The garment industry across the world is one of the largest industries to thrive at the moment. The industry employs millions of people all over the world and generates billions of dollars each year. The documentary, “Blood, Sweat & Tshirts” raises one of the most important issues about this industry: the ethical adherence part of it. The documentary raises the vital question whether all the workers who are employed by the multinational clothing brands are given the proper working conditions and are given the basic human rights in their working places. When the documentary team came to India they saw that most of people who are working in the sweatshops and the backdoor small garment factories are not paid nearly half as much as they are priced and all the employees are working in shockingly poor conditions. The British participants of the documentary acknowledged that living in a first world country and buying the branded clothes off the racks from the big malls, they previously had completely different ideas about how they are made. The stack contrasts between what they knew and what they saw and experienced gave them a huge shock which was not digestible by most. The fact that the labours were underpaid and a lot of them even were below the legal age is absolutely unethical and should be changed as soon as possible. Humane working conditions are virtually inexistent in these factories and the documentary has been successful in portraying this utter violation of the ethical aspect of running a business, and hence not adhering to the norms of CSR.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the various ethical and humane obligations that an organisation has towards its different stakeholders which need to be fulfilled. With the rise of organisational power across all fields of the world, there have been questions that have tried to understand if the companies have any obligations that run beyond simplistic understandings of profit (Tai & Chuang, 2014). The CSR mainly has two major views to looks at things: narrow and broad. The broader views of CSR say that companies should look beyond simple profits and must adhere to the different social and environmental responsibilities that they are bestowed with. They should not be simply designing their business operations with only profit figures in their minds, rather they should make sure that their business operations and functions are beneficial for every aspect of the society, so that no group or individual is harmed in the process of their operations. Not only the people, the companies should also remember to preserve the environment while they are running their business, so that the nature is given some sort of protection and an ecological balance is maintained between the environment and the human activities. This is vital on part of the companies to make sure a state of sustainable development is reached and every segment of the society is given the opportunity to grow along with everyone (Suliman, Al-Khatib & Thomas, 2016). Advancement is only possible when no one is left behind and an overall advancement is being achieved. The environment also has to be preserved for the future generations and it is the responsibility of every individual and organisation to help to this cause.
The narrow view of the CSR is the second way of viewing the business operation of an organisation and their nature. Also, this second view helps to properly assess the impacts the organisations functions may have on the society and the environment. However, the narrow views of CSR are not really much concerned about an inclusive operational method (Carroll, 2015). This view mostly focuses on the profit generating part of the company’s operations and is more inclined towards making sure that the company makes the maximum amount of money through their different modes of operating in the industry. This view has its primary focus on profit margins. Unlike the broad view of CSR, the narrow view does not concern itself with the negative impacts of the business operations and solely dictates the companies to make sure that maximum profitability is assured. In recent years, the number of people who support the narrow views of CSR has declined dramatically. With the rise in the concerns about global warming and environmental degradation, organisations and multinational corporate companies are changing their operations, both internal and external, so that maximum environmental protection and wildlife preservation is guaranteed (Romano, 2017). The world is slowly understanding the importance of making sure that the ecology is protected and the broader view of CSR is what that is deciding how would these organisations function both within and outside the industry and how may these ideologies be embedded within every level throughout the organisation.
The clothing retailers who are buying their goods from the Indian factories are taking a very narrow view of the CSR. These retailers are not concerned to know if the Indian factories are employing the proper people who are supposed to be given jobs or if they are given the proper working conditions in their workplaces. The retail companies are more focused to make sure that their products are being bought from the poorer and developing nations (Preuss, 2013). This is, in fact, the case with many industries: outsourcing the work and other relatively smaller tasks to the developing countries. This happens so because the poorer countries offer labours who are also cheap and the skill level of these workers are also at par with the requi9rements with the foreign multinational companies. This means that the retail companies can produce goods and other commodities at a much cheaper price than what they had to pay if they sought to make them in their own respective countries (Cheng, Ioannou & Serafeim, 2014). However, these companies do not concern themselves or bother to investigate these Indian factories to check whether they are also paying attention to human rights or if ethical aspects are all met or not. The companies that employ the Indian factories to supply them with the shipments also have the social obligation to make sure that their products are not manufactured in dreadful conditions and basic human rights are not violated (Korschun, Bhattacharya & Swain, 2014). However, the documentary shows that the actual case/scenario is vastly different and the foreign clothing retail companies either have no idea about the conditions in the Indian factories or do not care to check that. Either way, they are not executing their responsibilities properly, and a very narrow view of CSR is adopted.
Even though in the present world it is incredibly difficult to justify something or any mode of operation that violates human rights and denies basic amnesties to people, there can still be some arguments that can try to justify the narrow view of the CSR, albeit being incredibly feeble in nature (Ruggie, 2017). The best argument for this can be that, on the part of the organisations, when operating across many countries and when different parts and components of the product is made in different parts of the world, it is difficult to keep an eye on every single factory. There is a physical and geographical barrier to it that is not always easy to overcome. Also, to make sure that every employee across the planet that are employed by the factories in the bother countries can cause the organisation to incur massive amounts of money that may harm the profits of the organisation severely (Takkar, 2015). However, this justification is by no means strong and there cannot be any proper manner which can establish the narrow view of CSR as a right one. An organisation cannot only concern itself with its own profit and annual reports; but they have some social and environmental obligations that must be met.
