Title: Employment generation in Ghana by Ghanaians: role of culture

Authors: Nana Yaw Oppong

Addresses: Department of Human Resource Management, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

Abstract: Applying autoethography methodology, the author assesses the propensity to generate employments in Ghana by Ghanaians as influenced by culture. Hofstede's five cultural dimensions are applied for the evaluation and two of the dimensions - uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation - proved to strongly influence employment generation in Ghana. Motivated by two responses provided by the author at two separate meetings that provide the qualitative data, narrative analysis is conducted to reveal various drivers and challenges of employment generation. It is found that the two dimensions explain varied attitudes towards investing in and managing employment generation ventures. It is concluded that cultural values have strong influence on Ghanaians' ability and willingness to invest in high risk and long-term ventures that generate employments. The study extends literature on the efficacy of Hofstede's dimensions on nations as units of studying culture, and also reveals how the Ghanaian culture predicts and influences employment generation in Ghana.

Keywords: culture; employment generation; Ghana; autoethnography; uncertainty avoidance; long-term orientation.

DOI: 10.1504/MJCCM.2022.124380

MENA Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, 2022 Vol.1 No.2, pp.219 - 234

Received: 29 Sep 2016
Accepted: 06 May 2017
Published online: 26 Jul 2022 *

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