The vulnerable other – distorted equity in Chinese–Ghanaian employment relations

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The vulnerable other – distortedequity in Chinese–Ghanaianemployment relationsKarsten Giese & Alena ThielPublished online: 21 May 2012.

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The vulnerable other � distorted equity in

Chinese�Ghanaian employment relations

Karsten Giese and Alena Thiel

(First submission September 2011; final version received May 2012)

AbstractBased on a two-sided ethnographic study in Accra, this paper analysesChinese�Ghanaian employment relations from the perspectives ofpsychological contract, cross-cultural equity expectations and foreign-ness. Reaching beyond racially framed allegations of each other that areinformed partly by politicized media discourses, structural analysis showsthat mutually contradictory, culturally grounded expectations regardingtheir employment relationship are central to the understanding of conflictbetween Chinese employers and Ghanaian employees. Central to thefrictions of mutual equity expectations is the feeling of existentialvulnerability that � although particular for each group � is shared byboth Chinese migrant employers taking high financial risks in anunfamiliar and potentially hostile environment and their local employeesrecruited almost exclusively from economically marginalized groups.

Keywords: labour relations; equity; psychological contract; trade; China; Ghana.

Introduction1

Following the intensifying Chinese economic engagement in Africa,publications on labour conflicts and labour rights violations in Chineseenterprises have become numerous. Such accounts usually focus onlarge enterprises within construction or mineral extraction (Wang andFlam 2007; Utomi 2008, pp. 51�53 Baah and Jauch 2009; Moumouni2010; HRW 2011). Labour relations within small-scale manufacturing,trade and services have been largely neglected. However, Chinesetrading companies in particular have mushroomed in Africa. Given thenumber of Chinese merchants in urban African settings and theembeddedness of their activities within the local socio-economic fabric,potentially conflictive employer�employee relations may have a much

Ethnic and Racial Studies 2012 pp. 1�20, iFirst Article

# 2012 Taylor & FrancisISSN 0141-9870 print/1466-4356 onlinehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.681676

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.681676

greater impact on the local setting than labour conflicts in large-scaleprojects operating with few links to the local society. Hence conflictsarising between local employee and Chinese employer may challengethe economic and social integration of Chinese sojourners and theirbusinesses far beyond the individual case. Such conflicts may quicklyamplify latent sociopolitical frictions sparked by general perceptions ofthe destructive impacts of the Chinese economic activities in Africa.

Local African discourse on Chinese economic activities and relatedlabour conflicts is largely dominated by racial stereotypes informed bypoliticized media reporting that often reflects particular agendasrelated to election campaigns, the call for protectionist measures orsocial distribution conflicts. Hence, it is unsurprising that mutualperceptions are framed in similar terms on the inter-individual level,although other factors are central to the understanding of labourconflicts in the trading sector. Exemplifying Ghana, our structuralanalysis will demonstrate how, beyond superficial racial prejudice, boththe Chinese employer’s and African employee’s perceptions of vulner-ability and risk play a central role within their employment relation andthe mutual interpretation of obligations, reciprocity and equity ofexchange arrangements therein. Here, the vulnerability of Chinesetraders to become victims of general social and political conflict and tojeopardize their substantial investments is mirrored by the materialvulnerability of the young and marginalized Ghanaian employees.

In the urban settings of Ghana, Chinese trading businesses areusually jointly run by small numbers of sojourning members ofextended families who create employment for an about equal numberof Ghanaians. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork conductedamong Chinese merchants and their local African employees in Accrafrom January to March 2011 and from November 2011 to January2012, we will introduce the situation of Chinese family-run tradingcompanies within the local economy and labour market. We will thenexplore Chinese�African employment relations and inherent conflictsfrom the two-sided perspective of employees’ and employers’ contrast-ing equity expectations and diverging vulnerability perceptions. We willexplore employees’ coping mechanisms in view of perceived inequityand their contribution to the revision of employment terms as well asChinese employers’ countermeasures. Data have been collected from asample of approximately 100 individuals representing thirty Chinesetrade businesses and some related service providers. At the time of thesurvey the randomly selected companies had been operating forbetween two months and almost ten years. Data collection was carriedout in each Chinese trade enterprise in the form of repeated visits of twoto eight hours each, complemented by several separate in-depthqualitative interviews with both Chinese employers and Ghanaianemployees. (see Appendix for details on respondents)

2 Karsten Giese and Alena Thiel

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This methodology, rooted in our regional specialization in WestAfrica and China not only allows us to present a two-sided account ofboth the Ghanaian employees’ and the Chinese employers’ perspec-tives on the employment situation, but contributes to closing aprofound research gap concerning the working of the psychologicalcontract in cross-cultural employment relations by demonstrating howmutual equity expectations are constructed under conditions offoreignness and how perceived equity distortions are mediated andaddressed when shared normative frameworks are absent. Whileacademic research on work and work relations in different Africansocieties has a long tradition, only a few of these early studies havepaid attention to cross-cultural employment relations (Charles 1952;Sofer 1954). More recent articles focusing on cross-cultural employ-ment usually limit their focus to management practices in complexorganizations (Jackson 2002, among others) and have a strong biastowards the employees’ equity expectations (Brooks 2010, amongothers), leaving the employers’ perspective largely uncovered. Simul-taneously researching both Chinese employers and Ghanaian employ-ees for the first time allows an account of this particular relationshipwithout falling into the common trap of de-legitimizing the perspec-tive of either side due to the limitations of regional specialization andhence restricted access to information.

