Analyzing Decent Work Conditions and Gender Equality in GVCs

This essay delves into the critical issue of responsibility for decent work conditions and gender equality within global value chains (GVCs). The introduction defines GVCs and emphasizes the importance of effective supply chain management for business success, particularly in a global context. The ...Read More

THE RESPONSIBILITY
FOR DECENT WORK
CONDITION AND GENDER
EQUALITY IN GVCs

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS..............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Theoretical Explanations.............................................................................................................4
Managerial and policy implication..............................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

Topic: “The responsibility for decent work conditions and gender equality in GVCs lies
primarily with firms employing the workers rather than the lead firms. Discuss.”
INTRODUCTION
The global value chain (GVC) is defined as the people and different set of
activities which are involved at time of making or producing the goods and services. This is
necessary to be handled in proper manner as this includes the proper and timely supply and
distribution of raw materials and the finished goods to the ultimate consumers (Barrientos,
Bianchi and Berman, 2019). This also includes the post sales activities which are to be provided
to the consumer all over the world. It is very necessary for the companies to manage the supply
chain as the business is done all over the world that is global business is done by the company.
Hence, it is the responsibility of company that all the supplies are made available on time so that
it can be used by consumer or other manufacturers as their raw material. The essay majorly
focuses on the responsibility of company to work in decent manner so that gender equality and
creation of decent working condition within the global value chain. This is necessary because of
the fact that if the supply chain is not effective then the work will not be processed in good and
effective manner. Hence, for getting success the most important thing is to manage the global
value chain in effective manner.
But this is only because of the reason that if the material and other goods
will not be supplied within the good manner then the product and services will not be produced
in effective manner. Thus, the current essay will outline the fact that private standards may lead
to economic upgrading but constraint social upgrading and decent working condition. This is
pertaining to the fact that the private companies mainly focuses on the profit earning and for this
they do not consider the social working and good working condition within the company. The
current essay will also discuss about some of the literature and some articles and data in order to
discuss the theoretical framework relating to the maintenance of decent work condition and
equality within the company (Smith and et.al., 2018).

MAIN BODY
Theoretical Explanations
Maintaining good workforce in the organization eventually creates good amount of issue for
all the organization, as maintaining good workforce in the organization eventually demands the
company to understand the need of the employee and providing different opportunity to them to
satisfy the same in the organization. It has been identified that organization has to maintain good
working environment and gender equality in the organization. Looking at the need of global
value chain demand it has been generally find that organization Value chain generally demands
good amount of the employee in the organization to carry out different operation of value chain
in an organization (Daly, 2019).
There are many different theoretical theories which used to support the same
argument that is maintaining good working condition and gender equality in the organization
help company in maintaining good GVC’s. One of such theory is Healthy Work Environment
(HME) model of working condition. These models generally explain that professional behaviour
should be maintained in an organization. This will foster the environment in the organization that
is happy, realistic and feasible environment in the nation. This model not only focuses on the
working condition in the organization it also used to focuses on the people and practices where
all the employee generally used to identify the core, professional quality as well as the behaviour
in the organization which used to foster an environment amenable and conductive to
accountability for one’s behaviour and action. This is very good for the GVC’s in the
organization. As it has been identified that all the GVC’s generally used to based upon the
standard of the rule different professional activity which need to be performed in the
organization, so it is very much important for all the organization to recruit the employee in the
organization and used to build the environment in the organization in which there is good flow of
discipline and professionalism in the organization (Cooke, Xu and Bian, 2019). This eventually
used to help the company in getting the good quality of the employee and building good human
resource of the organization this will eventually help the company in carrying out the variety of
different operation of the business very efficiently in the market. At the same time these
theoretical academic explanations provide some sort of accountability in the nation. Also this
academic theory will provide the crucial support to the organization in building mental as well as

