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Africanization in British Multinationals in Ghana and Nigeria, 1945–1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2019

Stephanie Decker
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Abstract

Multinationals experienced significant legitimacy challenges in less-developed countries between 1945 and 1970. Corporate responses to these challenges cover three distinct periods. Unsuccessful postwar attempts focusing on colonial welfare concerns were followed by pragmatic endeavors intended to repair corporate reputations by Africanizing senior management. By the 1960s, this had become a common approach to legitimization. The challenges of Africanizing ethnocentric multinationals led to organizational changes: internationally diversified multinationals were better able to decentralize subsidiary management, while the late 1960s saw regionally focused multinationals absorbed by more diversified multinationals. Organizational survival was directly linked to legitimacy advantages derived from Africanization.

Keywords

legitimacyAfricanizationGhanaNigeriamultinationalshistory
Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 92 , Issue 4 , Winter 2018 , pp. 691 - 718
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2019 

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Footnotes

I gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments I received from the editor and anonymous reviewers, as well as from many colleagues over the years at seminars and conferences. This includes the conference on the Nationality of the Company in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2017; the Association of Business Historians Annual Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2017; the re:Work workshop on Multinationals and the Organization of Work in Berlin, Germany, in 2015; and the Business History Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2014, where a previous version of this paper received the Halloran Prize in the History of Corporate Responsibility.

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