Dignity-Led Supply Chain Management: A Cross-Country and Cross-Industry Study of Workplace Dignity in Supply Chains
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bath
Department Name: School of Management
Abstract
The project aims to change the way labour rights in supply chains are measured and managed by redirecting the attention to workplace dignity (WD) - a fundamental psychological benchmark - defined as a sense of self-worth derived from workplace interactions. Violation of WD, by practices like overwork, bullying, abuse, humiliation and poor conditions, is a collective experience for millions of workers in UK companies' global and domestic supply chains. Media, civil society and academic reports anecdotally show that there is a connection between a company's sourcing practices and violation of WD in the supply chain.
Besides influencing the lives of workers in supply chains, violation of WD has serious and direct implications for UK companies' productivity. It can cause significant negative impacts on workers' commitment, health and wellbeing with a consequent decrease in supplier performance. The productivity of UK companies' can be negatively impacted, as a result.
WD is a key underlying principle of current business, government and civil society interventions aimed at protecting labour rights in supply chains. Yet, they fail to measure and manage WD in supply chains effectively. This is because these interventions rely on 'one-size-fits-all' labour standards and human rights conventions. In contrast, WD is a profoundly personal experience, and generic interventions can only address it to a limited extent.
Despite extensive interest in WD in supply chains, to date, there is no systematic investigation of how a company's sourcing practices contribute to perceptions of WD for workers in their supplier facilities or its knock-on effect on the suppliers' performance. Hence, there is a clear need to understand the relationship between sourcing practices, WD and supplier performance to build a compelling evidence base for further academic research as well as interventions for improving WD in supply chains.
The project, co-created in consultation with policymakers, businesses, civil societies, media and workers, aims to address this need by developing a Dignity-led Supply Chain Management (DSCM) framework, which makes WD central to supply chain management. Using a novel and ambitious research design consisting of interviews, drawings, surveys and field experiments, research will be conducted in two radically contrasting sourcing locations of UK companies (UK and India) and work settings (Information Technology Products & Services, and Textile & Garments). Across these settings, the project will investigate: (1) what WD means to workers in supplier facilities; (2) how, when and why sourcing practices of UK companies influence perceptions of WD for workers in supplier facilities; (3) how, when and why workers' perceptions of WD influence supplier performance; and (4) the collaborative design of impactful toolkits and policies for improving WD in supply chains.
I have developed this fellowship not only to complete this ambitious project and improve the lives of vulnerable workers and the economy but also to develop a skill set, network and team that will make me a global leader in the field of sustainable supply chain management by 2030. Throughout the project, I will closely engage with international academic experts in management, cultural psychology, political science and law, and experts in business and human rights policy and practice in United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Business & Human Rights Group, Thomsen Reuters Foundation, Confederation of Indian Industry and Twentyfifty.
By contributing to the improvement of WD in supply chains, my innovative DSCM framework will have a significant impact on the academic field but more importantly on the lives of millions of workers in the UK, India and other countries who are directly involved in developing our products and services. Besides, the DSCM framework will help to address the most concerning productivity challenges facing the UK economy.
Besides influencing the lives of workers in supply chains, violation of WD has serious and direct implications for UK companies' productivity. It can cause significant negative impacts on workers' commitment, health and wellbeing with a consequent decrease in supplier performance. The productivity of UK companies' can be negatively impacted, as a result.
WD is a key underlying principle of current business, government and civil society interventions aimed at protecting labour rights in supply chains. Yet, they fail to measure and manage WD in supply chains effectively. This is because these interventions rely on 'one-size-fits-all' labour standards and human rights conventions. In contrast, WD is a profoundly personal experience, and generic interventions can only address it to a limited extent.
Despite extensive interest in WD in supply chains, to date, there is no systematic investigation of how a company's sourcing practices contribute to perceptions of WD for workers in their supplier facilities or its knock-on effect on the suppliers' performance. Hence, there is a clear need to understand the relationship between sourcing practices, WD and supplier performance to build a compelling evidence base for further academic research as well as interventions for improving WD in supply chains.