physical checklist what is important in creating and sustaining a healthy work environment in the
organization.
Another theoretical theory which used to provide a good hand of the support to
this sort of the argument in the organization is the GVC governance perspective used to
highlights that GVC is the established field within the international business research yet there is
a rationale aspect of GVCs but at the same time it used to garnered the less scholarly attention.
This is the situation which eventually used to create variety of the ascertainity among the
different employee in the organization. This eventually requires a good sort of working condition
in the organization for the employee to understand the different aspect of GVC’s in the
organization (Kozan, Işık and Blustein, 2019). As it has been identified that with the help of the
maintaining good working condition in the organization also if there is good sort of gender
equality in the organization used to help the company in maintaining good sort of
communication and coordination between different employee in the organization. This
perspective used to show that there are five different type of value chain management in the
organization, it eventually demands good sort of employee in the organization so it is very
important for all the organization to have good sort of working environment in the organization
as it used to help the company in retaining the employee for longer period which eventually help
the company in having good employee for carrying out different operation of the business (Berg
and et.al., 2018).
Institutional perspective is another theory which used to provide the good support
to the statement which has been identified for the topic. As it has been find out that it is very
important for the business to have good sort of the organizational structure in the organization to
operate with professional association and government department. Sociology analyzes
organizations in the first line from an institutional perspective. This eventually used to create the
situation in the organization which used to demand the good hand of support from the
organization, as all the organization always requires a good sort of the organizational structure in
the structure way to carry out different operation of value chain management in the organization
(Duffy and et.al., 2019). At the same time it has been also identified that Resource based view is
another theory which used to support the same argument in the organization. It has been
identified that RBV analysis of the company used to interoperate the resources of an organization
and formulates the different strategy in the organization into achieve the sustainable competitive

advantage of the company. It has been analyzed that human resources of the company is one of
the best resources of the company in the long so It is very important for all the organization in
understanding the need of the different employee in the organization this can be better be done in
the organization by bringing good sort of the equality and working environment in the
organization. As it has been identified that with the help of equality among different gender in
the organization, used to understand the different employee need very easily as all the employee
in the organization used to pass on the different message very easily in the organization. Also,
with the help of maintaining good working environment in the organization, organization will
able to find out the best way through which organization can understand the employee need in
the organization as all employees used to work together in the organization to carry out different
operation in an organization.
Gender equality model is another theoretical model which used to define that it is
very important for all the organization to implement variety of different type of practices in the
organization do that organization is able to maintain a good sort of equality in different gender.
Gender Equity Model (GEM) was developed by the World Bank. This model of the company
generally explains that all employee in the organization should be given the equal opportunity
irrespective of the gender which they are belonging to this will help the company in building
good human resources in the organization as all the employee in the organization will be making
different action in the organization to showcase the variety of the talent which is possess by them
in the nation. At the same time organization also has to make sure that they used to provide the
equal resources to the entire employee in the organization. This has been find out that this will
help the organization in maintaining the relationship with the different employee in the
organization, this will eventually help the company in maintain the different employee for longer
period of time in the organization. Also, Gender equality in the organization used to help the
company in maintaining good relationship between different employees of the organization as
well. This eventually helps the company employee in getting the good support at the time they
used to face any sort of the issue in the organization. This eventually help them in maintaining
and building good skill set in the organization. This will eventually help the company in
managing good workforce in the company for longer period of time at the same time it willalso
help the company in getting the support whenever requires. Also, the main issue is that is gender
equality and working condition used to provide good hand support to the GVC lies company. So