Chinese merchants in Ghana

Since the beginning of this millennium Chinese entrepreneurs havebeen arriving in Ghana in substantial numbers. Estimates varybetween 2,000 and 10,000 (cf. Sautman and Yan 2007; Ho 2008,pp. 59�60 Mohan and Tan-Mullins 2009, pp. 590�592). Most Chinesewho arrive independently of large construction projects have chosen toimport cheap consumer goods made in China. Like all foreign-ownedinvestments in trade, these companies are subject to the provisions ofthe Ghana Investment Act (1994), that reserves exclusively forGhanaians the ‘sale of anything whatsoever in a market, petty trading,hawking or selling from a kiosk at any place’. For lawful operation ofa wholesale trading company wholly or partially owned by a non-Ghanaian, two requirements have to be met: (1) investment of no lessthan US$300,000 as foreign capital or in goods of equivalent value;and (2) the employment of at least ten Ghanaians. Upon completionof registration the foreign investor is entitled to an immigration quotaof two persons for paid-up investment capital of up to US$300,000and an initial automatic quota of four persons for investments ofUS$500,000 and above.

Having registered the company the foreign merchant must report tothe Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), established for

The vulnerable other � distorted equity in Chinese�Ghanaian employment relations 3

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holding records of all foreign investments in Ghana except for miningand petroleum companies. The statistics received from the GIPCaccount for 147 Chinese companies engaging in general traderegistered in the period 1994�2011 (GIPC 2011) � although theremay be many more operating illegally.

Chinese wholesale shops in general are not fancy outlets but veryfunctional establishments: a simple room completely open to thestreet, furnished with a simple desk, some improvised seats, maybe arack along the back wall for displaying the merchandise, floor spacefor cartons or plastic bags full of goods, and in some cases, awarehouse attached to the back of the shop. As a rule these simplevending spaces have to be rented for five to ten years with upfrontpayment of US$25,000�US$60,000 for the whole period (CTcb1122011; CTcb131 2011b; CTcb161 2011b; CTcbf100 2011). Additionalinitial investments include the rental of warehouse space, a house foraccommodating the investor and one or two family members-cum-business partners or Chinese employees, and the purchase of a car.

A Chinese setting up a wholesale business in Ghana requires initialcapital stock of at least US$500,000�US$1,000,000, depending on thekind of goods being traded. Not only by Ghanaian standards is thissum huge and constitutes a heavy financial burden and risk forChinese investors, who in their majority depend on private lending andmortgages as sources for running their � by international standards �small-scale businesses. Owing to the low value of merchandise, theparticular business model emphasizing high turnover at low profitmargins, and the cut-throat competition between the Chinese inGhana, year-end net profits do not allow large fortunes to amass,since proceeds are largely reinvested in order to expand the scope ofthe operations. With net profits of US$10,000�US$80,000 per personand year, the average Chinese trader in Ghana generally leads a life ofself-imposed saving and restriction (CTcb130 2011; CTcb152 2011;CTcb161 2011a; CTcbf162 2011). Along with the ability of ‘eatingbitterness’ (chi ku) that is deeply engrained in the entrepreneurialmindset, these self-restrictions include, for instance, the separationfrom close but unproductive family members such as spouses andchildren, which in addition to financial risk significantly increases thepsychological burden on Chinese entrepreneurs operating in analready uncertain foreign environment (cf. Dobler 2009, p. 710).

This said, most of our Chinese interviewees were convinced thatwith regard to the scale and simplicity of their businesses they coulddo perfectly well without hiring any Ghanaians. Hence the legalrequirement of employing at least ten Ghanaians is regarded as a big(financial) burden and politically imposed barrier to market entrance.In order to cut costs, all interviewed Chinese merchants havecircumvented these regulatory requirements by officially registering


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fictional employees. In reality, many Chinese are employing no morethan one to three Ghanaians as shopkeeper, driver or watchman � inmany cases to make their violation of the law less apparent but alsobecause they realize that local assistance is valuable for certain tasks,not least the mediation of conflicts with and the protection fromundue demands by customers and officials.

