Variegated work regimes of Chinese investment in Ethiopia

Chinese overseas companies remain a “black box” in the bourgeoning China-Africa research. Less is known about how inter-state diplomacy, firm strategies, and employee agency interact to shape the workplace dynamics of Chinese investment in Africa. This article first develops a “variegated work regimes” (VWR) framework that integrates path-dependent, processual, and relational perspectives to capture the heterogeneous and constantly evolving relationships among state, capital, and labor to influence the construction and transformation of Chinese workplaces in Africa. It then applies the framework to examine Chinese investment in Ethiopia based on empirical evidence from three flagship companies operating in construction, telecommunication, and automobile sectors respectively. Despite varied ownership status and industrial sectors, the three companies benefit from the bilateral cooperation between China and Ethiopia to establish themselves abroad. Yet, the specific local work regime of each company is intricately embedded in home and host countries with regard to institutional and financial resourcefulness, market conditions, industrial relations, and headquarters practices. Expatriate and local employees, given their diverse socio-economic positions and interests, are subject to different mechanisms of control and adopt varied strategies towards the Chinese management. Analyses of the three companies’ market entry strategies, management activities, and employee experiences reveal four key features of Chinese work regimes in Africa: the capitalist logics behind global investment activities, the (sub)national rootedness of overseas operational capacity, the local responsiveness to ever-changing business and institutional contexts, and the multiple rationalities to inform the development of work relations and employee agency.