Privatization and Employment Relations in Africa

The Case of Mozambique

Bibliographic Data

ID20054479
AuthorsPauline Dibben (0000-0002-4410-3189, University of Sheffield), Geoffrey Wood (0000-0002-6690-338X)
Year2013
Pages72-93
Publication date2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueEffective People Management in Africa (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/9781137337177_4
OpenAlexW962789606
ISBN9781137337177
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited40

The impact of privatization on the public sector has generated much discussion over recent years, in both advanced and emerging economies. Across much of Africa, the imposition of structural adjustment policies by international financial institutions has led to wholesale privatizations since the 1980s. Given that the state was the major employer in many African countries, this has had far-reaching implications for much of the workforce, and has contributed towards a large informal sector and residual, yet still important, public sector. This chapter seeks to explore the impact of privatization on employment levels and the nature of employment relations in the public sector through exploratory in-depth research in Mozambique. The job cuts resulting from privatization in Mozambique had major implications for employment levels. Moreover, the residual public sector is characterized by a lack of union power and low pay, yet relative job security and equity. It is concluded that the important role of the public sector in economic development is often discounted, and that the state has a vital role to play both in ensuring decent work (and, indeed, acting as a role model in this regard) and in addressing historical inequities

Business · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Equity (law) · Job security · Labour economics · Political science · Public sector · State (computer science) · Work (physics) · Workforce · Global and Cross-Cultural Management · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Taxation and Compliance Studies

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