The Ghanaian labour market and the Chinese employer

Jobs in the Chinese trade businesses are generally low-key, low-responsibility tasks that require little or no training and hence do notcarry high social status in the perception of both Chinese andGhanaians. The majority of employees in our sample thus do notpossess formal education beyond secondary school, university degreesand higher diplomas being the rare exception, but have largely receivedvocational training in unrelated sectors such as masonry or carpentry.Irrespective of educational level, the typical Ghanaian employee inChinese trade businesses in Accra is male and between twenty andthirty years old. Female employees are usually of the same age groupbut are much less common, possibly due to the perceived physicalnature of the work.

Official statistics attribute the highest share of unemployment to thecountry’s youth in the urban centres, especially the Greater Accraarea, with male unemployment rates slightly exceeding female (GSS2008). With rural migrants shunning farm work, although agricultureat least statistically provides more income-generating opportunities,access to the urban labour market is both strongly contested andhighly restricted by persisting cultural and social norms and practices.The Ghanaian labour market is not accessed through education ortraining, as Chant and Jones (2005) posit, but through the ability toutilize membership of social networks. A strong preference to employone’s own kin mediated through a relative’s introduction persiststhroughout the entire economy (Velenchik 1995; Collier and Garg1999; for youth employment in the form of apprenticeships, see Peil1970; for the trade sector, see Clark 1994).

This means that young employees or apprentices enter complexinterpersonal exchange relationships of mutual obligations andentitlements, which � although informal in character � are enforcedby shared norms of reciprocity and sanctioned by social control withinthe context of the extended family. Although Ghanaian employmentrelationships in general are characterized by a large power distance(Debrah 2001), and employers in the Ghanaian trade sector inparticular enact authority through physical strength, loud talk andexercise of power over others as widely accepted as a necessity of the


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business (Overa 2007), family relations usually ensure that sucharrangements do not derail and become exploitative for either side.

Transactions in these relationships range from the exchange oftraining fees against skill acquisition over wages2 and allowances incash and kind (e.g. for transportation, housing, medical bills orfuneral attendance), as well as additional non-monetary benefits suchas gifts, food or accommodation, and not least, rewarding theemployee’s long-term loyalty with the start-up capital needed forindependent economic activities. These transactions cannot simply besubstituted with wages as they are important, not least symbolic,signifiers of cultural values, particularly the employer’s role as a‘benefactor, guardian and protector’ (Charles 1952, p. 434) whoderives his or her status and authority precisely from taking onresponsibility for others and from showing moral commitment orloyalty. Ghanaian employers are highly appreciated for their avail-ability to employees for personal advice and assistance in cases offinancial emergencies. In that sense, employers assume the role ofelders, figures of respect and wisdom. Youth employment, in this light,is widely recognized as a way to give a person a chance to progress inlife beyond the mere material dimension.

Although Chinese traders are not influenced by the gatekeepingmechanisms of the Ghanaian labour market, empirical evidence showsthat their employment decisions are not exclusively based on marketmechanisms either. Only seldom do Chinese wholesalers advertise jobsor recruit via placement agencies. Neither is hiring one of the manyapplicants who voluntarily offer their labour the rule. Informed by asimilar logic of mutual social obligations as within the Ghanaiancontext, Chinese employers tend to prefer employees recommended bya loyal customer, neighbour (African or Chinese) or other trustworthyacquaintance. Given their perceived vulnerability as foreigners, this isclearly a strategy to reduce the risk of labour conflict and as a result,the potential threat of antagonizing the local host society, whichracializes public discourse on employment practices in the same way asthe Chinese selling cheap merchandise are denounced for cheatingGhanaian customers, while Ghanaian and other nationals’ imports ofsimilar qualities are not subjected to such allegations. In fact, eventhough wages in Chinese trade businesses often exceed the localaverage, labour relations with ‘the Chinese’ are widely interpreted asunjust and exploitative.

Theorizing Chinese�Ghanaian employment relations

By basing employment decisions on trust in third parties, theoreticalconsiderations suggest that Chinese traders and their local employeesare initiating an employer�employee relationship that from their


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perspective � at least partially � is based on mutual trust and includessocial-emotional rewards in addition to monetary remuneration. Theactors invest in relationships that are expected to resemble socialexchange (cf. Blau 1964) rather than purely economic exchange.Instead of short-term, impersonal, pecuniary agreements (Shoreet al. 2006), social exchange relationships are characterized by adiffuse or unspecified obligation to return an initial transaction basednot on rational contractual agreements but on trust in the other’smoral engagement in the relationship (Blau 1964). According to theChinese logic of social relationships (renqing, guanxi), the introductionthrough a trusted third party (guarantor) ensures that the employeewill perform well and minimizes the risk of conflict, primarily becauseof the employee’s social obligation towards the guarantor and thedesire to ‘earn’ the guarantor face.

