Dialogue between civil society institutions and corporations: a case study of Foxconn

<p>Since the 1980s, many multinational companies (MNCs) have adopted codes of conduct (CoC) to regulate the labour practices of their suppliers. Although an increasing number of MNCs have utilised CoCs in China to address working conditions, there is little evidence that CoCs have effectively mitigated labour rights abuses in China. Through the lens of dialogic theory, this study explores why this may be so. Rather than focusing on how MNCs and their suppliers affect the effectiveness of CoCs in supplier-countries, this study instead draws attention to the influence of supplier-countries’ contextual factors that might be the more fundamental causes of difficulties in implementing CoCs. As such, this study uses a case study approach to compare the impact of Apple’s CoC in its main supplier’s factories, in China and Brazil. By drawing links between Apple’s CoC, relevant supplier-countries’ laws and investigative reports into the labour rights conditions of Apple’s supplier factories in both China and Brazil, this study trace the dialogic patterns which are strengthened by the voices of the domestic civil society institutions in supplier-countries. This study proposes a potential linkage between the dialogic entitlements of supplier-countries’ civil society institutions and the level of CoC compliance by corporations in terms of labour rights protections. The findings suggest that the more dialogic entitlements the supplier-countries’ civil society institutions have, the higher the level of adherence to labour-related standards of CoCs by corporations. This study reveals the significant influence of supplier-countries’ contexts on CoC compliance in terms of labour rights protections. By doing so, it expands the scope of debate by highlighting the importance of local context to the implementation of MNCs’ CoCs in supplier-countries. Furthermore, the findings make important contributions to current understandings of the labour rights environment of MNCs in China.</p>