Capacity Building, Asset Development and Corporate Values: A Study of Three International Firms in Ghana

This chapter examines the operations of three international firms operating in Ghana in order to explain how their actions intersect the developmental aspirations and host-country concerns of Ghana.1 Our position is that the core values of these firms and the positions they espouse about human and social development greatly influence the way they use the human, social, financial, productive and natural capital Ghana has made available to them. Are these firms engaged in building local capacity, developing local assets, integrating themselves and generally ensuring that they add value to the Ghanaian context — and are just? For each of the three companies, this chapter will address four questions particularly sensitive in the Ghanaian context. First, are the firms conducting human resource management and skill development in such a way as to build local capacity? Second, do their governance and management structures involve local people? The use of expatriate managers creates the impression of foreign ownership, domination and concrete ceilings, which cap the progress of local managers. Third, do they integrate their supply chains within the economy of Ghana? Fourth, do they demonstrate social responsibility by providing support for the underprivileged, whether through charity or human resource investments in schools? This chapter will conclude with a number of prescriptive suggestions for international companies doing business in developing areas.