South African employees’ commitment to a Chinese organisation

Abstract

A growing number of Chinese organisations are investing in African operations, contributing greatly to employment opportunities within the continent. Despite the importance of these operations, very little research has been undertaken on individual and organisational issues in Chinese organisations operating in Africa, and more specifically, local employees’ organisational commitment to such organisations. The purpose of this chapter is to gain an understanding of the levels of commitment and factors influencing the organisational commitment of South African employees within a Chinese organisation. A large multinational Chinese organisation with operations in South Africa agreed to participate, and in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 employees. In addition to seven factors identified in our literature review, our findings suggested a further two factors which are perceived to influence the organisational commitment of South African employees to this Chinese organisation. Although certain negative issues were raised by some of the participants, the general findings relating to the levels of employee commitment were positive. Although limited to one organisation, we had the opportunity to explore issues in-depth with participants while identifying nine factors believed to influence the commitment of South African employees within the organisation. The findings suggest fruitful further avenues for research and provide insights into the levels of commitment of local employees in Chinese organisations in Africa.