International standards, local flavors: the experiences of Ghanaian employees in multinational-enterprise hotels

This dissertation sheds new light on the well-recognized globalization phenomenon by examining its socio-cultural component. The literature assumes that the “global village” will simply emerge once the legal and technical obstacles have been overcome. However, the merging of cultural and social practices is not an effortless process. I set out to uncover how complex such socio-cultural exchanges are with a 12-month ethnography project. I examine Multinational Enterprise (MNE) in the hospitality industry, which serve as a hub for border-crossing cultural exchanges. Specifically, I focus on Ghanaian-MNEs where international consumers expecting to receive international (Western culture) standards of customer service from the Ghanaian staff. My data show that the Ghanaian-MNE workplace is filled with cultural clashes that stem from MNEs tendency to use an integration model (maintain international standards) in regard to customer service experiences but use a differentiation model (adapt local cultural practices) in regard to human resource management (HRM). The clashes leave the staff dissatisfied with the workplace which negatively impacts their workplace performance. Given the labor, cultural, and emotional demands of the work, my study concludes that Ghanaian-MNEs should adapt strategic HRM tactics, as discussed in the international management literature, to gain a competitive advantage in their field. The findings from this study strongly establish the complexity of border-crossing cultural exchanges. Continuing to examine the dynamics of how individuals and organization come to adapt new cultural practices improves our understanding of the spread of globalization as well as a multitude of within organization processes.