Employee Management Strategies of Chinese Telecommunications Companies in Ethiopia: Half-way Localization and Internationalization

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite much scholarly debate on Chinese employment practices in Africa, firm-specific studies on how companies manage expatriate and local employees and the dynamics of power in the process remain scarce, especially in the knowledge-intensive sectors where relatively skilled portion of Chinese and Africans are recruited. The article addresses this weakness through a case study on the employee management strategies of one flagship Chinese telecommunications company in Ethiopia. Informed by a combined institutional and relational approach, it evaluates the promises and constraints of an ongoing workforce localization initiative to transform the extant managerial regime in the company. The structural and organizational features of the current regime reveal the incomplete nature of localization and internationalization of Chinese companies to achieve full-fledged employee integration and empowerment in Africa.