Within the Chinese cultural and social context of larger economicunits, Wang et al. (2003, p. 515) assert that the employee ‘may feelobligated to reciprocate through harder work’, while Chen, Aryee andLee (2005, p. 459) observed ‘feelings of obligation to reciprocate . . . theexchange by demonstrating work attitudes and behaviours that benefitthe organization.’ This said, the Chinese owner-manager of a family-run trading company in Ghana, who has established an interpersonalrelationship with the local employee (and the guarantor) throughemployment will share these expectations. Having internalized theChinese sociocultural norm of immediate and equal repayment offinancial and socio-emotional debts as essential for nurturing relation-ships (cf. Xin and Pearce 1996; Tsui and Farh 1997), the Chineseemployer is counting on the Chinese employees’ empirically provenadherence to the norm of reciprocity (cf. Yang 1994; Gabrenya andHwang 1996; Xin and Pearce 1996; Buchan, Croson and Dawes 2002;Westwood, Chan and Linstead 2004; Wu et al. 2006) and transplantsthis logic into the African setting.

Although it is widely accepted that the norm of reciprocity isuniversal to all cultures (Gouldner 1960, p. 171), different socio-cultural contexts give rise to cross-societal differences regarding formand nature of interpersonal exchange relationships in general andattitudes and perceptions people share regarding employment relation-ships in particular (Baldry 1994; Bamber and Lansbury 1998; Pot2000). Problems in Chinese�Ghanaian employment relations cantherefore be expected to arise on the basis of the foreignness of theChinese traders in Ghana and their socially and culturally groundedapproach that not the employer but the (extended) family isresponsible for providing an individual with social and materialsecurity, which is in sharp contrast to the role of the employer asperceived by Ghanaian employees.


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Hence we assume that it is due to foreignness and differentinterpretations of the reciprocity norm, including related socialpractices, that both Ghanaian employee and Chinese employer mayperceive their implicit agreement on the equal inputs in the employ-ment relationship violated. This implicit agreement regarding thedistribution of rights and duties between employer and employee isusually referred to as a psychological contract (Rousseau 1996). Theconcept of psychological contract allows analysing labour conflictsbeyond the explicit terms of formal written contracts and is thereforeparticularly suitable for the discussion of individual labour relation-ships that are predominantly informal and not based on explicitnegotiations of contract terms.

There is ample empirical evidence that employees construct theirindividual psychological contracts on the basis of pervasive socialnorms of reciprocity in employment relations (Rousseau 1990;Robinson, Kraatz and Rousseau 1994; Robinson and Rousseau1994) but not necessarily geared to the specific employment situation(McFarlane Shore and Tetrick 1994, p. 98). Usually lacking someamount of information with regard to their employer when they startworking, employees tend to fill in information based on existingschemas (Salancik and Pfeffer 1978) informed by previous experiencesand social norms. Messages sent by the employer that do not complywith these norms and expectations may be perceived as a violation ofthe psychological contract and result in reactions targeted at restoringthe distorted equity of exchange � or ultimately the termination ofboth the psychological contract and social exchange relationship (cf.McFarlane Shore and Tetrick 1994). Since employees regard theirreactions as a means of restoring equity, they are rejecting theresponsibility for not meeting the employer’s exchange expectations(cf. Murphey and Cleveland 1991) and possibly causing the relation-ship to deteriorate further.

It has been established that employees confronted with perceivedbreaches of the psychological contract react with silence, voice, retreator destruction in order to restore equity, or finally opt for exit andtermination of the employment relationship (McFarlane Shore andTetrick 1994, p. 103; Geurts, Schaufeli and Rutte 1999, p. 256). In thecontext of purely Ghanaian employment relations, silence is usuallythe first form of response because social norms forbid young employ-ees to approach their superiors directly. Where perceived inequity isaccompanied by the gradual loss of trust in the employer’s perceivedrole as guarantor for basic material security, however, it is common forGhanaian employees to seek assistance from a mediator � usually theperson who introduced the relationship. Although Chinese�Ghanaianemployment relations are also mostly established through an inter-mediary, for unknown reasons neither this person nor the employee


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perceives this third party as a potential mediator. Hence taking refugein silence ultimately fails to restore trust and equity within Chinese�Ghanaian labour relations. Similarly, with regard to the general labourmarket situation, exit is not a viable option for Ghanaian employeeseither, which leaves us to consider voice, retreat and destruction. Incross-cultural employment, relationships that are characterized by theabsence of a common language, voice � thought of as verbalization ofdiscontent � may follow different rules to mono-cultural settings.Hence, for the purpose of this study we widen the definition of voiceby including phenomena of verbalization, demonstrative forms ofretreat, and open destruction.

Perceptions of distorted equity are no one-way street, particularlyunder conditions of exchange relations across cultures. Employers maythus interpret coping strategies as attempts by their employees to re-negotiate at their expense the work performance that is regarded asequal in value to the remuneration they receive. We therefore widen theanalysis of perceived equity violation by introducing the employer’sperspective as equally relevant for the understanding of exchangerelations under the conditions of foreignness.

