Localization of management in multinational enterprises in developing countries: a case study of policy and practice

Job role localisation in the oil and gas industry: A case study of Ghana

“…However, if another organisation had filled the same type of job role within the same time frame, then the Petroleum Commission's expectations to have a Ghanaian in that role would be likely to increase. For all five roles there is a preference within the O&G company within this study for an expatriate to occupy the role, as has been found in the literature (O'Donnell, 2000;Oppong, 2015). These results reflect Cooke, Wood, & Horwitz's (2015) and Amankwah-Amoaha & Debrah's (2011) findings that MNCs across Africa struggle with a shortage of local talent due to market failings, inadequate investment in workforce development and high competition for top talent.…”

Evaluation of a management development programme: a critical discourse analysis

“…This was the outcome of Bhanugopan and Fish (2007) that expatriates were unwilling to develop local managerial talents and continued to employ expatriates, therefore worsening the paucity of Papua New Guinea’s skilled managerial staff. This is supported by Oppong (2015), who found that MNCs preferred not to implement a management localisation policy as they saw this as cost and also as an attempt to force them to relinquish their positions to their subordinates. While the Minerals Commission has failed in its responsibilities as overseer of the policy, the HR managers have entrenched themselves as “colonised elites”, referred to as the middle-class people by Fanon (1952/1967) who rather oppress their fellow national managers instead contributing to their development.…”

“…These hegemonic dynamics of the West in their mining subsidiaries in Ghana are termed by Oppong (2013) as a new form of colonisation. As argued by Oppong (2015), this tends to remove the government and businesses from ownership and management of the national resources which translates into displacement of development priorities.…”

“…Sometimes termed as management localisation when the intervention is aimed at eventual replacement of expatriates, it becomes necessary initiative to equip the local firm, industry, or a whole nation with the required managerial skills. However, such initiatives mostly fail because foreign multinational companies (MNCs) are either not willing to do so because of the huge costs involved, or for the fear of developing their subordinates to take over their jobs (Oppong, 2015).…”

“…One of the best ways of achieving this is to develop their leading managers (Mehrabani and Mohamad, 2015). This is viewed as a necessary initiative because “left to their own volition, MNCs may prefer not to implement the policy as they see this as cost and also as an attempt to force them to relinquish their positions to their subordinates” (Oppong, 2015, p. 224). For instance, Bhanugopan and Fish (2007) report (empirically) the case of Papua New Guinea where numerous expatriates continued to be employed and little consideration given to the development of local managerial talent, which defeated the country’s attempt to address the paucity of skilled management staff.…”