Implementing Codes of Conduct: How Businesses Manage Social Performance in Global Supply Chains

Abstract

DOI: 10.1355/ae23-31 Implementing Codes of Conduct: How Businesses Manage Social Performance in Global Supply Chains. By Ivanka Mamie. Geneva: International Labour Office and Greenleaf Publishing, 2004. Pp. 429. An increasing number of companies outsource all, or parts of, their production to low-wage countries with poor social and environmental standards. Concurrently with the increase in outsourcing activities, still more consumers and business-tobusiness customers express concern for the environmental and social conditions under which products are being produced. However, longdistance outsourcing often makes it difficult for companies to ensure that their products are being produced under socially and environmentally sound conditions. Ivana Mamie, who works with the International Labour Office (ILO) on its programmes designed to implement voluntary corporate social responsibility in global value chains, reports the findings of ILO's investigation that was conducted between 2000 and 2002 into three sectors - global sports footwear, apparel, and the retail sector. The purpose of the book is to identify and examine the ways in which companies adopt, implement, and evaluate policies regarding codes of conduct in their global business operations. The research addresses two specific questions: firstly, what are the management systems that enterprises use at the multinational enterprise (MNE) and supplier level to set, communicate, implement, and evaluate progress in attaining the code of conduct objectives; and secondly, how are these management systems linked, and how do they interact, between MNEs and their suppliers? Implementing Codes of Conduct provides useful knowledge to enterprises attempting to meet their social, ethical, and legal obligations, and to help policy-makers understand the complex interactions between business objectives and corporate social commitments. A pertinent finding of the book is that the sports footwear industry, often criticized for alleged violations of fundamental labour standards, has made greater progress in implementing workerfriendly codes of conduct than the apparel and retail sectors. The author observes that brand recognition and intense consumer scrutiny have led the sports footwear companies analysed in the book to develop more sophisticated approaches to code implementation. It attributes the success of the sports footwear industry to effectively applying financial and human resources to compliance efforts. Another finding is that companies should move away from policing as the best way of ensuring compliance towards an approach in which workers are empowered to oversee their own workplaces. Simply focusing on the numbers does not reveal the entire picture. While a large compliance team can mean improved social performance of a firm's supply base it also depends on the role that compliance staff play with suppliers. …