Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global Apparel Industry

Overview of Chapter 7

Chapter 7 of Dickson, Loker, and Eckman's Social Responsibility in the Global Apparel Industry is entitled "How Manufacturers and Retailers Organize for Social Responsibility: Internally, Collaboratively, and Strategically." The chapter examines how businesses define and practice corporate social responsibility (CSR), how they integrate labor compliance into their operations, and how they turn social responsibility into a core business strategy. The authors suggest that public reporting and transparency are among the primary ways businesses strategize around CSR. Businesses also incorporate labor compliance models directly into their sourcing decisions.

The information in Chapter 7 builds on previous chapters related to organizational learning and change as they apply to shifting toward corporate social responsibility. The theories and models discussed therefore draw on frameworks related to organizational learning and change. The five stages of learning addressed immediately prior to the Chapter 7 overview are the defensive, compliance, managerial, strategic, and civil stages.

Organizational Learning and Change Stages

The first four of those stages — defensive, compliance, managerial, and strategic — occur within the province of the business itself; that is, they are internal. The final stage, the civil stage, happens externally and involves not just an individual business's strategy but a form of collective action among "collaborating businesses and stakeholders" (Dickson, Loker, and Eckman 207). In this chapter, the authors discuss the internal, collaborative, and strategic methods and processes of organizational change.

After addressing the internal issues — defensive, compliance, managerial, and strategic changes — the authors analyze and evaluate collaborative methods of civil change, which are in many cases more meaningful and long-lasting. The authors argue that there are two types of collaborative initiatives through which businesses can adopt a social responsibility model: multi-stakeholder initiatives and business initiatives. Finally, the authors reflect on the responsibilities businesses have to create and maintain at least the image of social responsibility, largely setting aside direct discussion of ethics. Issues of power, accountability, and responsibility are addressed within a business strategy framework.

No formal case analysis is used in the chapter, but the authors include a chart illustrating some of the core concepts. The "high opportunity green zone," for example, is differentiated from the "risky red zone" in Figure 7.5. Some historical context and analogy add substance to the argument. The chapter's conclusions are presented as practical business realities — such as the need for businesses to embrace social responsibility as a business strategy — rather than as ethical imperatives.

Collaborative and Strategic CSR Initiatives

Detaching ethics from the issue of social responsibility seems counterintuitive, but it operates logically within the framework of corporate self-interest. In this respect, the chapter is useful for understanding the mechanisms by which corporate priorities manifest and how social responsibility campaigns are often performances designed primarily to satisfy core stakeholders and preserve market share.

The authors also fail to address the strategies — or lack thereof — of businesses that do not need to incorporate social responsibility into their working models due to the absence of meaningful restraints on their respective industries. These include agro-business, big pharmaceuticals, and petrochemical companies. This omission narrows the chapter's analytical scope considerably. For these reasons, the approach that Dickson, Loker, and Eckman outline in Chapter 7 is difficult to fully endorse, even while recognizing that it accurately reflects a realistic and widespread corporate practice.