"Messy Governance: Global Supply Chains, Working Conditions and Developing Countries"

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 11337
Author(s):  
Vivek Soundararajan ◽  
Jill Ann Brown
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Global Supply Chains

scholarly journals Mind the gap: Grass roots ‘brokering’ to improve labour standards in global supply chains

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J Kaine ◽  
Emmanuel Josserand
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Whistle Blowing ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Labour Standards ◽  
Implementation Gaps

While governance and regulation are a first step in addressing worsening working conditions in global supply chains, improving implementation is also key to reversing this trend. In this article, after examining the nature of the existing governance and implementation gaps in labour standards in global supply chains, we explore how Viet Labor, an emerging grass-roots organization, has developed practices to help close them. This involves playing brokering roles between different workers and between workers and existing governance mechanisms. We identify an initial typology of six such roles: educating, organizing, supporting, collective action, whistle-blowing and documenting. This marks a significant shift in the way action to improve labour standards along the supply chain is analysed. Our case explores how predominantly top-down approaches can be supplemented by bottom-up ones centred on workers’ agency.

scholarly journals Ethical Issues in Global Supply Chains

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bodo B. Schlegelmilch ◽  
Magdalena Öberseder
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Unethical Conduct ◽  
Production Methods ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Consumer Demands

Despite all technological advances, global supply chains are always based on the interaction of people. And wherever people interact, a kaleidoscope of ethical issues emerges. While consumer demands and concerns have undoubtedly led to an increased awareness of unethical conduct in the supply chain, contravening forces, such as the relentless pressures for low cost products and the ease by which consumers are purchasing non-deceptive counterfeits, should also not be ignored. Many retailers are now embracing ethical issues by emphasising, for example, that they take care of the production methods and working conditions pertaining to the goods they offer.

Comment on Sonja Dänzer. Structural Injustice in Global Production Networks: Shared Responsibility for Working Conditions

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Starmanns
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Structural Injustice ◽  
Discursive Approach

AbstractThis commentary's claim is that Dänzer's argument does not sufficiently take into account the complexities of the global production of goods, the current corporate responsibility practices and the problems of attributing responsibility to single actors. I argue in favour of a shared responsibility and briefly present a discursive approach for attributing MNE's share of responsibility in global supply chains, which requires obligatory transparency.

Causal Complexity

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Chunyun Li
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Private Regulation ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Incentive Effects ◽  
Regulation Model ◽  
International Conventions ◽  
Causal Complexity

This chapter examines causal complexity. The determinants of improvement in working conditions in supplier factories in global supply chains are complex. The complexity arises from the interaction between heterogeneous actors (companies, auditing firms, suppliers) following a multiplicity of practices, combined with the effect of local institutional conditions and industry and workplace context. Along with the general lack of transparency in private regulation, this combination of causal factors leads to uncertainty with respect to cause–effect relationships. The central assumption of the private regulation model is that if standards are set by codes of conduct (whether based on international conventions or local laws), and if supplier factories comply with the codes, sweatshop conditions will be avoided and improvements will be made in the lives of workers in global supply chains. But this assumption may not be warranted; buyers and brands may not have the power to force suppliers to compel compliance. And within the businesses of most global buyers and retailers, sourcing may not be sufficiently well integrated with compliance, so the incentive effects of rewarding good factories that are making improvements in compliance are not realized in practice — even though such incentives are the very basis for the model of private regulation of first-tier supplier factories.

scholarly journals Pivoting technology: understanding working conditions in the time of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-215
Author(s):  
Hannah Thinyane ◽  
Michael Gallo
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Labour Exploitation ◽  
Travel Restrictions

State lockdowns and travel restrictions introduced in response to COVID-19 have limited the ability of frontline responders to conduct on-site visits and inhibited their efforts to assess working conditions and monitor for labour exploitation within global supply chains. These challenges have increased multinational corporations’ reliance on remote technologies to assist in their supply chain due diligence processes. Our research investigates the use of one such example, Apprise Audit, which is a digital solution used for worker interviews in social compliance auditing that was modified to enable remote data collection. Based on a series of interviews with implementing partners and industry experts, our research finds that Apprise Audit Remote helps to overcome the difficulties of gathering worker feedback in the presence of COVID related constraints. Using this work as a case study, we then further elaborate on the practical opportunities and limitations associated with ICT-enabled remote auditing.

