Labour standards in the Ghanaian construction sector: an investigation of the governance landscape

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-01-2022-0013
• Published date: 18 October 2022
• Date: 18 October 2022
• Pages: 543-557
• Subject Matter: Economics,Labour economics
• Author: Serena Masino,Nadia Laura von Jacobi,Mavis Akuffobea-Essilfie

Labour standards in the

Ghanaian construction sector:

an investigation of the

governance landscape

Serena Masino

School of Organisations, Economy and Society, University of Westminster,

London, UK

Nadia Laura von Jacobi

Department of Economics and Management, Universita degli Studi di Trento,

Trento, Italy, and

Mavis Akuffobea-Essilfie

STEPRI, Accra, Ghana

Abstract

Purpose –This paper aims to investigate the governance of labour standards in the less-studied yet rapidly

globalising Ghanaian construction sector. While incorporation into international production networks

generates several opportunities for workers, the drivers of adverse incorporation originate at multiple levels of

analysis. The study offers an investigation into such drivers and their interconnections.

Design/methodology/approach –The authors utilise a multi-scalar framework and mixed methods of

analysis. Both the qualitative and multi-level quantitative analyses rely on a primary dataset collected among

30 firms and 304 respondents, through semi-structured interviews.

Findings –A composite yet unbalanced labour standards governance configuration emerges, where the

absence of social governance combined with a weak role of the State leaves labour standards subject to the

variegated landscape of firms’embeddedness in the sector.

Originality/value –The construction industry is acquiring ever-increasing relevance in the economic

trajectory of Ghana as well as that of several other African economies, not least for its large employment

generation potential. Research on the governance of labour standards in the sector is, however, largely missing.

The authors argue that labour incorporation dynamics represent a complex under-investigated regulatory

challenge as well as a policy-making priority. The analysis is one of the first to offer a reconstruction of the

governance landscape determining the challenges workers face in the Ghanaian construction sector, from both

a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

Keywords Governance, Labour standards, Multi-scalar, Construction sector, Ghana, Africa

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Construction operations have seen incredibly rapid rates of expansion throughout Africa in

the last two decades, to the point where international financial actors are seen as

“re-imagining their activities through the lens of African infrastructure”(Goodfellow, 2020,

p. 258). New widespread participation of emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil and

the Gulf States among others underlines much of such recent expansion (Foster et al., 2009;

CARI, 2017;GIPC, 2018). The construction industry has key developmental potential,

Labour

standards

governance in

construction

543

The authors are grateful for the comments received by Jun Hou; they would also like to acknowledge the

help and support of Portia Adade Williams and Nana Yamoah Asafu-Adjaye without whom this project

would have not been possible. Finally, the authors are grateful to the referees’comments that have much

improved the work and to all the participants who gave up some of their time to participate in our study.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0143-7720.htm

Received 10 January 2022

Revised 5 June 2022

11 July 2022

Accepted 22 September 2022

International Journal of Manpower

Vol. 44 No. 3, 2023

pp. 543-557

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0143-7720

DOI 10.1108/IJM-01-2022-0013