Reading and Writing in the Global Workplace: Gender, Literacy, and Outsourcing in Ghana

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Beatrice Quarshie Smith

Reading and Writing in the Global Workplace

Gender, Literacy, and Outsourcing in Ghana

Beatrice Quarshie Smith

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English

Lexington Books
14 June 2012

Literacy; Social & cultural anthropology; Industrial or vocational training; Employment & unemployment

Reading and Writing in the Global Workplace: Gender, Literacy, and Outsourcing in Ghana by Beatrice Quarshie Smithexplores the conditions that underlie the outsourcing of US data-processing work in Ghana. Here Beatrice Quarshie Smith describes the convergence and interplay of at least four different socio-economic forces: (1) the digital and satellite technology enabling virtual environments for global outsourced data-processing; (2) the historical development of Ghana as a politically-stable Anglophone society with a relatively strong tradition of public education; (3) the neoliberal economic restructuring policies advanced by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; and (4) the ready availability of women seeking to enter the formal wage economy either to seek independence from their roles within traditional families, or in order to support their families. The author’s comparative study of two distinctly different workplaces reveals significant insights about problems of organizational hierarchy and management-employee relations in the cross-cultural environments of out-sourced business and IT process work. Through extensive interviews, the book sheds light on the educational backgrounds, day-to-day struggles, fears, and aspirations of the workers. Quarshie Smith develops this multi-faceted analysis with keen insights into the representational limitations and ethical responsibilities of the researcher. This pioneering study about outsourced data-processing work in West Africa opens up a new area for research and offers a fresh perspective from which to consider outsourcing in other regions of the globe.

By: Beatrice Quarshie Smith
Imprint: Lexington Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 161mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 503g
ISBN: 9780739137840
ISBN 10: 0739137840
Pages: 210
Publication Date: 14 June 2012
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Beatrice Quarshie Smith is an associate professor of Literacy Studies in the Department of Humanities at Michigan Technological University where she is also the Director of the Intensive English as a Second Language Program. Her research interests include explorations of the relationships among globalization, gender, English language literacies and work-related practices.

Reviews for Reading and Writing in the Global Workplace: Gender, Literacy, and Outsourcing in Ghana

Using a multi-site design, Quarshie-Smith exposes the ways that outsourcing operates as a gendered globalizing activity in Ghana. The contributions to our understanding of processes of globalization and to the need for the development of new methodologies that enrich our understanding of literacy in networked environments in this book are vital and significant. Anyone who thinks they know about networked literacies and gender and anyone who wants to know needs to read this book.--Nancy DeJoy, Michigan State University