The psychological contract and equity expectations under conditions offoreignness

Given the fact that a number of our Ghanaian interviewees explainedthat they lacked information about the nature of their job and theiremployment relationship when they were introduced to their Chineseemployer, we can assume that the picture of the employer as a morallycommitted provider of social and material security and the generalknowledge of the cultural norms and practices of Ghanaian employ-ment relations in the trade sector informed their equity expectations.Upon taking up employment, however, employees are confronted withemployers that do not fit into the Ghanaian role model. The generalappearance and behavioural patterns of Chinese traders, their humbleand low-key appearance in casual attire, is in stark contrast to thephysical size and the display of wealth and power of Ghanaian traders.As Ghana is not their arena for demonstrating economic success totheir peers by means of conspicuous consumption, the behaviour ofChinese traders largely follows the business logic of keeping inputslow. Even the expensive sport utility vehicles (SUVs) stereotypicallyassociated with them and their fenced-off accommodation in relativelyprestigious neighbourhoods of Accra are convincingly presented bythe Chinese traders as costly solutions for coping with the feeling ofvulnerability and the threat of armed robberies rather than regarded aspersonal luxuries. Symbols of wealth and status for the Ghanaiansthus represent mere means of survival for the Chinese.


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These fundamental differences due to the foreignness of the Chineseleave potential Ghanaian employees at odds with the interpretation ofthe mixed and predominantly non-verbal messages their Chineseemployers send out. When comparing the dominant image of powerfultraders, laden with cultural values of seniority and authority, to theirChinese employers, Ghanaian employees in Chinese trade businessesin Accra develop perceptions that are distorted by the cross-culturaltranslation process. Naturally grounding the psychological contractmore in the pervasive norms of Ghana than in non-existentexperiences with Chinese traders, the Chinese absence of family tieswith the employee, their non-performance of security provision,combined with their unimpressive physical appearance and inconspic-uous industriousness often result in a lack of respect for the Chineseemployer. The humble clothing of the Chinese is interpreted asprovinciality rather than frugality (CTge16 2011), while drivingaround in SUVs is seen as nothing but a display of wealth whilefailing to provide employees with basic material security, expressed forinstance in the monthly gift of a sack of rice. This common view is thentranslated into a widely accepted allegation of ‘the Chinese’s’exploitative treatment of Ghanaian labour. While the Chinese areseen to be able to afford luxury items, the Ghanaian culture expectsthose ‘who are fortunate enough to escape poverty’ (GTgb2 2011)to share with those who supported them in the creation of theirwealth, although this generally applies to members of the extendedfamily only.

Chinese merchants, on the other hand, having geared wage levels tothe general situation in Accra, and in a few cases consciously payingwell above average, do not understand their employees’ repeateddemands for grants and allowances beyond regular monetary gratifi-cation. They are unaware of the locally pervasive norms andobligations involved in employment relations and the symbolic natureof such allowances as tokens of social/personal responsibility towardsthe employee. They are convinced that frequently asking for leave tofollow important social obligations such as attending funerals qualifiesfor wage cuts rather than for extra allowances (cf. Charles 1952).Employees who have been introduced to them on the basis of mutualtrust should express high commitment to work before asking for anyadditional gratification.

Both the psychological contract of Ghanaian youth and the equityexpectation of the Chinese employer are grounded in perceptions andculturally informed conventions that do not comply with the cross-cultural nature of this social exchange relationship. Based onconflicting interpretations of the reciprocity norm, this mutualignorance/incomprehension of vulnerability/risk perceptions almostinevitably translates into allegations of equity violation.


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Coping with perceived inequity

Ghanaians are employed for shifting goods from one place to another,fetching goods from the warehouse or handing out commodities �tasks that the employers do not hesitate to carry out themselves. Henceit does not usually occur to most of the Chinese to cherish theGhanaian work or openly and directly express satisfaction � a practicethat is rarely seen in the purely Chinese context either. On the otherhand, the lack of appreciation for their work and abilities beyondsimple monetary remuneration is one of the most widely perceivedbreaches of the psychological contract stated by our Ghanaianinterview partners (CTge16 2011; CTge28 2011; CTge36 2011).

Verbalization

For the Ghanaian employee, being disregarded as a valuable additionto the business connotes the perceived failure of Chinese employers torespect them as a complete person, not least by taking their personalrisks seriously and giving assistance in times of personal hardship.Owing to the cultural aversion to verbalizing discontent and the lackof common language between Chinese employer and Ghanaianemployee, only the more self-confident and better-educated employeesare able to react verbally, making suggestions for improving theiremployment conditions (CTge25 2011). Generally speaking, verbali-zation succeeds only in the rare situation when the two involvedparties are not handicapped by language or psychological barriers andshare a general mutual appreciation for each other as persons. Despitethe minimal salary she receives, one interviewed employee emphasizedthe fact that she is highly appreciated in the shop, with numerouscustomers asking for her and tasks being her exclusive specialty. Shetakes pride in the fact that she was asked to return after beingtemporarily laid off for verbalizing her demand for a pay rise a coupleof years ago. Although she did not manage to capitalize on theChinese employer’s inability to replace her, she was happy to return toan employment relationship in which her superior cared for her. Sheappreciates the Chinese employer’s assistance in caring for herterminally ill mother and later her newborn baby, and is also gratefulfor minor investments like the daily sharing of meals and the generalinterest taken in employees’ lives. Because she communicates well withher boss, the initially tense situation was solved in a non-conflictivemanner (CTge28 2011).

