Inequality Seminar: Kwesi Ewoodzie, “International Standards, Local Flavors: Ghanaians' Workplace Experience in Multinational Corporations”
This dissertation focuses on the effect that globalization, through multinational corporations (MNC), is having on experiences of Ghanaian workers in the hospitality industry. One quickly notices the MNC workplaces in Ghana, like international hotels, are riddled with problems that range from cultural clashes, to inadequate human capital, and harsh economic conditions. These challenges create a set of unique stressors and demands on MNC employees which are drastically understudied. This dissertation is a 12-month ethnographic study mainly focusing on two international hotels in Ghana. Aside from the cumulative five months of serving as an intern at the two hotels, Ewoodzie conducted in-depth interviews of employees and managers. Additionally, he interviewed employees, managers and owners of about four other Ghanaian establishments. The attempt to provide international (Western-culture) customer service experience in the Ghanaian cultural experience is daunting. This dissertation examines organizations struggling between local and global cultural identities and the resulting perceived lack of organizational support of employees.
Kwesi Ewoodzie received his Bachelor of Science in applied psychology at Ithaca College in Spring 2010. Applied psychology allowed him to minor in communication management and design, as well as spending a semester in Washington, D.C. In D.C., he held an internship with a non-profit organization, helping with after school tutoring programs. His time at Ithaca also included a scholarship in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Program, which afforded him with many international travel experiences beyond his study abroad semester in Granada, Spain.
The poster for this event is available here.
The Inequality Seminar is a seminar and speaker series that provides a forum on campus for faculty and graduate students who are interested in inequality broadly defined. It is an opportunity for faculty and graduate students to present their research and to hear about other inequality-related work from researchers on and off-campus.
The Inequality Seminar meets Mondays from 1:30-3 p.m. in W113 Seashore Hall. The full list of fall seminars is available at /social-policy/inequality-seminar.
If you are interested in hearing about future talks (which will be held each Monday throughout the semester), or if you have any questions about the Inequality Seminar, please contact Sarah Bruch at sarah-bruch@uiowa.edu.