support the transfer of human resource management (HRM) practices and if so, what local conditions support such transfer? Design/methodology/approach The paper draws from an exploratory qualitative study design by assimilating history, culture and institutions (social institutionalist perspective) to explore host-country factors and conditions supporting the transfer of HRM practices in a developing country context. Findings The study finds the colonial history, and the political and economic interests of Ghana to mimic best HRM policies and practices from its colonial masters and other advanced economies provided strong institutional support for the transfer of HRM practices. Research limitations/implications This paper complements the understanding of HRM practice transfer literature by highlighting the significance of host-country historical and institutional re-construction support in developing economies as key drivers for the diffusion of HRM practices. Practical implications By incorporating institutions, history and culture to form the underpinning social context, it offers a new perspective into how historical, cultural and colonial institutional legacies as entrenched social instruments facilitate HRM practice transfer in Sub-Saharan Africa. Originality/value The integration of institutions, history and culture (social institutionalist perspective) provide a wider understanding of factors that denote the effect of Ghanaian contextual distinctiveness as against the continued colonial institutional legacies (inheritance) supporting the transfer of HRM practices. This is the first study to consider how local institutions, culture and history of Ghana support the transfer of HRM practices to subsidiaries.

Role of accelerators in innovation ecosystems: The case of New Zealand

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Ethnocentric HRM practices: evidence from Western MNEs in Ghana

“…Developing countries’ cognitive and normative institutions present a particular challenge to developed countries’ MNEs (Luo et al , 2019). Institutionalists claim that subsidiaries more often than not are under isomorphic pressure to behave similarly to host country practices to gain recognition and local legitimacy (Ayentimi et al , 2018b; Patel et al , 2018).…”

“…The institutional and cultural pressures might be substantial for subsidiaries in host countries demonstrating wide institutional distance leading to a considerable increase in liability of foreignness (Ayentimi et al , 2018b). The difficulty of transferring practices is attributable to organisational structures and practices mirroring institutional environments in which they have initially developed (Siebers et al , 2015) and differing between contexts (Luiz and Spicer, 2019).…”

Union suppression and union substitution strategies of multinational enterprises in Ghana

“…Trade union avoidance strategies have attracted research attention owing to the ongoing decline in union density across many OECD economies (Kochan, 1980;Dundon, 2002;Gall, 2004;Ferner et al, 2005;Lavelle, 2008;Gunnigle et al, 2015). In contrast, union density was at an all-time high in developing countries such as South Africa and Ghana where they played a major contributory role towards gaining national independence (Otoo, 2013;Ayentimi et al, 2018). Since then, there have been seismic shifts in IR with MNEs entering the region and the focus of research on unions shifting towards worker representation, employee voice and alternate forms of union substitution (Ayentimi et al, 2018).…”

“…In contrast, union density was at an all-time high in developing countries such as South Africa and Ghana where they played a major contributory role towards gaining national independence (Otoo, 2013;Ayentimi et al, 2018). Since then, there have been seismic shifts in IR with MNEs entering the region and the focus of research on unions shifting towards worker representation, employee voice and alternate forms of union substitution (Ayentimi et al, 2018). It is therefore contextually important to explore union trajectory and examine the current strategies being employed by MNEs in developing countries.…”