with the help of this theoretical theory also we can analysis the same that with the help of Gender
equality in the organization, organization can easily maintain different challenges for GVC lying
company in the market.
At the same time it has been also seen that there are many argument against the same in
the market is that decent work conditions and gender equality do not in the GVCs lies primarily
with firms employing the workers rather than the lead firms. As it has been identified by
different company that most of the company in today scenario generally using different sort of
robotic or technology development in the nation to carry out the different operation of the
business that easily. As it has been find out that this technology and robots in the organization
generally used to help the company in improving the efficiency of different operation which are
performed in the organization. It has been identified by the company that this eventually used to
help the company in automating variety of the business operation in the organization. Another
opinion in against the statement is that all the organization are generally using different software
in the organization which used to help the company in simplifying the variety of the operation of
the business this eventually used to reduce the amount of the employee require in the
organization. This eventually means that organization used to invest less amount of the money
toward recruitment of different employee in the organization. This eventually means that
organization in current scenario are investing more toward the technology as compare to
retaining the employee in the organization or building good working condition of the company.
Also, author highlights that there are many different sort issue which are also faced by the
organization at the time of implication of different policy in GVC’s lying companies.
This are some time of the theoretical model or the theory which used to explain
that the employee are one of the key resources of the organization, which generally used to help
the different organization in gaining different benefit from the organization. As a result it has
been find out that number of human resource requirement in the organization is very high. This
eventually used to force the company in employee more number of the employee in the
organization to enhance the GVC’s lying company in the nation. At the same time it has been
also identified that with the help of above theoretical theory and model that it get very difficult
for the company to maintain the employee base of the company for longer period of time in an
organization. As a result all the organization who are using GVC’s generally looks to adopt the
good working environment in the organization (Smith and et.al., 2018). As it used to help the

different employee in building good confidence of them in the organization, also it used to bring
the variety of the benefit to them in understanding different thing which is generally demanded
by the employee in the organization. At the same time gender equality in the organization is the
another way through which organization is able to maintain a good sort of employee in an
organization. As it has been identified that bringing good sort of equality in the organization used
to help the different gender employee in getting good support from different gender employee in
the organization. This eventually help the company in maintaining good sort of clarity among
different employee in the organization. This eventually used to help the company in maintain the
employee turnover for some period of time in an organization. Also, as all the employee in the
organization used to focus more on the work as compare to the other useless thing, these
eventually used to help the company in maintain the different employee for more period of time
in the organization to carry out different operation of the business more effectively. So after
going through all the above theoretical model advantage and disadvantage it is find out that it is
very good for the organization to have a good working environment and gender pay gape to
maintain good employee base of the company in the market (Stoet and Geary, 2018).
Managerial and policy implication
Managerial implications: It has been analysed that in order implement better work place
practices in Toyota company is been engaged in developing various policies. They make sure
that supply chain units work with CSR department so that sustainability aspects can be created.
This has also assisted Toyota in making effective utilization of resources which is really
necessary for Toyota to enhance the management performance and level of activities of firm. It
can assist firm in increasing the productivity aspects and also the operational efficiency of
company can also be increased by these managerial implications.
Toyota has also made policy on corporate social responsibility. They have been engaged
in making policies related to providing equal opportunities to all people. They have also
implemented the rules that whether male or female working on same level will be provided with
equal pay and adequate resources so that they will be able to create employee loyalty. It will also
help them in retaining employees and creating belongingness of employees. This technique can
support organization in improvising their operational efficiency. They have also made sure those
employees stays motivated in Toyota as no discrimination policy has been adopted by firm. It

will help them in increasing their profit as well as revenue. It has also assisted them in increasing
goodwill of firm.
This managerial implication is beneficial for growth of firm. In order to maximize
quality, the company uses its Toyota Production System (TPS). Quality is one of the key factors
in TPS. The other managerial implication that has adopted by Toyota is to provide females with
safe and secure environment. This will assist them in protecting females from any type of
discomfort or harassment (Long, 2018). In corporate social responsibility, they are also involved
in motivating female staff, so that they can bring out better female leaders. This has assisted
them in creating a firm with high number of female members. It has also been analysed that
Toyota is been engaged in continuously working on reducing the carbon emission that has been
produced by them.
It will assist them in saving environment and will also lay positive impact on
environment. They are also making sure that waste produced by company is been reduced so that
sustainability can be created. They are working on improvising the design of products. Toyota
uses lean manufacturing so that waste can be reduced and profit can be maximised. It has also
been analysed that Toyota is also engaged in treating all employees equally. This has assisted
them in making organization culture better. It has also supported them in increasing the
productivity aspects (Lin-Hi and Blumberg, 2018). They have been able to create workers
loyalty so that goals and objectives can be achieved by them. This managerial implication is
beneficial for growth of firm. This has also supported firm in growing and achieving objective.
This will also be creating employee belongingness. It will support firm in creating gender
equality in their organization.
Policy implication-
The policy policies are the rules and regulations being made by the company for a better
understanding of the company and to direct the working in better and productive direction. The
policy implication is defined as the result or the effect of the policy over the company and its
working (Herr and Scherrer, 2017). For the effective and efficient working of the company the
most important thing is the better making of policies. This is due to the fact that these policies
guides and direct the people that what work they have to perform and in what manner.
Thus, the policies need to be very effective and realistic. This is because if the policy will
not be good and effective then the implication of these policies will not good and effective over