Subpolitics and sustainability reporting boundaries. The case of working conditions in global supply chains

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1535-1567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Antonini ◽  
Cornelia Beck ◽  
Carlos Larrinaga
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Sustainability Reports

PurposeThis paper explores the subpolitical role and main characteristics of a specific accounting technique, sustainability reporting boundaries. Its focus is on how the sett2ing of sustainability reporting boundaries affects the definition and distribution of social risks along the supply chain, particularly the risks related to working condition and human rights.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on Beck's (1986) exploration of the ways in which techno-economic spheres offer opportunities for the politicisation of new areas. It is argued that the sphere of sustainability reporting offers that opportunity for the politicisation of supply chains. Using the case of Inditex, the historical context of initiatives relating to the ready-made garment (RMG) industry at global, European and industry level as well as media coverage on the entity are analysed; this is correlated with the analysis of boundary setting in relation to sustainability reports, focusing specifically on working conditions.FindingsThe analysis suggests that accounting technologies that set contested boundaries are subpolitical, that is, defined outside traditional political processes. The paper finds that the way social risks are framed along the supply chain renders them invisible and impersonal and that the framing of these risks becomes endless as they are contested by different groups of experts. Setting sustainability reporting boundaries has subpolitical properties in producing and framing those risks, whilst is simultaneously limited by the inherent politicisation of such an exercise. The questionable legitimacy of sustainability reporting boundaries calls for the construction not only of discursive justifications but also of new possibilities for political participation.Research limitations/implicationsThe analysis is limited to working conditions along one organisation's supply chain.Originality/valueThe contribution of this paper is threefold: (1) It studies in-depth how working conditions in global supply chains are portrayed in sustainability reports. (2) It answers the call to study accounting technologies themselves, in this case sustainability reporting boundaries. (3) It extends Beck's work on global ecological dangers to working conditions in global supply chains to explore how sustainability reporting boundaries are subpolitically involved in the definition and distribution of social risks along the supply chain.

scholarly journals Field Opacity and Practice-Outcome Decoupling: Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains

ILR Review ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 841-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarosh Kuruvilla ◽  
Mingwei Liu ◽  
Chunyun Li ◽  
Wansi Chen
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Labor Standards ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Private Regulation ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Sustainable Improvement ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
Recent Developments

Although firms in diverse industries increasingly adopt private regulation of labor standards for workers in their global supply chains, growing scholarly evidence suggests that this approach has not generated sustainable improvements in working conditions for those workers. The authors draw on recent developments in institutional theory regarding the development of opaque institutional fields that cause the decoupling between practices and outcomes to develop a new explanation for the lack of sustainable improvement in labor practices in supply chains. Using qualitative and quantitative data from a global apparel supplier and a global home products retailer, they demonstrate the various ways in which opacity causes decoupling between private regulation practices of global firms and outcomes for workers in supply chains.

scholarly journals Developing Walvis Bay Port into a logistics gateway for southern Africa: Issues, challenges and the potential implications for Namibia’s future

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Savage ◽  
Logan Fransman ◽  
Andrew K. Jenkins ◽  
Colin G. Bamford
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Employment Opportunities ◽  
Cluster Development ◽  
Subsequent Operation ◽  
Potential Benefits

Many developing countries wish to become the ‘gateway’ to a region or part of a continent.One strategy involves encouraging logistics cluster development. These hubs support global supply chains and may enable the economic growth of the host country through the resulting trade, as well as providing direct and indirect employment opportunities during the build and subsequent operation of the hub. Namibia intends to develop the Port of Walvis Bay to be come the preferred gateway to southern Africa and the Southern African Development Community region. This article builds on research on Caribbean cluster potential and Namibian logistics to identify the potential benefits and impact on development, as well as the drawbacks and risks of such a strategy.

scholarly journals Can solidarity be organized "from below" in global supply chains? The case of ExChains

2018 ◽  
pp. 400-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Lohmeyer ◽  
Elke Schüßler ◽  
Markus Helfen
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Empirical Context ◽  
Transnational Solidarity ◽  
Transnational Social Space

Global supply chains in the garment industry are marked by labour standard violations in factories as well as retail stores. Against this background it is important to strengthen the bargaining power of workers along the supply chain. Establishing direct relationships among workers along the supply chain could be one way to achieve this aim. This paper builds on extant literature on transnational solidarity and highlights the specific challenges of understanding solidarity in a transnational social space by looking at the empirical context of global garment supply chains. It hereby seeks to go beyond treating “solidarity” as a mere metaphor for any form of transnational union or worker cooperation, and instead engages with the cultural-normative dimensions of the concept as referring to mutual bonds among groups of workers. By looking at the case of the ExChains network, this paper examines some of the opportunities and challenges involved in establishing and maintaining transnational worker solidarity. The paper concludes by discussing the transformative potential, but also the limits of transnational labour solidarity regarding substandard working conditions in global supply chains.

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