The majority of cases follow a less positive pattern. Almost everyChinese employer we interviewed complained that their employeessporadically demand what they deem unjustified tips (xiaofei) inexchange for normal tasks allegedly covered by their employment


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agreement. A worker employed to assemble aluminium window frameswas reported to ask for tips before agreeing to carry the componentsinto the storage room each time a new delivery arrives from China(CTcb128 2011). A Ghanaian shopkeeper regularly acts reluctantlywhen asked to buy soft drinks from a nearby shop until he is given atip either in cash or kind, according to the statement of one Chineseinformant (CTcb161 2011a), while a third employer explained that herworker even dares to demand additional payment whenever he is askedto venture from shop to warehouse for stocking up (CTcb103 2011). Incommon here is that by frequently demanding small extras, theemployee is verbalizing dissatisfaction, not necessarily with carryingout basic tasks, but with a more general perceived inequity. In this waythe employees try to extract what they perceive to be denied to them inthe form of concrete emergency assistance and the provision of basicmaterial security as signified by repeated voluntary allowances.

Many Chinese, unaware of this widely accepted obligation toperform symbolic acts signifying their commitment to providematerial security, interpret their employees’ voices of discontentdifferently. Since they themselves work long hours, endure monotonyand are willing to ‘eat bitterness’ in view of future earnings, beingasked frequently by their workers for tips in addition to above-averagewages without showing a corresponding level of commitment simplycomes across as a behaviour that lacks any reasoning and also violatestheir value system, in which the person is most appreciated who strivesfor self-improvement. While some Chinese found ways to freethemselves from their employees’ demands by demonstrating theirsuperiority and authority as employers (CTcb103 2011; CTcb152 2011;CTcbf164 2011; CTce107 2011), those who lack management andcommunication skills are doomed to pay and reluctantly restore theequity as perceived by the employee (CTcb103 2011; CTcb141 2011;CTcbf100 2011; CTcbf166 2011).

Since most Chinese employers are reluctant to terminate contractsand look for new workers because they are concerned aboutantagonizing larger parts of the local community and fear ‘toexchange a bad worker for a worse one’ (CTcb103 2011), verbalizationmay succeed for Ghanaian employees but it may also backfire. Anemployee, having received a financial incentive for no longer being latein the morning, returned to his old habits after a while, which was metby cutting back his wage to the original level. When he loudly utteredhis dissatisfaction about what he perceived as illegitimately with-holding a gratification he felt entitled to, he was laid off (CTcb1312011a). Although not resulting in the termination of the contract, afurther case clearly demonstrates the limitations of verbalizationwithin Chinese�Ghanaian employment. Convinced that his pay wastoo low, one employee managed to negotiate a pay rise by complaining


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about the rising transportation fares, although he lived within walkingdistance of the shop. After his employer’s initial refusal, he turned tonon-verbal strategies and started purposely and demonstratively tocome into work late every morning until he was finally given anincrease (CTge30 2011).

Demonstrative retreat and open destruction

Retreat is the withdrawal, either mentally or physically, from the workenvironment. While mental exile is not conducive to the restoration ofequity, applied demonstratively as in the case mentioned above, it canserve as an expression of discontent and thus as a means of voice.Thus, what the Chinese employers view as lack of proactivity is often aconscious strategy of Ghanaian employees (CTge25 2011; CTge282011). One Chinese complained in an interview that it would nevercross his Ghanaian employees’ minds to pick up waste from theground and dispose of it. They would only do so when told, but wouldnot proactively reproduce this behaviour; rather, they would casuallykick the waste material around when passing (CTce168 2011). For theGhanaian employee, this behaviour constitutes a non-verbal demon-stration of discontent in the form of retreat from obvious tasks in anattempt to restore the distorted balance of his psychological contract.

In some cases, Chinese employers are able to interpret acts of retreatfor what they are � strategies for coping with perceived inequity. Oneimporter of commodities that have to be assembled before being soldon the Ghanaian market was confronted after a while with lowproductivity. Unwilling to accept a revision to the psychologicalcontract of his employees, he reacted to the retreat by changingpayment modalities. From his perspective the introduction of apiecework system successfully disciplined the assembly-line workersof his trade business and restored the equity that had been temporarilydistorted by the retreat of his employees (CTcb130 2011). Accordingto the logic of this Chinese employer, this also provided his employeeswith the means to take precautions against potential material risks, ifthey were only willing to work harder.