performance of employees. Thus, the major policy for the GVC is the continuous development of
the technological advancement within the firm. This is because of the fact that there are many
changes taking place in the technological sector all over the globe. Hence, it is very necessary
that the company ensures that this technological advancement is being adapted by the companies
at time of managing global value chain.
This is because if this policy of technological advancement will not be followed then the
implication of this will be that the company will become obsolete in the use of technology.
Hence, the profitability of the company will be decreased and will lose its competitive position
within the global market. Also, this will impact the global value chain as the companies will not
be able to use the latest technology for supplying their material to other place. On the other hand,
if this policy will be use and implemented by the companies in effective manner then the
company will have good implications.
This is because of the fact that if the technological advancement will be considered by the
companies at time of global business then this will assist the companies in increasing their
capacity and capabilities. The major reason underlying this fact is that the technology helps the
companies in reducing the human efforts in the working and this effort can be applied in some
other work (Gereffi and Lee, 2016). Also, the use of technology will assist the company in
increasing the efficiency of the operations of business and this will increase the effectiveness of
company and global competitive position as well (Falk and Hermle, 2018).
CONCLUSION
After going through the above it was concluded that GVC’c is a very wide concept and used
to cover the variety of the different aspect of the same at the same time it used to demand good
and efficient workforce in the organization. So for doing the same in the organization it has been
seen that most of the organization used to incorporate the gender equality in the organization and
also it has been identify that they used to maintain good working condition in the organization.
So that number of the employee can be maintain in the organization for longer period of time.
There are many contracting opinion in this topic also but after going through both the view point
it has been analysed that decent work conditions and gender equality in GVCs lies primarily
with firms employing the workers rather than the lead firms

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barrientos, S., Bianchi, L. and Berman, C., 2019. Gender and governance of global value chains:
Promoting the rights of women workers. International Labour Review. 158(4). pp.729-
752.
Gereffi, G. and Lee, J., 2016. Economic and social upgrading in global value chains and
industrial clusters: Why governance matters. Journal of business ethics. 133(1). pp.25-
38.
Herr, H. and Scherrer, C., 2017. Trade, global value chains and working conditions. Who benefits
from trade?, p.1.
Lin-Hi, N. and Blumberg, I., 2018. The link between (not) practicing CSR and corporate
reputation: Psychological foundations and managerial implications. Journal of Business
Ethics.150(1).pp.185-198.
Long, R. J., 2018. New office information technology: Human and managerial implications (Vol.
30). Routledge.
Smith, S., and et.al., 2018. Voluntary Sustainability Standards and Gender Equality in Global
Value Chains.
Duffy, R. D and et.al., 2019. Introduction to the special issue: A cross-cultural exploration of
decent work.
Berg, J and et.al., 2018. Digital labour platforms and the future of work: Towards decent work in
the online world. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Kozan, S., Işık, E. and Blustein, D. L., 2019. Decent work and well-being among low-income
Turkish employees: Testing the psychology of working theory. Journal of counseling
psychology. 66(3). p.317.
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and decent social relations in China: towards a multi-level and multi-disciplinary
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155.
Daly, M., 2019. The Long Road to Gender Equality. Social Politics: International Studies in
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Stoet, G. and Geary, D. C., 2018. The gender-equality paradox in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics education. Psychological science. 29(4). pp.581-593.
Falk, A. and Hermle, J., 2018. Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic
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