The project, co-created in consultation with policymakers, businesses, civil societies, media and workers, aims to address this need by developing a Dignity-led Supply Chain Management (DSCM) framework, which makes WD central to supply chain management. Using a novel and ambitious research design consisting of interviews, drawings, surveys and field experiments, research will be conducted in two radically contrasting sourcing locations of UK companies (UK and India) and work settings (Information Technology Products & Services, and Textile & Garments). Across these settings, the project will investigate: (1) what WD means to workers in supplier facilities; (2) how, when and why sourcing practices of UK companies influence perceptions of WD for workers in supplier facilities; (3) how, when and why workers' perceptions of WD influence supplier performance; and (4) the collaborative design of impactful toolkits and policies for improving WD in supply chains.
I have developed this fellowship not only to complete this ambitious project and improve the lives of vulnerable workers and the economy but also to develop a skill set, network and team that will make me a global leader in the field of sustainable supply chain management by 2030. Throughout the project, I will closely engage with international academic experts in management, cultural psychology, political science and law, and experts in business and human rights policy and practice in United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Business & Human Rights Group, Thomsen Reuters Foundation, Confederation of Indian Industry and Twentyfifty.
By contributing to the improvement of WD in supply chains, my innovative DSCM framework will have a significant impact on the academic field but more importantly on the lives of millions of workers in the UK, India and other countries who are directly involved in developing our products and services. Besides, the DSCM framework will help to address the most concerning productivity challenges facing the UK economy.
Organisations
- University of Bath (Fellow, Lead Research Organisation)
- British Sociological Association (BSA) (Collaboration)
- Confederation of Indian Industry (Project Partner)
- Thomson Reuters Foundation (Project Partner)
- Twentyfifty (Project Partner)
- Indian Institute of Management Indore (Project Partner)
- United Nations Development Programme (Project Partner)
People |
ORCID iD |
Vivek Soundararajan (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Soundararajan V
(2023)
Inequalities in Research Translation: Toward more Equitable Pathways to Impact
in Journal of Management Studies
Soundararajan V
(2023)
The dark side of the cascading compliance model in global value chains
in Journal of Industrial and Business Economics
Description | Support grant |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | British Sociological Association (BSA) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2022 |
End | 05/2023 |
Description | Slavery and Critical Slavery group |
Organisation | British Sociological Association (BSA) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Dr Pankhuri Agarwal received the award to co-convene a study group at the British Sociological Association. Group URL: https://www.britsoc.co.uk/groups/study-groups/slavery-and-modern-slavery-study-sms-group/ |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr Samuel Okyere at the University of Bristol and Dr Angelo Martins Junior at the University of Birmingham are the two other co-convenors of the group. The British Sociological Association provides administrative and events support. |
Impact | Online launch event and roundtable - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/roundtable-and-launch-slavery-and-modern-slavery-group-tickets-528465513577 |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | Dignity Stories |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We collect, curate, and publish stories on people's experiences of dignity in the workplace. These can be in any format - videos, blog posts, drawings, etc. We aim to make a larger repository of dignity stories from across the world. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
URL | https://embed-dignity.com/stories/ |
Description | Embed Dignity Online Seminar Series |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | We launched an online seminar series to unite scholars researching workplace dignity worldwide. The series will encompass six seminars per year. We especially try to make the series diverse by giving more attention tospeakers'e demography and career stags. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://embed-dignity.com/our-events/ |
Description | Embed Dignity Twitter Page |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We launched our Twitter page in March 2022. We frequently communicate with a broader audience. According to Twitter Analytics, in the past 90 days, our tweets have received over 26000 impressions, 202 link clicks, and 179 likes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
URL | https://twitter.com/embeddignity?lang=en |
Description | Embed Dignity Website |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | We launched our website in March 2022. The website has many interesting aspects, including outputs, events, stories, and information on our outstanding advisory board members and partners. In addition, the website is accessible in 43 international languages. According to Google Analytics, the website received 568 users and 1020 pageviews in the last three months, mainly from the UK, USA and India. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
URL | https://embed-dignity.com/ |
Description | Embed Dignity YouTube channel |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We launched our YouTube channel on December 15 2022. We have uploaded three videos so far, which have garnered over 300 views in total. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/@embeddignity/featured |
Description | Thandora (Newsletter) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Our newsletters are called Thandora, which is a drum used by a messenger in pre-modern Indian society to announce a message to the community. Thandora directly reaches over 150 individuals from various sectors, including our research participants. Indirectly, it is shared via Twitter and Linkedin for greater reach. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://embed-dignity.com/outputs/newsletters/ |