If equity distortions are perceived to escalate or to perpetuatewithout any prospect for improvement, coping strategies can becomedestructive. Feeling threatened by existential risks without anyperceived willingness to help out on the part of their employers,some of our Ghanaian informants consequently denounced ‘theChinese’ as inhumane since they allegedly failed to show empathyfor their employees (CTge16 2011; CTge28 2011). Although quite afew of the Chinese traders we interviewed believe they have establisheddependable relationships, take an active interest in the lives of theiremployees, and occasionally express their appreciation through small


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and sometimes valuable presents from their travels to China (CTge162011; CTge27 2011; CTge33 2011), this perception is not usuallyshared by their employees. To one employee the gift of a ratherexpensive mobile phone as a sign of appreciation for his work by theChinese employer cannot compensate for his general dissatisfactionwith ‘the Chinese’ for rejecting their perceived social obligations. Theregular sack of rice as a symbol of the employer’s responsibility forproviding material security would contribute much more to reducinghis perceived vulnerability and increasing his job satisfaction than anyexpensive gift. One interviewed employee, for instance, expressed hisexistential fear of falling sick as, far away from his family, there wouldbe nobody to pay his hospital bills. To make matters worse, he fearedthat every day of illness would be deducted from his pay thus furtherincreasing the hardship, rather than his employer granting paid sickleave and covering medical bills as Ghanaian employers would inmany cases do (GTgb2 2011; GTgb7 2011).

In view of such acute violations of the psychological contract, a verycommon form of openly destructive behaviour seems to be thatGhanaian employees simply take without asking what they perceive tohave been denied by their Chinese employers � thus substituting theirentitlement to long-term social security provision with short-termmaterial gains. Almost every Chinese trader agreed with the notionthat Ghanaian employees steal if they are not supervised, and manywere able to present detailed accounts of theft of which they or theircompatriots were victims (CTcb152 2011; CTcbf165 2011). Most ofour Chinese respondents react with increased alertness and surveil-lance without considering the potential reasons for this allegedlycommon behaviour (CTcb152 2011). They usually do not search forunderlying reasons, are not aware of their employees’ existential fears,but attribute this behaviour to the general moral deficiency of ‘theAfrican’. Only one Chinese trader consciously interpreted theft interms of Ghanaian employees’ dissatisfaction with their exchangerelationship, although he too was unable to relate this deviantbehaviour to perceived vulnerability and his own failure to fulfil hisrole as a responsible employer as perceived by Ghanaians (CTcbf1222011).

Conclusion

This paper set out to explore Chinese�Ghanaian employment relationsand the conflictive potential therein as an example of cross-culturalexchange relations. The two-sided ethnography enabled us to closesome of the extant research gaps. Through this methodology we haveovercome usual research limitations rooted in regional specializationand linguistic capabilities and hence were able to present an account


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simultaneously representing the perspectives of both parties involvedand to analyse the significance of notions of reciprocity, loyalty andtrust, and the embeddedness of working relations in such concepts.Limitations inherent to qualitative research, however, remain. Owingto the variance and complexity of the observed individual situations,our interpretations can be neither exhaustive nor representative of allChinese�Ghanaian employment relations in the trade sector. However,we have presented archetypal examples of widespread perceptions andbehavioural patterns of the parties involved.

We have demonstrated that, beyond the racialized framing of cross-cultural employment conflicts by both Chinese and Ghanaians in theairing of their structural dissatisfaction with each other, group-specificperceptions of vulnerability and risk have to be regarded as centralelements for the understanding of the continuing and potentiallyconflictive negotiation of equity and reciprocity between employer andemployee. The young and predominantly male Ghanaian employees,who usually lack both higher education and strong family ties in Accrathat would allow this marginalized group alternative access to paidlabour, rightly perceive their personal situation as existentiallyvulnerable � both economically and psychologically. Not as obviousbut nonetheless as justified as the Ghanaian employee’s perception ofrisk and vulnerability is the Chinese employer’s uncertain state ofmind. Substantial private lending and mortgages as bases for highlyspeculative trading activities in an unfamiliar and potentially hostileenvironment, characterized by high initial and long-term investments,cut-throat competition with large numbers of compatriots as well as byfrequent extortion by officials, constitute the existential economic risksthat the Chinese merchants have to take in order to pursue theirbusinesses abroad. Economically induced self-restriction that oftenresults in the separation of Chinese entrepreneurs from their closestkin creates additional psychological uncertainty that may amplify theirperception of vulnerability in a foreign land. In this situation,characterized by perceived vulnerabilities that actually lie beyond theparticular employment relationship, loyalty � signified by symbolicacts � is in high demand by both parties involved, but is notsatisfactorily demonstrated.

