TY - JOUR

T1 - How can employment relations in global value networks be managed towards social responsibility?

AU - Helfen, Markus

AU - Schüßler, Elke

AU - Sydow, Jörg

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2018.

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - Ensuring social responsibility is a continued challenge in value creation processes that are globally dispersed among multiple organizations. We use the literature on interorganizational network management to shed new light on the question of how employment relations can be managed more responsibly in global value networks (GVNs). In contrast to the structure-oriented global value chain perspective, a network management perspective highlights the practices by which employment relations can be addressed in the context of plural forms of network governance. Using examples of GVNs in the automotive and garment industries, we illustrate how the network management practices of selecting, allocating, regulating and evaluating can enable lead firms and suppliers to effectively deal with social responsibility challenges on the level of whole networks. We also discuss how network management practices can handle field-level and firm-level constraints for the management of multi-employer relations in GVNs.

AB - Ensuring social responsibility is a continued challenge in value creation processes that are globally dispersed among multiple organizations. We use the literature on interorganizational network management to shed new light on the question of how employment relations can be managed more responsibly in global value networks (GVNs). In contrast to the structure-oriented global value chain perspective, a network management perspective highlights the practices by which employment relations can be addressed in the context of plural forms of network governance. Using examples of GVNs in the automotive and garment industries, we illustrate how the network management practices of selecting, allocating, regulating and evaluating can enable lead firms and suppliers to effectively deal with social responsibility challenges on the level of whole networks. We also discuss how network management practices can handle field-level and firm-level constraints for the management of multi-employer relations in GVNs.

KW - Management studies

KW - corporate social responsibility

KW - labour standards

KW - multi-employer relations

KW - network governance

KW - network management

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044783172&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/408bd9da-e79e-3306-b10a-a4110f21afd4/

U2 - 10.1177/0018726718757060

DO - 10.1177/0018726718757060

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85044783172

VL - 71

SP - 1640

EP - 1665

JO - Human Relations

JF - Human Relations

SN - 0018-7267

IS - 12

ER -