China represents Africa's most significant trading partner. Managers in Africa must deal with relatively poor infrastructure and political, economic, and social instability and poverty. Performance management in Chinese MNCs is characterised by Confucian values of hierarchy (ije j), seniority, guanxi (social networks that influence business), teamwork, subjective group evaluations and processes rather than outcomes (Cooke, 2009). In Africa, there tends to be a focus on the individual in relation to the collective (Ubuntu), maintaining face (mianzl), favouring family members (nepotism) (Kamoche et al., 2004), and an interest in basic salary levels rather than employees' intrinsic motivation. The Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE have had considerable success in Africa through strong local partnerships and R\&D activities in Nigeria and South Africa, combined with effective political and economic diplomacy. Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends 2015 report highlights in order of priority key \(\mathrm{HR}\) issues in Africa. These include leadership, culture and engagement, learning and development, performance management, and workforce capability.

Questions

1 What HR policies and practices might you expect in a Chinese-owned copper mine in Zambia that differ from a mine in a developed economy?

2 How equitable do you think reward systems for parent-country nationals (PCNs), host-country nationals (HCNs), and third-country nationals (TCNs) might be in a Chinese oil MNC in Tanzania?

3 If you were in a Chinese telecoms \(\mathrm{HQ}\), what IHRM policies and practices might you

(a) transfer or

(b) not transfer to an African subsidiary?

4 How can you apply the ILO's 'decent work' guidance to a Chinese textile factory in Kenya? http://www.llo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm.

5 How useful do you think the following guidelines might be if you were an HR manager working in a CMNC building African transport systems?

OECD's 2011 Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises

http://www.oecd.org/corporate/mne/
UN's 2008 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' Framework and Guiding Principles http:/business-humanrights.org/en/un-secretary-generals-special-representative-on-business-human-rights/ un-protect-respect-and-remedy-framework-and-guiding-principles.
6 What are the risks of applying the questions above and further reading below uncritically in practice?