Knowledge appropriation and HRM: the MNC experience in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper takes a critical look at the processes of knowledge appropriation through the management of human resources (HRM) and culture by multinational companies (MNCs) in a developing nation, Tanzania. We compare the approaches of two global MNC banks, Citibank, an American bank, and Standard Bank, a South African bank, and examine how each aligns its HR practices and policies with its conception of corporate culture with a view to strengthening its ability to secure, i.e. appropriate the contribution from its human resources. Both banks claim to follow a transnational model of ‘best practices’, by relying on proven global capabilities to manage people. However, we found evidence of a complex set of approaches in the way each bank developed its organizational and HRM practices and legitimized them through ethnocentric values. Using Foucault's social theory, we examine the way MNCs' knowledge appropriation regimes emerge and become rationalized at the organizational level. The notion of normalization, in particular, enables us to examine the application of organizational controls and the attendant implication about the protections available to employees in the Tanzanian banking sector.