The Struggle Against Sweatshops: Moving Toward Responsible Global Business |
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Authors: | Tara J Radin Martin Calkins |
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Institution: | (1) The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Jon M. Huntsman Hall, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, U.S.A.;(2) College of Management, Department of Management and Marketing, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA, 02125, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | Today’s sweatshops violate our notions of justice, yet they continue to flourish. This is so because we have not settled on
criteria that would allow us to condemn and do away with them and because the poor working conditions in certain places are
preferable to the alternative of no job at all. In this paper, we examine these phenomena. We consider the definitional dilemmas
posed by sweatshops by routing a standard definition of sweatshops through the precepts put forward in the literature on justice
and virtue ethics. We conclude that fixing on definitions is pointless and misleading and that we are better off looking at
whether or not a workplace violates the basic human rights of workers and whether or not the working conditions there cohere
with situations on which we have already rendered judgments. In the end, we suggest guidelines for businesses that operate
in the global workplace to help them avoid charges of running sweatshops. These recommendations account for the harsh living
conditions in certain developing and emerging countries as well as the norms of societies in developed countries.
* A summer research grant from the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University contributed toward making this research
possible.
Tara J. Radin is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department at the Wharton School and
Assistant Director of The American College Center for Ethics in Financial Services. She earned a J.D. from the University
of Virginia School of Law and an M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Management from the Darden School at the University of Virginia. Her
research encompasses topics such as employment, global labor practices, technology, privacy, corporate governance, and stakeholder
theory, and includes publications in journals such as Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, and American
Business Law Journal. She is also co-author of Employment and Employee Rights, published by Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.
Martin Calkins is Assistant Professor in the College of Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He earned a
Ph.D. in management from the University of Virginia, M.Div. and Th.M. degrees in theology from the Weston School of Theology,
and an M.I.M. in international management from the American Graduate School of International Management. His academic interests
include moral theory (in particular, casuistry and virtue theory) as well as contemporary international business issues such
as international codes, whistleblowing, sweatshops, and the impact of computer and Internet technologies on societies. |
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Keywords: | business ethics corporate culture justice stakeholder theory sweatshops work environment |
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