The broad view of CSR says that corporate organisations have some social and environmental responsibilities that they need to attain in order to become a good organisation. These responsibilities are encompassing of different aspects of the human society and the ecology in general. In recent times, this view of the CSR has gained increased popularity with the rise in the concerns over the protection of the natural balance of the planet (Servaes & Tamayo, 2013). Moreover, human rights and other humane aspects of life are at a focus area that was never before experienced before. These make it important for organisations to have an established operational norm that would cater to the different needs of the environment and the society within which the organisation thrives and functions. Basic human rights and a good working environment must be provided to everyone so that no violation of any kind is occurring. Also, environmental preservation is something that has to be ensured for the sake of the planet and the future generations to come. Substituting non-renewable fuels and sources of energy for renewable ones is vital to counter the drastic effects of human activity on nature that has been a constant for the last few centuries and has had the most significant negative impact on the same during the last fifty years (Crane, Matten & Spence, 2013). The broad view does not bind the operations and functions of the organisations only within the narrow vision of maximising their profit, but advocates a greater and more liberal view that aims to give something back to the society in return for the resources that the society provides the companies with. It also maintains a decorum through which it is ensured that the environmental protection and wildlife is preserved. The broader view of CSR is more inclusive and considers a larger number of aspects while formulating the operational norms of a company.
The documentary that is currently being analysed in the present paper presents a thoroughly narrow view of CSR. The documentary portrays an aspect of the foreign clothing retail companies where they are not much aware about the working conditions in which the employees of the Indian workers have to work in. the foreign retail companies also do not have any system where they are enabled to check on the condition in the Indian factories and to judge whether these factories in the slums of India meet the ethical and humane standards of the offshore companies (Reider-Gordon et al., 2013). The foreign companies must check whether the Indian companies have the proper laws implemented in their operations and in employing the workers and if they understand the needs to meet the requirements so that human rights are not violated and everyone is given a safe working environment (Cao, 2017). The retail companies are only aimed to make sure that their products and clothing items are brought in at the cheapest possible rates. That way, they ensure that their profits are the highest as most of these companies sell their clothing products at exorbitant rates. With profits at the centre of their heart and deciding on the business operations, the clothing companies have adopted a very narrow view of CSR and are not meeting their social responsibilities at all. Moreover, the fact that the British are so shocked to see the working conditions in the slum factories in India, can help to understand that they had no previous knowledge about such conditions that prevail in the factories.
To justify the premise of the documentary, and the apparent shock that the foreign people have been seen to have from the factories, it can be said that despite all of the absence of knowledge about this topic, such a documentary has been initiated after everything. It is extremely hearty to see that an initiative such as this has been taken to educate the fashion lovers in the western countries about the gross violation of human rights that is practiced every day in the factories in the slums of India. Even though most of the people in the foreign countries think that the clothes are made in proper conditions, they do not possess much knowledge about what really happens and what kind of working environment are the workers kept into (Kilkenny, 2014). This is very apparent from the enthusiasm that the British people have shown before their trip began, where they are seen to be highly jovial and optimistic about the trip they are about embark upon. Their naïve approach to this aspect has been shattered at the end of the trip. However jittering it is, the experience has been an immense help to their views and they all accept the fact that this would be changing their entire life in the future. From a liberal sense, hence, it may be justified that the documentary itself has a broader view about CSR, even though the clothing retail companies do not display any such compassion (Christensen, Mackey & Whetten, 2014).
Care ethics or ethics of care is a normative principle which says that every social human relationship must ensure the well-being of both the parties. The care givers and the care receivers both are entitled to living a good life and this is a both way relationship. All the parties involved in any form of socially constructed relationship must receive something in return for their services towards the others. In this sense all the parties are simultaneously care givers as well as care receivers. This being established, the broad view of CSR would seem more logical and more ethical than the narrow view of the CSR (Romano, 2017). The broad view of CSR says that every organisation is liable to give the society and the environment back some privileges. The society on the other hand supplies organisations with many forms of resources that are used and incorporated within the operations of the organisations. The most apparent resource that is supplied by the society is labour. The environment also supplies organisations and the humans with many resources that help them to survive. In return the humans, both as individuals and as organisations, have obligations to make sure that the environment is protected and the ecology is preserved. The broad view of CSR is the most ethical because it considers many facts and advocates organisations to have a business operation that would be aimed towards sustainable development and would also go beyond just business reports and profit margins.
Given the moral obligations that professionals have towards the society, it can be speculated that it may be possible to make a change in the context of the poor working conditions that the Indian workers in the clothing industry are subjected to. However, it is immensely difficult to do so, given the sheer size of the country and the population that is exposed to such harsh conditions every day for almost twelve hours a day, in many cases seven days a week. The poverty level of the country is often the most important factor that causes people to go and seek work in professions that have deplorable paying conditions and often are illegal. Many of the workers, as shown in the documentary, are underage who do not even have any identification cards or birth certificates. This makes it even more difficult to track the employees who are not of age and taking any actions to reverse this becomes even more problematic. Every profession and professional, whether as an employee or as a simple individual human, have the moral obligation to ensure that no one is harmed simply in order to meet the requirements or needs of another and this must be maintained at all cost. The country itself is so big in scale that keeping every employee under the tabs is nearly impossible. However, widespread legislations and regulations must be changed so the social compliances are met and a state of inclusive growth can be achieved.
References
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