The Bitter and the Sweet: Managerial Perceptions of the Well-Being of Ethiopian Female Apparel and Horticultural Workers

Elsje Fourie, Bilisuma Dito, Konjit Gudeta, Karen Schelleman-Offermans, Valentina Mazzucato and Kai Jonas
Additional contact information
Elsje Fourie: Elsje Fourie is the corresponding author (e.fourie@maastrichtuniversity.nl) from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, Netherlands.
Bilisuma Dito: Bilisuma Dito, Konjit Gudeta and Valentina Mazzucato are also affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, Netherlands.
Konjit Gudeta: Bilisuma Dito, Konjit Gudeta and Valentina Mazzucato are also affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, Netherlands.
Karen Schelleman-Offermans: Karen Schelleman-Offermans and Kai Jonas are affiliated with the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Netherlands.
Valentina Mazzucato: Bilisuma Dito, Konjit Gudeta and Valentina Mazzucato are also affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, Netherlands.
Kai Jonas: Karen Schelleman-Offermans and Kai Jonas are affiliated with the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Netherlands.

Progress in Development Studies, 2024, vol. 24, issue 2, 185-201

Abstract: Observers of Ethiopia’s entry into export-oriented global value chains generally agree that social upgrading is crucial if these chains’ largely female workforce is to reap the benefits of participation. They disagree, however, on the extent to which a ‘business case’ can be made to involve in this upgrading the managers who link frontline workers to international buyers. This article takes a novel approach to these questions by directly asking these managers and those who advise them on human resources how they understand the well-being of their frontline workers. Drawing on 37 qualitative semi-structured interviews, we find great variation in the extent to which such actors are interested in pursuing worker well-being and social upgrading beyond basic compliance. This is indeed due in part to the sectoral dynamics that have shaped managers’ views of what constitutes a profitable labour regime but also by sociocultural factors that include managers’ own national contexts, gender and class.

Keywords: Ethiopia; female workers; firm managers; global value chains; well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14649934231210099 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:prodev:v:24:y:2024:i:2:p:185-201

DOI: 10.1177/14649934231210099

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Progress in Development Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().