Purpose

Firms are accountable for upholding worker rights and well-being in their supply base. The authors unpack the evolution in lead firm thinking and practice about how to assure labor conditions at suppliers.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted interviews with the social sustainability leaders at 22 global corporations (“lead firms”) and their sustainability consultants to understand how they think about, and enact efforts, to support labor in their supply base. The authors complement this with an analysis of stated practice in proprietary supplier codes of conduct for the manufacturing and extractive-related firms in the S&P 500 and FTSE 350.

Findings

The authors’ interviews suggest firms follow two distinct and cumulative approaches: a transactional-based approach leveraging collective buyer power to enforce supplier compliance and a relational-based approach focused on mutual capacity building between lead (buyer) firms and their suppliers. The authors also see the emergence, in a small subset of firms, of a bottom-up approach that recognizes supplier workers as rights-holders and empowers them to understand and claim their rights.

Originality/value

The authors identify systematic convergence in supplier codes of conduct. While the transactional and relational approaches are well documented in the supply chain social sustainability literature, the rights-holder approach is not. Its emergence presents an important complement to the other approaches and enables a broader recognition of human rights, and the duty of Western firms to assure those rights.

中文翻译：

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全球供应链中的社会可持续性和人权

目的

企业有责任维护其供应基地的工人权利和福祉。作者阐述了领先企业关于如何确保供应商劳动条件的思维和实践的演变。

设计/方法论/途径

作者对 22 家全球企业（“领先公司”）的社会可持续发展领导者及其可持续发展顾问进行了采访，以了解他们如何思考并采取措施来支持其供应基地的劳动力。作者通过对标准普尔 500 指数和富时 350 指数中制造和采掘相关公司专有供应商行为准则规定实践的分析来补充这一点。

发现

作者的采访表明，企业遵循两种截然不同的累积方法：一种基于交易的方法，利用集体买方力量来强制供应商合规；一种基于关系的方法，侧重于领先（买方）公司及其供应商之间的相互能力建设。作者还看到，在一小部分公司中出现了一种自下而上的方法，该方法承认供应商工人为权利持有者，并使他们能够理解和主张自己的权利。

原创性/价值

作者确定了供应商行为准则的系统趋同。虽然交易和关系方法在供应链社会可持续性文献中有详细记录，但权利持有人方法却没有。它的出现是对其他方法的重要补充，使人们能够更广泛地认识人权以及西方公司确保这些权利的责任。