Business and Codes of Conduct Implementation: How firms use management systems for social performance (International Labor Organization, August 2003)
This research project focused mainly on how sneaker, clothing and retail companies enforced internationally their supply-chain regulation management systems. It investigates American and European multinational corporations in 9 countries and 74 factories. Dr. Liu Kaiming, as local expert of this project, participated in research investigation in 5 Chinese factories.
Executive Summary
The report examines the management systems and practices used in the implementation of Codes of Conduct in global supply chains in the sports footwear, apparel and retail sectors. This report was funded by the United States Department of State and is based on field research carried out during a two-year period, between 2000 and 2002, for the purposes of identifying the key issues involved in the Code of Conduct implementation process. Visits were made to the headquarters of twenty multinational enterprises (MNEs), located in both Europe and the United States. The research team also visited seventy-four factories located in Turkey, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Guatemala, Honduras, China, Vietnam, Thailand and the United States. The findings are based on interviews with over three hundred and thirty managers at the MNEs and supplier factories visited, workers and workers' representatives in the companies studied, as well as government, workers', employers' and non-governmental organizational representatives involved in the sectors studied. In general, the research indicates the need for a broad-based and integrated approach to implementing Codes of Conduct, with implications for management systems throughout MNEs and their suppliers. It also indicates the importance of a wide-ranging dialogue between various stakeholders, including government, workers' representatives, and management.
The pilot phase of the research focused on the sports footwear sector and was conducted during the second half of calendar year 2000. Subsequently our understanding of the issues under consideration increased. In conducting the research, the ILO research team together with assistance from various academic experts, interviewed managers regarding the techniques and systems used by three sports footwear multinationals, nine apparel multinationals and eight retail multinationals in carrying out their social performance objectives, tracking progress, and determining the means by which enterprises respond to shortcomings when they are identified
http://www.ilo.org/images/empent/staic/mcc/download/supply_chain.pdf
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A Research Project of ILO A Research Project of World Bank A Research Project of Oxfam
International Nokia and Its Chinese Workers |
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