ILPC 2026

Abstract

The proposed paper for the 2018 ILPC conference will report evidence on the role of labour and the relationship to HRM practice as an extension of labour rights within supply chain firms of a leading exemplar MNC relationship in Vietnam. The supply chain is located in the fast moving consumer goods sector in Vietnam. The data advances a theoretical System, Society and Dominance (SSD) contribution unpicking the roles of HR practitioners, societal agents and contextual factors that link to debates about contemporary varieties of capitalism and labour process analysis. The evidence will explore limits, and the contradictions, of leading MNC ‘good HR practice’ and attendant employment conditions across the global supply chain network through an analysis of the interplay of forces and asymmetries of power within and across global relationships.

Outline

While there has been a serious deficit about the ‘place of labour’ within global supply chains and supply networks, substantial contributions have sought to develop various analytical approaches and critical perspectives on the issue (Elger and Smith, 2005; Taylor, 2010; Rainnie et al., 2011; Newsome et al., 2013). The proposed presentation will add understanding about HR practitioners, line managers, NGO activists and trade unions within a specific societal context of Vietnam. It draws on forms of labour process analysis concerning the importance of locating labour and asymmetries of work and employment power within assessments of contemporary HR practice. The increasing globalisation of business activities across national and organisational borders, underscores the need to develop frameworks that clarify the complex inter-relationships between workers in supplier and lead firms.

The research will analyses tensions between important features of labour rights and the procurement strategy of a lead Multi National Corporation (MNC), contextualized within the broad literatures relating to GPNs and SSD. The data engages with narratives about societal actor influence in terms of the shifting dynamics of market power, actor-driven relationships in the context of Vietnam, and divergence of HRM strategy (Delbridge et al., 2011). It will report considerable supplier variation in support for labour rights and in so doing advances knowledge on a ‘societal, system and dominance’ (SSD) framework to existing debates on labour process and global supply networks (Edwards et al., 2013).

The Vietnamese context is important for several reasons: it has experienced consistent growth for over two decades; it is a preferred location for a growing number of MNCs and thus a centre for concentrated foreign-direct investment; and it is a country transiting between a significant legacy of State Communism alongside recent capitalistic market initiatives that influence both indigenous and foreign-owned supplier firms. The SSD framework offers potential to analyse such dynamism by inter-connecting global capitalist change with local value and supply change pressures. Here system effects that reflect broad socio-political and economic frameworks highlight how shifts from a State regulated economy to voluntary capitalist market approach might influence adherence to labour standards across the supply network.  Similarly the role of national institutions that guide collective bargaining and labour standards are important explanatory societal variables that in turn shape the actions of dominant actors – whether it might be the State, MNCs or consumer pressure groups –in helping to understand how social relations develop across global networks. The data is collected from four supplier firms all operating within the supply chain network of one leading MNC. Respondents include senior and lower level managers; trade union and NGO stakeholders; local managers and workers at the four supplier firms.

References

Delbridge, R, Hauptmeier, M and Sengupta, S. (2011). Beyond the enterprise: Broadening the horizons of international HRM. Human Relations,  64, 483-505.

Edwards, P.K, Sanchez-Mangas, R, Tregaskis, O, Levesque, C, McDonnell, A and Quintanilla, J. (2013). Human resource management practices in the multinational company: A test of system, societal, and dominance effects. Industrial & Labor Relations Review,  66, 588-617.

Elgar, T and Smith, C. (2005). Assembly Work: Remaking Factory Regimes in Japanese Multinational in Britain: Oxford University Press on demand.  

Newsome, K, Taylor, P, Bair, J and Rainnie, A. (2015). Putting Labour in its Place: Labour Process Analysis and Global Value Chains, London: Palgrave.

Rainnie, A, Herod, A and McGrath-Champ, S. (2011). ‘Review and Positions: Global Production Networks and Labour’. Competition and Change, 15, 155-169.

Taylor, P, Newsome, K and Rainnie, A.  (2013). ‘Putting labour in its place’: global value chains and labour process analysis. Competition & Change, 17, 1-5.