While Ghanaian employees expect regular gifts and concessions thatsymbolically ensure them of the social security provision that isinscribed into the role of the employer by pervasive social norms, theChinese employer expects the employee to display his loyalty throughcommitment and dedication to work. Since both expectations regard-ing reciprocity deriving from different social universes are not (fully)satisfied, psychological contracts are easily perceived as violated andequity as distorted. In our two-sided analysis of the re-negotiation ofallegedly violated psychological contracts and distorted equity, we


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have demonstrated that demands for pay rises, tips and allowances onthe one hand, and for proactivity, dedication, industriousness andhonesty on the other, constitute symbolic though largely futile appealsto perform loyalty and for protection against perceived vulnerability,rather than attempts to unilaterally change the purely economic termsof the exchange relationship. Therefore, different concepts of the actsand practices that symbolically signify loyalty are the foundation tounderstanding the malfunctioning of Chinese�Ghanaian exchangerelations in employment. Deprived of gifts and allowances orconcessions with regard to social obligations, Ghanaian employeesfeel that their Chinese employers lack any understanding of andempathy for the vulnerability that many of them perceive as threaten-ing their social and material survival. Without alternatives forgenerating income, they strive for the recognition of their existentialfears by extorting additional monetary benefits (tips, extras, theft)from their employers, where the latter fail to perform expectedsymbolic acts that would signify their willingness to protect theirsubordinates. Without being related to their employees by kinship tiesor other bonds of affection, the Chinese merchants, however, do notrecognize themselves as providers of fully fledged social security, nordo they feel obliged to take up responsibilities that are usuallyattributed to close relatives, according to their own social logic.Extending such privileges to alien employees who moreover fail todemonstrate their dedication and loyalty to them and their businessesseems unjustifiable.

In the large majority of observed cases, the involved parties areunable to gain a deeper understanding for the cultural other andeventually smooth the relationship. Most of our informants remaincaught within their own framework of pervasive norms and practicesand hence are blind to any interpretation of the particular cross-cultural setting in which they are operating. Under these conditionsmany Chinese employers and Ghanaian employees tend to racializethe discourse, because patterns of dissatisfaction and conflict similarto their own are widely observable in almost all the Chinese tradingenterprises employing Ghanaians in the central market area of Accra.The verbalization of discontent, demonstrative retreat and acts ofdestruction by employees as well as the employers’ refusal to makesymbolic concessions are generally ascribed to moral deficiencies ofeither ‘the African’ or ‘the Chinese’. Even in the rare cases whereactors seem to have gained more structural insights, practices areadjusted only within their own system of reference: the Chineseemployer who justified the introduction of a piecework system asproviding his employees with a better opportunity for takingindividual precautions against economic emergencies is the mostblatant example.


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Notes

1. Research for this publication has been conducted as part of the ongoing project

‘Entrepreneurial Chinese Migrants and Petty African Entrepreneurs � Local Impacts of

Interaction in Urban West Africa’ funded by the DFG Priority Programme ‘Adaptation and

Creativity in Africa’.

2. According to International Labour Organization (ILO 2008) statistics, average monthly

wages in Ghana’s retail and wholesale trade are around GH¢70�120 (Ghana cedis) (with

higher wages being paid in the wholesale segment), thus often formally undercutting the legal

minimum daily wage currently fixed at GH¢3.73 (approx. US$2.50).

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Appendix A: Interviews in Accra

Interviewees have been coded and anonymized in order to protect theirprivacy and interests. The codes are chosen to provide the followinggeneral information about the informants:

C Chinese businessG Ghanaian businessT tradeE external service providerc Chinese individualg Ghanaian individualb ownere employeef family member

CTcb103 (2011), 11 FebruaryCTcb112 (2011), 10 FebruaryCTcb128 (2011), 11 FebruaryCTcb130 (2011), 19 FebruaryCTcb131 (2011a), 1 FebruaryCTcb131 (2011b), 4 FebruaryCTcb141 (2011), 21 FebruaryCTcb152 (2011), 18 FebruaryCTcb161 (2011a), 12 FebruaryCTcb161 (2011b), 17 FebruaryCTcbf100 (2011), 4 FebruaryCTcbf122 (2011), 14 FebruaryCTcbf162 (2011), 17 FebruaryCTcbf165 (2011), 22 FebruaryCTcbf164 (2011), 12 FebruaryCTcbf166 (2011), 12 FebruaryCTce107 (2011), 12 FebruaryCTce168 (2011), 1 FebruaryCTge16 (2011), 8 FebruaryCTge25 (2011), 17 FebruaryCTge27 (2011), 18 FebruaryCTge28 (2011), 20 FebruaryCTge30 (2011), 21 FebruaryCTge33 (2011), 21 FebruaryCTge36 (2011), 25 FebruaryGTgb2 (2011), 28 JanuaryGTgb7 (2011), 2 February


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Documents

The vulnerable other – distorted equity in Chinese–Ghanaian employment relations